Six Mistakes Companies Are Making Today And How You Can Avoid Them

SAP Thought Leadership
Business intelligence

Six MiStakeS CoMpanieS are Making today
And How You CAn Avoid THem

Look for additional opportunities to use business intelligence to uncover value and drive
improvements. Consider advanced planning tools that can help close the gap between
strategy and execution. expand the use of sophisticated what-if analyses to model the
operational and financial impact of multiple scenarios on revenue, costs, and cash flow.

Content

4 Executive Summary

5 Is Your Company Making the
Same Mistakes?
5 mistake 1: Taking existing Customers
for Granted
5 mistake 2: Failing to Capitalize on
market opportunities
6 mistake 3: Allowing operational
inefficiencies to Persist
6 mistake 4: Letting Problems Go
undiagnosed and uncorrected
7 mistake 5: driving the wrong
Behavior in the organization
8 mistake 6: Failing to offer
Transparency for Stakeholders
8 Conclusion

9 Business Intelligence
Self-Assessment

exeCutive SuMMary
oPPorTuniTieS For
BuSineSS inTeLLiGenCe

when the economy slows, many businesses react
by retrenching and cutting costs in order to weather
the downturn. while such cost reduction is important,
companies often overlook equally critical strategic
decisions – opportunities to use valuable business
information to strengthen product and service offerings
and emerge ahead of the competition.

“The reality is that you can derive added the business, especially critical in an
value from your existing information,” uncertain economy. According to
explains don Tapscott, an internationally Gartner, “The economic crisis will reveal
renowned author and authority on the which enterprises have the information
strategic value and impact of informa- and tools to support management
tion technology. “once you can have decisions and which do not.”2
sensible discussions about your data,
you can leverage it to make better This paper highlights common mistakes
decisions and achieve sustainability companies make in a down economy
and higher profits.”1 and discusses how organizations can
use business intelligence to avoid them.
organizations need technology that use the self-assessment questionnaire
can unlock the value of information. at the end of this paper to determine
information can drive new insights to the level of business intelligence
help transform and significantly improve opportunity across your organization.

1. don Tapscott and dr. Steve elmore, managing enterprise information: Architecting for Survival and Positioning for Success in Tough Times,
pg. 2 (nGenera Corporation, march 2009).
2. Kurt Schlegel, mark A. Beyer, Bill Hostmann, rita L. Sallam, Bill Gassman, nigel rayner, neil mcmurchy, neil Chandler, matthew w. Cain,
Predicts 2009: Business intelligence and Performance management will deliver Greater Business value, pg. 4 (Gartner inc., december 18, 2008).

4 SAP Thought Leadership – Six mistakes Companies Are making Today

iS your CoMpany Making the
SaMe MiStakeS?
TAKe THe Time To Find ouT

Mistake 1: Taking Existing customer trends. what can you do with the right combination of initiatives to
Customers for Granted business intelligence tools like these? maximize your returns.
As an example, for each major customer
when demand slows, the last thing you or customer segment, you can analyze But if you’re hampered by difficult-to-use
want to do is to take your customer multiple scenarios to find an approach analytic tools that limit your ability to
base for granted by assuming existing that builds on existing relationships and perform in-depth market analysis, your
customers will remain loyal through tough increases your share of each customer’s company may be slow to recognize or
economic times. instead, customers wallet. You might decide to extend credit react to opportunities. in fact, according
may be faced with their own financial or develop creative payment plans for to a recent Gartner report, “Through
difficulties or could be lured away by your most important customers. or 2012, more than 35% of the top 5,000
incentives from the competition. Staying analyze customer satisfaction scores global companies will fail to make
in tune with the needs of your customers to identify areas where improvement insightful decisions about significant
and reacting appropriately can help is needed, such as product quality or changes in their business and markets
shore up loyalty and maintain sales. customer service – ensuring that profit- due to underinvestment in their informa-
able customers stay happy and loyal. tion infrastructure and business user
You need a simple and effective way tools.”4 don’t let this happen to you.
to identify top customers based on Mistake 2: Failing to Capitalize on
profitability, size, or potential. But if Market Opportunities To inform the right decisions, you need
customer and sales data is located in simple, intuitive ad hoc reporting and
multiple software applications, it could even with limited investment funds, you analysis. A business intelligence solution
be difficult to access the information and still have to make fact-based decisions should support interactive exploration
build an overall picture needed for valu- about short- and long-term opportunities across multiple dimensions of your
able insight into customer behaviors. to grow top-line revenues – whether business and let you create queries
According to a recent survey of Cios and you’re trying to expand into new markets using business-friendly language.
iT managers conducted by information or extend a successful product line. what-if analysis allows you to model
Age, business intelligence tools can help. many great brands were launched dur- the operational and financial impact of
most of the 350 respondents believe ing recessionary times and yet able to multiple scenarios on revenue, costs,
business intelligence could significantly capitalize on unique market opportunities. and cash flow – to understand the results
improve marketing analytics – that is, To invest in and seize market opportu- of each market opportunity before you
how you evaluate campaign, product, nities with confidence, you need a act on it. Layer on risk assessment to
and customer performance. Additionally, solution that helps you see trends and determine the range of potential out-
respondents feel business intelligence variances, analyze scenarios, and select comes for each opportunity and add
is particularly well suited for robust
profitability analysis, helping you identify
the most profitable customers and
A complete business intelligence solution supports the entire
product lines.3 range of enterprise reporting – periodic, highly detailed
You can use data integration and
reports that give insight into overall business performance
cleansing tools to bring together infor- and provide increased reporting transparency for all stake-
mation from disparate sources. dash-
boards and visualization tools help make
holders. The result is increased trust and stronger collabo-
data accessible, providing visibility into ration at all levels, inside and outside the business.

3. “intelligent response,” research Analysis 344, information Age research report, January 16, 2009.
Predicts 2009: Business intelligence and Performance management will deliver Greater Business value, pg. 3 (Gartner inc., december 18, 2008).

SAP Thought Leadership – Six mistakes Companies Are making Today 5

as they grew from uS$30 million to a
billion in revenue, typically exceeded
organizations need technology that can unlock the 10% earnings-before-interest-and-
value of information. information can drive new insights depreciation (eBiTdA) margin. Take
a lesson from the highest-growth com-
to help transform and significantly improve the business, panies: sell value to maximize gross
especially critical in an uncertain economy. margins, contain expenses to deliver
a cash flow–positive business, and
reinvest to fuel growth.6

economic analysis to select and priori- immediate feedback on administrative Mistake 4: Letting Problems Go
tize promising scenarios. The result? waste and unnecessary overtime. use Undiagnosed and Uncorrected
You have the hard facts to back up the analytics to monitor manufacturing
investment decisions that drive sales, defects, maintenance costs, and inven- in today’s business environment, an
cash flow, and operational efficiency. tory levels; then track progress to organization needs to address all
minimize rework and rationalize SKus. outstanding issues – but you must first
Mistake 3: Allowing Operational identify and prioritize existing problems,
Inefficiencies to Persist According to david Thomson, author then focus your time and energy on the
of the best-selling book Blueprint to most crucial. no organization wants to
To keep the cost of delivering goods a Billion: 7 essentials to Achieve expo- wait until a product is drastically behind
and services in line, you must continu- nential Growth, you may need to perform schedule or a department significantly
ally find ways to reduce waste and a competitive analysis to determine over budget before taking action. How-
eliminate inefficiencies. if operational how your gross margins compare to ever, if you manually track project or
wastefulness persists, you can lose industry averages. “if you find that program status, you risk not only wast-
control of your cost structures – and your product costs are too high, you’ll ing time and money on an ineffective
that puts pressure on your gross mar- need the ability to further investigate approach but also delaying your ability
gins. economic woes and restricted costs throughout the supply chain and to identify and then correct problems.
cash flows are forcing companies to seek areas to optimize systems and As Thomson notes, “Leaders of expo-
analyze cost structures by delving processes,” notes Thomson.5 nential growth companies utilize a sys-
deeper into the information already tematic approach to problem solving.”
at their fingertips. Because of this, even if your gross margins are better than during down market cycles, these
analysts point to a rising interest in average, expenses may be high. For companies identified and eliminated
business intelligence software. example, Thomson found that leading problems and then worked to optimize
companies carefully manage expenses their business. For example, these
An integrated business intelligence in sales and marketing and r & d to companies found ways to streamline
solution that generates timely and deliver a consistent cash flow–positive processes, reduce headcount in selec-
accurate data puts you in a position business across all types of market tive areas, and invest in systems and
to identify – and quickly address – cycles. The best-run public companies iT infrastructure to improve customer
inefficiencies. dashboards can deliver that generated the highest market values, management or market intelligence.7

5. david Thomson, Blueprint to a Billion: 7 essentials to Achieve exponential Growth (John wiley & Sons inc. 2006).
6. ibid.
7. ibid.


By generating timely and accurate data
about your business, business intelli-
gence solutions help identify issues that
fall outside the norm – and signal poten-
tial problems. For example, if your days
sales outstanding (dSo) is increasing,
business intelligence can help pinpoint
whether the cause is a pervasive quality
problem, a one-time delivery issue, or
an administrative glitch such as a wrong
address on an invoice. once the root
cause of a problem has been identified,
you can take corrective action. Business
intelligence solutions can help monitor
and track results and alert you if prob-
lems recur – such as a process, product,
or action falling outside acceptable
ranges.

Mistake 5: Driving the Wrong the corporate level. integrated and that you use every day – help you com-
Behavior in the Organization transparent software solutions make it municate metrics, track progress, and
more likely that employees will trust the reward success. dashboards give
if your corporate goals aren’t clearly data and understand how daily actions immediate performance feedback; you
defined, communicated, and measured, affect business goals. But companies get the information you need to take
you’re missing out on an opportunity to often find their strategic initiatives dis- quick and decisive actions to correct
encourage beneficial behaviors. You connected from daily operational goals, behaviors, rather than having to wait for
may improve performance in one leaving employees confused about indi- quarterly reports to decipher trends.
department or division at the expense vidual priorities. By clearly assigning visualization tools help your employees
of overall company performance. Gartner accountability for goals and timelines, and you focus quickly on high-impact
suggests that organizations “show how you can communicate explicit perfor- issues – such as improving customer
performance management efforts will mance expectations throughout the service or reducing product defects.
benefit the enterprise if metrics and company and develop incentives that Your entire team can see where data
reporting align to corporate goals.8 drive needed cultural and behavioral comes from and how results are calcu-
changes. lated, and can interact with reports –
You need a solution that supports instilling confidence in the numbers and
greater alignment, accountability, and For example, dashboards – integrated encouraging individual and collaborative
performance at both the individual and with software, such as microsoft office,

Predicts 2009: Business intelligence and Performance management, pg. 4 (Gartner inc., december 18, 2008).


actions that benefit the company. information to detect changes, make and with external stakeholders such as
Mistake 6: Failing to Offer timely decisions, and communicate customers, suppliers, partners, and
Transparency for Stakeholders those changes in strategies. Simply investors. A complete business intelli-
put, external stakeholders need confi- gence solution supports the entire range
The global economic crisis is leading dence in the soundness of your business of enterprise reporting – periodic, highly
business stakeholders and governments strategy and the accuracy of your finan- detailed reports that give insight into
to demand greater transparency into cial records. Ask yourself: Could my overall business performance and pro-
company finances, operations, decisions, enterprise supply my management team vide increased reporting transparency for
and core performance metrics. However, with information regarding a major all stakeholders. The result is increased
many organizations find that overly business or market change without a trust and stronger collaboration at all
complex reporting hampers their ability painful, stop-everything project? Can levels, inside and outside the business.
to demonstrate compliance or fiscal my company anticipate which customers
health. According to Gartner analyst will cut back their business and then Conclusion
Bill Hostmann, “most organizations adjust its approach to minimize loss?
find they do not have the information, These kinds of decisions require a wide Tough economic conditions require
processes, and tools needed by their range of internal and external information companies to go beyond slashing costs.
managers to make informed, responsive and analysis to support rapid risk analy- “now is the time to build efficient,
decisions. Too many enterprises under- sis and contingency planning. high-performance organizations based
invest in their information infrastructure on a coherent foundation of information,”
and business users tools.”9 Business intelligence solutions make it concludes Tapscott. “organizations
easy to share critical business informa- must take a global view of critical infor-
investors demand that you use complete tion across internal business functions mation if they wish to move from just
reacting to economic challenges and
instead position themselves for future
To inform the right decisions, you need simple, intuitive competitive advantage.”10
ad hoc reporting and analysis. A business intelligence Are you making the most of your busi-
solution should support interactive exploration across ness information? use this quick self-
assessment to determine whether a
multiple dimensions of your business and let you create business intelligence solution can
queries using business-friendly language. improve your organization’s decision
making and, ultimately, its performance.

Predicts 2009: Business intelligence and Performance management, pg. 4 (Gartner inc., december 18, 2008).
10. don Tapscott and dr. Steve elmore, managing enterprise information: Architecting for Survival and Positioning for Success in Tough Times,
pg. 1 (nGenera Corporation, march 2009).


BuSineSS intelligenCe Self-aSSeSSMent
imProve Your orGAnizATion’S deCiSion
mAKinG And PerFormAnCe

1. How quickly can your organization 3. Your company’s overtime has 5. Customer satisfaction scores have
identify top customers based on size, increased by 17% in the last month. dropped – specific to your call center.
profitability, and potential for growth? How quickly and easily can your Your COO wants to review the metrics
A we can access this information at organization pinpoint the cause and in place for call center reps. Can this
any time for any customer. we can address the problem? information be readily provided?
easily produce a list of top customers A my company can identify affected A Yes; we have a dashboard that tracks
across multiple criteria – for example, employees and departments imme- call center employee activity, including
by region or product line. diately and go to work solving the length on call, call resolution, and
B we can pull customer information problem within a few days. other metrics.
into a spreadsheet and analyze it B we can gather information, but it B A summary of key metrics is posted
across basic dimensions. would take a while to compile and in a common area where each
C even basic customer information is sort the data. employee can see it; however, we
hard to access – and even harder to C we wouldn’t know where to begin. don’t track metrics on an individual
analyze. or departmental basis.
4. Days sales outstanding has C unfortunately, we have yet to define
2. A senior marketing manager comes increased by five days in the last and implement metrics in this area.
to your CEO with a proposal to two months. Can your organization
introduce a new product line. How determine the root cause? 6. Investors want to see the ROI of
does your organization determine A Yes; within a few days my company your three largest investments from
whether the plan is feasible? could analyze operational and admin- last year. How quickly can your
A we would run a scenario analysis istrative components that might be organization give them an accurate
and project costs, revenues, risks, contributing to the increase. response?
and return outcomes across a range B maybe; we could gather information A in about four hours we could provide
of economic assumptions. from separate applications for cus- a complete report with clear, attrac-
B we would analyze the proposal, but tomer, financial, and operational data, tive visuals that would make it easy
it would take some effort to pull but it would require some effort to for investors to compare projects on
together the needed data and perform analyze the data and identify root several levels.
the appropriate analysis. causes. B each project has its own spreadsheet;
C we are more apt to move forward C doubtful; this would be a difficult within a few days we could create a
based on gut instinct. undertaking for my company. comparison report.
C one of our financial analysts would
have to go through our financials line
Layer on risk assessment to determine the range of by line to pull out the pertinent infor-
mation and create a spreadsheet to
potential outcomes for each opportunity and add calculate roi for each investment.
economic analysis to select and prioritize promising
Add up your score:
scenarios. The result? You have the hard facts to back 0 points for each “A” answer
up the investment decisions that drive sales, cash flow, 1 point for each “B” answer
2 points for each “C” answer
and operational efficiency.


Rank your organization:
0–3: Information is a strategic asset.
Your organization is using busi-
ness intelligence to optimize
decision making in key areas.
Look for additional opportunities
to use business intelligence to
uncover value and drive improve-
ments. Consider advanced
planning tools that can help
close the gap between strategy
and execution. expand the use
of sophisticated what-if analyses
to model the operational and
financial impact of multiple
scenarios on revenue, costs,
and cash flow.

4–8: Take it further. Apply business
intelligence in more areas to
address untapped opportunities
to improve decision making
and performance. Seek out
opportunities to use analytics
and visualization tools to develop
clear insights into specific areas
of your business. using these SAP® Businessobjects™ business To learn more about SAP
insights, inform the right decisions intelligence solutions help simplify Businessobjects business intelligence
to drive operational efficiencies the way businesses use information, solutions, visit www.sap.com
or grow revenues. allowing users to access, format, /solutions/sapbusinessobjects.
analyze, navigate, and share informa-
9–12: Information-challenged. Your tion across the organization.
organization could experience
significant top-line growth and The solutions enable enterprise
bottom-line benefits from using reporting, query and analysis, data
business intelligence. Begin with visualization, data integration, and
solutions designed to integrate data management. As a result, orga-
and cleanse data. use this single nizations gain better business insight
source of accurate data to create – improving decision making and
enterprise reports and fuel ad enterprise performance.
hoc reporting and analysis.


Six Mistakes Companies Are Making Today And How You Can Avoid Them

50 095 419 (09/05)
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