Thinking

Introducing data diagnosis

Written by Mick Murphy | May 30 2015

Data Management is crucial to any business. Customer data determines your internal processes such as marketing, sales and billing. It also enables you to develop and target products and services more precisely whilst optimising communications and promotions to deliver maximum revenue.

In the good old days, customer data was held in a CRM system. It rarely became anything more complicated than name, address, phone number and products purchased fields. As technology has evolved customer journeys now occur across multiple platforms and touchpoints. The result has been an exponential growth in the amount and variety of data a business needs to collect and the speed at which it must analysed. It is estimated that 90% of the world’s data has been created in just the last two years, so if you haven’t reviewed your systems and processes since then you could be putting your business at a serious disadvantage.

Data Diagnosis from Clarasys is a new service designed to review your data processes and systems. We’ll identify issues and their root causes then provide you with a roadmap outlining improvements that can be made. Because we work on agile principles we are able to complete the process within 6 weeks for most customers.

Why it’s different

The Clarasys service differs from others by placing as much emphasis on processes as we do on systems. In our experience it is the processes that are at the root of most issues, not the software. However, processes are also some of the easiest things to improve. By involving all data stakeholders in our analysis staff feel a greater sense of empowerment and buy-in resulting in increased positivity towards data management across the business. When people understand why data management is important for them, and feel empowered to make the changes required, the whole business benefits.

We have also adapted principles from Lean and the Agile Manifesto for our projects. Agile projects are based on learning from many iterations of a process to improve outcomes. We use this methodology in our analysis and incorporate the principles into your roadmap, allowing you to capitalise quickly on efforts by performing the tasks with least effort but maximum returns first.

Just because we aim to produce results fast doesn’t mean we don’t deliver value. Your initial consultation is provided free. We use this time to fully plan the project, detailing agreed scope and objectives. Our consultants then immerse themselves with your teams. An average project involves around 40 interviews with key stakeholders plus two full day workshops to map your most common lead to cash processes. If you choose to include the roadmap option with your assessment you will also receive a business case and iterative business plan. This plan will include costs, outline any risks or issues and is fully prioritised based on effort vs. value.

Benefits to your business

The main benefit to any business from a Data Diagnosis review comes from the savings made by eliminating non time efficient processes. In particular we have helped a number of companies reduce debtor days. For example, a business with a turnover of £500m could expect a cash injection of £2.9m arising from reduced debt simply by reducing the average number of debtor days from 40 to 38.

Further benefits can be gained by streamlining data integration processes. Companies who can quickly and easily see what their customers want, and when, and then react before the competition, are better able to achieve market leader status and capitalise on the increased revenue this can provide.

The cost

Prices for the Data Diagnosis service start from £35,000 for a single location as-is assessment. We can add a detailed vision and roadmap for process improvement for an extra £40,000. If you’d like the service across multiple locations the price for additional roadmaps reduce to just £15,000.