Data Analysis might help significantly advance your business, right? Large companies (mainly) have long understood — they successfully implement this tool!
As of mid-2025, most small and medium companies struggle to follow in their footsteps.
I offer a unique solution for small and medium companies — through outsourcing.
But if feasibility exists, why not do it alone? Why need a consultant at all?
The answer depends on your goals and capabilities. Here’s the required process:
Required Process:
- Appointing a dedicated project manager:
- One of the company managers
- Available to work on the topic for a significant portion of their time
- With comprehensive understanding of the business
- With analytical thinking
- With ability and willingness to learn new things in a new field
- Designated to manage the topic ongoing, even after implementation
- Learning Data Analysis:
- Of the appointed manager and possibly another employee — analyst
- Important: the same manager must know DA even if only managing the analyst!
- Establishing or improving appropriate infrastructure:
- In most cases, can rely on business management system, CRM, ERP or similar, plus Excel and Power BI
- Unlike large companies, for most small and medium companies these tools suffice, and no need to invest in “heavy tools” (dedicated servers, data lakes, special software…)
- Very important to ensure data is reliable and consistent (=improvement)
- Defining action plan, in collaboration with company management:
- Goals and priorities: profitability? efficiency?…
- Setting stages, including ongoing operation stage, after analysis and extracting first insights and decisions
- Interfaces to company management for taking action based on data analysis insights
- Plan implementation:
- According to plan
- Never give up on integrating data analysis in ongoing management, at project completion
- For this purpose, need to build monitoring and control system, based on initial data analysis system
The project, by definition, ends at completion of the fifth stage.
As mentioned, must continue afterward, ongoing, for fact-based decision making.
Advantages of Solo Implementation:
- Main advantage: strategic capability that exists in-house, without dependence on external “favors”
- Over time, this solution is cheaper than outsourcing
Disadvantages of Solo Implementation:
- Time to results is long — order of magnitude months — much larger compared to using outsourcing
- Executing project without relevant prior knowledge
- Diverting management time and possibly employee(s) time
There’s also a combined solution:
- Start with data-driven business consulting
- At appropriate stage, use consulting to develop independent capability
Gradually transition to independence