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Analytics: Is metrics-based management
right for your company?

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Metrics-based performance management solutions provide the predictive basis that enables the management team of a company to establish a balanced set of goals and monitor progress toward achieving those goals.

A balanced set of goals and measures (metrics) typically involve four areas of the business: financial performance, operational efficiency, customer satisfaction, and employees (productivity and satisfaction).

Metrics and the ability to report on these conditions play a critical role in achieving corporate competitive strategy goals. Once the proper measures and reporting tools have been implemented, areas that need timely management intervention become obvious.

VisualSmart provides a cost-effective way for companies to implement a powerful metrics management methodology that has up until now been the exclusive purview of very large corporations with multi-six-figure budgets and dedicated in-house IT departments.

Using VisualSmart analytics to improve your business performance

Using VisualSmart to observe and analyze historical trends in business performance, a manager can establish baseline values for all necessary key performance indicators (metrics). Once these are set, the manager can then use VisualSmart Scorecards and Dashboards to observe business status real-time. When an anomaly to the baseline metrics appears, the manager can quickly drill-down into the data to discover the underlying cause—and then take the appropriate corrective action.

Steps for establishing metrics-based management

• Identify the business metrics needed to drive continuous performance improvement, i.e. forecast accuracy, average deal size, on-time shipments, etc.
• Collect data with CRM and other operational systems.
• Extract and aggregate this data and take historical snapshots using VisualSmart?s automated SmartBuild process.
• Observe and analyze historical trends in performance—using VisualSmart Analytics and Reporting capability.
• Establish baseline values or performance ranges for key metrics, based on historical performance trends.
• Create indicators, build dashboards, scorecards, and analytical / reporting views—all with VisualSmart.
• Monitor performance with VisualSmart and when exceptions occur, drill-down into the data to identify cause and take corrective action.

How VisualSmart fits in the plan

Using VisualSmart to observe and analyze historical trends in business performance, a manager can establish baseline values for all necessary key performance indicators (metrics). Once these are set, the manager can then use VisualSmart Scorecards and Dashboards to observe business status real-time. When an anomaly to the baseline metrics appears, the manager can quickly drill-down into the data to discover the underlying cause—and then take the appropriate corrective action.

VisualSmart business intelligence puts an interactive decision-making tool in the hands of executives and front-line managers who are tasked with making critical decisions that affect business performance and customer relationships.

Managers work with real-time data that can be seamlessly integrated into datamarts / OLAP cubes. These are constructed via VisualSmart SmartBuild™, a proprietary process engine that schedules data imports, performs metrics calculations, and optimizes data mart construction and loading automatically—thus driving down what has heretofore been a very expensive and time consuming undertaking.

VisualSmart power views, scorecards, and dashboards deliver meaningful information at the executive or management level. A starting point for more finite analyses, the interactive interface allows users to navigate the nuances of the underlying datamarts and drill down into the data.

VisualSmart can be up and running within a few weeks, depending on the complexity of your business requirements. This contrasts with the three-to-nine month range for a typical client/server BI implementation.