Today’s leading Software Consumers are becoming increasingly keen on Business Intelligence and Analytical tools that can help transform the raw data into actionable insights. Data and insights are two very different things when it comes to Warranty Service or rather, any service.
Companies do collect huge volumes of Warranty data, but they fail to convert it into insightful information that would allow timely and proactive actions from the manufacturer. With proper insights, potential Warranty problems can be handled at an early stage thereby resulting in reduced the warranty costs, improved product quality and higher customer satisfaction.
With the presence of a warranty management solution, manufacturers are able to run their warranty operations but are unable to utilize the informative data available in hand because of the absence of analytics. This is where the Business Intelligence and Analytics step in, and take Warranty Management operations to the next level. Embedded BI or Analytics refer to capabilities such as enhanced Reporting, Dashboards, Data Discovery, or Data Management capabilities included as an integrated module or an extension of existing Software. With embedded Business Intelligence and Analytics, the stakeholders will get a holistic view of the entire Warranty Lifecycle.
Some of the potential problems and cost drivers in warranty like fraudulent/duplicate claims, Rule Processing Engine, Failures, Field Modifications, and Supplier Management are better tackled by deploying Analytics. Studying the analytical data and having a snapshot of key Performance Indicators on these would allow the stakeholders to solve the problem with a preventive approach rather than a reactive one. For instance, by digging or zeroing down to the list of failures that occur most frequently (Viz. Top 5 Failure Areas), would help the engineering team to solve issues during the early stages at the manufacturing plant, hence decreasing the warranty cost incurred. Warranty Engineers may refine the Processing Rules by analyzing the Top 10 Rule Failures leading to further decrease in manual reviews. With Analytics, the stakeholder will have better information on fraudulent/duplicate claims.
Business Intelligence and enhanced Analytics on Warranties provide insights to functions across the organization like Sales, Marketing, Design and Engineering. ‘Patterns and Trends’, the striking feature of
Analytics guides cross-functional departments in an organization in better forecasting, accruals and reserves. We can say that it not only enables manufacturers to take preventive measures but also helps in predicting risks and failures by analyzing history and trends.
The Strength of Intelligent Warranty Data
Warranty Management Data and its logical analysis play a crucial role across various business functions of an organization. It helps to understand product performance in the field, top warranty cost drivers, field service issues, as well as the serviceability and reliability of products. In the absence of a central Warranty Business Intelligence system, it becomes difficult to analyze the product effectively. Hence, improvement initiatives cannot be triggered on time.
The figure above shows how the best in class organizations have been effectively using warranty data to improve cross-functional performances, but some of the manufacturing brands still have a long way to go in effectively measuring and analyzing warranty data and converting it into actionable insight
World-class organizations are addressing the risks by implementing Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing systems. The takeaway is that an investment in Warranty Management embedded with Business Intelligence systems is a long-term beneficial investment in the form of Quality Products, Better Field Service and greater customer satisfaction.
