Inn8ly

I spent this week becoming more familiar with the profitability model created by the modeling team. The model drives the detailed allocations of shared corporate costs down to the transaction level. It will be my job to format the data from the PM so that it meets the reporting needs of the organization. I also […]

Spent this week creating the foundation of the reporting tool in Microsoft Access. While many of the previous MOS tools had been built in Excel, I felt there was a greater opportunity to automate if we used Access. It was pretty cool to be making the calls on the best way to design the project […]

I was able to finish the Account Planning Tool over this period. This tool displays the targets and previous year history to the user, usually a sales person. He or she can then over-ride the customer specific targets with more accurate estimates for sales metrics.

The profitability model results from another model for another part of the business are now ready to be incorporated in the overall MOS tool. I didn’t know that this change was coming, but I was able to develop a quick solution. I’m now learning about a new part of the client’s business, and meeting more […]

Conducted training for employees of the client so they could take over the MOS tool updates during the balance of the period until the IT solution is developed.

Preparing for our first update. This includes a review of their financial performance – the overview, which reviews financials they already generally know, and some analyses from the profit model, which is already telling us things the client doesn’t really know, such as at least 50% of their customers are either unprofitable or only marginally […]

Delivered the first update – we’re slowly gaining respect from client management as they can see we’re providing information about their business they haven’t had before. We’re now on to our next step – to demonstrate that greater rigor and transparency in pricing and financials will improve profits.

It’s time for our kick-off meeting with the validation team. After reviewing the profitability modeling process with everyone, we begin to demonstrate the capabilities of the model. The client seems impressed at the detailed visibility that the model provides. They’re able to select specific sites, customers and products and view the associated P&L right down […]

We meet individually with each member of the validation team to gather feedback. Each team member represents a different business area and provides specific insight into the minutia of his or her operations. We learn of more one-off adjustments that we’ll need to make in order to improve the accuracy of the model.

One of the most intensely debated areas is the methodology by which overhead costs are allocated down the transaction level. Our assessment-grade models primarily utilized transaction/volume based allocation rules; something that the client was not entirely sold on. This week, we incorporate the work of the Accunomics team focused on OPEX reduction. They provide us […]