Business Intelligence - What Does Your IT System Say About Your Business?
The software that runs your business can tell an interesting story.
Every transaction that your company is involved with is logged with your accounts software and depending on your industry (and your software) often a whole lot more - from customer service calls to the contents of warehouses.
But what use is all of that information if you have no means of reaching it and using it? Many businesses rely heavily on the automation of processes and procedures carried out by their accounting and business software and often the primary objective of implementing such a system revolves around improving accuracy and efficiency.
Whilst this is a perfectly good reason for implementing an IT system of any kind, often the information that is entered into it is locked away and never used again.
This information can tell you a lot about your business.
For example, do you really know who your most profitable customers are? Firstly, who buys the most? Who pay their bills on time? And who takes up hours of valuable customer service resource? Only by analysing your company activities closely can you accurately find your 'ideal customer'.
And by finding this 'ideal customer' you can make sure you actively seek out more like them - and even avoid the type of customers who could potentially be costing you money.
Help is at hand though.
Many of the latest add-ons for the major business accounting packages in the last few years have focused around the concept of 'Business Intelligence,' which in its simplest form means accessing data within your system through a range of reports.
More often than not these Business Intelligence add-ons can be purchased at a very reasonable price and with the correct application can fast-track the return on investment of your software investment.
Better information means that you make better decisions.
Business Intelligence makes extracting data from your accounts software about your most profitable customers easy - as does finding the ones that could be costing you money! What's more getting information about your debtor days, sales pipeline or customer service performance becomes a simple task that can even be automated and sent directly to your email or mobile phone.
So if you are looking to improve the profitability of your business, see where money can be saved or where service can be improved then make sure you tap into the wealth of information already at your disposal.
Every transaction that your company is involved with is logged with your accounts software and depending on your industry (and your software) often a whole lot more - from customer service calls to the contents of warehouses.
But what use is all of that information if you have no means of reaching it and using it? Many businesses rely heavily on the automation of processes and procedures carried out by their accounting and business software and often the primary objective of implementing such a system revolves around improving accuracy and efficiency.
Whilst this is a perfectly good reason for implementing an IT system of any kind, often the information that is entered into it is locked away and never used again.
This information can tell you a lot about your business.
For example, do you really know who your most profitable customers are? Firstly, who buys the most? Who pay their bills on time? And who takes up hours of valuable customer service resource? Only by analysing your company activities closely can you accurately find your 'ideal customer'.
And by finding this 'ideal customer' you can make sure you actively seek out more like them - and even avoid the type of customers who could potentially be costing you money.
Help is at hand though.
Many of the latest add-ons for the major business accounting packages in the last few years have focused around the concept of 'Business Intelligence,' which in its simplest form means accessing data within your system through a range of reports.
More often than not these Business Intelligence add-ons can be purchased at a very reasonable price and with the correct application can fast-track the return on investment of your software investment.
Better information means that you make better decisions.
Business Intelligence makes extracting data from your accounts software about your most profitable customers easy - as does finding the ones that could be costing you money! What's more getting information about your debtor days, sales pipeline or customer service performance becomes a simple task that can even be automated and sent directly to your email or mobile phone.
So if you are looking to improve the profitability of your business, see where money can be saved or where service can be improved then make sure you tap into the wealth of information already at your disposal.
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