Adopting a Data-Driven Culture and Igniting Growth Through Scorecards

Almo Corporation is the largest independent distributor of appliances, consumer electronics, professional A/V equipment, furniture, and housewares in the United States. Almo operates 8 regional distribution facilities with over 2.5 million square feet of warehousing.

A Need to Become Data-Driven

Almo engaged Blue Margin (BMI) to create a data-driven operation, extract greater clarity from their legacy AS400 system, and integrate varied data sources for easy insight into division and companywide performance against goals and prior year performance. The company also wanted to integrate product management into daily operations by removing process siloes, and to adopt scorecards to set and track stretch goals to drive progress.

Scott Landsberg, Director of FP&A, along with the executive team wanted to “embrace and invest in change” that would “ignite a culture of growth” and encourage individual accountability.

Impact

  • Improved inventory management and related customer data
  • 7-10% increase in profitability
  • Strengthened reputation with partners and position as innovator

Dashboards Bring Clarity by Integrating Operational Data

While disconnected data sources made ad hoc reporting time-consuming and business insights difficult to digest, BMI’s dashboards brought clarity by integrating operational data across the company. For example, within inventory, Almo is now able to drill down by SKU, brand, or part, and analyze purchase orders by customer. Landsberg says this drill down capability “has been life-changing for Almo.”

Similarly, where the product management division was once siloed, it now has shared visibility into a single, cross-functional reporting platform.

In addition to overall business performance clarity, dashboards provide individual contributors visibility into their area’s performance against goals, driving a sense of ownership and role accountability.

“The sky is the limit once you see what your data can do for your system. Blue Margin has been instrumental not only to the success of this project, but to the success of Almo.”

Power BI Dashboards Increase Profitability by 7-10%

As Landsberg puts it, “The old way is not always the best way.” The company has evolved from CSV exports to automated scorecards and a stronger sense of team across the company. Almo’s Power BI dashboards have been adopted in finance, accounting, product management, operations, and sales. The sales report alone “has increased profitability by 7- 10%” by surfacing details in recovery of promotional debits from manufacturers.

Not only has Almo experienced operational and cultural benefits, their partnerships have also benefitted as their reporting suite demonstrates to those partners that they’re “at the forefront of innovation.”