Analytics is not a one step process, or a search for a single answer. It’s about guidance, according to Tony Pericle in an interview with IMI’s sister company, Modern Distribution Management.
It’s critical for companies to monitor the landscape ahead and course-correct when necessary or risk ending up in the wrong place. Pericle says that analytics can provide advanced warning of a storm and identify alternative paths.
In other words, data can point you in the right direction, but the work does not stop there. When you get there, re-evaluate to determine which fork in the road to take next.
An article from the Bloomberg BusinessWeek puts it this way: Companies need to “re-engineer” their decision-making processes to get the right data to the right person when they need it. It’s about timeliness and viewing the use of data to drive decisions as an ongoing process versus a one-time deal.
A quick-fix solution won’t yield the deep and consistent insight your business needs to thrive. Distributors and manufacturers need to take a breath, review their opportunities based on real data and insight, and apply the right resources. Then they must build a system with the best technology, processes and people to track those opportunities so that when conditions change – and they will change – they retain a competitive advantage.
