In addition to being great example of cross-functional teamwork across business functions and continents, we recently completed an internal project that had one key goal: sharing more data through increased reporting capabilities. That goal was met – and then some – creating what some team members call “crazy value” for both internal and external audiences.
Like any good project, this one started out with an in-depth “discovery” phase. The project team conducted interviews with stakeholders at every level of the company to get a window into what was needed for success. From executive vice presidents to customer service staff, the team wanted to uncover where the current pain points were, what was missing and exactly what the outcomes needed to be to spell success. Then, those directly working on the project built a continuous communication loop with one another, sharing knowledge and meeting regularly to ensure things were moving in the correct direction.
This approach is a true reflection of the collaborative culture at Cint, where one of our core values is to “unite to deliver incredible value.” That’s exactly what this project did. At a very basic level, the new functionality that resulted from the collaboration is a centralized location that allows internal team members easy access to the data they need pulled from Cint’s data warehouse. This is invaluable, eliminating unnecessary steps and opportunities for human error with the transfer of multiple spreadsheets.
A “single source of truth” portal for data showcases the data, which is updated daily, making it easily accessible. Users can find what they need with just a couple of clicks. After implementing the new approach, the team has seen nearly a 40% decline in requests for special data pulls and ad hoc reporting, as now people are able to pull the reporting and data they need easily on their own. They expect this trend to continue as the system becomes more familiar.
This proactive approach to reporting fits in with Cint’s goals for accelerating consumer insights, reducing friction when it comes to viewing and analysing data from the Cint platform. By presenting important data in a visual, structured manner, trends and metrics can be seen at a glance and users can view the data in different ways to fit each project. This means presenting clients with the data they need to determine campaign effectiveness quickly and allows users to uncover what’s working and what’s not all along the research spectrum.
When the operations team pulled a need report from the new system for delivery to a client, Cint’s Senior VP of Sales and Customer Success for the Americas, Katie Gross, had this to say: “I just used your report to answer a question this afternoon. We got the answer within four minutes. This previously would have taken a few hours to pull this data…I can’t wait to see all the proactive work we can do with this.”
The efficiency gains are clear. By taking a true collaborative approach and understanding the business use case of every step of the project, the team behind the new reporting functionality came up with a solution that is perfectly fit for purpose – making more data is accessible to more people.
