Seeing the true value of data: how to turn KPIs into a business boom

Understanding and accessing the metrics in your business is incredibly important, but it’s missing a vital “so what” factor. The true value in great data isn’t the data itself – it’s knowing how to apply it to make a difference.

Information overload

Data. Analytics. Information. We’re flooded with it, day in, day out. There’s so much data in our day to day lives, it can be difficult to sift through it for what’s really important; and even harder to work out what to do with it once we have it. It’s easy to be overwhelmed by information, to glaze over and lose sight of what it really means.

If you’re using a software system to run the commercial operations, finances, admin and logistics of your business, you’ll have access to a lot of data. When measured against key performance indicators (KPIs) this data links together to give you insights about how your business works, how your customers and suppliers interact with you, and the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats at play in your organisation at any time. Depending on the sophistication of your software, that can vary from pretty basic to overwhelmingly detailed – so how do you drill down into the data to take out the meaningful learnings?

UT400 has over 110 KPIs built into it, letting you see at a glance all the different metrics that could possibly be relevant or important to you in your business. It lets you see everything, in every area, in a simple and easily gauged manner, from your most profitable stock lines to your slowest-paying customers, your order frequency by month to your margin fluctuations. It gives you all the information you need – but what we want to help you with is to look at how you can use that information to drive business, profitability and operational efficiency.

The “so what?” factor

Over the next few weeks and months we will be looking at these KPIs in more detail and helping to outline why you might need to know particular piece of information, and how to go about turning those insights into action in your business.

For example, if you have a handle on exactly how many customers you have currently on record, and their sales history, it could be an easy win to entice lapsed or dormant customers back to you with an offer. Or if you need to drive more revenue, you can easily find ways to increase average order values or frequency. What about product ranges; which ones are selling best? Where is your margin strongest? Where is demand coming from, and where could you increase supply efficiency, or adjust your pricing to give you an edge without losing profitability?

The list of opportunities is almost endless, and we’ll be putting together some helpful, practical advice on how to use the data at your fingertips to drive commercial advantage.

If there are any specific areas you’d be interested in learning more about, please do get in touch, or drop us a tweet or Facebook message.