For many businesses keeping track of inventory is a key function of the software they use. But equally important is your data inventory. Do you know what data you have on hand, and is your ERP or CRM set up to give you maximum benefit from the data that you use and store?
Year-end reporting offers an excellent opportunity to examine the data that your company stores and compare that to the categories of data you actually use. For instance, you have the opportunity to ask if you are building up a stock of less than useful data, or maybe not fully leveraging a treasure trove of useful information.
Ask One Question of Every Report
Business decision makers use data in different ways, but a simple one-question test can help guide your data inventory efforts. As you assemble each of your year-end reports, ask what data elements were needed to compile each report and where that data is stored. Recording this information can help you see what data is critical to your business and possible areas for improvement.
As you can imagine, a data inventory should be just the first step in your journey to get more out of your business data. Once you know what data you need to answer questions that your company has, ask if the reports takes analytical gymnastics to gain useful insights from the data, or is the information available on demand.
The benefits of asking the right questions of your ERP or CRM data through software that works specifically for you cannot be overestimated. Using relevant data and trends can become a consistent habit in making solid business decisions, when you know that you are accessing the information that you need to know, not data that must be reassembled into reports later.
Now Turn Your Data into Intelligence
Using a custom solution to turn data into intelligence may sound like a cost overrun waiting to happen, but it can be the exact opposite. If a custom solution works seamlessly with your ERP and/or CRM to assemble your critical data (identified from your inventory) into clarity about your processes and activities in real-time, it pays you back in reduced man-hours alone…in addition to providing the ability to more quickly see business threats and opportunities through reports full of business intelligence rather than simple data points.
Triple Helix has spent more than 15 years creating and implementing just this kind of solution for all kinds of businesses and non-profits. With our Phase 0 approach, we get to know your business and work with you to match up what you have, what you want, and where you want to go. We help you work through the specific questions your data must answer. Then, Triple Helix takes our findings to build a platform-agnostic, open-source software solution to create the efficiency your business demands, while preserving your existing software investment.
Contact us if you would like to schedule a risk-free consultation to see if a Phase 0 review could help your company identify ways to better organize, access, and analyze its data.
