Do You Want To Stay Ahead of the Competition? Taking your computers data and translating it into sales forecasts, decisions on product choice, and inventory management is the skill of the data mining professional.
Data Analysis & Reporting Services
Northeast
Business Services (NBS) can custom design an easy to use database that
can be the “front-end” to view, report and analyze the data, which
we can extract from your computer system.
Most
managers want to view their data or manipulate in ways, which are not
supported by their software. This
is where our expertise comes in. NBS
has the tools that will allow us to extract the data from almost any
type of computer system. Then,
we will work with you and your staff to custom design a database that
will allow you and your staff to easily work with this data exactly in
the ways you would like.
Once
your data is in the database, you will be able to work with it using
almost any software program you’d like.
Northeast Business Systems will insure your data is easy to
access and in the formats you need.
We can
also design and create applications for use with your data such as
extracting the open invoices information from your accounting software
and creating a custom “accounts receivable collections system”
tailored to work the way you want it to.
If you can think of an application you’d like, we can create it
for you.
(Also, see Business Process Automation examples)
We do consulting and training on Data Analysis & Reporting for many companies. Click here for further information.
One of
our specialties is assisting businesses with custom reports,
spreadsheets, and data analysis programs for their knowledge management
needs. Most accounting
software programs have “stock” pre-made reports.
When these don’t give you with the information you want or in
the format you need it, NBS can create reports and spreadsheets tailored
to your exact requirements.
We can
also set up your data in ways for you to “query” just the
information you’re looking for in an easy to use manner and with just
a little bit of training that we can provide, we can have your staff
accessing, reporting and analyzing data in ways you’ve wished for, but
didn’t think were possible or affordable!
The
following are the titles of a few or the reports we’ve created for out
customers. “Inventory-Verify
Minimum Margins”, “Purchases Per Customer By Manufacturer”,
“Customers-Sales Behind Last Years”, “Customers-No Sales In
45 Days”, Service Contracts Due To Expire Within 30 Days”, “Sales
By Manufacturer Per Customer”, “Patient Flow Analysis”,
“Backorders By Manufacturer”, “Denial of Claims By Insurance
Company”, “Inventory Overstock & Slow Movers”, “Payments By
Insurance Company Per Procedure Code”, “Backorders Verses Shipped
Orders Analysis”, “Marketing Analysis Per Item”, plus many more
too numerous too mention.
(Also, see Business Process Automation examples)
With
database marketing you can pinpoint your advertising and marketing
promotions to just those customers or prospects whom are most likely to
respond. The “shotgun”
marketing approach (marketing to everyone like newspaper inserts) is not
cost effective if your advertising message is not applicable to the
masses.
Targeted
database marketing is much more cost effective and responsive.
Here are a few examples.
Example
#1. Company has an
overstock of certain inventory items.
We search the database of sales finding customers who’ve
purchased these items in the past. We the do a promotional mailing to
just these customers offering them a special price on them.
Example
#2. For a mail-order
company. Only mail catalogs
to those customers who have purchased within a certain time frame and
whose sales have given the company a minimum of X amount of dollars of
profits or a certain net profit percentage and who do not have a history
of returns or problems.
Example
#3. For a mail-order
company. Mail catalogs only
to those areas of the country (zip codes, area codes, etc.) where you
receive the most response. One
of our clients never mails to large metropolitan areas as the response
from these areas are poor for the products they sell.
Their markets are population centers of 100,000 or less.
Example #4. Track customers’ purchases and then do follow-up mailings in the future to offer them “specials” on complimentary products they might be needing (i.e) stain they need for an outdoor deck they purchased last year. Send reminder notices to your customers that their purchase is going to be out of warranty soon and this would be a good time to purchase a service contract.
See also Business Automation Management
What
Is Business Process Automation? It
is a solution or a compliment of solutions that automates manual
processes to take advantage of the benefits of technology to improve the
overall efficiency and profitability of the organization. While most
people assume that the primary focus of process automation is the
elimination of large blocks of time, there can also be significant
benefit from eliminating lots of small blocks of time.
Business Process Automation is one of the keys to success in an
increasingly competitive global marketplace and is also one of the major
factors that is driving the new economy. Implementing process automation
is best achieved by hiring a professional who has worked with a number
of companies and can provide a myriad of automation services.
Following
are some examples of workflow automation, Northeast Business Services
has implemented.
Mailing
List Management: Set up
programs to automatically combine names from many sources into one
central database and create easy to use interfaces that will keep the
lists easy to keep up to date and avoid name duplication.
Money saved on mass mailings paid for this program the first time
it was used.
Electronic
Forms: Designed a system to replace all forms that had to be typed
out by hand with “electronic forms” that are filled out on the
user’s computer screen. Redundant
information that is required on many forms is automatically filled out
on all related forms and the completed forms are electronically faxed
and filed in one operation. Form
retrieval is as easy as a few mouse clicks.
Production
Program: Automatically projects the amount of product to manufacture
based on quantities currently on hand and automatically calculated
projected sales.
Data Input Program: Designed a database (for a steel fabricator) with an easy to use user interface to input the materials needed to be manufactured for each job. Data that was hand-written and compiled manually and took days to do (with many errors) is now done in hours and all calculations are error free. Hundreds of man-hours a year are saved with this program.
Sales
Force Automation: Implemented
system for a company with a large sales force to do the following All
Automatically (this is just a partial list): schedule follow-up
phone calls, print out sales history appointment reports for each
salesperson, automatically send out letters, e-mails, faxes, etc. to
clients based on the stage they were at in the sales cycle, print
reports to management whenever sales people were not following up with
clients in a timely manner (regardless of how minute the detail),
automatic marketing to clients and prospects, schedule appointments or
phone calls when service contracts are due for renewal, plus many other
things to numerous to mention here.
In a nutshell, almost EVERY task your sales force
does now by hand can be done automatically with your computer.
Inventory
Program: A “Just In
Time Inventory” re-order report, which automatically calculates
inventory reorder quantities based on projected sales.
The projected sales are based on the last 13 weeks sales, but can
be based on any historical period of time.
The data is automatically refreshed from the company’s main
computer system.
Database
Marketing Program: Set up program to market to existing customers only those
products in which they are interested.
By matching products to customers, company was able to
drastically increase response rate while reducing marketing costs.
This type of sophisticated marketing would be impossible to do
“by hand”.
Medical Reporting Program: A reporting database that compiles all “Denials of
Claims” by the insurance companies.
It tracks when they were denied, if they’ve been resubmitted,
reason for denial and many other facts.
Used to insure denied claims are being resubmitted in a timely
manner and to analyze and correct the reasons why they were denied in
the first place.
Patient
Flow Analysis: Assembled
the data for a busy ophthalmologic practice and created reports to
pinpoint which doctors and patient areas were slow in moving the
patients though. Revealed a
need for better staffing at certain hours and the staffers that needed
to increase their speed.
Sales
Force Automation: Implemented
a fully automatic system for a company with a large sales
force to do the following ALL AUTOMATICALLY (this is just a
partial list): schedule follow-up phone calls, print out sales history
appointment reports for each salesperson, automatically send out
letters, e-mails, faxes, etc. to clients based on the stage they were at
in the sales cycle, print reports to management whenever sales people
were not following up with clients in a timely manner (regardless of how
minute the detail), automatic marketing to clients and prospects,
schedule appointments or phone calls when service contracts are due for
renewal, plus many other things to numerous to mention here.
In a nutshell, almost EVERY task your sales force
does now by hand can be done automatically with your computer.
Data
Extraction: By using
special software tools data can be extracted (exported) out of almost
any program and then can be imported into a database, spreadsheet or
application of your choice. This
can be done even if there isn’t an export utility or no other apparent
way or to get the information out of the originating program.
Companies can now look at their data in ways they never thought
possible!
Accounts
Receivables Collection Tracking:
Track all contacts with customers whom you’re trying to collect
payment from. Automatic
callbacks to customers will be scheduled only if payment hasn’t been
received by the promised date. Past
due accounts will automatically be excluded from promotional mailings
until their accounts are current, automatic generation of payment
request letters, and a complete record of every contact you’ve ever
had with the customer. Can
be as flexible as you’d like it.
Sales Order: Automated a manual order recording system for a national mail-order pharmaceutical company by customizing a program to work around their specific and unique needs.
Send mail to info@strategicbusinesstools.com with questions or comments.
Copyright © 2001 Northeast Business Services, Inc.
