| From Action Management to Action |
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CFO Pekka Piironen, Grey-Hen Oy From passive data to active recommendations Storage for passive data can be compared to a machine that is out of use. Active data on the other hand doesn’t leave the decision maker alone in uncertainty, but directs the action towards the common goals. 
Instead of event reports we need reports that automatically give recommendations for action.
Systems covering the entire organisation have made it possible for sales, maintenance, spare part sales, and leasing services to use the same databases with familiar tools. For example, the customer data has been utilised in marketing, maintenance organisation, and parts sales. The financial management has also received information from the system. All needed info with reports has finally become available. Passive data is like a machine that is down But are these management systems really enough to direct the actions in a car dealership? Does the staff really know how to use the systems and are they aware of the profits that the systems can provide? Or is it possible that these fancy systems are only storing passive data? Storage for passive data can be compared to a machine that is out of use. There’s often talk of machine investments, however, the machine is not really the investment. The whole point here is that the actual investment is an operative machine. The machine in itself is passive, only the actions and decisions of the people can make it active. Only an activated machine or a machine in operation can pay back the investment. The data in these systems becomes passive because there is so much of it available that no one knows how to utilise it. In addition, it might be unclear what could be achieved with the data. Maybe the reports are difficult to interpret. It can be that some of the data is partly inconsistent, so interpreting is impossible. To put it short: The limited ability to interpret a large amount of data makes the data passive, unless we are able to pick the essential information to support decision making. Make use of numerical data But what can be done, when this limited ability to interpret data makes decision making ever more uncertain? How can we activate the data to support decision making? How can the data be transformed into something that enables action? It is clear that many types of data is needed in the automotive business. The strategic discussions of the management include policies, trends, and dynamics. They are material for the company strategy. Even though strategy work requires data from the systems, strategy is formed in constant discussions, and therefore numeric data might not be the most essential. However, a very large amount of operative business data is in numeric form. This numeric data must be organised in such a way that it can be made available and usable. Here is the line between the systems of finance and operations management. At best, they have been able to offer the data only if you know how to find the data and how to interpret it analytically. This does not eliminate the uncertainty from decision making. Activated data eliminates uncertainty Instead of event reports we need reports that automatically give recommendations for action. An event report only gives us the events that can even be inconsistent with each other. It does not make it clear to the decision maker what should be done. When uncertainty is strong enough, decisions can't be made or they are postponed till there is enough data to support the decisions. In cases like these, the data is passive and useless, and what is most important, the data does not lead to action. Passive data paralyses the decision maker. So there are at least two things that make data active and promote action. Firstly, operative business data must be produced automatically. Secondly, we need to have outlet-specific rules on what type of action follows from this automated data. These rules are created beforehand and are in line with the company strategy. Active data doesn’t leave the decision maker alone in uncertainty, but directs the action towards the common goals. For example, the system provides automatic recommendations on how to change your actions and to which direction. These automatic recommendations and common rules give the management a chance to ensure that the operations are steered to the correct direction.  This article was published in Suomen Autolehti magazine. |
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