As the uncertainty amidst the pandemic and economic disruption continues, companies need to use strategic insights to support decision-making around their rebate deals. However even if they have access to useful data doesn’t necessarily mean that companies are able to translate the data into meaningful strategic insights.

According to a Forrester report, 41% of businesses struggle to turn data into decisions. There continues to be a large gap between access to data and the ability to derive meaningful, strategic insights from the data. How can companies overcome this and turn their strategic insights into a powerful tool for growth?

Centralize your rebate data 

You need to first understand how your organizational processes works and remove any barriers preventing access to the data. Only then can you find inefficiencies and be in a position to do something about them. However, this can be a lot harder if you’re manually combing through multiple systems to export data to a manageable format so that your finance and commercial teams can convert this into strategic insights. The only thing worse than no data is bad data. 

Firstly, work out what data sources you have. List all the different repositories, tools, and systems where data is captured and stored, then put it all into a centralized system or develop a way to pull it together quickly. Then you’ll be much better positioned to gain strategic insights about your deals. 

Determine your objectives and goals 

Companies should have a clear understanding of what they want to achieve and what are their business goals. Consider, “what questions do we need to answer in order to extract strategic insights?”. From there you can determine the data you need to collect to answer these questions. For example, if you need to meet a certain deal threshold think about what you need to do to get there. 

Verbally communicate strategic insights with the wider team 

A lot of finance and commercial teams work in silo from each other and sometimes lack communication. Communicating the strategic insights you have uncovered to each team allows you to make sure that everyone is exactly on the same page and is aware of the current status of the deal. At the same time, they can also express their observations and their input may come in handy as you move forward with any future negotiations. 

Reporting in real-time on your rebate data 

Reports become irrelevant soon after they’re created, which is why companies have to restart the reporting process over and over. Finance teams should be looking for ways to improve reporting so that it is faster and more accurate. They can then provide crucial strategic insight into performance across the entire organization. For example, commercial teams need these strategic insights to negotiate better deals.  

According to Forrester, insights-driven businesses are growing at an average of more than 30% each year, and by 2021, they are predicted to take $1.8 trillion annually from their less-informed peers.  

Gain strategic insights today with rebate management software 

Organizations face many challenges when it comes to their rebate agreements, some even find that their systems and tools for managing deals are siloed, outdated, lacking integration, or they simply can’t manage the level of complexity that comes with these deals. In contrast, organizations that deploy modern, cloud based rebate management software enable their finance and commercial teams to gain the real-time visibility required to provide critical strategic insights. This data transparency allows businesses to remain competitive and achieve long term growth.