Business Analytics for Mid-Market Companies

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1 Business Analytics for Mid-Market Companies Draft Research Report by William M. Sinnett, Senior Director, Research Financial Executives Research Foundation, Inc. Introduction Business analytics is the practice of using data to drive business strategy and performance. It includes a range of capabilities from looking backward to evaluate what happened in the past, to forward-looking approaches such as scenario planning and predictive modeling. Business analytics also spans the capabilities stack from data management and business intelligence through performance management and advanced analytics. However, financial executives believe that in spite of investments that have been made in technology, their organizations still do not have the information needed to analyze operations and drive better financial performance. Gartner, in collaboration with Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF) and FEI s Committee on Finance & IT (CFIT) conducts an annual survey of CFOs and other senior financial executives, Technology Issues for Financial Executives. When asked What processes need improved technology support? 46% of CFOs said Facilitating analysis and decision making ; 43% of the CFOs said Quality of the data used for business information ; 42% of the CFOs said Creating an effective environment for sharing relevant information ; and 33% of the CFOs said Measuring product and customer profitability The CFOs were then asked What are your top three technology initiatives? Business intelligence, analytics and performance management was selected by 23% of the CFOs as their first choice, 24% ranked it second, and 18% ranked it third, for a combined total of 65%, nearly two-thirds of all respondents. These are just some of the results of Technology Issues for Financial Executives: 2011 Annual Report (FERF: 2011). Other key findings from this survey include: CFOs say that Business Intelligence (BI) and Corporate Performance Management (CPM) are areas missing required technology; and Fifty-four percent of organizations plan to upgrade their BI capabilities during the next two years. Analytics-as-a-service is a new delivery model that uses cloud computing to provide business insights without requiring significant investments in internal infrastructure and support. The reports, dashboards and scorecards delivered by analytics-as-a-service are typically pre-configured to reduce deployment time, focused on the needs of business users to drive adoption, and paid for on a subscription basis to reduce capital expenditures.

2 Types of Business Analytics This research report will focus on how senior financial executives at mid-market companies are using business analytics to improve the management of their businesses and to better serve customers. Specifically, it will address how midmarket companies are leveraging analytics to support business decisions in areas including: product management, customer management, service and operations management, enterprise management, and supplier/partner management. This report will also explore the extent to which mid-market companies have found ways to leverage data analytics techniques that are cost effective and valuable, improve ties to their customers, and explore other ways in which the use of analytics have impacted their businesses. In Analytics: The widening divide (IBM: 2011), researchers at the IBM Institute for Business Value and MIT Sloan Management Review, describe a number of areas in which business analytics are currently used: Financial Allocating the annual budget Establishing financial forecasts Operational Streamlining operational processes Managing supply chain and logistics Strategic Establishing organizational strategic objectives Developing and refining new products or services Human Resources Allocating employees time and efforts Evaluating employee performance Customer Enhancing customers overall experience Optimizing the match of sales reps to customers Defining marketing campaigns Identifying target customers The researchers note that financial and operational activities have historically been data-driven, and are typically the first areas where analytics are adopted. By comparison, analytics is less frequently relied upon for decisions involving customers, business strategy and human resources.

3 Case Study Companies We interviewed the CFOs at three mid-market companies. Here are brief descriptions of these companies, taken directly from their Websites: Casual Male From the Casual Male Website: With over 400 store locations, Casual Male Retail Group, Inc. is the largest specialty retailer of big and tall men s apparel, with retail operations in the United States and London, England and direct businesses throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Casual Male Retail Group operates under the trade names of Destination XL, Casual Male XL, Casual Male XL Outlets, Rochester Clothing, B&T Factory Direct, Shoes XL and Living XL. We are a multi-channel retailer with four primary retail brands: Destination XL, Casual Male XL, B &T Factory Direct, and Rochester Clothing. Our objective is to appeal to all of our customers, who are defined by their physical characteristic of being either big, or tall, or both but otherwise represent all demographic and socioeconomic groups, by providing a good, better and best array of product assortments in all primary lifestyles with multiple and convenient ways to shop. Encore Enterprises From the Encore Enterprises Website: Encore Enterprises, Inc., is a privately owned national real estate investment company founded in Encore develops and acquires mixed-use complexes, limited and full-service hotels, multifamily apartment home communities, retail shopping centers and commercial office buildings. In addition, the company manages hotels, vacation condominium resorts, and homeowner associations. Encore's operational efficiency has allowed the company to stay ahead of the commercial real estate market curve during the recent recession. This efficiency, combined with disciplined underwriting enables the company to capitalize on market trends providing returns in line with each investor's set of parameters.

4 TradeCard From the TradeCard Website: TradeCard provides hosted technology, online services and a global network of trade experts to connect buyers, suppliers and their service providers. This unique offering ensures members have the data and tools needed to automate and optimize transactions and control their extended supply chain. Technology: A hosted technology platform, delivered as-a-service over the Web, that connects your network in just weeks. No hardware or additional software is required. Global Network: More than 40,000 members. Global "feet on the street" experts providing support in 50 countries and 32 languages. A global network of buyers, suppliers and service providers that collaborate electronically and generate mutual value. A network of alliance partners: inspection services, consultants, technology providers, banks - that contribute expertise and bring innovation to our members. Services: More than 150 service providers inject online services into the trade flow. Logistics. Payment protection. Inspection. Export financing. Available to thousands of TradeCard members.

5 Examples of Business Analytics We asked the CFOs to describe examples of Business Analytics that they currently use to support the business as well as the finance function in the five areas identified in the IBM/MIT Sloan School study, Analytics: The widening divide: Financial; Operational; Strategic; Human Resources; and Customer Financial Analytics Financial analytics include: Allocating the annual budget and Establishing financial forecasts. Mahesh Shetty, the COO and CFO at Encore Enterprises Inc., says that he uses data analytics for yield management in two of Encore s divisions. In the Retail division, Encore gets market data on comparable rents per square foot from Real Page. This market information is then used in negotiating new retail leases. Optimum rents per square foot will vary from market to market. In the Multi Family division, buy and sell decisions of apartment buildings are based on market data, current interest rates and the availability of bank financing, so the decision to buy or build is based on market intelligence. We often choose to develop new properties in lieu of acquiring existing properties when the spread between development costs and the market capitalization provides better returns for our investors. Steve Ford, the CFO of TradeCard, notes that he uses NetSuite software. Everything done by our finance function is done through NetSuite, starting with the sales opportunity. With NetSuite, we can capture time, expense and revenue, and all related analytics. All employees can access financial information with an Internet connection. TradeCard also uses Adaptive Planning (which was recently purchased by NetSuite) to do budgets and forecasts. Everyone has their own budget, and they can do their own analysis and produce their own dashboards. In essence, everyone can become their own CEO or CFO. Because NetSuite is a Cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), when it is updated, everyone will use the same updated release, and there will be only one version of the truth.

6 Operational Analytics Operational analytics include: Streamlining operational processes and Managing supply chain and logistics. Mahesh Shetty explains that Encore Enterprises also uses data analytics for yield management in operations. In the Multi Family division, managers are permitted to make decisions on leases. For each apartment complex, we tell the manager what minimum revenue is required to break even with operating expenses. This minimum revenue provides a floor for the manager to consider when he or she is negotiating new apartment leases. We also give managers market data to use when negotiating leases, which allows them to calibrate lease renewals based on market demand and optimize rents. The managers are measured based on occupancy and rent/square foot and are incented based on overall profitability. Yield management in the multifamily sector is a significant tool used to improve occupancy and rents. In the Hospitality division, Smith Travel Research provides competitive market data in their Online STR Report. This data helps us to do a sophisticated revenue management analysis, based on current occupancy and future bookings. We can do real time analysis of current reservations, so we can lower room rates in markets that are slow, and we can raise room rates in hot markets. Dennis Hernreich, CFO at Casual Male, says that their biggest challenge is inventory control. We sell 25 different styles of men s clothing, and 59 different sizes of pants, and we need to know what inventory to buy, where to place it and how to price it. Casual Male originally engaged with Oco, a provider of analytics as a service through the Cloud, to quickly and economically add analytics to its business and monitor inventory and sales and gross margin. [Oco, Inc. was acquired by Deloitte in May 2011 and now operates as Deloitte Managed Analytics.] Oco provided analytics solutions that we were able to deploy quickly to address pressing needs in our business, such as providing visibility into our direct (catalog and online) channel, and consolidating inventory data across six country-based web stores in Europe. As the company s investment in analytics grew to support the totality of the business, it transitioned QuantiSense. We currently have a department of 50 employees who use QuantiSense, a Business Intelligence tool provided by MicroStrategy. We use QuantiSense to manage the business with advanced analytics for merchandising. QuantiSense uses transaction data to help us to decide what men will buy, so that we can optimize our gross margin.

7 Steve Ford explains that TradeCard provides Cloud services for customer s purchase orders. We have 100 customers (40,000 users) who do business with 8,000 factories. We developed and use our own software, the TradeCard System, for operations. The TradeCard System exchanges information with NetSuite. The TradeCard System provides operational analytics, including an activity history for every customer. Strategic Analytics Strategic analytics include: Establishing organizational strategic objectives and Developing and refining new products or services Mahesh Shetty at Encore explains that buy and sell decisions in the Multi- Family division are based on market intelligence, current interest rates and availability of bank financing. We do not try to time the market, but we use data to help us predict where the market is headed. Shetty provides an example of how analysis of market data helped Encore to make an important business decision just before the recent financial crisis. Back in 2006, we were ready to buy some new hotels. However, our analysis of available data showed that these new hotels would not meet our IRR objectives. We then decided that if the market was not right to buy, maybe we should sell some of our properties. Based on this analysis, we sold a group of hotels to a Goldman Sachs fund, just before the financial crisis. Steve Ford explains that TradeCard s product development program is based on a feedback loop with their customers. We capture both hard and soft data from all trades. An analysis of this data provides ideas for new products and services. Although we generate a lot of ideas for new products and services, our offerings are limited to what our customers can pay. Ford says that TradeCard updates their products and services provided by the TradeCard system on a quarterly basis, and all customers, large and small, get the benefits of the upgrades. Ford reports that TradeCard also gets external business analytics from the greater marketplace. We belong to many industry councils, which are essentially circles of influence, from which we gather external market information. Our customers also have their own supply chains, and therefore their own circles of influence, so we can also participate in their supply chains. We spend up to 10% of our time doing consulting work for our customers supply chains.

8 Human Resources Analytics Human Resources analytics include: Allocating employees time and efforts and Evaluating employee performance Mahesh Shetty explains that Encore s strategic objective in Human Resources is to optimize or reduce headcount, based on their core competencies. We decided that what we were good at was financial due diligence and development of new properties. We then decided to outsource everything else, including HR, benefits and risk management. Encore s operational strategy is to: Consolidate examine and understand their costs; Automate reduce transactional costs; and Outsource reduce costs by transferring work to lower cost locations. Shetty notes that Using this process, we are able to outsource an efficient operation and reap cost savings from outsourcing. NetSuite provides an electric employee time card for TradeCard, and NetSuite timecards are used for all employees. CFO Ford notes that We thus standardize the Human Resources program, which is both a benefit and a challenge. The primary challenge is standardizing the work flow, not what employees do. Ford adds that TradeCard plans to use NetSuite for automating the company s performance evaluation process.

9 Customer Analytics Customer analytics include: Enhancing customers overall experience; Optimizing the match of sales reps to customers; Defining marketing campaigns; and Identifying target customers. Dennis Hernreich at Casual Male uses the Customer Relations Management module of Epicor, which provides a repository for Business Intelligence. Epicor is an ERP system that helps us understand the behavior of our customers. It stores transactions by address, and uses algorithms to tell us who to contact and when during the year, so that we stay top of mind with our customers. Hernreich also uses Deloitte s Managed Analytics Cloud-based inventory analytics for task management. This is a communications capability that provides information so that we can tell our stores what they should do each day, helping them to prioritize their activities. The Hospitality division of Encore Enterprises owns some Marriott and Hilton hotels. Shetty reports that the hotel chains handle customer satisfaction surveys, and Encore pays for the feedback data. We have been told that we own two of the top Marriott properties based on customer satisfaction, a Courtyard in Alabama and a Courtyard in Mississippi Ford explains that the TradeCard System is the basis of the supply chain, and all customer and agent systems interact with each other. We send instructions to move payments from the buyers, such as Nike, Abercrombie or Polo Ralph Lauren, to the factories in the Far East. All of the 40,000 members can interact on the TradeCard multi-tenant, single instance collaboration software platform. Ford says that TradeCard sponsors an annual Executive Forum for their customers. This is a conference at which existing customers make presentations on how they use the TradeCard system, and describe any problems that they might have had. Last year, 25 customers and prospects attended the Forum. This year, we plan to have almost double that amount of existing and prospective customers at the Forum.