What is Analytics? And How Can It Improve Your Business?
Analytics
There is one way that you can improve your decision making and business execution.
The way?
Analytics.
Analytics means different things to different folks.
Analytics is spreadsheets and charts and data and math and equations and presentation and analysis kind of all rolled up in a random bag of stuff.
But it’s more than that. And it’s crucial for your business to understand and deploy a good analytics program.
Let’s look at what analytics is by using the acrostic A-N-A-L-Y-T-I-C-S.
A – Answers
Fundamentally, business intelligence and analytics is about getting answers before problems arise. In this manner potential problems or opportunities will reveal themselves much sooner allowing the management team to act sooner rather than later.
N – Now
Time is a crucial component of analytics.
Many traditional business metrics are lagging metrics – meaning all the events have occurred and the results are only available after everything is done. Measures such as profit and loss, revenue and labor costs are such metrics.
If a business owner can “see” how their key business measures are trending before the end of the period, then they have an opportunity to make changes to affect a different outcome.
A grower needs an analytics automation system that provides answers in easily digestible format in a timely fashion, preferably daily or at worst weekly without having to ask accounting to yet again repeat an analysis so actions can be taken before changes become problems.
A – Analysis Automation
Many key business stats and metrics require analysis and aggregation of lots of data records. And in many cases multiple synthetic data sets must be merged, aggregated, and summarized to get desired information.
This type of work takes smart, experienced folks with the tools and data manipulation skills and time to generate, review, validate, distribute and absorb. And chances are these smart experienced folks are more valuable solving problems doing other things to move your business.
Further, automation in your analytics program will increase accuracy in the output.
Example AGS Sales Dashboard Copyright Advanced Grower Solutions
L – Leverage
Do you really pay employees to run reports and cut and paste numbers into spreadsheets over and over and over again?
Automating analytics allows a business to leverage computers and software while also gaining employee time to actually go solve revealed problems instead of creating the sheets that, after much manual manipulation, finally reveal a problem.
Y – You
In working with hundreds of growers over the years our team knows that all growers’ operations are unique despite the fact that we all grow plants.
Your business analytics process should help you leverage that uniqueness.
A tailored analytic process that allows you to see what you need to see when you need to see it gives your business a competitive advantage.
T – Traction
You have heard the term “analysis, paralysis”. Part of the reason paralysis sets in in is the difficulty of some of the key data and information investigations and analysis.
Having to repeatedly re-do the same or similar calculations and analysis is like a tractor spinning its wheels with no traction. None of its power can be applied to accomplish the task at hand when its in this state. Business can waste a lot of time spinning wheels being mired in piles of spreadsheets trying to sort out the signal from the noise.
Automated analytics help growers gain traction by having a wide range of key measures, values and metrics done. This moves the owner and management far forward in the problem solving or opportunity grabbing process.
I – Insight
Analytics is a component that helps growers gain insight into their business.
Insight is the “so that’s why” moment that occurs when you combine your knowledge and experience with the physical facts and evidence and put that against your metrics and analysis. That is the recipe for the “Aha” moments that help you see key issues, recognize needed changes and identify opportunities.
A best practice for growers is to regularly establish routine interactions, through your strategic management plan, that combine these elements to increase the frequency of those “Aha” moments.
C – Connection
A solid business analytics system is part of a larger puzzle for strategic improvement. The numbers don’t solve problems by themselves. They must be connected to the cause and effect.
Comprehensive analytics will allow competent operators and business managers to connect the numbers with actual business situations. The numbers provide a “what” and the staff deduces the “why”. Collectively, through your “system for managing”, your team decides “what do to” and then can act to produce change.
S – Speed
My high school football coaches would regularly remind us players about the importance of speed and how difficult it was to defend speed.
That is true in business as well.
A good, automated analytics program can help your business speed up.
Whether it’s a current availability or a ready projection or key metrics about your larger customers or item information that improves your planning process, there are analytics that help a grower operation move faster, answer queries faster and serve customers faster.
Final Analysis on Analytics
If you have ever wished for better, faster analysis and information then we can help. Contact us today for information on how we can help you improve your view of your business.