VITAL MGMT debuted its operational Bi4Ci dashboard service this week at the ProSource Summit in Orlando. The service is designed to provide dealers using QuickBooks (desktop versions) with access financial performance dashboards on their smartphone, laptop, or desktop. With an initial feature-set of 18 color-coded graphics panels, the cloud-based service provides more than 40 key metrics on the productivity, profitability, and financial strength of the user company.
Steve FirsztVITAL co-founders Paul Starkey and Steve Firszt believe the service and its metrics is a profound innovation for the managers of custom integration companies. The metrics range from common but important measures such as revenue growth, gross margin, and operating profit, to metrics unique to VITAL’s management system: GPP (gross profit per payroll dollar), LRPT (monthly labor revenue per tech), coverage ratio, and more.
Because the metrics are benchmarked against VITAL’s performance thresholds, CI operators can see at a glance what is out of range in their business. A dozen trend graphs highlight run rates over the past six months. And with the click of a mouse (or tap of a finger), the dashboard values can be switched to display last month, last quarter, and even last year.
Paul Starkey
Perhaps most significantly, a dozen key metrics are collected in Bi4Ci’s COMPARE database. Each dealer on the system gets to see how their company performs relative to all other companies on the service, with an absolute ranking and a quartile rating for each metric. Such a database of comparable metrics has never before existed in the CI industry, according to the company.
The system requires conformance to a standardized chart of accounts. VITAL believes users will become further standardized by adopting other key elements of the VITAL system, such as production-based revenue recognition and customer deposit accounting. A monthly town hall-style meeting is included with the service to help users better leverage the system to improve their businesses.
“This is a way for managers to position themselves to make significant improvements in their business, regardless of financial expertise,” Starkey said.
VITAL MGMT has worked with hundreds of CI companies and asserts the impact of their system can be thousands, and even tens of thousands of dollars a month.
There is a $1,000 setup fee, which includes QuickBooks configuration assistance, cloud connector technical support, and data validation. The service is $300 per month and initial sign up is for a minimum term of 6 months. Dealers can sign up at www.Bi4Ci.com.
