Using Data to Drive Results “The price of the light is less than the cost of the darkness.” A. Nielson Examples of clients who were in the dark: Logistic company that was wanting real time financial dashboards, very much focused on top line growth. We uncovered shrinking gross margin that would have bankrupted the business within 12 months. As a result of our project, the company identified the business processes that were causing the erosion of margin and embarked on a program to correct the situation. Components supplier to RV industry wanted more clarity on basic financial information. We married data from ERP and payroll systems to provide a more accurate cost of production metric that identified a significant block of sales which was yielding a negative gross margin. As a result of our project, the CEO worked to transition out of certain customer / SKU relationships into better margin products. Result was a slight decrease in overall revenue but a 20% pick-up on the net income line.

Using Data to Drive Results Talk about what we see in the market Talk about our goals for every data management project Discuss the approach we use on such projects

What We See - Good Things Using Data to Drive Results What We See - Good Things Growing interest in data analytics Increased desire for more operational insight and data transparency Less tolerance for shadow IT and siloed data Awareness of PowerBI, Tableau and other platforms Leading firms truly investing in data management Desire to use all sources of data to drive profit / operations Steve to ask Chris about what are current trends in this market and from a wider perspective – i.e. globally or across USA or fortune 500

What We See - Not So Good Things Using Data to Drive Results What We See - Not So Good Things Belief that the “right system” will solve all problems Reluctance to do the dirty work around refining processes and procedures Time savers and shortcuts that corrupt data integrity View IT spend as a cost not a strategic investment IT Vendors are managed individually to reduce spend Lack of truly strategic thinking Make these questions that the audience should answer. I will mention the first one or two and then ask……

Using Data to Drive Results Our Project Goals: Transform IT investments into business outcomes Transform data into information Architect a data infrastructure that is fit-for-purpose First ask the audience about their objectives from data mgmt. initiatives --- Convert low ROI spend into something that drives strategy and outcomes. Identify key processes and make them better Companies are prisoner to tons of data but they struggle to get any insight from that data. We need to convert data into information that is actionable Along the way, design an infrastructure that will support key business and data objectives going forward

Using Data to Drive Results Strategic Objectives Run Our Clients’ Needs Walk Crawl White board this if possible. If not – discuss the Lachesis journey and what we see with client as a lead it to the crawl – walk - run Operational Objectives Data is Opaque Spend is Budgeted Data is Clear Spend is “Discretionary” Our Clients’ Data

Using Data to Drive Results Project Stage Practical Concerns Strategic Concerns Objectives / Stage Wins Crawl Can’t find the data Can’t access the data IT systems are too old Too time consuming Replicate basic KPIs Measure basic processes What we think is important Focus on operations Time savings for executives Consistency around KPIs Data is exposed Hidden issues uncovered Walk Need a data framework Integrate disparate systems Need mgmt. dashboards Adoption among key users Identify business drivers Key customer / vendor / SKUs Relational / detailed KPIs Seeing data through one lens Relational KPIs measured Strategic feedback loop Run Real-time analytics platform Data mgmt. infrastructure Organization wide adoption Strategic hypothesis defined Data driven approach to strategy Iterate the strategic process Org. has a clear strategy Key business processes known Process activity is measured

Using Data to Drive Results “Information is data endowed with relevance and purpose.” Peter Drucker Data scientists work with data but the C-suite works with information Data translators bridge the gap between data and information Currently working with a professional services firm to marry data from the time and billing system with that of the financial system. Result is a much more granular view as to the relationships between the level of effort needed to generate revenue across service lines, customers, industries, geographies etc. Combining the data points turned data into information that every partner and manager can use to manage the daily workload – looking to drive efficiency and profitability into every engagement.

Using Data to Drive Results Data translators – what we do: Help business leaders identify and prioritize initiatives Help identify the data needed to produce insights Make sure the problem is solved in a manner that can be interpreted Transform complex analytics-driven insights into actionable recommendations Help drive solution adoption among business users ERP and payroll and HR and accounting systems are focused on processing transactions. They are focused on collecting and creating data. How to turn that into information that a business can use is difficult.

Using Data to Drive Results A data transformation initiative can be very disruptive to a business. Based upon our experience, some companies are better positioned for such a project than others: Need to grow revenue or improve operating margins (at scale) Desire to develop an iterative strategic process Understand that data problems must be solved with a non-linear approach Recognize their current data infrastructure is not fit-for-purpose Desire to identify interrelatedness of data Compete in a very competitive landscape