Our series, Strategic Imperatives for the Chemical Industry discusses the issues that industry organizations are most concerned about going forward in 2015. Based on extensive research performed by the Eventful Group, these key issues come directly from players in the industry ranging from small blossoming organizations to the household name manufacturing giants.
In this issue we will discuss the importance of speedy and accurate decision making in your business. If you missed or would like to revisit the previous entries in our series, please follow the links below.
Strategic Imperatives for the Chemical Industry – Part 1: Evolution through Digital Transformation
Strategic Imperatives for the Chemical Industry – Part 2: Mergers, Acquisitions, and Divestitures
Strategic Imperatives for the Chemical Industry – Part 3: Business Process Standardization, Automati...
Strategic Imperatives for the Chemical Industry – Part 4: Leveraging Data to Make Informed Decisions
Many organizations feel as if they are drowning in a sea of “Big Data,” grappling with the best approaches to quickly identify and analyze actionable information that will allow senior leadership and front line leaders to make dynamic decisions to improve the operations and profitability of the organization. Accurate and quality data is the foundation for successful business analytics. Reporting based on inaccurate data not only prevents leaders from making strategic and timely decisions, but also works to drive a wedge between IT and the business.
A core focus in 2015 is the ability to more accurately forecast sales based on customer pull, optimize production plans, effectively procure raw materials at optimal prices, and drive inventory levels down without impacting customer service levels. Organizations are seeking solutions that allow them to improve forecasting capabilities through strong analytics.
- What are the best practices in operational dashboards?
- What are the best practices for heterogeneous reporting and analytics?
- How can companies utilize reporting tools to better understand cost structures and what levers exist to improve them?
- Extracting specific information is not always possible or able to be done in a user friendly format. What are the best ways to extract KPIs and critical data from specific functions?
- What are the best practices for encouraging maximum user adoption of reporting and analytical processes? Organizations may have the very best tools and technologies at their disposal, however, without successful adoption of usage, these investments fail.
- How do companies deal with the fact that there are different user interfaces (UIs) for different roles–management and executive leadership often have different functionality and dashboards from end users?
- Reducing user frustration―report development speed, usability and costs are all factors that deter effective reporting and development of BI. How do companies build the business case and user adoption to get away from analysis in spreadsheets outside of the system?
- Is there a best practice to support standardization of reporting and processes? What are the best reporting standardization cases?
- What presentation mechanisms are best for different audiences? What are the best presentation mediums and tools used to deliver information to the C-suite?
- How can SAP BusinessObject, Netweaver BW and Solution Manager (SolMan) best be leveraged?
If increasing the speed & accuracy of decision making is an area that your organization seeks to improve, please reach out or feel free to continue the conversation in the comments section below.
To get answers to these, and other top industry questions, be sure to participate in our SAP Best Practices for Chemicals Conference on March 14-16, 2016 at the Woodlands Waterway, Texas.
We look forward to seeing you there!
