Transforming your business through business intelligence - with Microsoft modern BI & adv. analytics

This is part 1 of a 4 part modern BI (Microsoft Power BI) series.

We live in a world of unprecedented change. In the 1920s, the average lifespan of a company on the S&P 500 was nearly 70 years. In the 1980s, the average lifespan dropped to 25 years. Today, it's less than 15 years and continuing to decline. In the next decade, 75% of companies on the S&P 500 will be companies that are not on the index today.

To be successful in this world of change, organizations will need to develop a data culture, creating an environment where every team and every individual is empowered to do great things because of the data at their fingertips. In a data culture, everyone benefits when more people can ask questions and get answers. In a data culture, the effectiveness of an entire organization can improve. This is especially true when every employee can harness the power of data, once only reserved for data scientists, and tap into the power of natural language, self-service business insights, and visualization capabilities—making insights available to anyone, anywhere, at any time. When that happens, organizations develop what we describe as a “data culture.”

Before we dive in, let's take a look at what is happening in the market. It is no surprise that the volume of analyzable data continues to grow. According to IDC the amount of data that is worth analyzing will double by 2020. We heard it before, data is the new currency and by 2020, data monetization efforts will result in enterprises pursuing digital transformation initiatives - increasing consumption of their own data by 100-fold or more.

The question is – how can organizations manage all that data?

Over 80% of enterprise IT organizations will commit to hybrid cloud architectures encompassing multiple public cloud services, by the end of 2017, and Gartner's 2015 Cloud Adoption Survey revealed that nearly 50% of survey respondents already use SaaS. On average, survey respondents saved 14% by using public cloud services. The trend is clear - the cloud is here to stay.

So how can an organization such as Solution Systems achieve value from your data and at the same time help you lower cost? Let’s take a look at Microsoft’s BI offerings.

So, what is the expected outcome? Building a data culture has a tangible impact on the bottom line. Here are some numbers that help bring some perspective to that transformation:

According to IDC, organizations that are able to analyze all relevant data and deliver actionable insight will achieve an extra $430 billion in combined productivity benefits by 2020.

According to Keystone, organizations evolving how they leverage data, analytics, and the cloud generate an average of an extra $100 million (or 8 percentage points) operating income per year.

According to Gartner customers gain 14% savings in CAPEX, software costs, IT staff, and paying for what you need

These improvements are a result of using analytical insights to transform business processes in areas like customer service or operations, for example.

Let’s take a look at some companies that have been successful at implementing a data culture, and the role that Modern BI has played in their transformation.

Here are some examples of companies that have been able to transform their business by successfully creating a data culture, starting with Kennametal.

1. Kennametal’s use of data is a strong example of the potential to transform product.

At the forefront of advanced materials innovation for more than 75 years, Kennametal is a leading global provider of materials science, tooling, and wear-resistant solutions.

To accelerate progress toward the next innovation in material science, Kennametal is creating a holistic platform with BI and analytics tools from Microsoft.

By giving more than 12,000 employees centralized access to sophisticated analytics, project data, and collaboration tools, the company expects to cut product development time and cost and speed time-to-market significantly.

2. Rolls-Royce is another company using BI to optimize its customers’ operations and its own operations.

Rolls-Royce has more than 13,000 engines for commercial aircraft in service around the world, and for the past 20 years it has offered customers comprehensive engine maintenance services that help keep aircraft available and efficient.

As the rapidly increasing volume of data coming from many different types of aircraft equipment overtakes the airlines’ ability to analyze and gain insight from it, Rolls-Royce is using Modern BI to help its customers optimize their operations by reducing flight delays and disruptions and identifying opportunities to uncover efficiencies in key areas like fuel consumption.

For its own operations, Rolls-Royce is using data to gain a better understanding of how it should structure its support contracts, how it can better manage risk, and what its product development needs are.

3. Atkins is using BI to empower employees to collaborate in a seamless way.

Atkins, one of the world’s leading engineering, design, and project management consultancies, has set a goal of moving all systems to the cloud by 2020.

As a key first step in the process, Atkins is rolling out Office 365 E5—which includes Power BI—to more than 18,600 employees worldwide.

The company anticipates that this rollout will help its distributed teams work together more seamlessly, especially on global projects.

Atkins appreciates that team members will be able to access data from anywhere in the world, without sacrificing privacy or security.

4. Finally, Metro Bank has created a data culture to not only empower its employees, but also engage customers in new, personalized, and compelling ways—creating fans.

The first High Street bank to open in the United Kingdom in more than a century, Metro Bank has grown to 350,000 accounts in just 4 years.

How? The answer is simple: Innovative customer-first service. The bank is eliminating the all-too-familiar pain points experienced at banks—long waits, complex rules, and confusing processes.

But to meet its goal of 1 million customers by 2020, the bank knew it needed real BI tools.

Metro Bank adopted Power BI for data-driven decision making and to create at-a-glance, personalized visualizations for employees across a range of roles to show how customers interact with bank services—tracking customer interactions, internal metrics, and more. This also includes call center operations to track call volume, service levels, customer demographics, call times, and shift scheduling, as well as mobile and Internet banking to analyze data including the volume and types of transactions customers are performing online, the devices they use, and peak activity times throughout the day.

Now, the bank can fine-tune its offerings and deliver the kind of service that turns satisfied customers into dedicated fans.

Whether helping commercial airlines optimize their operations or empowering banking employees to offer best-in-class customer service, these four organizations share something that has enabled them to transform: the adoption of Modern BI.

What are the unifying takeaways from each of these customer stories to emphasize the commonality of BI requirements in Modern BI that empowered this transformation? They are:

Making sure that data and insights are available to users throughout the organization, empowering them with the availability of self-service insights in a natural, accessible way that helps fuel action.

Integrating data from diverse (and often disconnected) sources, whether on premises or in the cloud, to provide real-time visibility instead of a rear-view mirror.

Extending enterprise-grade security, management, and scale to meet unique needs and requirements.

Stay tuned for Part II next week, and in the meantime if you have any Microsoft Power BI related questions please do not hesitate to contact us.