your business VS INFLATION
It is not breaking news that the world economy is in somewhat of an inflationary spike at the minute. The current UK inflation is 9% with a full expectation this will hit double digits. Headlines of 40 year highs, and individual choices of ‘heating or eating’ are, unfortunately, not hyperbole. The stresses are high, the stakes are real, from the individual to the business owner, and everything in between.
Supply chain issues are another cold, hard fact of business at the minute, with shortages in raw materials a major contributor. Now, let's talk about staff levels, they have certainly had another impact on business output. So, a perfect storm, all we need is George Clooney in a rickety boat with slightly too little CGI budget then. Not quite.
When inflation is high, and business pressures are coming from multiple directions, protection of the bottom line relies on new technology and solutions to carve a way forward, letting them accomplish more with fewer resources. Being frugal does not mean not investing. Adopting new processes, strategies, and technology is the map to overcoming inflationary pressure. A holistic solution can manage many functions, from customer relationships, to stock, to energy usage, to performance metrics, taking the weight off of your staff’s already burdened shoulders, letting them take care of business.
But how does business intelligence help?
Seems like a silly question doesn’t it?
Intelligence is always welcome in a business setting, unless that business is politics, but that is for another blog post. But in essence, data is only part of the solution, using data is something very different. Many operations are tiresome, and repetitive, with defined decision making outcomes based on data. If that is the case in your business, then a business intelligence solution is likely going to bring a lot of significant benefits.
Data driven decision making
Again, another silly thing to say. You probably make most decisions based on data, or at least try to. But, are you having to do the calculations as well? Because that takes time, and humans are prone to error.
Combining datasets from across your business (finance, inventory, manufacturing, customer service) and linking these datasets performance to one another lets you actually see how your business is running, and how issues in one area are affecting another. And when you have a comprehensive view, making decisions is a lot quicker, and simpler. With analysis you can head off problems before they happen, and perform quicker, and smarter, than your competition.
Finding all your stuff
Do you know where all your assets are? Right now, sitting reading a blog post, the things that make your business work, power tools, bed linens, goal posts, whatever it is you do, where is it all? How long has it been there? Who has it?
Sure, this is mundane stuff, but, let’s all be a little bit honest, a lot of business day to day is mundane. People running around looking for things costs time, and time costs money, 5 people running around for 12 minutes is a lost hour, what is your hourly profit expectation? So, knowing where your stuff is, how long it has been there, and who has it, automatically, makes your day to day life a hell of a lot easier, and saves you a lot of time.
Stop doing the monkey stuff
If you do regular, repetitive, data input or paperwork, stop.
I don’t mean stop doing the stuff you need to do to keep the lights on, just stop doing it by hand.
If you are taking something from paper based to digital, you are wasting time. If you then have to take that paper thing, write it on a computer, then email it to another person for them to see, stop it.
It can be automated, it can be digital first.
A digital first methodology with workflow automation can literally save you months per year. Imagine inputting your data on a form on a tablet, and should a condition be met that another department needs to know, they already know. Imagine knowing when you are running low on something as you are running low on something, not when you run out. Imagine all that paperwork not being there and no one having to laboriously scan, input, email it all.
Then imagine it is all stored, all your required reports are already run, and you can just y’know, do your real job.
Save money, make money
Let’s review. A business intelligence platform can save you money, and make you money, a sort of Schrodinger's solution if you will. Just using the loose examples about knowing where your things are and making quicker, better decisions, will save you money, plain and simple. Having the right amount of stuff for your customers when you need it, will make you more money. Having a more productive staff who aren’t mentally smashing their heads off a wall with another report to write up or spreadsheet to update will make you money.
It isn’t rocket science, it is just the intelligence you need, at your fingertips, all the time. It is getting technology to do the heavy lifting for you, rather than you having to do a beautiful mind impression trying to work out if your feelings are right about how your business is running, and showing you how to make it better.
Inflation busting
So there it is, our 2 cents on navigating inflationary pressures, and we barely mentioned inflation once (thick irony no?). These pressures can be alleviated with a future focused approach, and utilising business intelligence platforms is a key consideration. Making informed, data-driven, and timely decisions keeps you ahead of the curve, and staying ahead of the curve is where you save money, and make more than your competition.
