After having understood who a consultant is, let's look at the importance of being one.
Before we get into the importance of a consultant, it’s important to understand the power of analytics and the role it plays in any business organization.
Business users are no longer looking only at just reporting. They now want analytics which helps them to look at data in a more scientific way. In fact, analytics has now become a decision-making system. As businesses become dynamic and competition fiercer, the window for making decisions is also shrinking.
With changing technology, companies no longer have an ERP as a data source. The information is now spread across different applications. The applications too are no longer on-premise; some of them have moved to the cloud. Even social media applications like Facebook and Twitter are now considered sources of information for companies. Big data is one of the buzz words, and Microsoft Excel still remains one of the prevalent data sources! It's important for customers to get the best from all the data sources.
Companies look at Analytics in multiple areas, such as:
- Sales
- Marketing
- Finance
- Operations
- HR
- Supply Chain
- IT
Analytics brings great value to the company in each of these areas. We will delve deeper into these areas in further chapters, but for a brief understanding, let's look at why these areas consider analytics so valuable:
- Sales looks for increasing profitability and increasing revenue
- Marketing wants to up-sell and cross-sell, and improve Return on Investment (ROI) on campaigns
- Finance wants to find ways of reducing cost
- Operations wants to streamline the process
- HR wants analytics for talent retention, succession planning, reward management, and performance monitoring
- The supply chain wants better sourcing and better vendor management
- Information Technology looks for better asset management, service delivery, and IT project performance management
Let’s take an example of a fictitious company, say PQR Corp, which is a manufacturing company. PQR has a turnover of 150 million USD and has all the previously mentioned functions of sales, finance, operations, HR, supply chain, and IT.
If PQR Corp invests one million USD in Analytics (with the help of a good consultant, of course!), then a good consultant can not only recover the cost for PQR but can also make the investment turn substantially beneficial:
- If he/she can help improve sales revenue by 10 percent, a company’s revenue can grow from say 150 million USD to 165 million USD, which is an increase of 15 million USD in revenue USD
- If he/she can help in reduction of the inventory cost from 30 million USD to 20 million USD, it is a savings of 10 million
- Similarly, if the consultant can help improve sourcing strategies and help save 5 percent in sourcing cost from 60 million USD to 57 million USD, a saving of 3 million USD can be achieved
The statistics are amazing. Considering the preceding example, one can easily see an overall benefit of 28 million USD. If one adds other benefits from other functions, like HR, IT, and/or operations, these numbers will grow.
When you look at the Key Result Area (KRA) of each of these functions, you can understand the mammoth implications of getting the BI strategy right. KRA are areas in business for which an individual or group is responsible.
You will appreciate how analytics plays a crucial role for a company and how you as a consultant can influence the success of an organization. The power of analysis helps organizations to understand their data better and to take better business decisions. A poorly executed Analytics implementation gives no added value to the organization and the investments go waste.
After being a developer, a natural progression in one's career is to look at becoming a consultant. Organizations look at consultants as trusted advisors. A good consultant always commands great respect from a client.
After years of development experience, a person is expected to want a more challenging role. A consultant carries tremendous responsibility on his/her shoulders. The approach which a consultant takes will have a direct impact on the fortunes of a company. Any company which invests heavily into an analytical software, like Qlik, will expect a good Return on Investment and a low cost of ownership.