I have used Apple Watch to monitor 3 key measures related to health activity on daily basis

• Move Goal: 350 Calories per day
• Stand Goal: 12 hrs per day
• Exercise Goal: 30 minutes per day​

Apple Watch enabled monitoring the data throughout the day and data is captured automatically instead of manual data entry. It was possible to monitor performance on a daily/weekly basis and stay motivated or take corrective actions to get back on track. It took 6 months of data before indicators are shown. 

Applying this example as a framework to a business (department or overall) scenario:

• Identify what data can be measured automatically on daily or weekly basis in an automated way based on how you operate(like website visits)
• Set a realistic goal (based on your business type, identify what is a realistic goal)
• Take actions to achieve goal on regular basis (run campaigns to attract visitors to the site)
• Monitor streak of achieving goals (how frequently are you meeting goals)

To achieve this in a strategic mode, identify one area at a time. 

Digital transformation has made it easy for any organization to measure their activity and convert that data into useful metrics. Just like fitness data is critical to your personal wellbeing, operational data of business is also important for business wellbeing. Recording data as business is happening will improve data quality and reduce errors when data is manually recorded after a delay. Automate this as much as possible to reduce gaming the data. 

As a growing SaaS company Acme was focused a lot in growing customer base. Sales and Marketing took lot of time and assuming existing customers are happy with product was a reasonable thing to do.

However, Acme had usage analytics in place to monitor login activity every week. During one of these reviews the team noticed gradual drop in usage by the largest customer. Operations team reached out to Client/Account team to assess the situation. They learned that client users have started using an alternate product and yearly contract will not be renewed.

Analytics helped ACME predict customer churn and be prepared for the impact much before the event happened. This also presented an opportunity to recover customer.

Action:

Analytics may not deliver insights when they are built but regular monitoring will provide early warning signs to something that can be prevented. 

Note: This is real use case and name of the company changed for confidential purposes.