The Business Performance Index – An Explanation

Ged Mirfin, Chief Data Officer, Business Link Northwest

Data Stewardship & Data Advocacy: An Explanation

“60% of Public Sector Organisations around the

world think that inaccurate and incomplete data costs

them money in terms of wasted resources, lost

productivity and/or wasted marketing spend”

“The impact poor data management has on your organisation”

QAS Experian

International Research White Paper

September 2005

“Business users are rightly intolerant of new systems

that are delivered filled with rubbish data and may even fail to adopt the system. It’s

like investing in a new sports car, filling it with the oil and fuel drained from your old

vehicle, and then wondering why it fails to perform as it

did on the test drive.”

(Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers)

The Gartner View• Biggest contributory factor in “outright

failure” CRM is lack of process ownership.

• The problem is nobody owns it. When CRM cuts across different departments it breaks down at the interface between different departments. There's no understanding of the end-to-end process.

• No helicopter overview.• Therefore no CRM “grand strategy”.

Data Stewardship

Creation of a formalised management structure including systems,

processes and the establishment of standards. Accountability for the processing of data throughout the business was designed to increase

operational effectiveness, promoting “data” and its use into a highly valued

“strategic asset”

Who owned BLNW Data?• Marketing• Operations• Brokers• IT• CRM Manager• M. I. Team• Business Improvement

Who had ultimate “ownership” of BLNW Data?

• Everyone and No-One• Everyone had responsibility for their

individual piece of the jig-saw• Devolved Control of the Management of

Data was dispersed throughout the Business

• This led to anarchical and fragmented decision-making and ineffective quality control mechanisms

• No one Individual or Team was in charge

The Gartner View“The challenge of poor data quality

presents a vicious circle. If business users don’t trust the existing data in a system, they

take less care themselves when entering new information, which only compounds the data quality

problem. With data being recognised as an organisation’s second most valuable asset, and

poor data quality losing organisations up to a quarter of their revenue, this is a topic that

cannot be ignored.”

Data Governance –Ensuring Data Quality, Data Acquisition &

Reporting

Structures and Processes for Management & Storage of Data

as a Strategic Asset

Maintaining Data Integrity

& Measuring Data Quality

Placing Data at the very heart of BLNW activities

Data Stewardship

Data

Team

- Data Strategy

Data TQM

Data Strategy• Identifying ways to improve current data• Searching the market for external data that can

further enrich current dataset• Establishing a programme for managing

suppliers. • Monitor the quality of this data.• Implementing effective control procedures.• Apply change management processes. • Measure the impact of data. • Establish review processes.

Issues Encountered At O2

- Focus at Executive Level - Wider Organisation Buy

In removal of accepted norms

- Addressing Director Silo Culture

- Gaining Agreement for Information

Ownership

- Sheer Volume and Complexity

of Data

- Agreement on Change in Organisational Structure and Process and Reallocation to

Corporate Resources Directorate

- Sufficient Power Vested in Project Team to Ensure Delivery of Project Form a powerful team with a real

remit to make the change happen

- Recruitment of Experienced Specialist Contractor “Developer”

Resource

- Proving the Business Case and Obtaining Funding

Issues Encountered At BLNW

Communicating the Benefits of Data as a Corporate Asset – the Advocacy Approach

“Selling the vision for data for the business going forward.”

• Evangelical approach to the adoption of Data internally by

publicising Data Issues• Developing effective working relationships with key data users

and the ICT team to develop performance management

solutions. • Actively pursue collaborative and cohesive working relationships with

all internal personnel.

Key StakeholdersMarketing

Build increased

penetration amongst

service users through

improved segmentation and targeting

Operations

Improve take-up of intensive

assists for Broker Team by increasing

lead generation

Executive

Meeting of Strategic

Priorities: To be recognized as the leader on regional business

intelligence and playing a vital role in informing business

support policy making

Cluster Orgs.

Make definitive pronouncements

about the effectiveness of BLNW services delivered to the NW Business Community including

Membership & Cluster Orgs,

Local Councils, Politicians &

Opinion Leaders

“Advanced Customer

Segmentation”

“Vastly Improved

Lead Quality”

“Delivering Strategic

Priorities”

“Sharing of Key Data across the

Region”

NWDA

Provision of relevant and up-to-date

information on emerging business

trends allowing the NWDA to

service requests from Government,

Political Parties & Lobbying

Orgs

“One Version of the Truth”

The Business Support EnvironmentINTERNAL EXTERNAL

Impact Analysis – Key Achievements to Date• Marketing: Dramatically Improved Response Rates from Direct Marketing Activity

• Has allowed BLNW to Build increased penetration through improved segmentation and targeting

• Achieved 14.29% conversion rate rate from Large Scale Direct Mail Activity (35,000) – c.5,000 new users over a 2 Month period

• Operations: Has given Adviser Teams Access to High quality Leads in Increased Volumes

• Has Improve take-up of intensive assists for Broker Team by increasing lead generation – Diaries of Advisers full

• Access to a Much Wider Universe of Businesses than previously allowing BLNW to widen the net

• Executive: Strategic Priorities: Recognized as the leader on regional business intelligence and playing a vital role in informing business support policy making

• Enhancement both Reputation and Policy Influencing Role of BLNW within Business Support Community

Business Support Community Partners & Stakeholder Orgs: Has allowed BLNW to Make Definitive Pronouncements about the effectiveness of its Services to the NW Business Community including Membership & Cluster Orgs, Local Councils, Politicians & Change Architects

• Has allowed BLNW to contextualize the impact of its service delivery with robust evidence

• Benchmarking effective performance and identifying gaps

• In return has allowed Business Support Community Partners & Stakeholders to consider their own activity whilst providing effective specific Business Support in their Geography/Sector

• Northwest Development Agency: Provision of relevant and up-to-date information on emerging business trends allowing the NWDA to service requests from Government, Political Parties & Lobbying Orgs

• BLNW Data recognized as the Primary Source of Business Intelligence in the Northwest Region

• Creation of Rapid Response Framework with BLNW Data Warehouse(s) at Core

• Delivery of Strategic Business Trend Data to Key Decision-Makers have become Key Forecasting Indices

• Data at this level of granularity is available to no other RDA

Who wanted to know what? Everyone had an opinion but NOBODY had the facts

• NWBL had a significant set of operational targets for Y1 of its operation

• Certain members of the business support community in the North West felt challenged by BL

Interested Parties Local Regional By Sector By Theme By Team Team Member

NWDA

Government

Cluster Organisations

Geographic Orgaisations

Local Operations Management

Marketing

Business Development

Information Type - Performance

BLNW are uniquely placed to deliver market intelligence

Aim: Change from Anecdotal &

Judgmental to Evidence-basedDecision making

Experience-influenced

Evidence-based

Opinion-basedEvidence-influenced

Expe

rienc

e

Evidence / Information

The Advocacy ModelBuild Data Coalition: Communicate the

Benefits Internally

Creation of Database – customers – internally focussed

BL Management and internal data consumers

Value Chain for the North West Business Data Universe

First Phase - Create

The Advocacy Model

InternalSector specialists and cluster management teams

First interaction with third party data consumers and political oganisations

Data becomes more relevant for decision making bodies

Second Phase – Sell Benefits

Internal

Geographically dispersed bodies require data to confirm Business support activities or to quantify the impact of future plans and policies

Data becomes more relevant for decision making bodies

Sector

The Advocacy Model

Third Phase – Build Dependency

What happened after we shared the data?Lancashire Economic Partnership

Major Input into Economic Downturn Report for 4Northwest

Collaborative Reporting and Shared Input into Policy Making

West Lancashire District Council

Report on SoHo Businesses across the Borough, Profiling of Industry Sectors and provision of Data on Plastics Manufacturers.

Informing Policy Making

The Mersey Partnership

Cross LA Report on Commercial Risk Position at Sub-Regional Level and Insolvency Rates

Benchmark Reporting

Manchester City Council

Ward level Reporting on Commercial Risk and Insolvency Rates amongst Businesses in Manchester to identify and market to Businesses in need

Supporting Data Driven Decision Making

Liverpool Vision

Testing of criteria to inform delivery of Business Support Activity designed to render assistance to struggling retail Businesses

Data Driven Marketing to effect the optimum delivery of Public Funding available to support struggling Businesses and that its impact can be effectively measured

The Commission for the New Economy (Manchester Enterprises)

Cross Local Authority View of Commercial Risk, Insolvency and Businesses by Size and Turnover

Top Down versus Bottom-Up view of Policy Making to identify severity and concentration of impact upon Businesses of both the recession and policy

Bolton Council/Business Bolton

Profiling of Large Businesses by Employee Nos. to identify Businesses in Above Average or High Commercial Risk Bands

Segmentation to drive Collaborative Direct Marketing Activity to deliver Business Support to deliver policy impact – in this case ameliorate the impact of unemployment

Cumbria Vision

Sub-Regional View of Business Performance across all 6 Local Authorities

Provision of Data where none existed previously and the development of shared analytical resource facilities to meet analytical resource deficiencies – in this case the Cumbria Observatory.

Internal

Local hierarchy of business support functions demand input to decision making and assessment of economic impact.

Data becomes more relevant for decision making bodies

Sector Geography

The Advocacy Model

Fourth Phase – Widen User Base

InternalDemand for joined up information sources and “one version of the truth” among all business support organisations.Tie together regional strategy and delivery with a system of quantifiable evidence based results

Data becomes more relevant for decision making bodies

Sector Geography Local

The Advocacy Model

Fifth Phase – Consolidate Business Intelligence

Internal

Regional Data can be used to challenge and improve National directives.

Involve regional factual data in National extrapolation.

Data becomes more relevant for decision making bodies

Sector Geography Local Regional

The Advocacy Model

Sixth Phase – Influence National Agenda