In our previous blogs: Business Analytics and Data Visualization made easy and Who is afraid of Business Intelligence?, we have spoken about the benefits your organization can gain from business insights, the fact that it does not have to be very expensive or complex to implement and also discussed the Loquell Business iQ offering.
One industry that so far has lacked access to good end-to-end analytics is the content industry, specifically the localization industry and the agile LangOps users who are in dire need of real-time business insights.
What is the problem then, you may ask? Well, while TMS systems, BMS systems and other adjacent platforms all offer varying levels of data, statistics, and insights, they don’t span the end-to-end business or operations process. And they most certainly will not provide you with a view of your business in real-time end-to-end. Furthermore, none of these tools allows you to combine data from different sources in one place, normalize it and start to ask your own “what if” questions or even implement custom dashboards on a project-by-project basis as needed.
Image: Sample Business iQ Dashboard
Yet understanding improving your business is widely recognized to be an evolutionary process of asking different questions, gaining insight, understanding, altering, and improving and then going through the cycle again. It also involves creating early warning systems where needed. What about that customer who suddenly has stopped ordering for the past few weeks or who’s volumes have been slowly but steadily declining? Why are your teams performing so differently? Is it due to problems, lack of understanding, technical issues, or something else? A BI solution can help you understand the root causes a lot faster than you could by trying to run your analysis in Excel or other tools every now and then? And it can help ensure that the data you are looking at is up to date and you compare apples with apples.
Not convinced yet? Consider the amount of time your managers spend “managing” your operation, sales, and business, each using their own cut of data from various systems. A single source of truth allows everyone to get the view they need to do their job from the same basic dataset. And no, it doesn’t need to be expensive plus the ROI is most certainly positive if you factor in the “hidden” time used to build reports as well as the lack of common understanding in your management and operations teams.
Business Intelligence is a tool like many others, but one that provides transparency and insight. And if used right, also helps spur improvements and innovation. How long until you take the plunge?