It’s data, data, data all the way in 2023
I can’t, in all honesty, claim that any single application will significantly impact me in 2023. By itself, that is.
But when you add the magic of streamlined processes and an expanded data net, the impact on my role as CRO is immediately amplified.
Why? As chief revenue officer (CRO) for Fusion5, I’m responsible for our revenue generation processes. I’m accountable to the rest of the business for driving better integration and alignment between all our revenue-related functions – this includes marketing, sales, customer support, pricing, and revenue management.
We’re upgrading our CRM to Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE this year. And while that’s exciting, it’s our commitment to data – how we use and store it – that will add superpowers to our CRM. Likewise, with our use of Workday Adaptive Planning.
Over 2022, we looked closely at how our data strategy served us. And as a result, we decided to overhaul it. We’re now building a data lake to consolidate and structure information across all our systems. It will impact not only my role but those of the sales and account management roles that I influence as CRO, as well as provide visibility of trends around delivery and utilisation to our professional services teams.
We plan to change the data we have around our operational performance and budgeting and make it much more accessible. We’ll be able to slice and dice it and generate those real-time metrics and reports needed to successfully run a real-time business – but on steroids.
For me, that means we can do some really interesting and powerful analysis of growth trends and opportunities, our lines of revenue, the ratios between different teams, profit ratios and headcount to billing ratios – and more. This will all shine a light on how and where we can become more efficient, and maximise the value we drive from the time and effort we put in.
Having access to the data which allows us to track trends on a weekly basis and influence change is of significant business value – and it was something we couldn’t realistically achieve by collating data manually. Now, with data accessible and ready in 'real time', the insights we used to apply monthly can be brought into weekly conversations so we can constantly tune and monitor where the business is heading. We can see the impact of the changes and tweak them four times a month rather than 12 times a year.
Up until now, we’ve had that information, but had to rely on a vast array of spreadsheets to consolidate the information we need to make decisions. Most of you will appreciate the time it takes to consolidate data and manipulate it into a meaningful and usable format using Excel and keep it up to date. (And as I’m known for running, not walking, it’s been extremely frustrating.)
By transforming how we store, use, and access our data, we’ve got a baseline of metrics to measure our performance against and then record deviations. And it will allow us to add significant value to how we operate each department.
I’ll have consolidated and automated budget reporting, and a centralised version of the truth. We’ll be able to easily map our actuals to capture those variations and produce real-time statistics. With instant access to trends and performance variations, I’ll be able to keep my finger on the pulse of the business – and our P&L performance - day in, day out.
Our commitment to our data is going to revolutionise my job. For good.
Sven Martin
Executive Director and Chief Revenue Officer