If Data Rules, Brookfields Utilities UK Is King

Data is at the Heart of Effective Decision-making

Research shows that businesses that make data-led decisions perform 5-6% better than those that don’t. The same research also suggests that decisions based on gut feel rather than hard fact are increasingly viewed with suspicion and 90% of business respondents felt they’d have made much better business decisions as much as three years ago if better data had been at hand .

This certainly supports that data is king – but it also reiterates than in today’s fast-paced economy business leaders need easy, quick and secure access to information – something the winner of our International Customer of the Year 2016 award knows only too well.

Brookfield Utilities UK (BUUK) took the Prophix crown at an awards ceremony earlier this month and is held up as an exemplar of empowered and effective data management. BUUK is the UK’s leading independent provider of last mile utility networks and constructs, owns and operates more than 30,000 discrete networks, serving more than 1.3 million utility connections. It is a data-heavy business with numerous, complex revenue streams.

For a firm like Prophix, we are in the business of helping clients make sense of business critical information such as payroll, invoicing, budget and projections, customer data, accounts and more. At a time when the phrase ‘big data’ can be heard on a daily basis it’s perhaps not surprising that one of the UK companies’ biggest concerns is not so much the volume of information, they hold, but rather the ability to analyse and act on it real-time.

BUUK made its move to Prophix during a large-scale business restructure and the implementation of a new general ledger. Even with this change management project as an internal distraction, Brookfield was committed to improving the efficiency of its internal reporting and evaluation and making complex data sets easy to access in real time.

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BUUK understands that its data only has value if its meaning can be analysed with ease. It knew that its previous system, which took hours to deliver reports, was slowing its decision-making and hampering its business intelligence. BUUK viewed its investment in Prophix in the right way – as one that would improve its decision making in the short, medium and long term and in particular, to improve the management of its network, industry compliance and customer service.

Data is at the heart of effective decision-making, that much is clear. It gives context, informs reasoning, identifies trends, provides insights and illuminates the path ahead. Without it, day-to-day operations, planning, and growth would all be done in the dark. However without easy and secure access to it and opportunities will be missed, decisions misinformed and progress slowed. The businesses of tomorrow will be those always armed with the right information at the right time.