From Shadow IT to Strategic IBP: How We Empowered a Supply Chain Company with Data Analytics
Struggling with IT backlog and shadow IT? See how we helped a Supply Chain company unlock data's potential for IBP, free up working capital, and achieve business automation with a strategic Data Analytics roadmap.Introduction
Our client, a Supply Chain company was in the midst of undergoing an Integrated Business Planning exercise and needed to free up working capital for its transformation and investing in new IT systems required for IBP. The existing IT systems were complex and were costs for maintaining these systems and generating new reports was exorbitantly high. We were engaged by the company’s CIO to conduct an audit of the Data Analytics architecture based on their current system landscape and future capability requirements.
Challenge
IT team had an extensive backlog of unmet requirements and had lost the trust of the business users and business teams were running their own Shadow IT to meet their needs. There was a disconnect between the organization's teams and its corporate information architecture, leading to frustration and negative experiences.
Approach
- Current State Assessment: We started by assessing their current state to get a rapid understating of common challenges and finding out their challenges in meeting current business objectives. During the workshops, we utilised our previously developed toolkits and questionnaires to get the right information from the users. We developed concise meeting notes and identified gaps in technology and also short, medium and long-term wins.
- Strategy: We had regular check-ins with senior management and had play back sessions with the users to validate our understanding. Strategy discussion included uncovering objectives, understanding which BI and Analytics tools could help meet the organisation goals, and gap analysis.
- Readiness Check: Rapid assessment of where the organisation was at this stage, and what needed to be done to achieve alignment. This also included rating infrastructure and applications on current state maturity.
- Roadmap and Recommendations: Leveraging our expertise, co-created roadmap detailing how the organisation could improve and evolve through data analytics and implement the new Data Analytics architecture. We evaluated the new Data Analytics architecture against current and strategic business needs. Break down the roadmap into manageable phases or milestones. Allocate resources, budget, and timelines for each phase of the alignment process.
Benefits
- The executive team developed a clear understanding of what their organization stood to gain from leveraging the new Data Analytics Architecture, understood where they were now, what common challenges lay ahead, and what would be the first steps in their data analytics adoption journey.
Results
- The client was able to monitor business performance with specific KPIs and took steps to take their business automation to the next level with cloud-based modern data analytics. They started towards implementing their data analytics strategy to evolve into a data-driven organization.
- The roadmap served as a dynamic tool to guide decision-making, drive execution, and achieve strategic objectives effectively.
Key Learnings
Align your data analytics initiatives with your overall business goals.
Developing a roadmap fosters communication and collaboration among stakeholders, teams, and departments.
The roadmap exercise encourages a culture of continuous improvement and learning within the organization.
Data analytics is a catalyst for digital transformation, enabling faster, more accurate, more relevant decisions.