FactoryResources
Nine engagements. Nine numbers.
Each of these started the same way. One number agreed before the build, defined in writing, with a named owner. Each one is reported as it landed, including where the first attempt missed.
Client names are withheld under NDA. Sector, scale and figures are as recorded in the engagement.
Schemes were paying for volume that was coming anyway.
Dealer incentives had never been tested against counterfactual volume, and claims were reconciled by hand at quarter end by two people who had done it that way for years.18% lowerResult at 2 quarters, at flat volume
They had sold the instruments and stopped earning from them.
The installed base existed complete only in a service engineer's spreadsheet, and contract renewal dates lived somewhere sales never looked.+14 ptsResult at 12 months, against prior year base
Three acquisitions in, they could not say how many clients they had.
Two agency management systems and a spreadsheet held overlapping books, so every retention and cross-sell question rested on a client count nobody trusted.4,100+Duplicates resolved, client records merged
Some lanes lost money on every shipment, and looked like growth.
Rate requests were answered in the order they arrived and lane margin was a blended average that hid the worst routes entirely.6.5 to 2.1 hRate response, median, business hoursSingapore ran the region. It could not see two of the countries it ran.
A regional headquarters with distributors in six markets reported one number to the group and had confidence in three of them. The two largest gaps were the two fastest-growing markets.3 to 6 marketsResult at 4 months, reported on one definition
The escalation clause was in the contract. Nobody was claiming it.
Raw material increases were absorbed quarter after quarter because assembling the evidence took longer than the claim window allowed, and nobody had ever computed what that cost.31% to 78%Result at 3 quarters, of entitlement claimed
Two hundred customers stopped ordering and nobody noticed.
Reorder rhythms were entirely visible in the order history. Nobody was reading them, because the sales team called on their own rhythm instead.+118 accountsResult at 2 quarters, reactivated from dormantThe claims came back for eleven reasons. Everyone thought there were hundreds.
First-pass denial was treated as an unavoidable cost of doing business with payers. It turned out to be a short, countable list of preventable causes.+16 ptsResult at 3 quarters, on first submissionWe report the ones that missed as well. Both outcomes are in the contract.
A pilot that does not clear its metric is not a failure of the engagement. It is the engagement working. You paid for two weeks and a pilot, not for a rollout, and you stop knowing something you did not know before.