She identified a lack of analytics strategy and siloed departments that meant, in the absence of communication and resource sharing, there was a buildup of challenges. Manual work increased, projects took up unnecessary time, data sources weren’t being reused, tools or warehouses weren’t fully built out, and there was a lack of governance, leading to incorrect data.
“We had grown our analytics by adding additional tools and people to support it. We were starting to realize that each user and team had a different set of priorities, and we were not being as collaborative or strategic as we could be. It was taking too long to deliver insights to the business which delays decision-making.” - IT Product Manager, Supply Chain Distribution Company
Solution: One assessment, many new perspectives
Realizing that siloed analytics were stalling progress, the distributor decided to bring together their team’s efforts under a single, cohesive strategy. They began working with Amplifi to run a Data Analytics Strategy Assessment, a common first step for organizations wanting to pinpoint the most strategic areas for change.
In the first stage, our experts immersed themselves into the organization to capture a deep understanding of the distributor’s current state. This included interviewing stakeholders, mapping and documenting existing processes, and identifying pain points, gaps and blockers to the organization’s goals.
The assessment highlighted opportunities to the IT Product Manager; “By not working collaboratively and sharing, we were missing opportunities to take advantage of each others’ strengths,” she said.
Amplifi delivered a tailored roadmap with actionable next steps aligned to their goals and organizational structure, and culture.
“Working through the initial Data Analytics Strategy Assessment gave us what we needed to communicate our current state and improvement plan with our leadership team.”- IT Product Manager, Supply Chain and Distribution Industry
This was the ideal first small step forward for the supply chain distributor. “We weren’t ready to take on additional headcount yet,” the IT Product Manager states. “Working through the initial Data Analytics Strategy Assessment gave us what we needed to communicate our current state and improvement plan with our leadership team. Leveraging Amplifi, as a trusted resource for the support we needed was an essential part of this process.”
A map for data analytics success
Armed with a summary of existing processes and a roadmap for change the IT Product Manager was ready to get started, “We now had a clear path for the foundational activities that needed to be done to gain efficiencies to help our data analytics practice mature.” Prioritization, cross-team collaboration and implementing analytics standards started to take shape.
The team continually used Amplifi’s Data Advisory services, leaning on our expertise for ingestion best practices, deep technical questions and methods of maximizing their investment.
“We leaned on the Amplifi team to help us answer detailed questions about the technology and ingestion tooling, leveraging best practices for our current environment, and maximizing our investment,” says the IT Product Manager. “The Amplifi team served as a great sounding board for us.”
Positive data culture change
As improvements rolled out, the impact went beyond process efficiencies. A real data culture change was happening as well. Teams began to see their roles differently, actively championing the new approach because they could see tangible results.
“We’ve received such good feedback internally. It’s so nice to see people embrace these changes and realize there are so many efficiencies to be had.”- IT Product Manager, Supply Chain and Distribution Industry
A simple but high-impact example was their dashboard standardization. Previously, dashboards were messy and time-consuming to build, which hurt adoption. Once standardized, leaders could use them immediately and consistently, analysts stopped wasting hours on formatting and focused on insights and business partners had polished, ready-to-share sales tools without any additional configuration.
The supply chain distributor also engaged in a process mapping activity with Amplifi, which fostered an opportunity for additional engagement and insight from a variety of individual team members.
The IT Product Manager described this activity as teams getting “curious through conversation” and becoming more comfortable and open to asking questions to other departments. This activity alone helped break down their silos and supported working together more collaboratively.
Partnerships with impact
With the roadmap is executed, measurable wins are already gaining traction. The assessment sharpened focus, encouraged purposeful collaboration and reinforced the importance of advancing the maturity and governance of data analytics.
“Amplifi has brought awareness to our organization and helped reinforce the importance of becoming more mature in the analytics space.”- IT Product Manager, Supply Chain and Distribution Industry
Amplifi focuses on partnering with clients to make sure the results are customized to each company and need.
“I feel like they are an extension of my team. They are such a great culture fit for us,” she says. “They try to develop an understanding of what we’re going through and find solutions that meet us where we are. They don’t assume they know your business coming in.”
Amplifi has done a great job understanding their business challenges and has expanded their line of sight into things they could be doing more effectively. “We trust that we’re not alone on this journey.”
