Information – The Key to Better Decisions
The key to better decisions is having the right information, at the right time, delivered in the right way.
This is backed up by a recent IDC opinion – “one of the key trends in the market is the availability of more data for both strategic and operational business analytics and reporting to support decision making at all levels of an organization.”
Good reporting systems rely on having the right building blocks in place. Endeavour Solutions are experts in the delivery of ERP and CRM systems and have a range of Business Intelligence tools to deliver the right information, at the right time, in the right way.
The Right Information
What is the “right information”? That depends on the decision. The Board of Directors requires very different information than the factory floor manager. The key is to provide appropriate information to help all decision makers in the organisation.
Many organisations now have in place very functional ERP and CRM systems which can gather vast amounts of data. Valuable and critical information is often held untapped in the depths of these applications. A major focus of Endeavour Solutions as we work with our clients is to make the most of available information. We work with a range of tools that extract and present this information in ways that help our clients make better decisions.
Often the focus of reporting is to provide information to management. However, this overlooks the potential for empowering staff in the day to day operation of the organisation. If the correct decisions are made at an operating level, this will reduce the corrective action required later from a higher level.
It is often useful to look at the same information in a number of different ways. For example, depending on the decision being made it may be useful to see sales data by customer, salesperson, product group, industry or geographic location. Of course, it is always useful to see the trends of this information in a time phased way as well.
As well as making new decisions, it is critical that the impact of past decisions are analysed. For example, if a strategy is implemented that is designed to improve average revenue per customer, it is important to have reporting that clearly shows the actual results against expectations. Having the right KPIs reported is vital to this process.
The Right Time
The time that information is required depends on the decision being made. Information needs to be available when the decision maker is making the decision. Delivering a monthly report three weeks after month end is often too late.
For example, what about providing up to the minute information on sales for the day compared to the average for the same day over the previous six weeks? This is exactly what we provided for one of our clients. This allows them to improve their staff resources by predicting the likely requirements for the day and better allocate their staff over their various locations. It also enables them to be more proactive with their business decision making rather than reacting when it is too late.
This doesn’t mean that all information needs to be up to the minute – data up to date to the previous day is usually up to date enough for most decisions.
The Right Way
There are many ways that information can be delivered – a printed report, an email, an SMS, on screen interactive analysis etc. The method needs to be appropriate to the content and the purpose. As much as possible this should be automated so that it happens without the reliance on a person to construct and distribute it.
Many of our clients are finding on screen analysis tools very useful. Rather than generating or printing a multitude of reports, it is much more effective to have all the information available with the ability to easily change the view from summary to detail and also filter to focus sharply on a particular area.
The delivery method and frequency can also send a message about the importance of the information. A great example of this is an automated daily report emailed to key staff focusing on the key indicators from the previous business day. This clearly conveys the message that these are important measures to the success of the organisation and keeps staff focussed on maximising those key drivers.
Good reporting systems rely on having the right building blocks in place. Endeavour Solutions are experts in the delivery of ERP and CRM systems and have a range of Business Intelligence tools to deliver the right information, at the right time, in the right way.
