What is Operational Intelligence?
Business Context
Data is powerful and holds enormous potential. Often times however, organizations are swamped in big data and don’t know where to begin. Many lack a platform or the skills required to transform big data noise into useful business insights. Set against this backdrop, the desirability of a methodology which aggregates quality data from small & wide sources to derive meaningful real-time insights is high. Operational Intelligence (OI), and solutions which implement it, present a compelling case for overcoming big data malaise and advancing organizational competitiveness. OI solutions gather & interpret real-time performance data from pinpointed sources within an organization, serving it to key users at the right time in an actionable format. Defining OI further reveals how it promotes rapid & informed decision-making that drives true operational value.
What is Operational Intelligence (OI)?
Operational Intelligence (OI) is a method of data analysis which uses real-time business analytics to deliver insight into data streamed from events and operations across an organization. Most OI solutions stream this interpreted information to management via a singular dashboard. This provides an unprecedented view of all business performance currently taking place. Unlike traditional Business Intelligence (BI) applications, Operational Intelligence solutions leverage real-time data rather than historical. This reduces the time between intelligence being recorded & interpreted by the solution and action taking place.
Why is Operational Intelligence important?
Operational Intelligence provides a universal, practically real-time view of what is happening within an organization. Information gathered and interpreted by an Operational Intelligence solution is dynamic and evolves as the status of service delivery changes over the course of the day.
By recording and delivering real-time performance analytics, management can pursue immediate action and stay in control of often uncontrollable changes to service capacity. Some issues can be handled discretely before they arise. Employee productivity can be maximized with real-time resource reallocation. SLA & KPI compliance can be prioritized in the ‘here and now’ to ensure promises are kept and customers are satisfied.
Beyond short term benefits, users can derive insights from every level of field operations over any timescale. This enables deeper operational and employee performance trends to be uncovered allowing transformational change to be pursued. Deeper insights aggregated over past and present timescales provide management with a clear indication of future performance allowing for positive-outcome decisions to be made. This can have significant efficiency and cost-saving benefits. All points considered, OI gives organizations a significant operational and competitive advantage in their capacity to respond to daily changes. Read our full article on operational intelligence for field service organizations here.
What is the value of Operational Intelligence?
Many organizations already capture vast quantities of operational data. Initiatives to increase data capture capacity using IoT for example are becoming a top priority. The data to be captured may relate to workload planning, resource availability, schedule efficiency, customer satisfaction levels and service deliverability. Despite an immense effort placed on data capture, the output often isn’t delivered in a format that supports decision making. Frequently decisions are made based on out of date or expired information.
Operational Intelligence overcomes this by providing a detailed picture of what’s happening right now across all operations in a format that can be understood and actioned by management. Data streamed is both recent & accurate, providing a strong and reliable basis for action.
Technologies such as predictive analytics and machine learning are fueling analytical potential further. Predictive intelligence can identify underlying performance patterns (whether good or bad) that were previously too complex for traditional applications to spot. By understanding real-time operational patterns, managers & organizations are empowered to consistently improve and elevate ongoing service delivery as it happens. Past, present and future timescales can be monitored with actionable intelligence recommendations made available.
By combining a deep understanding of long-term trends with the ability to monitor significant events in real-time, OI applications are capable of providing clear a understanding of present and potential operational performance.
OPERATIONAL INTELLIGENCE PROVIDES ORGANISATIONS WITH THE ABILITY TO:
- See all of the key field service KPIs in one place in real time
- Understand how teams are performing at a glance and receive alerts when attention is needed. No more “management in the rear-view mirror”
- Gain a granular level understanding of performance related occurrences. Diagnostic indicators present the most relevant data, which can be mined further to uncover the root cause
- Align teams around a common view of performance and collaborate more effectively
- Review historical service data such as tasks completed, average time of visit, miles travelled per day, customer satisfaction etc. which can explain deviances in the plan
- Access comprehensive employee analytics to evaluate the performance of regions, teams or individual employees over time
- Improve performance long term as well as gaining “in day” insight. Not just uncovering and correcting undesirable patterns of performance but also the ability to spot something brilliant and replicate on a larger scale
What helps deliver great Operational Intelligence?
Effectiveness, is being able to define and measure it. Most field service organisations strive to deliver exceptional service, maximum productivity and a fully engaged workforce. Analytics are essential in ensuring businesses are headed in the right direction.
Brilliant basics and moments of magic
For some years now, the prevailing wisdom has been that in order to stand out from the competition, businesses of all types must focus on their customers’ experiences. The field service industry has traditionally been more focused on keeping costs down, but research now shows that field service companies are putting the customer first. The starting point is being able to measure how customers have experienced the service provided, in order to analyse what is working and what isn’t, and make improvements. For example using Net Promoter Scores or customer surveys.
Trust, integrity and two way communication
Field service is not just about IT and processes, nor is it just about parts and engineering. It is about people. Studies have linked employee engagement to improved productivity, customer satisfaction, growth and profitability. But true engagement must be a win-win for both the employees and their employers. It can’t be imposed from above. It’s about creating a cultural shift in the way organisations behave. Detailed performance data allows users to understand how best to manage, motivate, incentivise and develop their people so that they feel engaged.
Simple insights which drive powerful results
Customers are used to the speed of delivery and quality of service that they get from consumer companies such as Amazon. Against this backdrop is the growing need for the service department to both reduce costs and contribute to revenues. Uncertain economic conditions have led many companies to strive to be more efficient and field service departments are facing significant pressure to cut costs and “do more with less.” But to improve the plan for tomorrow, managers will need to study how efficiently the plan worked today. Detailed data on the field enables managers to act. It is the combination of many small changes, and the continual feedback loop of measurement, analysis and change that will gradually and incrementally improve productivity.
