Analytics to Action!
Team-Oriented Root-Cause-Analysis
Enabled by Tableau
George Smirnoff
Trexin Consulting, LLC
Agenda
• Introduction – From the Beginning
• The Power of Analytics to Action!
• Accelerated Problem-Solving Using Tableau
• Examples
• Medical Claims
• Stock Trading
• Customer Satisfaction
• Applications Across the Business
• Questions
• Contact Information
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Early Visual Analytics – 1854 London Cholera Epidemic
• Dr. John Snow
• One of the fathers of epidemiology
• Leader in anesthesia and medical hygiene
• Setting
• Believed disease spread through bad air
• No concept of hygiene and how disease was spread
• Expected to “see” disease in a microscope
• Hypothesis
• Cholera was being spread through the water, specifically through the
public Broad Street Pump
• Sewage-polluted sections had increased incidences of cholera
• Challenge
• Couldn’t prove it through microscopic examination of the water
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Visual Analysis Demonstrated a Surprising Result
• Method
• Use pinpoints to identify
location of cholera breakouts
• Result
• Government officials were
reluctant to accept that disease
could be spread through oralfecal means, and rejected the
theory
• But, the visual evidence was
so compelling that in the
interest of public health, they
replaced the pump anyway
• Later discovered that the well
had been dug only 3 feet from
an old cesspit, which leaked
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Agenda
• Introduction – From the Beginning
• The Power of Analytics to Action!
• Accelerated Problem-Solving Using Tableau
• Examples
• Medical Claims
• Stock Trading
• Customer Satisfaction
• Applications Across the Business
• Questions
• Contact Information
5
Approaching the Inflection Point
• The power of “competing on analytics” is widely accepted, but the big
BI tech project is not getting companies there
Act 2
Act 1
The Secrets of Successful
Competing on Analytics
Harvard Business Review
Strategy Execution
January, 2006
Harvard Business Review
June, 2008
“Virtually all the competitors we
identified as aggressive competitors
are clear leaders in their fields, and
they attribute much of their success
to the masterful exploitation of data.”
“Research shows that enterprises
fail at execution because they go
straight to structural reorganization
and neglect the most powerful
drivers of effectiveness – decision
rights and information flow.”
Analytics to Action!
Integrating operations and information analytics, along with the decision
rights to act, is key to achieving the promise of being an analytics
competitor
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Business Intelligence As It Is Today Is Not Enough
• The industry is maturing to realize that while Davenport’s “Competing
on Analytics” was right, getting it done is incredibly difficult
• Successfully executing the promise of analytics requires embedding
analytics into the front lines of business
• The “inflection point” represents the most
difficult part of competing on analytics
• Embedding analytics, with the decision rights
to act, into the fabric of your organization
Value (ROI)
• Combining both decision rights and information analytics
Investment $$
By better integrating analytics with business knowledge, putting the
power in the hands of the business, the promised ROI can be
realized, thereby achieving competitive advantage
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Information Flow Creates a Continuum for Execution
Customer Transaction
Production & Inventory
Data Timing
Books &
Historical
Records
Sales
Data Flow Continuum
Marketing
Fulfillment
Product
Transactional
Transaction Processing
Accounting
Customer History
Financial Reporting
Sales & Marketing
Corporate
Customer
Data Focus
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Shifting the Model Enables Better Decision Making
Customer Transaction
Production & Inventory
Data Timing
Books &
Historical
Records
Sales
Data Flow Continuum
Marketing
Fulfillment
Product
Transactional
Transaction Processing
Accounting
Customer History
Financial Reporting
Sales & Marketing
Corporate
Customer
Data Focus
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Competitive Advantage through Analytics
Achieving Insight
Creates Highly
Leveraged
Business Value
…by process, function,
department, division,
capability, or company
Revenue & Profitability
(& Risk Management)
Innovation Value
Insight Enables Competitive Advantage
Iterative
Cycle
Analyze & Action
Improve
Measure
Iterative
Cycle
Test
Insight
Information Well Understood Produces Insight
Information
Data Well Organized = Information
Data
Data Lifecycle
Define & Design| Create & Collect | Move & Distribute | Use & Maintain | Archive | Dispose
Time
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Agenda
• Introduction – From the Beginning
• The Power of Analytics to Action!
• Accelerated Problem-Solving Using Tableau
• Examples
• Medical Claims
• Stock Trading
• Customer Satisfaction
• Applications Across the Business
• Questions
• Contact Information
11
Visual Analytics is Key for Analytics to Action!
• Integrating analytics into business operations is more easily
described in concept than achieved in practice
• Requires a significant and iterative change process focusing on the
critical touch points between information, business process, and the
revenue value chain
Acquire
Understand
Align
Act
Empower
 Get the right data, removing noise and establishing full context
 Get to one set of facts, fully understanding the business imperatives and the
data that supports it
 Gain alignment on what it means and how to act
 Execute business change, not just spreadsheets and reports—all enabled by
the integrated business focus
 Build analytical capabilities into the day-to-day operations, pushing analytics to
the front lines of business
• Tableau’s visual analytics is a fantastic enabler for viewing
information through a business lens
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A Powerful Example, Root-Cause-Analysis
• Visual analytics is having a profound impact on problem-solving and
root-cause-analysis because it brings together operational, analytical,
and technical skills together
• Multi-disciplinary teams in interactive working sessions
• Looking at problems from multiple angles, often combining disparate data
sources, in real time
• Seen significant acceleration in problem-solving by moving from
systematic to collective problem solving
• Examples of shortcutting months and years into days
• Addresses the two keys to successful execution – information flow
and decision rights – using visual analytics as the bridge
Using multi-disciplinary teams consolidates information flow into
interactive visual analytic sessions bringing accelerated resolution to
perplexing problems
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Agenda
• Introduction – From the Beginning
• The Power of Analytics to Action!
• Accelerated Problem-Solving Using Tableau
• Examples
• Medical Claims
• Stock Trading
• Customer Satisfaction
• Applications Across the Business
• Questions
• Contact Information
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Examples Across the Spectrum
• Strategic Example: Customer Satisfaction in
Financial Services
• Target areas for improvement
• Strategy adjustment
• Measurable impact
• Compliance Example: Stock Trading
• Identification of trading self-dealing
• Fraud and compliance analysis
• Operational Excellence Example: Medical
Claims
• Payment backlogs
• Coding errors
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Operational Excellence Example: Medical Claims
2/3 of revenue shortfall due to one
modifier coding error was in found
in just 3 codes and there is likely a
significant process issue due to
claims being open too long.
Typical Scenario
• Unexplained revenue shortfalls
• Medical claims are submitted electronically
• Multiple claims per visit
• Valid combinations highly dependent
Common Issues
• Coding mismatches
• Timing issues
Observations
Coding mismatches
• Claims beginning with a 77 require a special
explanation, indicated by a 26 modifier
• Incorrect modifiers results in lack of payment
Significant claims were not
paid in Q1/2006
Timing issues
• Majority of claims were being paid slower
than contractual obligation
Missing revenue due to coding errors: 70%
Delayed revenue due to claim backlog: 25%
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Compliance Example: Stock Trading
Typical Scenario
• Investigative analytics as part of a
comprehensive fraud and/or compliance
program
Trader commissions
relative to other traders
within one security can
easily be broken out so
that anomalies stand out.
• Huge volumes of data – deal with samples
• High degree of business knowledge required
But, caution looks can be
deceiving…
Common Issues
• Self dealing at broker or firm level
Observations
• There are many ways to mask trader
profitability and the most obvious is never
where the money is hidden
With complex data,
Tableau can be used
to visually break out
the different scenarios
for further analysis
• Visual analysis is critical for breaking complex
data into manageable tranches
• Errors in analysis due to easily overlooked
factors can easily be seen through a visual
breakout
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Strategic Example: Customer Satisfaction
Typical Scenario
• Financial services company with extensive agent
network
• Customer service drives new sales and has a
significant impact on retention
• Do customer survey using standardized (ACSI in
this case) questions plus some targeted at
driving meaningful impact analysis
Key customer defection
metric quickly shows the
potential impact of
customer service
deficiencies
Common Issues
• Maximize customer satisfaction and revenues
• Executive misalignment on root-causes
Observations
• Graphical analysis set direction for advanced
financial analysis
• 10% of agents giving 50% of work to
competitors
• Hundreds of millions $$ in revenue at risk
through poor customer service
The core data also lends
itself to industry
benchmarking when using
standardized survey
questions and measures
• Just a 2% services issue with agents put tens
of millions $$ at risk
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Agenda
• Introduction – From the Beginning
• The Power of Analytics to Action!
• Accelerated Problem-Solving Using Tableau
• Examples
• Medical Claims
• Stock Trading
• Customer Satisfaction
• Applications Across the Business
• Questions
• Contact Information
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Visual Analytics Can Be Applied Across the Business
Run the
Business
Grow the
Business
Transform the
Business
Business Operations
Corporate Strategy
New Market Entry
Finance & Budgeting
• Target Markets
• Product Design
• Financial Planning
Distribution Channel
Enhancement
Sales & Marketing
Outsourcing
Sales & Marketing
• Tracking, Management,
and Performance
• Customer Experience
• Customer Response
• Marketing Campaigns
• Operational Excellence
Talent Management
Human Resources
• Training & Benefits Impact
Human Resources
• Employee Performance
Technology
• Data and Infrastructure
Management
• Talent Analysis &
Enhancement
Technology
Technology Platform
Transformation
• Strategic Investment
• Upgrades & Replacement
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Agenda
• Introduction – From the Beginning
• The Power of Analytics to Action!
• Accelerated Problem-Solving Using Tableau
• Examples
• Medical Claims
• Stock Trading
• Customer Satisfaction
• Applications Across the Business
• Questions
• Contact Information
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About the Presenter
George Smirnoff is a Managing Director at Trexin Consulting focusing on creating
competitive advantage by leveraging data analytics. Previously, George led Ernst &
Young’s Information Management & Analysis practice for Financial Services. He was the
VP of Product Strategy and Application Development at PRG-Schultz and began his
career at Diamond Management and Technology Consultants. George holds a J.D. and
M.B.A. from Cleveland State, completed the Goizueta Executive Program at Emory, and
is a CISSP and member of the Ohio Bar.
Trexin Consulting is a management and business technology consultancy that provides both advisory
and implementation services. Trexin assists customers with complex and sensitive business issues that
require a trusted perspective, an experienced hand, and an innovative approach. The company’s client
work is focused on driving profitable growth, managing effective transitions, and “getting to done.”
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