As we’ve mentioned throughout this issue, the digital transformation – specifically in the field of data analytics – is changing the landscape across industries.
Having fewer employees and a more modest budget compared to the bigger organisations and brands doesn’t mean you have access to less information. Below is just one example of the many small-to-medium sized enterprises that are taking advantage of Big Data within their market right now.
The company profile
Atrium, a London-based lighting designers has been steadily growing over the last few years. As a result of this growth, coinciding with the general explosion in data, the quantity of information they are now collecting has grown significantly.
The focus for Atrium was finding a way to use this data to improve reporting, recognise bottlenecks in their business processes, and other barriers to promote further growth. Essentially, they wanted to take this volume of information and use it to make better informed business decisions, helping to drive the business forward.
Their challenge
The way that Atrium work means they have multiple data systems all of which contain valuable information. The difficulty with this is that when trying to put together their various data sources, projected sales reports, profit and loss or other financial figures, for example, they had to navigate several data silos, making it more difficult to bring all their important and relevant information together in one place. Likewise, reports were manually completed by filling in spreadsheets which took up a considerable amount of time.
As well as the internal process, Atrium were also looking to improve their knowledge and understanding of the market so they could align themselves with it in a more targeted way.
Atrium decided that the best way forward was to employ data visualisation and business intelligence tools that were dynamic enough to make sense of the high volume of data and simple enough so everyone who needed to could interact with and make sense of the data, in a way that encouraged better business decisions.
By using data analytics to interpret the high volume of information (and having it presented through a dashboard), Atrium have been able to obtain real value from the visual format. Atrium’s users are not IT pros or individuals with backgrounds in programming, which is fine because the data analytics tools required no prior knowledge – they could quickly build charts and dashboards with simple and intuitive orders and commands.
The Outcome
For Atrium, a company that is directed by its sales, financial reports are an essential aspect of how their business survives and grows. Using data analytics tools has allowed Atrium to overcome information silos and bring together Big Data from disparate areas of the business in a way that was not possible before. In fact, they are so impressed with the power and potential (as well as the positive feedback from their users) of Big Data that they intend to introduce it into additional areas of the business, such as warehousing and support. At Atrium, the relationship between Big Data and business decisions seems to be growing closer every day.
Are you excited about the potential Big Data could have for your business?
Get in touch with us today 0330 2020 340 www.amshire.co.uk solutions@amshire.co.uk @amshire
