Using BI to Build a Culture of Data

Data-driven is a buzzword that has been thrown around for years but very few people understand the steps needed to build a culture that is truly data-driven, or why to do so for that matter. Being a data-focused company is more than just a buzzword, your success hangs on your company’s cultural focus on data. Fortunately, the experts are here to help you make the right steps towards a data-focused culture.

Adam Crigger, President and Frank Di Lorenzo, Client Relationship Manager at Preferred Strategies joins Mike Merrill at the 2022 CFMA National Conference to discuss what it means to be data-driven, the connection between data visualization and culture, The importance of dashboards, and how to implement BI one step at a time.

Key Takeaways

1. Data-driven businesses are successful contractors. Its a statistical fact that 80% or more of contractors will fail based on multiple sources but new data is emerging that shows that over 90% of businesses that are run by good trusted data are succeeding.
2. Data visualization solidifies a culture that embraces data. Having a data-driven culture should be the primary focus of any contractor looking to increase their business and profitability. The McKinsey Global Institute did a study that found that companies with a very strong data culture are 23 times more successful at acquiring new customers. Six times more likely to retain customers and 19 times more likely to be profitable. With those kinds of numbers it is easy to see that data makes or breaks the success of many businesses today.
3. Excel isn’t a dead tool, but it never should be used in a silo environment. Excel is the mainstay of many financial professionals and although Power BI can give you everything you need it doesn’t mean that classic tools like Excel are useless. Instead of ripping excel out of the hands of those that trust it control the data that ends up inside of their excel sheets by creating an environment that shares data across platforms and tools. So no matter what dashboard or program you are using the data is the same data across the board.