Optimising your business

Data & business intelligence

Organisations of all sizes are increasingly viewing their data as an asset and looking for ways to unlock its value. At Doherty Associates, we’ll not only help you to gather the right raw data but also bring the insight that turns it into valuable business intelligence.

When you gather the right data, understand what it means, report on it effectively, and plot actions against it, you can create momentum towards your overall business objectives and your individual KPIs. In all of these areas, our thoughtful approach to gathering data and mining the right information from it can make a worthwhile difference.

We’re already involved in data projects that are global in scale and we’re excited by the possibilities for all of our clients – and potential clients – whatever their size.

If you’re curious to discover more, please contact us.

• Gathering the right data

  We start by building a clear understanding of your organisation, its place in the market and where it might go next. This allows us to map the best process for securely gathering the data you need.

  Typically, we begin with a detailed analysis of both the technical aspects – such as the format of your current data, how ‘clean’ and consistent it is, and who has access to it. And the business aspects – such as current pain points, your desired outcomes and the KPIs crucial to your success.

  Using smart tools and technologies, we then pull ‘structured’ data from your existing databases and systems (e.g. your finance and accounting system or customer relationship management system) as well as unstructured data (e.g. that held in spreadsheets, Word documents and emails).

  It’s also quite common for us to bring in external data; something many of our private equity clients in particular have found invaluable.

  For example, understanding more about how other organisations are performing can be very useful when deciding on the wisdom of investing in them. And clients across all sectors are often keen to know how well they are performing compared to the market. We can undertake this work on either a project basis, for example to meet a specific objective around what you want to see, or more routinely, to help you build a clearer picture of your business operations as a whole.

• Turning data into intelligence

  Once a critical mass of data has been gathered, we apply the appropriate metrics to it, depending on the needs of your organisation and where appropriate, each department. Findings can be reported monthly, daily, hourly, or in real-time as a precursor to decisive action.

  For example, a manufacturing company might want to analyse telemetry data from their machines and the IT department might then use that data to proactively increase or decrease specifications, in order to reduce spend or avoid downtime. Similarly, the Finance department might want to know more about departmental metrics, while the Marketing department’s priorities are client satisfaction levels and whether their current activity is making an impact.

  We’ll determine the optimum frequency of reporting in the analysis phase. We’ll then provide these reports in your chosen format – or show you how to create your own reports if that’s what you’d like.