How a sporting goods manufacturer keeps an eye on competitors and himself
Task
Our client entrusted us with a matter that was anything but simple – even though or just because it was all about simplification! But let’s start from the beginning: in order to monitor and analyze his own market performance and compare it to the competitive environment, the manufacturer of sport equipment obtained market data from multiple and diverse sources.
The company tried to manage with Excel reports, which were updated in fixed intervals and distributed to all relevant stakeholders. A little chaotic at times. Now it was our task to replace the elaborate and at the same time static Excel reports with modern and, above all, automated BI reportings. As a further step the data pool, along with the authorization concept, had to be optimized. In order to steer the process as simply and conveniently as possible, we assumed a certain degree of flexibility in our clients’ close co-operation. Because: what could be more efficient than personal human exchange?
Implementation
So we started interaction with the client and – ready, set, go! – quickly established a flexible sprint principle, thanks to which we managed to implement the first and initially simple requests and wishes directly. More complex issues we illuminated in the manner that is probably the one most easy to understand: by means of pleasantly short user stories, enabling the client to grasp and internalize events directly.
Furthermore, we created a service desk concept, that is a point of contact, assisting the user with any service issues and providing him answers to all kinds of affairs. Besides, the service desk represented the place where reported events were taken care of immediately, which allowed a direct branching from the dashboard to the actual reporting of a possibly problematic event. As a result, the communication was considerably shortened!
We divided the project into three targeted phases:
Phase 1
The transfer of already existing Excel reportings into the tool Tableau, which is the market-leading software for data analysis and data visualization. It was the client’s wish to optimize reportings both in terms of structure and function. To this end we first analyzed the existing report and data structure, in order to achieve a fundamental understanding of previous conditions.
Phase 2
Then we set about the optimization of the existing company reports and conceived them anew, with the goal of creating a so-called chart collection for our clients. A chart collection comprises all popular and common visualization standards, by means of which existing, often insufficiently clear illustrations can be replaced with more unequivocal charts in an efficient and easy to handle manner. In this way, we instantly increased the dashboard’s expressiveness, which from a practical point of view resulted in company-wide consistency.
Phase 3
At last we looked at the underlying database, examining and analyzing it from all angles and extensively. Finally we optimized it, uniting different data sources to form a single pool, and developed an authorization concept in order to manage the access by various users.
In effect, our process accomplished a really sporty result for our clients: market and competitor analysis in best time.
Piero Alessio
CEO
