By Jayne Munday | July 2, 2010
Securing contracts with the likes of Virgin Blue and Bank of Queensland is all in a day’s work for Queensland-based business consulting firm, Catapult BI.
Over six years of solid growth has seen the once small Brisbane company develop into a multi-faceted operation which offers timely insight into business processes, financials, supply chains and profitability.
Catapult BI was founded in 2004 by entrepreneur and current Managing Director Richard Green (pictured), who has a strong background in management information systems.
According to Green, taking an “enterprise view” of a company’s processes allows for a more accurate and beneficial analysis of performance.
“The BI stands for Business Insight…helping business to get outstanding insight into their business performance and thus the ability to respond to the constantly moving challenges of running a business,” he says of the firm’s name.
Emerging from the back end of the GFC, Catapult BI – ranked 304 in QBR’s 2009 Queensland 400 – plans to forge ahead within its specialised field and continue providing innovative solutions for today’s dynamic business world.
SERVICES, CLIENTS
Catapult BI’s tight-knit team of just over 20 employees offers the expertise and tools to build business performance management systems for clients.
From its Brisbane headquarters, it provides independent advice aimed at complementing a business’ existing technology investment with an innovative business intelligence solution.
These include services such as: project management business analysis and risk management; technology services such as information architecture, data warehouse and corporate performance; and strategic services.
“We have done significant projects for high profile Queensland customers such as Virgin Blue, Bank of Queensland, Queensland Motorways and a number of government agencies,” Green says.
He says the contract with Virgin Blue has spanned over five years, and involves improving sales processes and creating a dashboard to help manage the cabin crew.
“We’ve also done projects and have great stories for some very successful Q400 companies such as Abacus ALS and Herron Todd White.”
TAILORED SOLUTIONS
The secret behind Catapult’s success lies in its ability to target information “pain points” and maximise business potential while minimising risk.
“Modern businesses are becoming highly dependent on databases to conduct their routine business,” Green says, explaining where firms commonly go wrong.
“A huge amount of effort goes into putting business transaction data into their databases. It can be very difficult to get data out in a truly meaningful form that gives real insight into how the business is performing,” he says.
Resorting to inadequate software and reporting systems will eventually result in unwanted roadblocks for businesses, in Green’s view.
“Some companies use MS Excel to help them do their performance analyses…as a business grows and its business processes become more complicated, these methods become highly inefficient, error prone, and very limited in their capability to adapt to the changing needs of the business,” he says.
The timeline to make business decisions can also significantly impact business performance.
“If you don’t have high quality information about your performance, you can make decisions not based on the relevant facts,” Green says.
“It’s about being well ‘informed’ in your decision making, and having that information in a timely manner to make those informed decisions,” he says.
IMPROVING PERFORMANCE
To improve business profitability, Green says owners first need to understand what the true performance is across financials, customers and processes.
He says it is vital to question whether the business is trending the right way.
“Then you need to communicate performance so that your team understand what is happening across the business, and have the opportunity to contribute to the required performance adjustments.”
While past history does not determine future performance, Catapult recommends the use of historical transaction data blended with customer, product costing and demographics data.
“[This] really does give business a solid basis for testing out the assumptions and scenarios of business growth so that they make the best possible forecasts, and the best possible decisions moving forward,” Green explains.
“If the business environment changes, you can readily run new forecasts based on new scenarios, current data, and then make sound timely decisions in response,” he says.
“Reducing risk is about measuring and monitoring the risks in your business, so that you can respond quickly to prevent risks from becoming a problem.”
Aside from obvious business faults, Green warns there can also be hidden risk issues which often get disguised under the good performance of other parts of the business.
“The ability to drill into your information to track and act on localised or specific problems prevents these hidden risks from becoming a sudden problem down the track,” he says.
BUSINESS OUTLOOK
Since 2004, Green says Catapult has experienced good growth while steadily building its reputation within the local market.
“We have grown many great success stories within our Queensland customers, and that is very satisfying for us,” he says.
“We’ve got some new projects evolving within our existing and new customers, as they seek to get back onto a growth path going forward.”
Looking ahead, Green says Catapult will maintain its state focus despite servicing some clients south of the border.
“We’re continuing to focus on the Queensland market, as we believe there are still huge opportunities for many Queensland companies to grow a performance culture and capability based on being well informed,” he says.
TOP TIPS
With more than 25 years industry experience under his belt, Green offers his top tips on how SME owners can enhance their business insight capabilities.
He says actively measuring and communicating performance is the first step to success.
“Seek to be informed…build this capability into the way you manage your business.”
“Ask new and challenging questions and strive to get comprehensive answers about all aspects of your business performance,” Green adds as further advice.
“Be on a constant lookout to identify problem areas and weaknesses, as well as new opportunities for innovation and growth,” he says.
“Finally, use these business insight capabilities to raise the bar on performance.”
