Tuesday, December 05, 2017

So this thing happened today...

I was scheduled for 2 webinars at the same time today.  Voluntarily.  At noon.  Why, you may ask, would I do that?  Well, they were both free and they offered options of receiving the recorded version even if you couldn't attend live so I figured, why not?  What do I have to lose?  Noon rolled around and I logged into both to decide which one I wanted to commit to live (if either of them).  I mean, it's not like I had nothing else to do.  We are in the middle of a quick month-end close due to a board meeting next week.  But I figured if I could learn anything new from either one that might help me or the company I work for, it would be worth giving up an hour of my time.

This is the one that won out:

Digital transformation in Manufacturing - 
leverage analytics to maximize profitability

Sounds like a doozy, doesn't it?  It honestly was.  This was the most helpful free webinar I've ever attended.  Not because it gave me amazing tools to help in doing my job more effectively or increasing efficiencies in the workplace (which it potentially did), but because it fanned a spark of passion in me that has been lying dormant for a while now.  I attended the webinar to learn how Microsoft Power BI could help the startup medical device company I work for make better informed decisions in a timely fashion without hours of labor to input data into multiple spreadsheets and then manually manipulate it into the various outputs in order to answer the questions posed to the various departments.  Phew!  No kidding, that's what we do.  Different departments input the same data into their own spreadsheets on a daily/weekly/monthly basis in order to manipulate it and track it in different ways.  The same data.  Multiple spreadsheets.  And I do mean multiple.  I have 3 spreadsheets alone to track various information on the same items.  Customer service and sales have at least that many also to track some of the same information but for different purposes.

Since I started working there almost two years ago, I thought to myself that there has got to be a better way.  At first I thought, "If I could just learn more tricks about Excel, it would help a lot".  So, I reached out to an Excel expert to help me streamline some formulas in the spreadsheets I was responsible for.  This helped a lot and actually did take hours off of my weekly data processing time.  As an added bonus I became very comfortable with vLookUps and learned about the index function and CountIf formulas in Excel.  However, it did not help with the duplication of efforts among departments.  This is a huge inefficiency to me and I'm all about process improvements!  

For a long time I blamed our current inventory tracking and accounting software (FishBowl and QuickBooks respectively).  I assumed that during our commercialization phase we just outgrew what these programs could provide.  I pushed for a new ERP system.  One system, that could do it all!  All the modules would talk to each other and all the departments would have access to the information they need while the data only had to be entered ONE time and life would be good.  I did research.  I recommended options.  Multiple departments jumped on board.  I scheduled software demos.  I took team notes.  I scheduled more demos.  And finally, we picked the ERP system that would solve all of our problems!  {Cue the angels singing} 

Our team took a final presentation and recommendation to the CFO.  She liked it.  She asked pertinent questions.  She got on board with us.  And, she took it to the CEO and the board of directors.  They all saw the need and the advantages to a more streamlined data system.  It got added to the budget and life would be good.  

But the contract never got signed.  It kept getting pushed out until our next round of financing or until this medical vote got passed or until...  well, you get the point.  In the meantime, the business is still growing.  The data is still accumulating at a steady rate.  And each department is still tracking it using multiple spreadsheets.  I am hopeful that we will sign a purchase contract soon, but whether we do or not, we need to increase efficiencies NOW.  Not nine months from now when we may or may not be ready to flip the switch on a new ERP system. And even when we do flip that switch, we are going to have to get that same information out of a new ERP system and what's going to do that?  Is this new software going to magically solve our information problems?  I think not.  The data may all be housed in one place, but it's still going to need a system to manipulate it into providing the answers each department needs.

So, my never ending quest for streamlined data flow led me to discover Microsoft Power BI.  But what is this program?  What is BI and what does it mean for the startup company I work for?  What does it do exactly?  After a free download and test drive (thank you very much Microsoft!), I saw the potential but I needed a little more guidance.  My curiosity lead me to today's webinar.

Today I heard from Jon Thompson of Blue Margin on utilizing Power BI to increase efficiencies, but more importantly and on a personal level, I learned that I love business intelligence.  I love the concept of taking raw data and turning it into dashboards (slicing and dicing as they say) to show executives, managers, and all employees the real score in the business game they are in.  Mr. Thompson really struck a chord inside me in comparing business information to a game.  Everyone enjoys a good game, right?  You are motivated to do your best to tilt the score in your favor and come out on top.  That's what BI does for business - it's the scoreboard. Data doesn't lie and neither does the score.  BI gives you the play by play analysis you need to make better decisions to increase your odds of winning.  Who doesn't like better odds?

I am so excited to learn even more about this powerful tool!  I get the pleasure of talking with Jon Thompson himself next week to learn more about what Blue Margin can provide to our company and hopefully more about Power BI in general.  In the meantime, I'm going to focus on completing our month end close so I can continue my quest for data efficiency in the workplace and how to quench my newfound thirst to learn all I can about business intelligence and creating scoreboards.

Stay tuned...

~Becky

P.S.  What a crazy topic to post about for the first time in over 5 years!!  Or is it?

P.P.S.  I promise I will update this page shortly as all of it is completely outdated (except my support of Compassion International).  I just really wanted to get all my thoughts about today's webinar down in print so I could remember what sparked my passion again.