Chances are you’ve walked into a meeting and heard something along the lines of “hindsight is a wonderful thing”. Or perhaps worse: you’re about to present to your board knowing your data is outdated and you don’t have clear visibility on the key metrics of your business’s success (or failure).
The truth is, our world is moving at such a fast pace that (without the right tools) we can’t keep up. To make sure you’re not left red-faced in the boardroom or unsure of your next business move, you might want to think about adopting data analytics and a business-driven business intelligence framework.
The good news is, for small and medium-sized businesses, it's now more affordable than ever.
Why data analytics software?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but foresight is better. This means staying ahead of the curve and being able to respond swiftly in the event of unforeseen circumstances (hello, coronavirus!).
Data analytics software provides strong visibility on “What happened?” but can also transition your business to a proactive mindset centred on “How can we make it happen?”. It goes without saying, the more insight we have into our operations, the more likely we can provide a higher return on investment.
A tool that has been extremely valuable to our small business is Microsoft Power BI . This business intelligence and data visualisation software allows us to bring together multiple data touch points in extremely useful and visual aggregated dashboards.
There are the two overarching applications we see our clients use this software for:
- To proactively manage operational and business risks and opportunities.
- To improve effectiveness in daily activities and event control.
How can Power BI help my business?
Power BI is a collection of software services, apps and connectors that work together to turn your unrelated sources of data into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights. This gives you the ability to easily identify struggling areas of the business before they become an issue...or identify areas of opportunity, and act on these quickly.
For the 13th consecutive year, Power BI has been recognised by Gartner as a leader amongst analytics and business intelligence platforms. And for the 2nd consecutive year, Power BI has ranked highest on both measures of vision and execution, solidifying its position as the true market leader. For those unaware, Gartner is the leading research and advisory company with operations spanning 100 countries. So this is pretty impressive!
Power BI has the potential to be your one’ source of truth’ reporting - all of your data is in one place. This ensures that what gets measured, gets managed. By automating key performance indicator reporting, you also have the potential to reduce the need for ongoing manual operational reporting. This lowers labour costs and staff grumpiness. The best thing? Power BI can generate a high return on investment when thoughtfully implemented.
Is Power BI the right solution for my business?
Power BI is the perfect solution for many businesses for a number of reasons. Given the software’s seamless integration with Office 365, users are instantly familiar and productive with the software. This gives businesses the ability to take action immediately, and begin seeing returns and value in their investment.
Power BI can meet the most demanding enterprise needs and, since its initial release in 2014, the software is already being utilised in over 97% of Fortune 500 companies .
Power BI facilitates alignment of the board, management and operations. Given its ease of use and accessibility, you can view and interact with shared dashboards and reports in Power BI mobile apps. By streamlining your business systems and data sources, you have more time to make decisions and act on the data, rather than creating it.
For our clients, we’ve found there are four common areas where they are seeing great results:
- Sales Forecasting
- Proactive revenue management
- Key opportunities focus
- Sales Performance
- Sales performance by customer
- Geo-overlays for sales planning
- Segmentation and traffic lights on status
- Inventory Management
- Proactive inventory management
- Stock performance
- Order tracking
- Operations
- Snapshot across critical functions
- Pipeline utilisation
- Staff satisfaction
- Strategic initiatives
Whether these four key areas are applicable to your business or not, there are so many ways in which Power BI can add value. If your business collects or relies on data in any form of decision making or strategy, then it’s worth reaching out to see if Power BI is the solution for your needs.
How ASF Audits use Power BI everyday
At BlueRock Digital we help businesses get established with business intelligence reporting, instilling in you the knowledge, understanding and confidence you’ll need to run a thriving business. We make sure that the software can deliver value to your business.
As an extension of your team, we’re accountable for the highest quality and timeliness of deliverables. And unlike other agencies or tech companies, we sit alongside accounting advisors at BlueRock, which gives us access to data insights and benchmarks we can pass on to your business.
When Casey McGrath, a director at ASF Audits reached out to BlueRock for a way to create meaning from their data, Power BI proved the perfect solution.
“Power BI has revolutionised the way we do business. We can now make decisions amongst the board, management and operations that respond to factors in our external environment in a matter of minutes. This has allowed us to substantially improve the way in which we deliver our service to our clients in a timely manner. BlueRock Digital worked as an extension of our team in architecting and authoring our dashboards, whilst training our team in how to integrate them into our day to day rhythm moving forward. They are a Melbourne-based consultancy and have a deep understanding of the business environment, as well as how to best instigate data-driven decision making. This has proved invaluable for our business.”
Want to learn more about what Power BI can do for you?
If you’re looking for a solution that will allow you to make data-backed decisions within your business, let us help you use Power BI software to achieve your business goals. Get in touch with our digital experts today.
