Nowadays, it’s rare to find a business hierarchy that doesn’t include some sort of executive team or board of directors. In fact, most organizations include more than just the CEO and CFO. There is now: COO, CTO, CMO, CSO, and so on.
Giant corporations rely on their C-suite team to keep them updated on the crucial processes of the company in order to stay afloat and ahead of the competition. Finance, employees, clients, projects, and profitability are all core elements of a business that need constant attention.
However, if a high-level executive doesn’t know how to interpret the data, how can any company develop and grow? For instance, the role of the CFO is to evaluate crucial data to ensure high profitability and revenue.
While the COO is in charge of projects and daily operations, which requires the role to analyze project performance and employee productivity.
Without the ability to slice and dice this data, how is any organization supposed to envision success and growth?
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Stay Ahead or Fall Behind
When it comes to business intelligence, more often than not it’s a lack of understanding BI and data analytics that make leaders feel hesitant to move forward. In regards to taking on new challenges and finding adequate technological solutions, those with C-Suite leadership simply just don’t have the time. They're more focused on pressing matters that have urgent consequences, they leave it to the IT department to decipher complex reports and find solutions for development.
Key Benefits
- Informed Decision-Making: Gain a comprehensive understanding of your data to make informed business decisions.
- Efficiency and Time Savings: Automate complex reporting processes, saving valuable time for both C-Suite leaders and the IT department.
- Cost Efficiency: Despite the initial investment, BI tools can lead to long-term cost savings by optimizing operations and improving financial management.
- Enhanced Growth Potential: Break free from stagnant growth and unlock your company’s full potential with data-driven insights.
- Adaptability: Equip your team with the necessary tools and knowledge to adapt to new technologies and drive continuous improvement
Before Business Intelligence
The best way to understand the concept of business intelligence is to tell a tale. This story begins and ends at a fictional law firm called Mitchell & Associates.
Oliver Stone, the Chief Operating Officer of Mitchell & Associates, manages the daily operations of this mid-sized services-based company with 80 employees. Despite having a solid ERP foundation, handling multiple time entries has become challenging.
A critical KPI for Mr. Stone is the billable ratio, which measures the profit generated by customer projects. These are tracked through time entries. Another crucial KPI is daily revenue, calculated by multiplying time entries by the hourly rate, helping to meet financial objectives.
Mitchell & Associates’ ERP has been beneficial, but its limitations are evident with over 6000 time entries. Managing daily revenue and ensuring enough projects and staff are crucial tasks that require detailed analysis.
Mr. Stone discovered that during summer, the employee-to-project ratio was imbalanced, with insufficient work. However, project load normalized by September. Without historical data, he couldn’t confirm if this pattern was recurring, complicating future planning.
The ERP provided daily and monthly analysis but lacked specific historical data. To move forward and prepare the business for success, Mr. Stone realized a business intelligence platform was the only solution.
After Business Intelligence
Business intelligence for executives like COO Oliver Stone can be a lifesaving tool not only for future trends but also for insight into a data warehouse where C-level executives can access data on an instantaneous basis to ensure their quick decisions have merit.
Let’s take a look at how Oliver Stone’s professional life changed for the better with a business intelligence software.
The Perfect Hire
At the beginning of the year, Mr. Stone needed to determine the precise month to hire new lawyers. Given the training involved, he needed to prepare for the firm's busiest month. Using his new business intelligence platform, he analyzed historical data and discovered that September had consistently been the busiest month over the past few years.
Knowing it takes about six months for new lawyers to fully integrate, Mr. Stone realized he needed to start hiring by March to have them ready by September. The business intelligence data warehouse confirmed that work picks up towards the end of summer, allowing the firm to focus on training during the slower months.
This strategic insight enabled Mr. Stone to align hiring and training schedules with project demands, ensuring the firm was well-prepared for its busiest period.
Extensive Analysis
A BI tool provides full visibility of over three years of data, allowing users to drill down to specific days, weeks, and months on customized graphs. These trends can be sliced and diced by period to create easily digestible comparison charts.
With these graphs, Oliver Stone can access employees' work hours and track billable hours, managing operations by reporting on overtime or undertime. He can monitor project progress based on each employee's time entries, whether for internal or external projects, leading to a more efficient workforce.
While it may seem invasive to implement a BI software that monitors workers, its goal is not to spy on people but to highlight a company's strengths and weaknesses. Are there too many employees and not enough work? Are employees currently being trained? Is low revenue due to more junior employees working at a lower hourly rate?
Basic Economic Gain
A company’s primary objective is to be profitable. Without recurring revenue, other objectives cannot be sustained.
Business intelligence (BI) for executives helps leaders track daily revenue. For a product company, this depends on inventory sold per day, while for a service company, it's based on the hourly rate and project opportunities.
Mr. Stone has a daily revenue target of $35,000. With BI, he can analyze each project’s profitability based on the hourly rate and the number of employees working on it. Are there too many employees with insufficient work? Or are too many people working overtime to finish projects?
This also ties into the client success team. Not all clients pay the same rate. Loyal clients might have discounts, while others may demand senior employees at higher rates. These intricacies are monitored daily through BI data and reports to keep profitability on track.
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