Improving your business decision-making process [Podcast]

This episode of the Sage Thought Leadership Podcast features Oliva Brown. Olivia is the Director of Business Development for North America at Tangerine Software. She is responsible for growing market share for the Sage Enterprise Intelligence solution in North America. She works closely with Sage Partners to help establish and grow their business intelligence practices.

Below is an edited transcript of our conversation.

 

Tell me why you do what you do.

There are a few answers to that question. The first answer is, it’s a family business, which is kind of how I got into it.

But of course, having been at Tangerine for seven years, it’s not just about family. It’s about what we do for our customers and the solutions that we provide to our customers. And for me, that’s what it’s all about.

Our product is essentially about data analysis and reporting and giving organizations, of really any size, the ability to access, analyze, and report on their information in a very easy way that allows them to make better decisions for their companies overall.

That’s something I’m extremely passionate about. That’s why I do what I do. I want to help organizations make better decisions and increase their bottom line.

Let’s expand on that a little bit.  Tell me about this passion you have for improving the decision-making process in businesses.

Absolutely. You go into organizations and take a look at what are they doing today to actually access the information that they need to make decisions based on real data, real information.

Sometimes you’ll see organizations are spending tons and tons of time, with really lengthy processes, to be able to gather all that information together, make decisions on it, and share the information with others in their organization.

You can help simplify that process and reduce the time that they’re spending, and just make it so much easier for them to make better decisions with the intention of improving their corporate performance.

That’s what I love about it. Being able to take them from A to Z and give them a whole different experience and have them view data analysis and reporting as an essential part of their business.

Can you give me an example of a customer that has made some kind of transformation in their business?

Absolutely!

Quite recently we were working with a business partner out of Canada, called the Answer Company. They were implementing a new ERP solution for their customer – a credit union.

But they really needed a way to easily access other sources of information outside of the ERP and quickly get access to some specific reports that they needed for their organization – financials and so on.

They implemented our solution, as well as the ERP, and saved tons of time when it came to being able to get the data into the hands of people who need it quickly. They’re able to get their month end financials out in a quicker way, which means those people who are responsible for those financials can focus their time and energy on other important things that they have to do within the business.

I love this notion of taking data from outside of the financial system. We can use data outside the financial system to make predictions about financial performance.

That’s such a good point, especially now, with so many things in the world changing on such a rapid pace. I mean we don’t know what’s happening from one day to the next.

People really need to get their hands on the right information to make decisions in the future.

When we’re talking about things like connecting an HR system to see the productivity of employees, if you’re really going to have to make some tough decisions, in terms of, potentially letting people go, how are we making those decisions?

What information are we using to make those decisions, so it’s not just about the financial aspect of it, but it’s about all other areas of their business. That’s really important to be able to do forecasting, being able to see I might be looking at a serious hit on my revenue numbers over the next six months. Here’s what I need to do about it to be able to sustain my business.

So that’s definitely something that’s super, super critical. And again, like you say, it’s not just financials, right? It’s sales, it’s inventory predictions, it’s HR, in terms of how many employees you’re going to need to have based on all of this. Business intelligence is intended to provide you with that information.

How can somebody contact you?

For anyone who wants to contact me, of course, there is my LinkedIn.  My email address is [email protected]. I’ll be more than glad to answer any questions you have about business intelligence and any kind of data access you’re looking to get.

 

The Sage Thought Leadership Podcast offers weekly advice to help you prepare and empower your business for the future.  Visit our podcast hub for more episodes and transcripts.