Stay focused on Value and Business Intelligence
There is much excitement about the benefits of AI for business. However, to make the best use of AI it’s vital that Business Leaders focus first upon the Business Intelligence (BI) that will help them to build sustainability. They are then better prepared to look at where AI can deliver the greatest return. Below are two examples of Clients we helped to put BI ahead of AI.
Abi runs a big Digital Marketing Agency in the South Midlands. She could easily be distracted by all the noise about the benefits of using AI in Marketing and the prizes that wait for those who use it well – e.g. by creating adverts more quickly that are better focused towards her audience. She is however totally focused on the fundamentals that underpin her business:
Longevity of relationships with Clients
The hours her Team can bill to their Clients
The Margin they make on each Client
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Rose is the Commercial Director for a Logistics Company that operates across the UK and Europe. AI is also capturing everyone’s attention – e.g. by providing insights about the best way to drive and the right routes to take. Rose’s priorities are however strikingly similar to Abi’s:
Quality of service to Clients
Winning profitable contracts
The Margin they make on each Client
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In both businesses it’s people, not AI, that deliver value to the client. They know their Client’s business, they understand the pressures and challenges that each Client faces, and they know how to deliver a service that responds accordingly.
Over time they become a trusted part of the Client’s business, increasingly indispensable, and therefore more likely to bill more hours, or win the next contract.
But this requires navigation, based upon intelligence drawn, not from an AI algorithm, but from the application of some fundamental principles.
You track what your people do
You measure the cost and quality of service
You track the Margin you make from every Client
This is classic business intelligence and it lets you know at a glance whether or not your business is on track, and where you need to focus if you want to lift performance.
Business intelligence works best if the data is visualised. For example the dashboard below lets Abi see at a glance the revenue and cost history for each Client – month by month.
The dashed line is the revenue, and the bars show both the base cost that has to be covered for salaries to be paid, and the additional cost that represents the advertised rate for the work performed.
The lower chart shows how revenue and costs grew throughout the year – revealing that, for this Client, by December, the total revenue was lagging behind the total for the costs.
Click any of the columns you will then drill down to reveal the activities that took place for this Client, what they cost, and why they their costs outstripped their revenue.
Rose’s dashboard was also strikingly similar, except for the detail that’s revealed when you drill down to show the activities taking place. You see the base cost for every journey, but also ways to save money – e.g. from better scheduling, or having customers ready with their shipments at the time their pickup is due.
AI is exciting, full of promise, and evolving rapidly. But business sustainability requires good Business Intelligence – e.g. providing clarity about the quality of service, and where you are making money and why.
Once the foundations are in place and you are measuring what you need to, it’s then time to look at the benefits that AI might bring.