How To Build A Smarter Business
I’m a big believer in data analytics. I’ve become interested in learning how analytics is utilized across virtually every discipline you can think of – be it accounting, 金融, 建设, 房地产, 人口统计资料, 体育, 音乐, 等. In fact, I first became interested in analytics because of baseball. 作为一个狂热的粉丝, it fascinated me that early adopters such as the Oakland A’s, 坦帕湾光芒队, and my beloved 克利夫兰 Indians began utilizing analytics in the late ’90s to create a competitive advantage. Twenty years ago, very few organizations of any kind had dedicated resources to analytics. Now, that is not the case. 今天, there is no room for your organization not to leverage the value of the information it possesses from years of operation and experience.
The rise of data applications and cloud computing has effectively done two things: 1) increased computing power capacity and 2) reduced cost. This means you no longer have to be a billion dollar business to take advantage of your company’s data.
读也: Measure What Matters
Here are some of the ways our clients are utilizing data analytics to improve efficiency and drive business.
Job Site Productivity
Contractors can improve workflows, 找到效率, and cut costs by analyzing data collection from jobsites. And true data analytics is more than just tracking traditional job costs and cash flow. By analyzing data about employees’ movements (i.e. – collected from wearables or smartphones), you can see how much extra movement takes place in the course of a day. This may allow you to make easy improvements such as placing materials and equipment in a more efficient location on the site, 例如.
聪明的投标
Closely tracking things like job costs, 改变订单, material/equipment usage, and worker productivity from your projects can help improve your cost estimates on future work. While many contractors already do some version of this, having more complete and relevant data can provide a fuller picture of how jobs fare and where improvements can be made. 除了, increased efficiencies and on-time, on-budget delivery of projects will lead to a solid reputation for your Company, helping open up more potential work.
Predictive Analytics
Ideally, you won’t only assess what happened on a project after the fact. You want data to help you make better decisions based on models of what will happen in the future. Publicly available economic data combined with your own company’s data can help you develop these models rather inexpensively through machine learning. While this is usually farther along in the information evolution process, it’s amazing what you can learn about your business simply from a basic proof of concept.
当然, there remains some pushback from those who cast all of this aside and say there is no replacement for personal experience or a “gut feeling.“问题是, the proper use of data analytics isn’t a replacement of our own personal experience in our business or industry. 而不是, it represents taking a massive amount of data from those experiences, 分析它, and assisting us in making better decisions. In statistical terms, it reduces or eliminates the small sample size or confirmation bias (i.e. – using only our own knowledge/experience to strengthen our preferred answer) from the equation. I’ve seen firsthand how the use of data analytics can be utilized successfully for small/mid-size companies.
What’s the best practice? If you’ve read or heard me in the past, this will sound familiar: have a joint discussion among your CPA, 技术合作伙伴, 金融服务提供商, 保证人, 等. to outline your goals and discuss the best path for using data and creating the value in your business that you desire in the long run.
If your providers aren’t thinking holistically like this on your behalf, give me a call at 614.314.讨论.
By: Doug Houser, CPA, MBA, CEPA (Director of 建设 & 房地产 服务)
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