Ask QueBIT About Analytics

Episode 13: The Evolution of Analytics Solutions

Guest: Gary Corrigan

15 years ago, when Gary Corrigan first sold analytics technologies, customers were looking for technology platforms. Today the landscape has changed, and customers are now looking for solutions to their specific business problems. That’s a significant change! It’s as though customers have gone from wanting to buy a truckload of bricks to shopping for ready-built houses – and Gary has had a front row seat!

In this week’s podcast conversation, Gary articulates very clearly what the value of analytics technologies are to businesses, and how they are not a luxury add-on to an ERP (“Enterprise Resource Planning”) system, but an absolute necessity for any company to survive and thrive in today’s business

environment. Among other things he talks about the importance of listening to and connecting with customer needs, and how it is just as important to figure out early that you are not a good fit, as it is to close a deal. At the end Gary shares valuable practical advice for both sellers and buyers of technology.

In the podcast, Gary references these resources: 

- Lou Diamond’s Thrive Loud podcast 

- Gary Corrigan’s LinkedIn blog post: The Quarter-End Conundrum 

This episode is sponsored by QueBIT, the Trusted Experts in Analytics.

Episode 12: My Bank FIRED me as their customer!

A few years ago, A.G. – who lives in the United States - received a letter from her bank in Denmark telling her that their relationship would be terminated. A.G. still had several thousand dollars deposited in a checking account as well as an investment account. This personal story leads into a discussion of profitability modeling and allocations in general, and customer profitability modeling – especially in the context of financial institutions – specifically. Profitability models are a very interesting Analytics use case for several reasons. They are valuable as they can provide great insights into both problems and opportunities in a business. They are interesting to implement, as they require a combination of business understanding, creativity, data wrangling skills, technical smarts … and political finesse!

In this episode we describe the value that profitability models can bring, and provide three valuable tips for how to be successful in deploying profitability analytics to support better business understanding and decision making.  This episode is sponsored by QueBIT, the trusted experts in analytics.

Episode 11: Surprise! Analytics Isn’t About Changing Your Business!

Guest: Joel Kehm

Analytics is NOT about changing your business: it’s about running your business better! If your business is about manufacturing widgets to sell, your intention with analytics is probably not going to be to close down your factories and do something else. The value of analytics lies in improving the quality of what you do. It sounds obvious, but you can’t fix a problem that you don’t know exists, can you? Analytics is all about organizing your data, and presenting it back to you in a way that gives you information and insights.

In this Episode we have a wide ranging and insightful discussion with QueBIT Principal Consultant Joel Kehm about the value of analytics, how to get started and what not to do. Along the way Doritos, parties and food recall solutions are used to add color to the discussion.

Episode 10: Implementing Predictive Demand Planning at a Paper Manufacturer

Guest: Tim Corrigan

Predictive Demand Planning is the classic application of Advanced Analytics. The idea is that historical actual data (how much of product X did you sell in region Y during time Z?), potentially combined with relevant external data (weather, demographics, economic indicators), can be used to forecast demand at a level of granular detail and accuracy beyond what can be done manually, using statistical techniques.

In this episode, QueBIT’s Director of Strategy and Process Improvement Tim Corrigan recounts his experiences implementing a predictive demand planning solution at a large global paper manufacturer. The project was a case study in business process change and integrated financial planning, as well as typical Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP). Tim talks about some of the details they needed to figure out, how the data flowed through the process, and shares the key to their success.

 Episode 9: Using APIs to Customize your Analytics Solutions 

Guest: Mike Cowie

At QueBIT our purpose is to help companies make better decisions faster. Everything starts with data, which is used to understand the past, ACT in the present, and anticipate the future. Simple as that! For the most part, as consultants, we deliver analytics solutions using technology platforms created by other companies. But from time to time, that is not enough.

In this week’s episode Mike Cowie, QueBIT’s Director of Strategic Solutions, explains what an API is, how they have evolved and gives us instructions on how to build a chat-bot!

He then goes on to talk about how to find help when you start down the path of writing custom applications using APIs, and how there are penty of opportunities to give back. We end with a great discussion of community, and how community can be found in the most unexpected places.

Episode 8: Turning the Office of Finance into a Center for Data Analytics

Guest: Cathy Jirak

When Cathy Jirak and Gary Quirke founded QueBIT about 20 years ago, they were really just looking for a way to get their lives back! They enjoyed being consultants implementing financial planning, analysis and reporting solutions but found that there was a downside to success: 80 hour work weeks!

In this episode Cathy talks about why QueBIT was founded and how they were able to grow the company without sacrificing quality. As businesses are under ever more pressure to be agile in a fast- moving world, the Office of Finance in any company needs to become better at measuring and monitoring performance and being reactive! Data are increasing in both speed and volume, and knowing how to use your data will separate the winners from the losers. This means that either financial analysts need to acquire data analysis and data science skills, or data scientists need to learn about finance and business.

QueBIT has done both, and at the end of this podcast, Cathy shares some of our secrets!

Episode 7: Biotechnology Financial Modeling Case Study 

Guest: Lance Antwine

Lance Antwine, CPA and Implementation Manager at QueBIT, has had a long and successful career in finance and technology. In this episode Lance talks about a series of fascinating financial planning models he helped develop at a biotechnology firm. He describes how he worked with different groups to create a fully integrated financial model, starting with a fascinating research costing model (built up from the constituent molecules!), and flowing through to a strategic business plan and a full financial plan incorporating the income statement, balance sheet and cash flows – and more. Lance also talks about the business factors that contributed to the success of these projects, and how financial analysts and decision makers were able to automate their planning and data flows and win more time for high value analysis.

Episode 6: So you want to use Advanced Analytics to boost ROI? Here’s how. 

Guest: Lee Allgood

Before he came to QueBIT, Lee Allgood used to work at a large manufacturing company whose customers were retailers. In this episode, Lee talks about his experience implementing an advanced analytics solution at that company to optimize the placement of product samples at retail stores. Product samples were a large expense for this company, second only to salary expense. Optimizing the placement of samples both saved money and maximized revenue leading to greater ROI. The practical advice on how to make a project like this successful is just as fascinating as the business problem, and the analytics solution!

Guest: Leo Cohen 

Leo Cohen began his professional career as a financial analyst in a very large corporation and has intimate first-hand knowledge of financial analytics including financial reporting, planning, forecasting and analysis. Today, as QueBIT’s NY Metro Sales Executive, he taps into those early experiences to empathize with his customers from the other side, and help them find ways to win back time to do better analyses. Besides telling some entertaining stories about his experiences in the analytics field, Leo finishes up by sharing solid, practical and valuable advice for any company in the market to buy a software solution. 

Guest: Jim Miller

QueBIT Master Consultant Jim Miller has an unusual hobby: he researches and writes books about technology! Jim has written successful books on a variety of topics, but today we are going to talk about his series of books on IBM Watson, the most recent of which is called “Machine Learning with IBM Watson Studio”. In our conversation with Jim, we ask him to explain the various tools behind the IBM Watson brand, and then go on to talk about real-world business use-cases for Watson Studio. We wrap up by talking about how ANYONE can get started with the free version!