Syniti’s Data Jumpstart shows that data confidence means business confidence

Data concerns keep coming from senior leadership about accuracy, quality, and general trust in data – meaning operations teams across companies are spending far too much time fixing data problems. To improve confidence and the decision-making power of data, platforms that can bring data together have applicability throughout business functions, and across industries. With budgets tight – proving the business case for data quality is a must – and a challenge to get buy-in from operations leaders. Data management software specialist Syniti is addressing this part of the data challenge through its ‘Data Jumpstart’ integrated cloud BI platform – set for go-to-market this summer.

Data Jumpstart combines Syniti’s knowledge platform, DQ report templates with actionable insights, a customizable business outcomes dashboard (outlining for example cost savings, margin improvements, working capital and liquidity, or risk reduction), best practice accelerators, and its own data experts. Synini’s sweet spots are data software and services surrounding M&As and migrations, for example to SAP S/4HANA and data ops. Its business process focus for Data Jumpstart spans Procure-to-Pay (P2P), Order-to-Cash (O2C), and Supply chain management including inventory management.

In a world where ‘transformation fatigue’ is very real, Syniti’s new offering promises rapid results pre-packaged for a few specialized areas

The genesis of Data Jumpstart took place over the course of the pandemic. Syniti saw client after client that wanted a COVID rapid response solution around data management. Whether it was to tackle liquidity challenges or ensuring the reliability of supply chains, the vendor has realized the value of tying data quality initiatives to these business outcomes that became paramount in volatile market conditions. Another key learning for Syniti that resonated with us at HFS was working through the challenge of transformation fatigue. Many enterprise operations leaders have invested in business transformation projects that become unending resource-sinks, and deliver limited results. Data Jumpstart is a direct response to this fatigue, claiming results in the course of three weeks due to its pre-packaged reports and domain-specific focus.

Syniti’s data expertise is centered around ERPs, and thus finance and supply chain were natural starting points for its new solution. The vendor has used its over two decades’ worth of domain and data knowledge in finance and accounting and supply chain and developed a packaged solution that appeals not just to data management professionals, but operations leaders. Syniti’s team talks about building an “X-ray of data” that can tie to financial results, such as recovering working capital, optimizing P&Ls, and improving risk management. Within these domains, Data Jumpstart comes equipped with over 450 ready reports with simplified data integration and data quality checks. F&A and supply chain leaders are presented with dashboards where they can evaluate the outcomes that matter to them.

Data engineering talent is notoriously hard to find: combining it with technology and services is a value proposition for both Syniti and the customers that leverage its platforms

Identifying data assets and prioritising what you need and where to host it, especially in migrations and integrations – adds to decision-making power of data combined with analytics and AI

An example Syniti case comes from a major international manufacturer where quality assessments “identified millions in potential supply chain savings.” A manufacturing organization was looking to eradicate duplicative stock within a $16M spare parts inventory and increase central purchasing power across the enterprise. The business sought to improve working capital and reduce overall unit costs in an initial data quality initiative before their SAP S/4HANA migration. Two weeks after deploying Data Jumpstart, the teams were reviewing hundreds of “Initial Insight” reports. Within a few more weeks, the project teams had developed focused “Actionable Insight” reports “identifying where millions of dollars in savings could be found via data harmonization and standardization.” The project identified a projected financial return on investment of nearly $1.5M in reduced procurement spend each year on spare parts and more than a $2M reduction in current duplicate parts. Additionally, there is a projected ‘workforce return’ of several hundred thoughts dollars based on savings from finding, requisitioning, picking/re-picking the correct spare parts more efficiently. These savings provided a quick win for the organization.

The Bottom Line: Confidence in your underlying data means improved confidence in the business

With a business focus on finance and accounting and supply chain, Syniti has created an offering that quite literally “jumpstarts” a data program for these functions. But that doesn’t mean it will solve all your data problems. HFS sees this category of offering as an ‘amuse-bouche’, if you will, which can create a larger appetite within an organization to further investigate their data needs – the beginnings of a data operations program. For many enterprises that struggle with becoming data-driven, seeing early results is half the battle won. That is where Syniti – and its clients – have a shot with Data Jumpstart.