Which key figures do SMEs really need?
- Sales and contribution margin per product, customer or area: what sells, and what remains after direct costs?
- Liquidity: expected incoming and outgoing payments over the next weeks.
- Open receivables and payment time: how long does it take on average for invoices to be paid?
- Stock coverage and stock turnover: how many days does the stock last, and how often does it turn over per year?
- Order intake and pipeline: what is coming in over the next months?
- Plan versus actual: where do the figures deviate from the budget?
Where does the data come from?
Sales, stock and finance are in the ERP, opportunities in the CRM, budgets often in Excel. Business Intelligence brings these sources together in a shared data basis. For this, elvadata works with ZAP and offers Sage Data & Analytics based on ZAP Data Hub. Depending on requirements, the data is updated several times a day, hourly or almost in real time.
Why must every key figure be calculated the same way?
If sales and accounting calculate revenue differently, for example with or without credit notes, discussions arise instead of decisions. That is why at the start we define for each key figure which fields it is based on and which rules apply. Cost accounting at Suisselab shows how much clarity this brings: the profitability of the individual areas is now visible there.
How do SMEs get started with Business Intelligence?
- Collect questions: which decisions should the figures support?
- Select five to ten key figures and define how they are calculated.
- Connect the data sources, first the ERP, then CRM and Excel.
- Build a first dashboard and review it with the users.
- Expand step by step and define roles and permissions.
With few sources, a lean data model is often enough; a dedicated data warehouse is only needed for larger data volumes. Read more about our approach under Business Intelligence.