Reed Kingston of InsightSPI, a performance software company, recently posted a blog article on an important new development for middle market companies: tools for analytics. He says that Business Intelligence (BI), and even “big data” are becoming available for firms with limited IT budgets.
As Reed explains, mid-market companies typically face the challenge of competing against larger, better funded companies. This is indeed a hallmark of corporate evolution that our firm, Newport Board Group, calls No Man’s Land. In this stage of business growth, you don’t have the cash to invest in as much infrastructure as your better-established competitors. You also don’t have the economies of scale to leverage the investments you do make.
Business Analytic Tips for Middle Market Companies
In his blog article, Reed makes several key points about smaller companies trying to understand their market and track progress by looking for BI when executing their strategy. He believes they should:
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Achieve ROI quickly - Select tools that measure and manage performance, while paying off in better decisions - FAST!
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Insist on tools that anyone can use - Middle market companies should avoid tools that require intervention by IT personnel so that they can be set up and ran.
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Use on-demand/cloud infrastructure - Solutions that require large up-front investments in software and infrastructure are too expensive and take too long to implement. Look for solutions that enable you to leverage tools you already have, minimizing both software costs and user training.
The gist of Reed’s message: middle market companies can benefit from tools that track what they are doing (and not doing) to execute their strategy. But they need to look past the flashy graphics that software companies use to sell complex, cumbersome performance management solutions to big companies. The best bet for an emerging growth company is a performance management solution that will leverage their intrinsic advantages: speed, agility and intimate knowledge of their business.
To read the full article by Reed Kingston click here.
Recently, Newport Board Group and InisghtSPI developed an alliance in order to create executive-level dashboards that help middle market companies measure performance and monitor metrics. To find out more click http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/03/prweb11642676.htm.
About the Author
Mark Rosenman has deep experience developing processes, systems and content to create value from intellectual capital. Serving as the Chief Knowledge Officer at Tatum, he successfully drove strategies to develop, capture, share and deploy the knowledge and experience of the firm's professionals. Contact or learn more about Mark here.
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