1. 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.

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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……

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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.

9. 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.

10. 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