Feel overwhelmed by data overload? Can’t see the wood for the trees and concerned that you’re missing important information? Then you’re not alone. We report
Data anxiety is a ‘thing’. It’s the symptom of data overload in business, which in common with anxieties in general, clouds rationale thinking and good decision making.
“There is so much data out there”, says Elton Boocock, Managing Director, Business Pilot. “Sales data, website data, financials – the list goes on.
“In business we know that we need to be capturing data, analysing it and making informed choices to as a basis of growth but that can be overwhelming, you lose sight of what’s important and that leads to inaction or the wrong choices.”
And you may think that it’s only you or other small businesses that struggle but the data (sorry we mean research!) says otherwise.
A survey of business leaders by InterSystems and Vitreous World found that more than half (51%) of senior decision-makers in UK businesses felt overwhelmed by the data generated within their organisation, rising to 61% among those working in larger organisations with 1,000+ employees.
“Data is only of use if its accessible and delivers insight”, continues Elton. “If you aren’t processing it and managing it, having a lot of data that doesn’t help, it only clouds things.
“What we have done is to cut through all of that to focus on what’s actually important to installation businesses based on our direct experience in working inside two of them, to give retailers a snap-shot in real-time of the data and metrics which allow them to make informed business choices.”
Business Pilot was launched in 2019. The product of a collaborative project between Cherwell Windows and Thames Valley Windows, and subsequently, a two-year development programme with their digital partners.
It mobilises the power of cloud-based technologies, giving installers complete visibility of each and every element of their operation from leads and conversions to job scheduling, cost of installation, service calls, and financial reporting.
“Our system supports our customers in collecting a lot of data but it’s value comes in the way it’s cut and represented. The power up we’ve launched for our new dashboard gives people access to the data that’s critical to running their business – nothing more, nothing less. That keeps things simple.”
The new Business Pilot Dashboard pulls the business management information that the CRM collates automatically about key areas of business performance and translates it into an easy-to-understand headline analysis as follows:
Ops Dashboard
A new Ops Dashboard pulls in headline financial performance details including sales, cash in the bank, balances, outstanding, orders, invoices fitted value, costs and gross profit – each automatically updated with every new sale made, job completed, or bill paid. [dashboard screengrab]
Status Dashboard
The Status Dashboard gives installers instant visibility of where a lead/sale or installation their lead-to-contract or contract-to-delivery pipelines. For example, installers can see the value of leads allocated, how many jobs have been quoted, the value of quotes followed up, the value of quotes waiting for a demo etc.
Alternatively, the value of jobs with completed surveys, those with a confirmed installation date, those on hold, are also broken down, supporting effective cash forecasting and updated instantly and automatically as soon as a job moves in its pipeline. [dashboard screengrab]
Sales Dashboard
The Sales Dashboard flags unassigned leads and highlights who assigned leads have been allocated to, tracking their individual performance and hit rate.
People and area sales Dashboard
The People and Area sales Dashboard provides a broader helicopter overview of who leads have been allocated to. [Doughnut chart]
Leads and Products Dashboard
Allowing you to track performance of products and your lead generation activity, the Lead to Products Dashboard provides a headline overview of which products are selling best and where leads were sourced.
Marketing Dashboard
The Marketing Dashboard provides more detailed insight on how much each lead costs you to acquiring and the effectiveness of any campaign at any given point, allowing installers to maximise return on investment by understanding which channels are not only delivering the highest number of leads – but most cost effectively.
“There’s no fluff here. The Dashboards give you the metrics that really count”, says Elton. “At the same time, while Business Pilot allows you to extract data against almost any stream, we have focussed on the things that every business actually needs to know to keep things simple and avoid overload.
“We want to be the cure for data anxiety, not contribute to the problem.”
