Answer six questions and find out if your company is making the same mistakes as your peers in a down economy. Determine the level of business intelligence opportunity across your organization and whether a business intelligence solution can improve your organization’s decision making and, ultimately, its performance.
SAP Thought LeadershipBusiness Intelligence
Six Mistakes Companies Are Making Today
And How You Can Avoid ThemLook for additional opportunities to use business intelligence to uncover value and drive improvements. Consider advanced planning tools that can help close the gap between strategy and execution. Expand the use of sophisticated what-if analyses to model the operational and financial impact of multiple scenarios on revenue, costs, and cash flow.CONTENT
^ 4 Executive Summary
^ 5 Is Your Company Making the Same Mistakes? 5 Mistake 1: Taking Existing Customers for Granted 5 Mistake 2: Failing to Capitalize on Market Opportunities 6 Mistake 3: Allowing Operational Inefficiencies to Persist 6 Mistake 4: Letting Problems Go Undiagnosed and Uncorrected 7 Mistake 5: Driving the Wrong Behavior in the Organization 8 Mistake 6: Failing to Offer Transparency for Stakeholders 8 Conclusion
^ 9 Business Intelligence Self-AssessmentExecutive Summary
Opportunities for
Business Intelligence
When the economy slows, many businesses react by retrenching and cutting costs in order to weather the downturn. While such cost reduction is important, companies often overlook equally critical strategic decisions - opportunities to use valuable business information to strengthen product and service offerings and emerge ahead of the competition.
"The reality is that you can derive added the business, especially critical in anvalue from your existing information," uncertain economy. According to explains Don Tapscott, an internationally Gartner, "The economic crisis will reveal renowned author and authority on the which enterprises have the information strategic value and impact of informa- and tools to support management 2tion technology. "Once you can have decisions and which do not."sensible discussions about your data, you can leverage it to make better This paper highlights common mistakes decisions and achieve sustainability companies make in a down economy 1and higher profits." and discusses how organizations can use business intelligence to avoid them. Organizations need technology that Use the self-assessment questionnaire can unlock the value of information. at the end of this paper to determine Information can drive new insights to the level of business intelligence help transform and significantly improve opportunity across your organization.
1. Don Tapscott and Dr. Steve Elmore, Managing Enterprise Information: Architecting for Survival and Positioning for Success in Tough Times, pg. 2 (nGenera Corporation, March 2009).2. Kurt Schlegel, Mark A. Beyer, Bill Hostmann, Rita L. Sallam, Bill Gassman, Nigel Rayner, Neil McMurchy, Neil Chandler, Matthew W. Cain, Predicts 2009: Business Intelligence and Performance Management Will Deliver Greater Business Value, pg. 4 (Gartner Inc., December 18, 2008).
4 SAP Thought Leadership - Six Mistakes Companies Are Making TodayIs Your Company Making the
Same Mistakes?
Take the Time to Find Out
Mistake 1: Taking Existing customer trends. What can you do with the right combination of initiatives to Customers for Granted business intelligence tools like these? maximize your returns.As an example, for each major customer When demand slows, the last thing you or customer segment, you can analyze But if you're hampered by difficult-to-use want to do is to take your customer multiple scenarios to find an approach analytic tools that limit your ability to base for granted by assuming existing that builds on existing relationships and perform in-depth market analysis, your customers will remain loyal through tough increases your share of each customer's company may be slow to recognize or economic times. Instead, customers wallet. You might decide to extend credit react to opportunities. In fact, according may be faced with their own financial or develop creative payment plans for to a recent Gartner report, "Through difficulties or could be lured away by your most important customers. Or 2012, more than 35% of the top 5,000 incentives from the competition. Staying analyze customer satisfaction scores global companies will fail to make in tune with the needs of your customers to identify areas where improvement insightful decisions about significant and reacting appropriately can help is needed, such as product quality or ch... [download for more]
