Most enterprises are operating in reactive mode, ignoring critical external factors and relying solely on internal historical metrics to predict future performance. Proactive enterprises take a different approach to better predict and plan for the future. By leveraging the power of external data – combined with innovations in distributed computing and predictive analytics – these companies have the power to proactively drive their business forward.

Have you attended this meeting?

So I ran a report, and this month’s sales are way down. Not sure if we’ll hit our month end target. What should we do?
But this month last year was our record month! What happened? El Nino? Slowdown in China? Election year?
I think we’re way overpriced. Two customers in the East Region told me our competitors are at least 20% cheaper.
20%? There’s no way we can match them. Our margins are razor thin as it is. We can do a 5% discount, but nothing more.
Ok. Let’s try a 5% discount, but let’s do it on the WEST, where we don’t have such competitive pressure. Sounds good?

The reactive vs. proactive enterprise

Relying on past performance, anecdotal feedback, unproven tactics – these are the symptoms of a reactive enterprise. The proactive enterprise is the exact opposite. Insights are derived from factual data, using best-of-breed technology. Past performance as well as external economic data are used to provide a holistic view of company performance. Decisions are made for the future, not reacting to the past.

Reactive Enterprise

  • Uses old BI tools based on prior investment
  • Missed earnings targets, leadership changes, reduced profits
  • Plans based on past internal data and gut feel
  • Weekly meetings consist of current month’s activities. 

Proactive Enterprise

  • Enhances BI tools with cloud-based solutions
  • Consistently outperforms competition, exceeds targets
  • Fact-based planning with internal and external data
  • Weekly meetings plan for 2 to 3 months ahead

Three pillars of the proactive enterprise

Transforming your company into a proactive enterprise can be surprisingly straightforward. Better decisions come from having a firm understanding of past and current KPIs, how past decisions have affected those KPIs, and how the outside world influences performance.

Internal Data

Internal data includes past performance measures. Typically the most readily available type of data since it is used in daily reports and analysis with existing BI tools.

Example data sets include:

Historical sales figures
Profit margins
Cost of goods
Shipping timelines
Net promoter Scores

Operational Data

Operational data consist of current and past actions that affect business performance. This kind of data is also readily available for most companies since operational changes to be executed using some form of ERP or S&OP platform.

Example data sets include:

Pricing changes
Hiring new sales staff
Launching new market
Discounts on certain products

External Data

External data consists of any economic, environmental, or consumer behavior changes that happen outside the four walls of a company. This kind of data is the most under-utilized yet most influential to every companies’ bottom lines.

Example data sets include:

Consumer sentiment
Unemployment rates
Price of diesel
Home construction

Including external data into a planning or forecasting process has long been considered to be costly and time consuming. Prevedere gives your company instant access to millions of global data sets and a sophisticated predictive engine to analyze it all.

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