January 8, 2016
You can extract a great deal of information from your systems to better understand how your organization is performing and the steps you can take to improve operations.
Before we pulled detailed metrics for our Support Desk, we knew that Monday at 8 am would be busy – like the doctor’s office. You know everyone’s ailments pour in once everyone gets back to work on Monday. But we didn’t know how long the early morning rush on service tickets would be, or the type of skill set required for the majority of them. Now with metrics, we have overlapping schedules based on call volume. We also shifted our staffing according to certain skill sets to ensure we could deliver the level of service we desired to our clients.
A business analyst has become a critical position given the amount of data currently available. Organizations that have someone who is solely dedicated to data mining and analytics will see the benefits again and again.
Big data is not just a buzzword. It’s working behind the scenes of your organization and can help you drive better results in 2016. For starters, here are two questions every organization should be able to answer – with real numbers, not simply feelings:
- How busy are you – really?
- Are you busy doing the right things?
What Data Matters?
Where organizations extract data from depends on the type of the business and often requires an industry expert. For Marco, our data is service-related. Our Support Desk, for example, focuses on calls received, live answer rate, ticket volume and resolution rate. In our warehouse, we have monitors that show key metrics such as number of shipments completed and number of shipments waiting in real time.
Every functional part of our business has identified key metrics and those metrics are often tied to compensation because compensation drives behavior.
Clean the Data
Just pulling the numbers is not enough. Like many organizations, we have learned at Marco that the database needs to be cleaned and managed. That often takes the expertise of a business analyst who can bring a different perspective.
At Marco, we invested resources in our Lean and continuous improvement efforts to clean up the data we receive and manage the process. After you are sure the data is good and compensation will drive the right behavior, you have to execute on the plan. As one of my mentors once said, “Vision without execution is hallucination.”
Set Benchmarks
Measuring progress requires knowing where you started and where you want to go. Know your baseline and set a target.
Pulling, analyzing and acting on data can help you budget better, make more informed decisions and know you are achieving your desired results. So, dig in. Mine the data. And manage by metrics, not feelings.
What do your metrics say about your work environment?
