Do More With Less: Mastering Efficiency in 2024

Welcome to the era where efficiency is king, with cost pressures on both consumers and businesses hitting in 2023 the theme was to ‘do more with less’, and this is likely to continue into 2024. This means that businesses need to continue to find smart ways to reduce costs, while improving margin.

In this blog we will cover the key role that data, analytics, and AI plays in helping businesses meet this challenge, outlining the areas that you should be putting on your data roadmap for 2024.

1. AI Automation

Businesses have only just started to tap into the potential that AI automation offers in efficiency, productivity, error reduction, and cost reduction. Every business should be looking at time consuming and critical processes and asking themselves whether they can be automated via AI.

Examples:

• AI call monitoring – by using AI to scan calls you can automate the checking of contact centre calls for regulatory and risk compliance or to understand the frequently asked questions to support self service initiatives
• AI document checking – let AI do the heavy lifting and automate tasks where humans are required to check documents or news for key trends
• AI for support – Using tools like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot makes marketing and data tasks faster by helping teams quickly create content, analyze data, and develop code, saving a lot of time.

2. Process Optimisation

Closely related to automation and often the starting point is process optimisation, another key area where revenue and cost savings can be found. This means using data and analysis to find and fix problems or bottlenecks in a journey or process. By figuring out, fixing, or automating these issues and then measuring the results, you can make things work faster, save money, earn more, and give customers a better experience.

Examples:

• Inventory management – getting your supply chain and inventory forecasting spot on with AI can save you holding stock that is not moving or running out of key product lines
• Customer journey mapping – use data to map out the journey your customer takes and where they are facing bottlenecks to increase revenue and customer experience

3. Pricing & Margin Improvement

Cost pressures are leaving businesses with tough decisions to making on increasing prices and reducing the cost of goods. However, this process is often a time-consuming minefield, with the real risk of losing out on sales to competitors. Data, however, can help make this process easier by understanding how customers are likely to behave, meaning your teams can make quicker, more informed decisions, reducing time an risks associated.

Examples:

• Informed Price Increases – by understanding your customers behaviour and price sensitivity you can pinpoint products that you can safely raise prices, while leaving those that are likely to impact on sales
• Product rationalization – businesses tread a fine line between stocking too few and too many products, understanding customer behaviour allows businesses to understand the substitutability of each product, identifying products that could be removed, reducing costs and increasing margin

4. Automated Reporting

Reporting continues to be a manual process for many businesses, with thecollection of data from multiple sources and a lack of trust causing extra effort.However, implementing automated reporting and data governance will ensure that you get the accurate numbers you need quickly, cutting down on the effort needed to generate reports. This switch has helped businesses save up to 95% of the time they used to spend on manual reporting, giving them more time for important tasks.

5. Capacity & Resource Forecasting

Getting your human, materials, or capital resourcing requirements correct can save huge amounts of money. AI and analytics has the ability to fine tune forecasting and resource measurement helping you accurately plan for the future and reduce wastage.

6. Increase Revenue from Existing Customers

Making more money from current customers is often easier than finding new ones, but it relies on knowing what to offer and who is likely to be interested. That's where data comes in handy, helping you figure out who is the best fit for upselling or cross-selling and what product would appeal to them.

7. Team Empowerment

One of the best ways to do more with less is s to equip your team with the skills needed to be more productive. Data plays a key role in identifying and profiling star performers and those that are facing challenges. This insight enables you to understand what is driving the performance gaps, allowing you to introduce targeted training and upskilling programs to create a more productive workforce.

8. Targeted Deals & Promotions Analysis

When you run a promotion, not all customers are influenced by the deal; some were already planning to make a purchase. This can result in a significant cannibalisation of your revenue. To avoid this you can use analysis and AI to pinpoint exactly who you should offer a deal. Ensuring that you generate an uplift in sales that doesn’t end up cannibalising your sales.

Data, analytics, and AI has a critical role in your business helping it navigate the challenges in the future, but it can be tricky to know where to start. Many businesses burn time and money on Google searches, internal brainstorming, or the trial-and-error route.

But here's a shortcut: ask the experts!

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