Revenue-boosting tactics and cost-cutting practices are tried-and-true methods that spur corporate expansion. Yet some companies are going further, finding ways to take advantage of business improvement opportunities to drive new growth. Can their experience help your enterprise grow?

Read on to learn about 10 leading ideas for exploiting business improvement opportunities that have been deployed by inventive companies, along with details about how they have been successfully executed.

1. See what you've been missing.
China Post, the leading express mail service in China, increases visibility into its operational data to improve strategic decision making. Struggling with decreasing customer satisfaction, high costs and slow revenue growth, the organization has implemented an integrated track-and-trace system combined with an enterprise data warehouse (EDW). The result: real-time mail tracking that allows customers to accurately trace package locations and business users to understand and optimize routes and processes. Customer satisfaction is climbing, which strengthens the company's brand image and promotes business development—making China Post competitive with the world's leading express delivery companies.

2. Go with the flow.
One large global retailer uses detailed analysis on customer traffic and spending patterns to dynamically optimize store labor. Facing the common retail challenge of driving maximum revenue while containing costs, this company wants to better understand how personnel should be positioned to increase sales. Using current and historical point-of-sale (POS) transaction data—including market basket statistics, employee labor plans, store traffic counts and shopper-to-buyer conversion rates—the retailer reassigns employees to specific tasks, efficiently deploys store labor by department and even reallocates labor each day to nearby stores as needed. By proactively stationing employees at locations where they can drive maximum revenue, the retailer has converted more shoppers to buyers. Even as labor expenses are decreasing, customer service and satisfaction are growing.

3. Know your place.
METRO Group, Europe's third largest retailing company, uses technologies such as radio frequency identification (RFID) to improve supply chain operations. Using RFID tags to electronically identify, locate and inventory merchandise provides the company with a complete view of stock on hand at all times. By feeding this data into its EDW, METRO has been able to extend its knowledge to its suppliers via a full-service data portal. Data is gleaned from the RFID devices, stored in the company's data warehouse and accessed through the portal. Using one consistent data source, suppliers can verify current inventory, track orders, manage product recalls and analyze customer behavior. METRO and its suppliers can exchange data and make business decisions that keep the company ahead of its competition.

4. Empower the field.
A leading distributor of electrical products and procurement services hands off purchasing and inventory decisions to its branches, reasoning that they were closer to the company's customers. Yet distributed POS, purchasing and inventory control prevents the company from leveraging corporate spending with suppliers or creating visibility into inventory positions across the enterprise. To empower its field operations while creating an enterprise view, the company uses an EDW to provide branch systems with rapid and repeated updates on the status of inventory and orders. With inventory in the right place to meet customer demand, the company realizes $50 million in direct savings—while providing branch operations with the information they need to serve customers effectively.

5. Improve your returns.
Hudson's Bay Company (Hbc), Canada's oldest corporation and largest department store retailer, uses technology to verify customer receipts and reduce fraud. Fraudulent and excessive returns cost retailers $16 billion annually. Hbc combines an EDW, business intelligence (BI) and integration with its POS system to create an electronic link between customer purchases and returns. POS data is used to rapidly update the data warehouse, which prevents customers from reusing receipts to "return" stolen merchandise or goods bought elsewhere. Within five months of its enterprise-wide deployment, the fraud reduction solution lowered losses enough to deliver a 100% return on investment (ROI).

6. Put your customers in charge.
A major distributor of pharmaceutical products relies on powerful analytics systems to centralize data for purchasing and inventory operations so customers can accurately place their own orders. Instead of having sales representatives spend hours working with each customer on an order, the company creates a Web site where customers can access data, pose complex queries and place orders. Customer satisfaction skyrockets, while inventory levels plummet. In addition, by analyzing historical information, the company optimizes shipments, saving more than $7 million and further enhancing customer service.

7. Change your swing.
PING Inc., a leading manufacturer of custom-fitted and -built golf equipment, uses BI to accelerate operational decisions. When golfers grew tired of waiting six to eight weeks for custom-made clubs, PING's executives changed the company's business model to one in which products are ordered, manufactured and delivered in 48 hours. To support this shift, PING deployed an EDW to help store order and inventory data and provide the foundation for BI capabilities. Today, the company's online transaction processing systems use data from the data warehouse to constantly shuffle manufacturing tasks to most efficiently meet customer demand within the 48-hour window. As a result, PING's sales, profitability and customer loyalty are on a roll.

8. Claim your space.
A less-than-truckload trucking company is increasing efficiency and reducing costs by analyzing shipments and capacity. The company picks up diverse freight at multiple locations on the West Coast and ships it to locations across the United States. Previously, shipments were placed on trailers using only manual estimations by on-site laborers. As a result, the company struggled with below-optimal capacity utilization and unacceptably high labor costs. Using powerful analytics systems, the company now calculates optimization and prioritizes shipments using real-time capacity, load planning and strategic network planning capabilities. Profitability is up, thanks to increased utilization of trailer capacity, improved labor efficiency and increased customer satisfaction resulting from fewer missed delivery commitments.

9. Cozy up to customers.
St.George Bank, the fifth largest bank in Australia, uses a customer relationship management (CRM) system and its EDW to increase the number and profitability of its customers while providing service excellence. Credit-scoring models help the marketing department understand which customers are best bets for pre-approved credit cards with customized spending limits. CRM capabilities provide customer-facing employees with vital decision-making information about which products and services to offer each customer. Analytics capabilities also help the bank predict and understand customer behavior, which helps St.George maximize loyalty and minimize defections. As a result, St.George has experienced exceptional growth in revenue and profitability while increasing customer satisfaction as well as share price.

10. Accentuate the positive.
Continental Airlines uses active enterprise intelligence to minimize the impact of irregular operations, such as canceled, diverted or delayed flights. Factors such as storms, maintenance, or crew or passenger issues can affect flights. Because these delays can cascade throughout the carrier's schedule, the company strives to quickly address any required changes. Using active enterprise intelligence, Continental makes information readily available to front-line workers for rapid decision making. Employees can analyze the impact of irregular operations in terms of value to the company, making decisions on gate assignments, routes, operational events and customer-centric management of daily flight operations. Using this technology, Continental has seen a $500 million increase in revenues and cost savings in the last six years. The carrier has also gone from the worst-rated airline to the top-rated, with improved customer satisfaction and loyalty year after year.

Hidden no more
The opportunities for business improvement can extend across your enterprise, and—with these examples in mind—they can be easy to spot. As these companies have shown, you can help your enterprise grow by identifying and exploiting previously unrecognized possibilities for change.

With a variety of technology solutions available to support business improvement, many of which your company may already have in place, making the leap from tried-and-true tactics to innovative strategies for growth may be easier than you think. Additionally, the time to take advantage of these opportunities is now. After all, growing the business is a job that never should be put off until tomorrow. T

Cheryl D. Krivda has written for more than 20 years about the intersection of high technology and business practices for publications and corporations around the world.

Photograph by Greg Auseth/Maki Strunc

Teradata Magazine-September 2007