How you can use fintech to improve your business intelligence

Remember way back when the best way to gather information about your competitors was to have quiet chats with their customers?

Gathering information on your competition has always been more of an art than a science. Any information gathered was likely to be a second-hand account, and it took a very long time to build a picture of your competition.

It was hard to tell how they were really doing, and whether you were ahead of them in revenue or sales.

But now there’s a better way. You can gauge how you’re doing against the competition from the comfort of your desk.

Free benchmark report for every Kiwi business

ASB has teamed up with software provider Ranqx to offer a free, annual financial benchmark report to every Kiwi business.

Ranqx can give you intelligence on your particular sector as a whole.

The data is anonymous, so while you may not be able to tell how much money Jim down the street is making, you’ll be able to tell how much money a company of your size and in your industry is typically making.

So why is that important?

Benchmarking

One of the tools canny SMEs can use to get ahead is benchmarking.

Businesses can set targets for themselves based on their competition.

For example, your business may be taking in $200,000 in revenue each year, but then you find out that the industry average is $250,000.

Then reaching annual revenue of $250,000 becomes the first benchmark.

Of course, benchmarking relies heavily on correct data.

So how does Ranqx work to make benchmarking accurate?

Data, data, data

By working with partners such as ASB and MYOB, Ranqx has developed an anonymous database of over 6000 Kiwi businesses.

By feeding your numbers into the system (which are stored in your MYOB software), you add to the data pool Ranqx is able to use to paint a picture of the industry you’re in.

For example, if you’re a café owner in Auckland you might want to benchmark against other cafés in the area.

If you upload your data, you get access to a dataset on hospitality businesses in Auckland.

At no stage can anybody see your business’ data on an individual level.

Instead, your data simply gets mixed into the broader dataset – which then allows Ranqx to come up with an aggregate for your industry.

It essentially works the way census data does.

Nobody knows about you in particular, but your information is fed into a pool of data to allow people to make better decisions.

Want to find out more?

Making benchmarking quick and simple for the average SME has been Ranqx’s goal – and after lots of building and testing, it’s ready to go.

With Ranqx there’s no more trawling through rows and rows of data – just nice, simple, summary-level reports that will start you on the journey of improving your business.

If you’re keen to get a free Ranqx benchmarking report compliments of ASB, follow this link and integrate your financials from AccountRight Live(*).

Follow the prompts and you’ll soon receive your own business performance comparison report.

(*) Ranqx / MYOB integration currently only supports AccountRight Live