1. Increasing the Efficiency of Acxiom Sales reports
Bradley Coyne
February 20, 2017

2. Project Background
Founded in Conway, Arkansas in 1969 under the name of Demographics Inc.
Today Acxiom is one of the world’s largest dealers in consumer information
Currently Acxiom uses a system of daily sales reports for guiding sales leader and associate decisions
Most of these reports go unread or unused, cluttering in-boxes and wasting the time of those tasked with writing them.

3. Purpose of project
To generate an improved system of sales reporting based upon sales leader and associate feedback to a set of survey questions.

4. Identifying the problem
Currently Acxiom is generating sales reports every day.
The vast majority of these reports see little, if any, use as they are generated too late in the week.
This results in confusion and inbox congestion.

5. Research Methods Survey questionnaire Employee Interviews
A questionnaire will be distributed to Acxiom sales leaders and associates identifying what they see as problems with the current system, and to solicit feedback for how they would like to see the problem remedied.
Employee Interviews
Similar questions will be asked in an interview format to past and present Acxiom employees. The purpose of interviews as a supporting method is to allow for asking additional questions based on responses.

6. Survey Questions What is your current position at Acxiom Corporation?
How long have you been with the company?
Do you find yourself using sales reports in the carrying out of your daily tasks?
If so, how regularly do you use them?
Have you found reports generated on certain days of the week to be more useful than others?
If you can identify certain days of the week which are less useful, please do so.
Do you have any suggestions or recommendations for how to improve the sales report process?
Please provide specifics for your suggestions and recommendations.
Do you believe that a single, weekly report would be an improvement over the current system? Why or why not?
If you could choose a specific day of the week for weekly reports to be generated, which would it be?

7. Interview questions Are you a current or former Acxiom Employee?
If a current employee, how long have you been with the company?
If a former employee, how long were you with the company? How long has it been since you left Acxiom?
If a current employee, what is your current position at Acxiom? If a former employee, what position did you hold at the time you left?
How would you describe your experiences with Acxiom’s sales report process?
Based on your experiences with Acxiom’s sales report process, might you have any suggestions or recommendations for how to improve upon it?
Do you believe that a change over to a single, weekly report would be a step in the right direction?

8. Results
Most sales leaders and associates only use the reports generated on Monday of each week.
They would prefer a more comprehensive report generated on a weekly basis, preferably on Monday.

9. Recommended solution
Direct the Sales Operations Team to generate a single sales report on Monday of each week.
Reduces clutter and confusion
Cuts down on inefficiency as time will not be sunk into unused reports
Helps insure that the information is current and valid

10. Criteria for recommendation
Feasibility
It would be within the abilities of the Sales Opportunities Team to change their reporting schedule.
Costs
Costs would be minimal as it would be using staff and resources already present.
Urgency
Change could be implemented almost immediately after the proposal’s acceptance by Acxiom’s leadership.