Every business is bombarded with raw data and numbers pertaining to their company, but what do they mean? How can this raw data be turned into something meaningful? Something that shows positive or negative actions? That shows something other than just numbers?
With one thing…
Business Intelligence – Converting numbers into meaningful metrics and reports on the health of the business.
Every new venture (whether a new company, new product, new project or even a new task) needs to be tracked for success. With these metrics, one can easily measure for success, improvements, stress points, future forecasting as well as indicating priorities of the company.
The simpler the metric is to create and understand, the more beneficial it typically is. With the implementation of “good” metrics you can:
- Help drive the organization in a positive direction
- Provide company and employee focus
- Become a decision maker assistant
- Become dynamic along with the changes of the company
- Help forecast trends
- Assists to steer clear from negative occurrences
There is no specific formula to implementing metrics that work for everything and every company. But, here are 5 simple steps that are a good starting point:
- Define the metrics you want to measure
- Ensure approval from stakeholders
- Tally what data you need and get them
- Measure metrics and share
- Work towards improvements
In summary, numbers are the basis of a business all the little metrics add up to define the bigger picture. The better you understand the little numbers, the better you understand your business and can further push it to successes.
Reference: http://www.isixsigma.com/methodology/metrics/importance-implementing-effective-metrics/
By: Sonia Bhalla
