A few years ago we helped the UK
office of Phoenix Contact, a leading German
manufacturer of electrical connection and industrial automation equipment,
after they were tasked with driving UK Sales and increasing market share. Lee Grogan, Sales Manager, is checking back in with them to see how
implementing BI has shaped their future as a growing business. Martin Potter,
Sales and Marketing Director at Phoenix Contact, gives us some insight into how
the project went and where they are now.
One of the issues we hear about time and time again
from our clients is that their own data is very difficult to both manage as well
as access. This not only affects efficiency but it can also affect the bottom
line because, without that data, the outgoing costs and incoming revenues can
be obscured. What issues led your office to consider implementing a BI
solution?
Martin: Information
within our company was traditionally hard to access and regarded as
confidential. Each department was working hard, but on its own agenda. The new
management team wanted to refocus the company on sales and ensure everyone was
working towards the same objectives. By increasing access to information, we
hoped to transform our culture and energise staff to deliver the results we
were looking for.
We have seen situations where a consultant company has
come in and basically dictated to their client how they need to do things
without regard to their client’s business structure and even their working environment.
This is something that we discourage within our own company as it’s important
to us that we work in concert with our clients rather than simply telling them
what to do. Can you give our readers your thoughts on what it was like working
with us on this project?
Martin: DSCallards really listened to
our needs, often facilitating discussions we might not have had internally, to
get a clear picture of our objectives and where the value lay. They didn’t
dictate how we should do business – they simply enabled us to get more value
from our data to hit our targets while preserving our uniqueness.”
In the end, the most important thing to us is that the
solutions we implement work for our clients and help them create a better
business. How has implementing a BI solution helped you meet your goal of
increasing your market share and drive sales?
Martin: Key to
transforming our performance was exposing what was going on in our business, as
this tends to concentrate people’s minds on understanding their own impact and
improving their individual or departmental performance…You can see the effect
of the numbers on performance in real-time, which has an amazing influence.
Well there you have it. Implementing a robust BI
solution helped this business gain insight into what was going on and where
they could improve. That’s the kind of thing that can give you an edge over
your competitors in this tough market. Want to know more about our project with
Phoenix Contact? You can read the entire case study on our website
along with several others. Once you are done reading up on how we helped
others, feel free to wander around the rest of our website to find out how we
can help you.
