Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/846064
42 commercial carrier journal | july 2017 INNOVATORS mented a new strategy to simultaneously improve its reporting, data quality and business processes. Business intelligence P&S found a reporting solution in a new business intelligence platform from the supplier of its transportation manage- ment soware system, McLeod Soware. e reporting tool, McLeod IQ, is a SQL Server database service packaged into multidimensional data cubes for various user roles at transportation companies. e BI platform has various options for a user interface with interactive data visualization tools. P&S chose Microso's Power BI to improve data quality and business processes by get- ting the tool in the hands of users at all levels in the company. "We didn't take a product, install it and make it available for analysts," Paredes says. "We made it available for anyone that wanted to connect to it," adding that this strategy makes it possible for every- one to see how their mistakes in data entry or workflow impact the quality of the reporting and downstream business processes. When a new technology is introduced, "everybody wants to know 'What is the benefit for me?' " says Paredes. When us- ing the BI tool to create a report for their specific needs, anyone can see the impact of poor data quality. If an incorrect code is used for a freight commodity, a person cannot analyze revenue per commodity. With the visibility the BI platform gives to this cause-and-effect relation- ship for poor data quality, "people are more willing to change," he says. P&S also created a new business process depart- ment that works hand-in- hand with the technology department to assist with new technology imple- mentation. e technol- ogy department trains employees to use the BI tool, and the business process department studies how people use it, gathers feedback and makes changes to improve results. Championing early adopters e BI platform makes it easy for anyone to find answers quickly, Paredes says. Users drag and drop selected data fields into a blank report canvas to discover relationships. If a user wanted to analyze the costs of doing business with a par- ticular customer, he or she could drag and drop a customer data field into the canvas and then bring in fields for cost by fleet, department and location. When a location field is added, the user might see multiple customer codes for the location. e data would suggest that multiple customers are shipping out of the same place, when in fact it is a single customer; the bad data came from entering the same customer code in multiple ways. During the last month, the people who have developed skill at using the BI platform are who Paredes calls "data stewards" and the early adopters. ey are assigned to sit next to those who are entering data to be a self-policing force for data quality. "Everyone has different skill sets," Paredes says. "Some people connect to the data cube the first time and then abandon it. We are focused on giving the early adopters enough support to build momentum and change the culture of the company." By working together, people come up with solutions for data entry and business processes. Once those solutions have gone through some trial and error, the people involved come to the business process department with specific recom- mendations for what to change and how to do it so that the data in the system matches and improves. "We've been able to have people man- age data and to help identify a process that was not secure before," says Tiffany Geikes, director of business process. "We want it to spread. We want more users and functional groups doing this across the business." Building momentum e brokerage and logistics side of P&S has adopted the BI technology the earli- est and are acting on information faster, Paredes says. e logistics business has been able to identify customers who are the most profitable but have the lowest volume of loads. By conducting further analysis, the reasons why the customers are low volume — or have become that way — are made known to highlight new sales targets and opportunities more quickly. In the asset side of the business, cubes have been implemented in sales and operations by top-level management, load planners and customer service representatives. Today, everyone in the company has an equal opportunity to be an analyst and play a vital role in help- ing the company stay competitive and advance their careers. Bigger and better things are coming if employees do their part, Parades says. "If you help us with keeping data in a neat usable format, we will implement more technology as it becomes available," he says. CC J I N N O VATO R S profiles carriers and fleets that have found innovative ways to overcome trucking's challenges. If you know a carrier that has displayed innovation, contact Jeff Crissey at jcrissey@ccjmagazine.com or 800-633-5953. Mauricio Paredes, right, vice president of technology for P&S Transportation, and Tiffany Geikes, director of business process, are leading an ongoing business intelligence project amid the company's rapid growth.