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The Transformative Power of Data Analytics in Professional Services Firms
Why does your data matter?
You know this already but it bears restating!
In the modern business landscape, data is a strategic asset that, placed alongside the talent of your team, has the power to unlock new avenues for growth. This is true for most organisations but especially so for professional services firms. Excellent data analytics has become a cornerstone of success for the best performing firms, offering them unparalleled insights, enhancing client interactions, driving operational efficiencies, and helping them attract and retain the best people.
Garwood has a long history of helping its clients extract value from data. This article introduces our approach and goals in such engagements.
“There were 5 exabytes of information created between the dawn of civilization through 2003, but that much information is now created every two days.” Eric Schmidt, Google
The Top 8 Benefits of Great Analytics
1. Informed Decision-Making
Effective data analytics can equip your firm with the tools to extract valuable insights from often vast and disparate data sources, helping you understand market trends, client behaviours, and emerging opportunities.2. Client-Centric Approach
At the heart of every professional services firm is its clients. Excelling in data analytics can enable your firm to develop a deeper understanding of clients’ needs, preferences, and pain points.3. Efficiency and Productivity
An effective data platform has the power to help you streamlines processes, automate repetitive tasks, and optimise resource management. This leads to increased operational efficiency, allowing professionals to focus their expertise on tasks that require human judgment and creativity.4. Risk Mitigation
Risk management is paramount. Comprehensive data analytics can provide your firm with a powerful tool for assessing, predicting, and mitigating risks across your business including fiscal, delivery, capacity, quality dimensions.5. Market Differentiation
Data analytics can be a key factor in setting a firm apart from its competitors. Firms that harness data effectively can develop unique insights and innovative solutions that address niche needs within their target markets.6. Innovation and Future-Readiness
Innovation is the driving force behind long-term sustainability and growth. Data analytics can empower your firm to innovate by uncovering new patterns, opportunities, and areas for expansion.7. Thought Leadership
Thought leadership initiatives not only showcase a firm’s analytical capabilities but also contribute to knowledge dissemination and market development.8. Continuous Improvement
Professional services firms that prioritize data analytics are more likely to engage in a culture of continuous improvement. By regularly analyzing their own performance metrics, firms can identify areas for enhancement and optimize their internal operations.How does Garwood help drive improvement?
First let’s look at a common scenario: At present a firm extracts data from its project delivery system that is used for analytics purposes. This is combined with data from other sources to create a business reporting pack. The data sets are extracted, manipulated, and then delivered to the business using Excel.
There are several problems with the current approach:
- The data extract and manipulation is both complex and time consuming, taking up a significant amount of time with a dependency on a single individual to manage the process.
- The presentation in Excel is limited due to there being multiple versions of Excel in use across the business not all of which can support the files provided.
- There is no single set of dashboards that are used consistently across the business – individual managers start creating their own analyses.
- As the business grows the reporting will become more complex e.g. the acquisition of a new firm means including additional data sets into the analysis.
- The current solution is not sustainable in the long term.
The business needs to establish a standard set of analytics, supported by appropriate tooling that will enable broad distribution and is flexible enough to be used as the business grows and its analytics needs evolve.
This requires that:
- A standard set of KPIs are agreed that serve as the basis for all board and operational reporting.
- The solution that provides these is both flexible and scalable.
- The solution offers the necessary access control capabilities to ensure that access to information can be controlled as needed.
- There is a change management plan in place to ensure that any new standard reporting portfolio is adopted across the business, removing the risk of “off platform” analytics being created and/or adopted as “the truth”.
Garwood has supported many clients faced with just such a scenario. We first work with them to define a standard set of enterprise-wide dashboards as illustrated below.
Figure 1 – KPIs across the business
Within the process of creating this KPI model Garwood recommends engaging multiple personae from across the business. This ensures that the analytics made available to them individually will support their personal need to measure performance i.e. the KPIs that influence their reward. In so doing we can mitigate the risk that spin-off analytics are created, thus enabling the whole business to operate with a single version of the truth.
Once the core KPIs have been agreed Garwod recommends that they create a proof of concept to deliver a set of dashboards spanning all dimensions of the model shown, with the necessary access control embedded. This will demonstrate that the business can be enabled with a unified set of analytics, adopted by all leaders, whilst allowing for refinement and natural evolution of the analytics model.
Once the proof of concept is adopted your business will have KPIs agreed to serve as the basis for all board and operational reporting delivered on an analytics platform that:
- Enables universal distribution
- Automates production of recurring dashboards
- Has the flexibility to support evolving needs
- Provides access control to ensure that analytics can be shared as needed
The final component is a Change management plan to ensure that new reporting portfolio is adopted across the business, removing the risk of “off platform” analytics being used.
In conclusion
In the dynamic landscape of professional services, the value of effective data analytics cannot be overstated. The importance extends beyond operational efficiency; it encompasses strategic decision-making, client satisfaction, risk management, innovation, and thought leadership. As data continues to proliferate and technology advances, the firms that harness data analytics to its fullest potential are the ones poised to thrive and lead in their respective markets. By embracing data analytics, professional services firms position themselves not only as service providers but as strategic partners, equipped to navigate challenges, seize opportunities, and shape the future of their clients and industries.
If you have any questions or need help, please get in touch. We have plenty of pragmatic, real-world experience of what is good and bad. We can provide practical advice on how to design, review and implement your information system and supporting processes.