FAQ'S |
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What does NorthPoint do?
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NorthPoint's software-based tools are designed to
improve the rate of success of companies, projects, products,
marketing programs, alliances and acquisitions. Their research
converts industry knowledge into management tools used by some
of the world's premier companies. NorthPoint's methodology uses
an analytical approach to examine a company and its strategy,
business model, technology, products, management process,
operations, alliances and markets. The software-based tools
identify the activities required for success at the outset of an
initiative, compare the initiative against "Best-in-Class"
performance and can also predict the value and staying power of
a company and/or its products.
NorthPoint helps management improve performance, investment
return and the economic value of a company. Today, no books or
tools exist that provide the necessary guidance for success and
value creation, and it is difficult to predict performance. So
NorthPoint developed software-based tools, databases and
processes to help executives in a variety of ways:
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The consulting firms are customers as we provide
software-based tools that support their delivery to their
customers. These channel partners use our tools in their
consulting practices and license our products to their
accounts. Our business model leverages the reach of consulting,
research and IT services firms, allowing NorthPoint to focus on
what we do best – research of
“Best -in-Class” management practices, the
science of linking risk to value and development of
software-based tools to identify
and measure performance improvement.
Normally it is our customers process that is our
competition as we identify what is missing, how important it is
and what to do and how to do it that puts them on the path to
“Best-in Class” performance.
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What differentiates you from other firms?
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1.NorthPoint's
knowledge databases and unique software-based tools. We created
them; they are a proven approach; and they are the only tool we
know of that uses deep analysis of more than 400 - 600 critical
factors and measures against a benchmark born of accurate,
historical data. They provide the only comprehensive guidance
in a market sector where literally no books have been written on
how to succeed.
2.We
provide a new set of metrics to thoroughly measure and manage
risk, knowledge and value. These metrics have been created out
of both historic and current data. As far as we know, we are the
first to quantify the success metrics of the soft sciences –
marketing and management.
3.We
provide a solution for managing the inter-relationships between
management, marketing and technology, and between a company and
the industry at large. Our research disclosed that much of the
failure, especially in the growth stages, originates from
misjudging or mismanaging these inter-relationships.
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Does your competition use similar tools or technology? |
We know of no one that has the
capabilities of NorthPoint's tools or to the best of our
knowledge comes close to the precision required
to be predictive
and prescriptive with accurate results and the simplicity of use
and implementation. The ability to assess and measure the
performance of an organization, an offering or a project and to
perform these assessments in one day with analytics that are
90%+ accurate is unparalleled.
From our understanding, NorthPoint is the only
firm that uses large knowledge databases that contain all the
weighted, critical factors of "successful company" performance,
from operating ratios and other comparables, to technology and
operational metrics that solves this critical need of our
customers.
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Two things: The weighting of each of the 7,000 fundamental
business activities and supporting steps, tasks and processes in
the NorthPoint data bases enable the predictive capability
(expected time, cost and delivery value based on current course
and speed). The prescriptive (what must be changed, for what
reason and how to do it) capability of the software is based on
identifying the fundamental root cause (avoiding the metrics
that are symptoms, lagging indicators or conflicting) of issues.
Our metrics zero in on whether or not you are building or
destroying long-term value. They address the factors that our
research identifies as critical to success. We developed a way
to quantify the value proposition offered to a customer and to
measure an organization's delivery of value.
Second, many published operating ratios fall short for three
reasons: they are averages of the larger, mostly public
companies, which can be misleading, even irrelevant for earlier
stage companies and projects; the ratios are not broken down by
line of business, market segment/niche or company size; and,
they do not provide year-to-year performance, which is extremely
important when analyzing early stage and growth companies.
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You refer to the "value proposition;" how do you
define it? |
Quantifying the value proposition means understanding your
customer's business and providing solutions that will
differentiate them from their competition, provide the critical
knowledge points of the markets they serve and provide
flexibility and efficiencies not previously experienced. The key
is understanding the six ways to create value and the 22
different value propositions. Then identifying and measuring the
critical business metrics (financial, process, operational,
etc.), that is, pre- and post-implementation of your solution,
and the key differences between your solution and the
competitive solution.
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What is the NorthPoint software?
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NorthPoint provides software-based assessment &
performance measurement tools that are driven by analytics to be
predictive and prescriptive to enable customers to optimize and
sustain peak performance. The first tool required 2.5 years to
complete based on collaborative research with MIT, Vanderbilt,
Stanford and the original assessment of 800+ enterprises. We now
have 26 tools. The ongoing research enables NorthPoint to
refresh the databases and to create new solutions that address
technological advances such as Cloud Computing.
Our products are built on a Windows platform and
are knowledge-based. Use of the software allows us to establish
a “Best-in-Class” benchmark against which to compare client
companies. We input product, project or company data into the
software in order to analyze a company's technology, management
and marketing which helps form the basis for business strategies
and plans.
Since the initial research the software based
tools have been used to assess the performance of over 500
organizations with most of these entities performing multiple
measurements of their progress relative to their baseline
assessment. In addition to identifying performance and risk
issues, the software also provides an insight into business
opportunities the organization could leverage to grow the
business. We call these unmet and unidentified needs.
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What do you examine?
What do you find out? |
We help determine the chances a company, product or project has
for success and staying power. For example, if a large company
wants to acquire a small company in order to enter a new market
or new niche, we help discover whether it is worth it from a
product/service and business synergy viewpoint.
In start-up companies, we help management develop
their business and enhance their chances for a successful launch
or evaluate the probability of successful first or second-round
financing. We also help to identify and establish the right
alliance partners and there are numerous other areas we examine
as well.
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How do you perform such an evaluation?
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We use our software-based tools and processes to facilitate
stakeholder assessments and performance measurements. Most
assessments require 2 days of key stakeholder time…one day for
the assessment and a second day to report the results of the
assessment and develop an action plan and is totally completed
in 5-7 days.
The exception to this is where executive
interviews are required to assess an offering or enterprise
performance. In this instance, we interview the key company
executives, we talk to their customers, we research the markets
they serve, we review their collateral and what the industry
says about them, etc. For these types of engagements we use our
software-based tools and a number of public and private
databases, combined with our industry knowledge and experience.
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How often do you update your products and which
factors change the most?
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We review our tools on a quarterly basis and, with the exception
of changing the weightings periodically, we update on an annual
basis.
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How do you know the data going into the software is
accurate? |
Our process is very specific to our software-based tools and
methodology. The process
uses statements, (never questions) with a specific weighting for
each statement. Then the client stakeholders are facilitated
through a consensus based scoring of each statement. The results
of the assessment belong to the stakeholders as they scored
their organizations own Knowledge, Experience and Performance.
Ongoing, the process is used for performance measurement
(closed loop system
to identify internal and external changes that impact the
business).
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