The Road to Successful Outcomes: Analytics Staircase - Part 1

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The Road to Successful Outcomes: Analytics Staircase

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Introduction: Why do Analytics matter?

Working with retail clients over the years we have found some common concerns, touchpoints, or problem areas. Not everyone has the same ones but a few keep popping up. One of the common concerns is that clients do not have the visibility or insights needed to make operational decisions. What we have found is client organizations are not sure how to build the right type of supply channel analytics for their company. Therefore, after helping many companies implement operational analytics we want to share our Supply Chain Analytics Staircase. Which are the key steps to building your own omnichannel analytics insights and driving outcomes for your organization.

Begin with the end in mind! Why is analytics important? Analytics Drives Outcomes. It is as simple as that. Do you feel like you keep making adjustments within your practice but are still not seeing the outcomes you’re hoping for? After all, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Therefore, Analytics might be the missing piece. When you unify analytics across the whole organization it’s like turning on the light, no longer trying to find your way in the dark. The steps towards desired outcomes become clear.

“An organization's ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.” Jack Welch.

Analytics Drive Outcomes

More than ever, supply chain executives are looking to drive outcomes typically focused on decreasing costs, improving quality, or increasing speed to customers. The main challenge in achieving outcomes is not having proper insights into the supply chain for knowing which actions best drive desired outcomes. Achieving results takes operational discipline and consistency that stems from using a data-driven operational approach.

Our Supply Chain Analytics Staircase introduces a six-step framework for achieving desired outcomes independent of supply chain strategy. These steps grow the path through six key areas; Data, Structure, Analytics, Insights, Actions, and Outcomes. Below is a quick look at what we will be talking about in the upcoming weeks.

Analytics Staircase shows the 6 steps in your journey

Supply Chain Analytics Staircase

Data: In order to build an analytics strategy you first need to identify what data you do have. Where that data is housed. How to access the data. We will walk you through this step in our next article.
Structure: After you have the data from across your organization you then need to stitch the data together into a cohesive structure. In this step, we will go into detail about how to build this underlying data structure.
Analytics: After you have all your data structured you need to analyze it into usable measurements. Defining the key performance indicators (KPIs) that your business needs to look at will be a key part of this step.
Insights: Seamlessly once you have measurable analytics you will start seeing clear insights. What numbers are surprisingly low, where are you overspending, or what customer complaints are most consistent. These are those lightbulb moments that will show you exactly what actions to take.
Actions: Insights lead to action. Once you have seen where your clear insights are you cannot help but take action. Approaching this strategically will set you up for success.
Outcomes: It might seem like this is an unnecessary step. However, we have seen that oftentimes teams forget to double-check their actual outcomes with their desired outcomes. It is huge to go back and confirm you hit, exceeded, or missed your desired results.

As we look at the steps in detail over the next several months we will look to be answering lots of questions we hear. As well as, diving deeper into how to complete each of these steps within your organization. If you would like to get notified of each article when published please follow us on LinkedIn.com.