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Empowering AlixPartners with an Automated Data Modeling Tool

Global consulting company AlixPartners helps large organizations make even larger decisions that improve efficiency. When they wanted to improve their own processes, they called on Resultant to help. AlixPartners wanted to expand their business and the number of clients they could engage, but they were dependent upon a small number of highly specialized employees to manually complete an essential business process for each client engagement. They approached Resultant for help automating this complex manual data process.

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The Problem

Global consulting company AlixPartners helps large organizations make even larger decisions that improve efficiency. When they wanted to improve their own processes, they called on Resultant to help.

AlixPartners wanted to expand their business and the number of clients they could engage, but they were dependent upon a small number of highly specialized employees to manually complete an essential business process for each client engagement. They approached Resultant for help automating this complex manual data process.

A fully manual data science process severely limited AlixPartners’ reach. They begin client engagements by examining product demand, supply chains, and distribution channels; gathering all that associated data; then performing in-depth data modeling to help them thoroughly consider potential scenarios for distribution center optimization.

About the Client

AlixPartners is a results-driven management consulting firm specializing in helping companies navigate pivotal disruptions that make or break the future of their organizations. They achieve practical, sustainable outcomes for their clients designed not just to help them succeed today but allow them to build on that success in the future.

Outcomes

  • Relieved the bottleneck of relying on a small number of people to engage new potential clients
  • Empowered more people with the data to use it to show possibilities for clients, reserving those specialized team members for engagements that really need those skills
  • Gave AlixPartners the ability to show value for their clients more quickly upfront

Our approach

How data modeling helps AlixPartners’ clients

Business needs of clients and potential clients may include:

  • Growing or reducing distribution centers
  • Relocating distribution centers
  • Pivoting supply chain strategy when suppliers change
  • Discovering other, more cost-efficient ways to meet customer demand

To assist in considering varying outcomes, AlixPartners looks at a wide range of relevant data:

  • Sales History
  • Customer demand
  • Supply chain factors
  • Transportation costs
  • Location costs and implications

Gathering this data, applying proprietary algorithms, and performing data modeling provides recommendations for distribution footprint design and performance improvements as it helps clients with big-picture decision-making.

Data Modeling: Then and Now

To expand its reach, AlixPartners needed to free consultants to spend their time adding value instead of getting bogged down in manual data science processes. Consultants initially engage with clients for two to three months. The pivotal disruptions clients faced that caused them to reach out in the first place made speed even more important. Previously, every time they performed client data modeling, they had to build from scratch. We helped implement a data modeling and data science infrastructure automation tool with the ability to build an individual, secure environment for each client.

The original fully manual data modeling process created these constraints:

  • Very few people were qualified to do it
  • The process varied greatly among practitioners and was extremely nuanced
  • Each client engagement data model was built from scratch
  • Client deliverables weren’t standardized

Here’s how our data science team approached the challenges:

  • Deeply explored to fully comprehend AlixPartners’ algorithm
  • Began digitalizing the algorithm
  • Iterated and continually presented iterations to consultants for feedback
  • Defined the procedure everyone agreed could become standardized

The new automation tool provides these benefits:

  • Facilitates data modeling without the need for programming
  • Provides an isolated, secure cloud environment for each client
  • Enables consultants to focus fully on client outcomes rather than first devoting most of their time to data science tasks
  • Standardizes 80% of the data modeling needed for a client engagement
  • Allows skilled consultants to tailor the remaining 20% based on unique client needs
  • Produces client deliverables with speed and consistency

A vast infrastructure-as-code back end supports building a unique, secure environment for each client. With dedicated environments, one per client, accessible only to that client’s consulting team, client sales data is secure and meets the requirements of AlixPartners strict security protocols to prevent data breaches.

We took what was very complex and specialized manual work and automated it so that instead of them being dependent upon a small number of people in their company, they can open this process up and increase their bandwidth to grow their business. It’s helping them to make their client engagements more standardized and consistent, expedite their analysis, and deliver outcomes faster, which will increase their competitiveness in the marketplace and add more value to their clients by being able to focus on unique circumstances.

Lisa McCord

Consultant,   Resultant

Expanded reach and impact

Whereas fewer than ten people had the skillset to execute the manual data modeling process, around 200 consultants will now be able to utilize the UI and digital platform for qualified client engagements. Because of this project, not only can more people perform data analysis, but the time it takes is expedited—roughly cut in half.

Rather than having to first dive into a fully manual data science process, consultants can now upload a sales file, complete a form to execute different scenarios, and then display potential outcomes via dashboards. Consultants with specialized programming skills can be utilized more effectively by focusing on those engagements that require heavier customization.

AlixPartners can take on significantly more engagements this way. The solutions have

  • Relieved the bottleneck of relying on a small number of people to engage new potential clients
  • Empowered more people with the data to use it to show possibilities for clients, reserving those specialized team members for engagements that really need those skills
  • Given AlixPartners the ability to show value for their clients more quickly upfront

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