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Clarity

Richard Lockyer

Saint John, NB

Founder Richard Lockyer Consulting, Inc; co-founder MindFarm Apps, Inc. Solution Architect. Business Intelligence Reporting expert familiar with small business and non-profits

Passionate about quality, and helping small-medium business make the most of the technology they can afford.

My deployments have an ROI less than 12 months and add 2-6% of top line revenue STRAIGHT to bottom line.

$1.67/min

5 Calls

7 Reviews

32 minutes
Avg. call

Business Intelligence Analytics Business Analysis SQL Data Analysis Business Process Improvement Process Automation Business Intelligence Tools Crystal Reports Reporting & Analysis

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Business Intelligence Reporting and Process Automation for Small Business

I have over 12 years' experience with the leading Business Intelligence Report writing tool in the world, Crystal Reports. I have helped customers regain valuable time and increase profits by improving the quality of the data they can access and automating slow, error prone manual processes.

Software Selection for Non-Profits

As a former professional Social Worker I am more than familiar with the needs of non-profits. Too little time and money, and limited in house technical expertise often mean that non-profits have very limited technology.

As an experience Consultant with a background in the software industry I will work with you to assess the needs of your organization and to find the best combination of technologies to fill those needs within your budget.

Call Center Analytics and Management

Experienced Analytics Consultant with an overview of the metrics and technologies unique to the call center industry.

Answers 21
Reviews 7

Answers

Richard Lockyer answered

I would like to pursue a career as a business analyst. I have experience on the business side but none in SQL or databases, how should I get started?

It really depends on the type of Business Analyst you want to be - what kind of work you want to do. There are courses and certifications for Business Analysts you can look in to which might be helpful. You may want to give serious consideration to a tool like Crystal Reports, which can connect to any database and generates its own SQL. After all, the point isn't to be a Database Admin, it's to get at data and analyze it.

If you have the option of taking one course in Database Management or Analysis, do it. The basic principles will take you far.

If you really want to learn databases and SQL I would recommend starting with MS SQL Server Express. It's free, relatively easy to use and is well documented.

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Career Development

Business Analysis

SQL

Richard Lockyer answered

What are the best traits to look for in a data scientist/data analyst?

Not necessarily, but the more you ask for the harder it is to find (and the more expensive once you do).

Any time I've been in the role of data specialist I've had insight in to product development and could see potential new opportunities as a result, but the main focus was always on creating analytics reports and tools that others on the team could use to measure performance, mine for new opportunities, etc.

You may want to consider a solution that gives more than one person the ability to perform analytics in a controlled way - without giving everyone full access to the database. There are a number of tools available that you can use to access and gather the data in a way that allows meaningful analysis by a wider range of personnel. Then the power of your analyst becomes their ability to come up with new data questions that feed the creativity of the whole team.

When you consider this approach, you might not even need a data specialist permanently/full time. If you outsource the development of a quality Business Intelligence solution the design and implementation should include a reasonable degree of flexibility so you and your team can ask more detailed data questions as they arise. This, and a little training could turn several members of your team in to data analysts.

Call me if you'd like to discuss more examples specific to your industry.

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Data Science

Data Analysis

Richard Lockyer answered

Does something like clarity.fm work in other industries? Do you know of anyone who has made it work in other industries?

Absolutely. My expertise is in Analytics and the development of Business Intelligence Reporting Solutions for small-medium business. The tools themselves (and the selection of them) lead to lots of questions that work on this forum. The same is true for s number of other technical issues.

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Start-ups

Entrepreneurship

Marketing Strategy

Richard Lockyer answered

Are there standard ratios that are used to calculate first level support staff needed for a SAAS product that is a non-technical product?

Hi. I'm a Business Intelligence consultant with most of my customers being call centers.

There are definitely guidelines you can apply but it will be based on several factors. Your question references ratios, which I assume means you would like to know how many agents per customer. That number will vary greatly depending on a number of other factors including:
-what is your ASA target (Average speed of answer)?
-what percentage of calls should meet the ASA?
-are their penalties below a certain threshold (if less than 80% of calls meet ASA in 24 hours, for example)
-how long are calls waiting when they don't meet ASA?
-what is the call distribution by day of week, time of day and holiday v. non-holiday.
-what is the average call duration?
-what is the % of calls requiring escalation or call back versus calls resolved on first contact?

To simplify it though, the two most important (IMO) will be call volume and your target for ASA (assuming you aren't answering then putting them back on hold, etc).

To simplify though, the top 3 are: ASA, Call length and call volume. Regardless of the size of customer base.

A good reporting system that combines live metrics and daily/weekly/monthly analysis will help a great deal.

Feel free to set up a call if you'd like to talk about this in more detail.

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SaaS - Enterprise & SMB B2B

Customer Support

Richard Lockyer answered

We just won Startup Weekend Toronto for griflens.co. How do we get votes and PR to win the Global Startup Battle?

Congratulations on your win! I from Team MooBook, winners of the Startup Weekend New Brunswick.

Our team looked at this same challenge.

Unfortunately the Global Startup Battle has not matched the Weekend experience for quality and organization. As you know there have been a number of issues including a horrible voting interface (which changed mid week so oit is now only 'quite bad') and an unannounced rule change. In spite of all the material and rules stating every voter can vote once per 24 hour period they have altered the rules and the interface so that each person may now only vote once.

All of this combined for a bad user experience which we felt reflected on us. We have actually stopped asking our supporters to go vote. We didn't like being associated with the negative experience.

We are now concentrating all of our marketing, PR and VC efforts on the long term future of the product.

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Early-stage Startups

Entrepreneurship

Public relations

Richard Lockyer answered

How to improve cash flow in a dental lab?

Reorganize your invoice so instead of the traditional 'penalty' for late payment you offer an incentive for early payment. Same values, reverse labels.

You should also look at automating reminders for payment after a certain date. This should be relatively straight forward depending on the accounting system you are using.

I've provided similar automation solutions for a number of clients and would be open to discuss in more detail if you would like to schedule a call.

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Finance

Cash Flow

Cash Flow Management

Richard Lockyer answered

What is the best place in the world to buy a good located and good built flat for under $1m?

Several years ago I created my own process for calculating the "best" community to relocate to. It is highly customizable - the math is entirely based on the criteria of the user and leverages publicly available information. If weekend golfing means everything to your quality of life it gets measured - if not, then the number of local courses is irrelevant to your personal metrics.

Given all the previous answers (all of which are very good) you may still find you have a choice between several high quality locations and no easy way to compare them.

If you'd like help narrowing down a final choice using my custom method feel free to arrange a call.

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Real Estate

Real Estate Investment

Real Estate Development

Richard Lockyer answered

Should a non-technical founder of a growing business take the time to learn to code?

Clients respect a well thought out "I would not be the best resource for you on that issue" especially if you know someone who you can refer. Even better if you can hire or sub-contract additional talent to augment yours and oversee the quality of the work. Then you are still delivering. But don't learn to code. As others have said - you will deliver a product below the level of quality you currently deliver in the areas you are great at.

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Entrepreneurship

Richard Lockyer answered

How big data can evolve if our overall ability to convert data into really valuable info that then can drive effective decision making is so limited?

I am not at all convinced that our ability to convert data to actionable decision making metrics is limited.

In fact, I do just that every day.

There are definitely limiting factors, but the ability to make use of the data is much stronger than people commonly believe.

For structured data you just need a good understanding of the data structures and their relationships. Unstructured data (tweets, statuses, etc.) is much more difficult but there are several technologies available and under development that tackle unstructured data specifically. This even includes some high end tools that monitor voice data.

If you have a specific data scenario in mind I can be more specific. If you'd like to arrange a call I'd be happy to provide more detail.

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Big Data

Data Analysis

Data Mining

Richard Lockyer answered

What is the best way to cultivate intros and leads into Fortune 500 companies?

I would look at a startup call Introhive. They have a unique approach to this issue based on personal connections.

*Disclosure - I do not work for them but I have friends who do.

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Sales Process

Lead Generation

Sales Funnel Optimization

Richard Lockyer answered

For Initial Users: Sell User License or make it into SaaS?

SaaS. Always.

I am a founder of a Startup about to launch our first product (mobile app). We looked at this very question. In the end we looked at the impact the decision would have on our company's valuation. Based on my initial, informal discussions with funders in my area (Canadian Atlantic Region) with single point of sale revenue a healthy technical start up is worth approximately 4-6X annual revenue whereas the same company with a subscription or SAAS model is worth 10x and up.

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SaaS

Web Hosting

Hosted Solutions

Reviews

Richard is very Knowledgeable and gave great advice!

Dan Kang Source: Clarity

Rick's understanding of Call centre performance management is very spot on and I learnt a lot about this domain in a 30 min call !

suman kalyan Source: Clarity

Rick started with me, and others in the call centers industry, in the formation of a new Profit Enhancement Group in 2011. Rick's insight into statistics and business analytics proved invaluable in the genesis and continued development of this group. He has a precise and focused ability to drill down to relevant information, in an industry where one is surrounded by mountains of statistical data. His abilities are an asset in anyone's quest to make business decisions from volumes of data that positively impact their bottom line.

Pam Poehlmann Source: LinkedIn

Rick is very skillful with strong business analysis skills and an approachable individual to work for and work with. I found him always receptive of other people's ideas and very flexible in his approach. He possesses great ability to collaborate with other IT groups and business partners in implementing measures to minimize routine issues. He is someone with very strong customer orientation and professional expertise resulting in building trust with customers and achievement of client driven KPIs. I would strongly recommend Rick to be part of any growing organization.

Kamran Gill Source: LinkedIn

Rick is an exceptional business analyst, always finding new ways to improve the ROI for our company. He is meticulous in his reporting, and can find information we didn't know was there. He is amiable, with a great sense of humour and a pleasure to work with.

Terri Spence Source: LinkedIn

Rick is a focused, results oriented guy with a real eye for detail. When he worked for me at Exigen I relied heavily his work ethic and capability to multitask - he never let me down. At the same time as getting us through a particulary onerous QA audit he led the first line IT support function - it was a big ask and he delivered in spades (talking of which - never let him talk you into a game of poker...)

Jason Velody Source: LinkedIn

Rick was the one person that I worked that I could rely on to get the job done. I wouldn't hesitate to work with him again. Great work ethic and great to deal with.

Mike Callender Source: LinkedIn

Member since November 2013