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Generating value from data analytics and artificial intelligence

How four companies leveraged the power of data and AI for success

May 10, 2024
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Microsoft Azure Federal tax Data analytics Data & digital services Tax technology Health care Artificial intelligence Digital transformation Business intelligence Real estate Nonprofit
Business tax Hospitals & health systems REITs Predictive analytics

The data analytics ecosystem is rapidly evolving, and with the increasing availability of AI, generative AI and machine learning (ML) tools, innovation now offers more potential advantages than it has ever in the past. Companies across all industries are leveraging these technologies to transform key processes, become more agile and further business outcomes. Below, you’ll learn more about four different organizations that have utilized data analytics and AI strategies combined with timely advice to overcome critical challenges and position themselves for greater success.

The first step to capitalize on emerging data analytics and AI solutions is to identify the problem area(s) within your organization, be it internal, external or both. Then, by gaining a better understanding of your organization’s data, you can act upon it and connect it with the desired outcomes to make your business more efficient.

Transforming information into insights that empower people to take action is one of the biggest benefits of analytics. It is important to have a goal in mind and continually ask yourself and your key stakeholders: “What will we do with the information once received? How will you take action and react to the insights you receive? What will change the game for you?”

Draganowski recently joined fellow RSM partners Michael Charette and Joy Cruz as well as RSM directors Robbie Beyer and Joe Knoll as presenters for the third session in the firm’s Data Analytics and AI Webcast series—Client success stories: Deriving value from DA and AI. The session highlighted a variety of data analytics and AI use cases across multiple industries, illuminating the true power of transformative technologies.

It is better to focus on what are the biggest problems you are experiencing instead of what are the outcomes that you want to see. Data analytics is not a science but an art. An art of the possible.
Ron Draganowski, principal, RSM US LLP

Decoding enterprise AI and digital transformation

A dedicated process to implement AI-driven solutions for increased efficiency, improved outcomes and a more competitive position is known as enterprise AI. It varies from internal (addressing a particular business challenge) and external (providing a competitive advantage and enhancing customer satisfaction) to piloting AI (researching the potential benefits to set a technology foundation)— encapsulating five governance tenets:

  • Ethics
  • Organization
  • Processes
  • Technology
  • Data
It is all about aligning, building and deploying training models in a protected and safe manner and making sure we are adding value to the organization.
Robbie Beyer, director, RSM US LLP

Client spotlight: City of Kelowna

Local governments face many challenges that can be significantly improved by embracing an enterprise AI approach. The City of Kelowna in British Columbia has established a strong digital transformation foundation by successfully executing strategic initiatives with RSM and developing their path to enterprise AI.

Externally facing, the City of Kelowna took on the bold challenge of addressing the housing crisis by reducing the time it takes to receive a building permit. RSM helped the city develop an intelligent permitting assistant with AI to help facilitate the traditionally confusing process with a friendly, chat-like experience, thereby reducing the timeline of the entire process from months to days. 

Furthering data analytics

A real estate investment trust (REIT) is a corporate investment vehicle that allows investors to acquire ownership in commercial and residential real estate more tax-efficiently. Data analytics is like a golden key in overall REIT testing. It involves much more than data management and automation: it empowers real estate professionals to make informed decisions regarding the maintenance of properties, revenue management details and customer acquisition costs.

Client spotlight: QuadReal

QuadReal is a global real estate company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, with over $73.9 billion in assets under management across Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Europe and Asia Pacific. They felt they had to automate data collection processes and REIT tests, standardize reporting outputs across all REITS and implement quality controls to increase scalability and enable key personnel to allocate more time to critical tasks.

RSM conducted a comprehensive process review to capture existing procedures, business needs and the intricacies of QuadReal’s REIT test calculations. The team then devised an automated extract, transform and load process to collect and align information to a unified data model for REIT testing. Additionally, calculation intricacies were translated into model functions to automate required tests. We further standardized output reports, accompanied by a log enabling user validation of executed tests.

Data analytics and reporting governance framework

A fully integrated data and reporting governance framework is crucial to enriching the effectiveness of digital transformation and gaining a competitive edge. Developing and implementing this framework is of the utmost importance because it can promote:

  • Data management and security
  • Accuracy due to the elimination of manual processes
  • Data democratization
  • Scalability
  • Better decision making based on insightful analysis
  • Transparency at all levels
  • Standardization and effective controls on data, reporting and interoperability
  • Streamlined operating model
  • Extensive enterprise-wide communication
  • User adoption 
Data analytics is fantastic because it gives you that aggregated look at the trends, the history behind what you are doing and the actions that have been taken. It helps you to understand and make decisions on how you move forward.
Joy Cruz, partner, RSM US LLP

Client spotlight: American Planning Association

The American Planning Association (APA) is a professional membership and educational organization with a mission to create great communities for all. It elevates and unites a diverse planning profession as it helps communities, their leaders and residents anticipate and navigate change.

To further its mission, APA embarked on a digital transformation journey. The goal is to make better-informed decisions in the interest of APA members and the profession. APA stakeholders were challenged with highly manual processes that prohibited them from truly analyzing behaviors and identifying trends. They soon realized they had to establish trusted reporting for actionable insights. Their manual processes were timeconsuming and yielded minimal insight into the journey of their members, which in turn hindered their ability to promote their mission efficiently and grow their member base.

Through a collaborative approach, APA and the RSM team successfully optimized and centralized data into an enterprise data warehouse built on Microsoft Azure. They also designed and implemented a governance framework with an operating model for data democratization. Furthermore, RSM created interactive analytics with key performance indicators to analyze member journeys using Microsoft Power BI. APA is now extending their investment by exploring and building machine learning models to further understand their member’s probability to churn.

APA now better understands its members, donors and practitioners, and they can recognize additional opportunities for growth through further analysis of their very data-rich environment. It has created a foundation to enable stakeholders to make more efficient and effective decisions, as well as helped create a culture of curiosity and exploration to further drive its mission and values.

Data solutions for optimizing finance/revenue cycle functions

Many companies in highly regulated industries, such as health care and financial services, have specific needs and parameters that align with several data analytics and AI capabilities. An effective approach can be developed by considering objectives and leveraging a target operating model that considers several key aspects of the business, including:

  • Service
  • Human capital
  • Workflow
  • Technology
  • Reporting
  • Governance and controls 

Client spotlight: Gillette Children’s

Gillette Children’s was having trouble consolidating their denials data from multiple sources for comprehensive analysis. There was no consistent bridge between the hospital’s clearinghouse and the electronic health record system. Anytime a crossanalysis happened, bottlenecks in efficiency occurred stemming from the lack of integration.

RSM suggested a denial analytics solution utilizing Tableau and Ask Data AI (formerly Narrative Science) to comprehensively and efficiently analyze the hospital’s current state concerning revenue cycle performance, charge master, EMR functionality and configuration, and organizational structure.

Phase I benefits involved denials cut in half, while phase II saw a 66% reduction in registration issues and a 40% reduction in technical write-offs.

Creating value with data and AI

For companies in all industries, irrespective of size and technical capabilities, becoming a part of the paradigm shift toward deeper analytics and harnessing the power of data and AI to grow has become more important than ever. It is time to start with data and AI-driven strategy, identifying business development and growth opportunities. 

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