Power BI Solves Seattle Bar's Operating Inefficiencies, Saves $30k/yr

What could your business do with an extra $30,000 a year? By implementing Microsoft Power BI business intelligence on SharePoint Online, your next problem could be deciding where to spend that big chunk of cash you just saved. 

As reported by Simon Bisson on CITEworld.com, this was the case for one Seattle bar that used Microsoft’s Power BI to rein in revenue losses of $5,000 a month due to discrepancy between alcohol poured and alcohol sold.  The bar’s owner used Power BI’s Q&A natural language tool, which allows users to type in queries in close-to-normal English, to isolate the problem: vodka sales.

The owner knew that bartenders tend to pour more alcohol than the recommended 1.5 ounces.  But he also knew that if he showed his bartenders their current performance in Power BI, it would drive the behavioral change he needed to save a substantial amount of money.  So that’s what he did.  He established data connections in Power BI in order to see average pouring discrepancies for each employee. Then he brought those findings to his employees.

After showing each individual’s current performance, he hung the carrot in front of their noses: The employee with the average pour closest to 1.5 ounces at the end of the year would receive a free trip to Hawaii. (It was at this point in the story I wanted to know where this bar was and if they were hiring.)

Once the bartenders were able to see real-time, from any device, how they were performing in comparison to the other bartenders, pouring discrepancies fell drastically, and revenue loss with it.  Average monthly losses were cut in half – from $5,000 to roughly $2,500.

And the solution was simple.  The owner combined Power BI with the idea that behavior will change when you expose accurate, real-time, graphical feedback.

Would you like to leverage the power of Power BI in your business? Call Blue Margin, Inc at (800) 865-6530 for a free BI consultation, or read up on Power BI here.