by Ann-Grete Tan

There are two traits that are shared by everyone who embraces consulting as a profession:

• Thriving in a state of variety and change
• Being driven by the desire to make a tangible, positive impact

There are few greater pleasures for a consultant than having a client quantify the process improvements that were made possible because of your hard work. Consultants live on the “high” from words such as “Our monthly close process now takes just a day, where it used to take ten days”, “Using an AI-model to automate our baseline forecast has saved us 30+ person-hours per week” and “Our sales forecast accuracy has increased to 99.8%!”

These “highs” have been especially appreciated in 2020, which has been a tough year for us all. We pray that you, dear reader, have come through it with less pain than some. Sadly, the QueBIT Team has collectively had its share of losses, but we are proud of how we have supported each other and those among our clients who needed our help.

We also learned to appreciate how important the work we do is, in helping companies plan, analyze and understand their businesses. In pre-pandemic times planning agility and having a finger on the operational pulse in real-time were “nice-to-haves”. But in the unmitigated uncertainty brought about by COVID-19, the ability to run and re-run what-if forecast scenarios and to quickly sense the shifts in the business as they happen can make the difference between survival … and lost jobs. As one client in the distribution industry texted us one day over the summer: “without (the) QueBIT (system), we would have been fudged!” (expletive replaced).

2020 was also the year when Extended Planning & Analysis, or xP&A, came into its own. The xP&A vision is about breaking down siloes in planning so that finance, sales, and operations are all in alignment and speaking the same language, while simultaneously meeting the specialized needs of each function. The opportunities for qualitative improvements in terms of forecast accuracy and data-driven decision-making have never been greater, and it has been gratifying to see how well this idea is resonating with so many of our clients. This is not about throwing technology at a problem to increase “efficiency” blindly, but about finding the optimal balance between human and artificial intelligence to be able to compete - and succeed - in a fast-changing world.

Thank you for sticking with us in 2020. We look forward to another year of exploring, learning, and innovating so we can help you get even better! Happy New Year.

The Sad Truth about Data - Data is the fuel of all analytics, whether you want to provide accurate timely information to decision-makers on the front lines, provide a comprehensive customer dashboard to your executives, do a predictive demand forecast or simply complete your annual budget. Read More

2021 is the time for Machine Learning - Just about every magazine, research report, and unsolicited email you received in 2020 had an AI or ML angle. Read More

Everything you need to know about the new IBM Planning Analytics Workspace! - IBM is boldly starting a brand-new chapter for Planning Analytics (TM1) leveraging their open source Carbon design system for products and digital experiences. Read More

IBM Planning Analytics – Setting up Basic DRILL THROUGH Functionality. Did you know you can use Planning Analytics’ drill-through feature to access detailed...

IBM Planning Analytics Community - Connect and explore with over 100,000 users across the IBM Business Analytics Community.

Maximize Margins, Retain Customers, and Grow Market Share Through Optimal Pricing

QueBIT implemented a robust solution, combining IBM Planning Analytics (TM1/PAW) connected to a powerful GUI-based modeling engine endowed with faster and more accurate algorithms/nodes (SPSS Modeler and QueBIT Euclid). Get the full story

QueBIT launched a podcast series “Ask QueBIT about Analytics” to share what we have learned with real life stories and practical advice which will help you on your analytics journey.

Have a good analytics story that others could benefit from? Share your story on our next podcast. Email us at info@quebit.com.

Clare Hutton, Master Consultant

Problem solving and building meaningful solutions is QueBIT’s constant focus. Providing a client with a...Learn More