Need a tool that can deliver what you need faster? Create a bespoke application. 

Let’s say you have an Excel tool that you use to pull together quotes for customers.  It takes ages to run, meaning clients have to wait and you run the risk of them going to competitors, and it’s not terribly accurate or good at putting together products that would be sold together in the real world – but it’s functional…or at least used to be functional.

In a time when businesses are having to pivot to meet the demands of this new environment, many people are realising the following:

What used to work might not work anymore.

In the past, Excel tools or basic applications may have been functional in getting the job done.  But not only is ‘functional’ no longer going to cut it, what used to be ‘functional’ may now actually be slowing you down in a time when you need to be accelerating.  Here are some examples of what this might look like for your business:

• Tools that are inefficient when used remotely, or don’t work at all remotely
• Massive spreadsheets that take too long to run what are now critical queries
• Online applications that aren’t designed to handle such high demand
• A system that lacks critical functionality and no longer delivers value

• Brand new problems but no tools that are actually helpful in managing them

It’s more important than ever for you to be able to quickly get access to the information you need, in the format you need, but this is impossible when you’re relying on analytical applications that weren’t built for your specific business needs (and the specific situation the world has found itself in).  So what’s the best way to make sure you’ve got tools and applications that are delivering tangible value to your organisation?

Create a bespoke application unique to your new business requirements

If what used to work is no longer working, now is the time to get something that will work – and why bother investing in something that isn’t tailored specifically to the problems you’re facing and the questions you need answered?  It doesn’t need to be a big, unwieldy piece of software.  It should be a lightweight, efficient application that uses analytical smarts to achieve a range of business purposes across virtually all industries, whether to track orders, log data, visualise statistics, optimise operations, forecast sales or more.

There are a number of reasons that large organisations, even those that don’t have an unlimited budget and time frame right now, are choosing this path over using Excel spreadsheets or basic applications:

• It’s entirely configurable to a specific business – you get to define the must-have functionalities and ultimately get the exact tool you need
• The costs of building the application are usually quickly overtaken by the cost savings seen in people time, productivity, tool accuracy and more (see case study below)

• Unlike an Excel spreadsheet, you aren’t stuck with what you have – the tool can be regularly upgraded or enhanced as often as necessary and be built to scale and evolve with your business

Unfortunately, most organisations don’t have internal experts who truly understand the analytics required for the solution they need, let alone people who can build or update an application designed for that particular purpose.  Building and maintaining a tool in house also tends to carry hidden costs for companies that aren’t experienced in building software, and the total cost of ownership can be much, much more than expected.

A bespoke build is the perfect time to link up with a third-party analytics partner – someone who  has deep industry expertise, can suggest beneficial changes in scope, can get things done quickly and can open doors to other analytics support down the road.  With over 25 years proven experience, and with thousands of documented analytical projects behind us from an array of industries, Datamine has mastered successful and strategic partnerships through iteration, starting small and building trust.  Our purpose is to drive analytics empowerment for our clients, whether that means getting something done quickly right now, or helping you grow your internal capability in the long run.

Here’s a case study outlining a bespoke application we built for QMS that has helped them double turnover since implementation.

Challenge

QMS is an organisation that manages outdoor media displays throughout New Zealand and Australia.  In order to sell advertisement slots on billboards, digital billboards and buses, they need to provide the client with a sense for what kind of person might be seeing the ads, at what time, in what location etc.  They realised that they needed a data-driven way to do this, so they got in touch with Datamine about creating an analytical solution that would deliver the measurement and insights needed.

Solution

Our team of product managers, data scientists and UX developers worked with QMS to produce an application called The Datalab.  It uses external data, such as aggregated Census, banking and mobile location information, to show QMS clients what the potential reach of their media campaign would be.  The application effectively manages access rights and a number of different permission levels, dictating not only what can be seen, but also the scenarios and calculations that can be run.

Result

The platform is an ongoing partnership, and The Datalab is at the heart of every campaign recommendation QMS delivers to its customers.  They’ve been thrilled with the results of the platform, as have their clients – in the words of one customer, “QMS’ reach and frequency measurement tools enable us to effectively optimise our out-of-home advertising campaigns by assessing various scenarios to ensure we deliver to our clients objectives.”  Since QMS began working with Datamine, turnover has doubled.

If you’ve got requirements that aren’t being met by the systems and applications that are currently in place at your organisation, we’re keen to learn more about what you need and determine how we could partner together to accelerate.  Get in touch with us below.