This article in FinanceWeek highlights the importance of having business analytics to allow effective decision making – particularly around the areas of operational efficiency and target marketing. For many SMEs determining and measuring Key Performance Indicators is going to be done without the aid of mega sophisticated software but it can be effective non-the-less.
Businesses need to identify the root causes of their (potential) success, set these as targets and then have processes for capturing information to measure them. This might be the number of cold calls made and an anticipated conversion rate or perhaps the number of customers from particular industries. The detail will vary by business but the principles will be the same and some measures (ageing of debtors) should always be measured.
Luckily finance folk are experts at measuring and analysing and FinanceHeads brings such people together all focussed on helping SMEs to succeed.
