Profit Improvement PitfallsRemoving the Blinders - Acorn has the honor of working with more than 50 subject matter experts globally - from focused boutique firms to Tier 1 leaders. These consultants have not only seen it all, but they have worked with just about every product and methodology on the market. Together, we have decades of experiences and "lessons learned" in the performance management space. Based on this combined expertise, we summarize below a partial list of "gotchas" and "ah ha's" that you should be aware of as you look for companies to help you improve your company's performance systems.
 - How detailed should the model be?
- Listen to what they are saying: Run from companies that tell you to "keep it simple, don't get into the details", aggregate your data, 80/20 rule, etc. If it is important to you and your company to build a system that models your company's complexity, understand that this will require hard work. Do not let someone tell you how easy it's going to be. Your goal should be to model the complexity of your company, get organizational buy-in and then put the change processes in place to guarantee success.
 - How flexible and sustainable is the solution?
- How is more important a question than what. Find out how a potential partner would implement and what you get for your money and effort. Always ask how much validation is done in the process if you care about organizational buy-in Without it, the system you are building will never be sustained. Always ask what is inside the model and what is done outside of the model so that you can understand the maintenance of the system as things change in your company AND so that you can understand what you need to do to get the type of contextual analysis and trace back that you will need.
 - Will I be able to validate the actual numbers or is the solution based on aggregated data?
- Beware of surveys and the use of averages. Most vendors still use surveys and averages in their solutions. They will tell you they can implement any way you want but once you've finished with question 1 & 2 above, you'll note that they're leading you somewhere else. Find out WHY.
 - What is the cost to run and maintain the solution?
- When you speak with references, always qualify the cost to build the system, the cost to maintain the system, how often they run the model and how they use the system.
 - Will the solution scale to match the transaction volume of my company?
- Size matters. Look for solutions that support an enterprise of your size today, beware of companies that tout a division of a large company but not the entire enterprise. Scalability and ability to handle complexity keeps most of these applications in business units and divisions because they do not have the ability to handle more than that.
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A historical look at Profit Improvement and how Acorn has helped customers improve their profits.
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