Scaling a business for growth
BusinessWhys consultants collaborated with a data analytics consulting firm’s engineering and sales teams to design a new product construct and operational infrastructure to support scalable, consistent, and predictable revenue growth.
Challenge
A cloud-native data analytics consulting firm landed some great logos by successfully selling highly customized, short-term consulting service engagements. Unfortunately, the highly customized nature of their engagements left their service delivery teams scrambling to stay within budget, as margins were tight and revenue growth unpredictable. They needed to transition to a scalable sales and delivery model to meet the company's ambitious growth goals.
Strategy
First, BusinessWhys focused on understanding and aligning the stakeholders on the value proposition underlying the company's implementation and ongoing support services. Then, the BW team dove into the details of the company's services, working side-by-side with delivery teams to build out the following deliverables:
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Defined scope – what's in and outside the box
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Integrated Service Model Tool
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Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) for Implementation and Ongoing Support Services
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Delivery Cost Model
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Pricing Model – margin target
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Automated Estimating Quote Generation Tool
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Pre-sales Customer Survey (integrated into cost/price/estimating model)
With the Integrated Service Model Tool BusinessWhys' developed, the company:
Increased sales autonomy - quoting pricing without risking margins became quick and easy
Increased margins - defined and dynamic margin floors ensured project profitability
Increased revenues - enabled sales of longer-term contracts and recurring monthly revenues
During the project, BusinessWhys:
The Impact
To meet the company’s ambitious growth and revenue goals, BusinessWhys recommended the company shift from a one-time implementation service model to one delivering ongoing support services - a shift that would create longer-term contracts and recurring monthly revenues. Once this recommendation was implemented:
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Customer expectations at the start of each engagement became clear
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The new service model provided the delivery teams with a predictable and repeatable delivery process, resulting in measurable operating efficiency
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The new service standardization increased accuracy and capacity for forecasting and planning
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Market feedback became actionable, moving from “no” to “yes and”
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Teams became more aligned as changes shifted from reactive to proactive and strategic
