CV-19 Insights

Why has it been so difficult for managers to incorporate measurement into their strategies? Depending on who you are and what company you work for, the answer may be quite different.  One common factor that we hear in the retail industry is that measurement scorecards have not evolved at the same pace with other advancements in technology.

Raise your hand if this sounds like your organization’s approach to managing scorecards:

• Delivered in Excel
• Updated and distributed on a monthly basis
• Limited interactivity
• It’s easier to swim the English Channel than it is to make any changes to the scorecard

Okay, maybe not as difficult as swimming the English Channel!

Clearly, managing and leveraging scorecards is a persistent challenge for the retail industry. So, if you believe like I do that measurement is essential to improving business results, what’s the solution?  What if I told you that there was already a solution to this problem? Would your company’s approach to measurement be more tightly integrated into your corporate strategy if the following were a reality?

• The data were updated on-demand each day
• The scorecards were fully digital, available from both desktop and mobile devices
• The scorecards had interactive capabilities, featuring world-class visualization and insights

To help close the measurement gap in our industry, RSi has teamed up with one of the UK’s leading retailers and its supplier base to develop a scalable scorecard and measurement platform. The platform leverages one of the world’s most innovative and powerful data analytics and visualization technologies, Power BI from Microsoft. This new scorecard platform enables retailers and suppliers to collaboratively measure performance in real-time, accelerating the movement from a read-only data evaluation to an insights-driven strategy.

Here’s a glimpse of the user interface of RSi’s new scorecard, based on the industry-leading Power BI technology:

So, what are the tangible benefits that this new scorecard platform can deliver? First, it enables much stronger collaboration between retailers and their suppliers. Even more important, the scorecards help to drive improved business performance, leading to incremental sales and profits.

Let me illustrate how this can happen with a real world example that’s based on just six clicks of the mouse.

• Click 1: Submit credentials – you are now in the scorecard.
• Click 2: Navigate to your sales performance widget where you are -2% and click through it.
• Click 3: Now that you can see all of your categories, click on Frozen where the performance index is a 34, well below average.
• Click 4: Whoa! It looks like the Lost Sales metric in the Northeast is off the charts.
• Click 5: Why are all of these stores out of stock? One more click.
• Click 6: And there it is – an empty distribution center that services all of those stores; time to get on the horn to see how you can fix this supply issue and start selling your Frozen line in these Northeast stores again.

And just like that, six clicks and 30 seconds later, you now have the insights that you need to fix a problem that will drive sales growth for your business. Welcome to the new world of sophisticated, technology-driven scorecards that leverage dynamic measurement. To learn more, click here.