One of the long-standing debates within the business world is the idea vs. execution debate. Are ideas everything, or is execution the only thing that matters? Contrary to varying popular opinions by prominent industry leaders, both are interlinked—like cause and effect— and are core pillars of any booming business. Similar to how a seed will never grow without water, a brilliant strategy alone is no surefire formula for success; it is the solid execution of the strategy that creates all the difference.

For many businesses and organizations in the manufacturing industry, the challenge lies not in formulating good strategies but in executing these well-crafted strategies. In fact, several industry reports reveal that 90 percent of businesses fail to reach their strategic goals, which researchers believe is due to a gap between strategic planning and execution. “You have to be able to deliver on your intent. Unfortunately, the majority of companies aren’t very good at putting their strategy into practice. This is where i-nexus takes center stage,” avers Simon Crowther, CEO of i-nexus, a London-headquartered software firm that is helping global organizations across the manufacturing, life sciences, energy, and other industries to turn their strategy into operational reality. i-nexus provides a namesake strategy execution management platform that enables companies to synchronize and take control of their business performance by managing operational performance management, continuous improvement, and strategic transformation—all in one location.

Many global organizations still rely on the outdated, error-prone way of managing strategy execution using traditional tools such as Excel, PowerPoint, and other homegrown systems. The issue with these approaches is that they don’t offer the versatility, collaboration, and security needed to successfully deploy, manage, and optimize strategy at scale. i-nexus’ strategy execution management platform unifies the chaos of multiple spreadsheets, disparate project management tools, and lackluster metric tracking and offers control, accountability, and visibility required to strive in today’s increasingly complex manufacturing landscape. In other words, the platform provides the scalability, security, and features needed to meet the demands of modern, enterprise-grade strategy execution management.

i-nexus’ Three-Pronged Capabilities: Plan, Execute, Track

From capturing and cascading clear goals and initiatives to portfolio selection and ongoing measurement, i-nexus is the complete digital solution to strategic planning, including goal definition, performance targets, portfolio planning, lean operation planning, and more.

The planning capability enables manufacturers to capture and cascade goals throughout their organization, manage functional alignment and resource loading, and promote two-way dialog and feedback to drive engagement.

Alongside, it allows them to leverage the insights to build a clear picture of the right projects needed to deliver the goals and the key performance indicators that will measure results.

Once the plan is finalized, the next step lies in executing it. Balancing strategic projects and improvement initiatives often leads to competition over resources and prioritization, with short-term improvements distracting businesses from long-term, transformational programs which do not typically bear immediate results. i-nexus addresses the prioritization challenge by providing complete visibility and performance tracking of all initiatives in one location – from ideation through to execution. And to promote consistency in execution and continuous learning, the system comes with template standardization functionality and the ability to manage the training of teams delivering change. i-nexus Pulse’s mobile-first design enables users to easily enter metrics and project updates, ensuring effective data collection to feed performance analysis; it drives governance, completion and clarity of activity, ensuring fast and simple access to the metrics and journals, which contribute to success. At the heart of i-nexus is the i-nexus Workbench, which provides strategy, transformation, and operational performance practitioners with the necessary tools for clarity amidst the challenges of modern strategy deployment.

i-nexus provides a namesake strategy execution management platform that enables companies to synchronize and take control of their business performance by managing operational performance management, continuous improvement, and strategic transformation—all in one location.

On the other hand, with the platform’s tracking capability, executives can track the progress of their projects with accuracy, driving timely updates on metrics as well as visualize these to correct underperformance and realize the benefits and impact of their portfolio. From measuring KPIs to tracking financial benefits of programs and portfolios to determining root causes and implementing counter measures, i-nexus offers the ability to track performance across operational, improvement, and strategic initiatives. “In short, with i-nexus’ unique capabilities, goals can be achieved faster and with less investment. The platform underpins strategic plans across the business, driving focus and action, maximizing resource and aligning everyone in direction and purpose,” adds Crowther. “With i-nexus in place, manufacturers gain answers to questions such as: ‘Am I going to deliver on my strategy’ ‘how am I performing against my strategy’ and so on.”

Fostering Successful Execution of Strategic Plans

In essence, i-nexus is a cloud-based, enterprise-ready software that empowers executives with a complete suite of tools for strategic planning, portfolio execution, and performance tracking.

For example, i-nexus Pulse, a mobile responsive application, empowers users to consistently execute project updates, ensuring action and measurement in real-time, re-focusing the conversation from process to outcome.

“It empowers users to pull everything together— synchronize and manage strategies and goals, metrics and targets, portfolios and projects, and key performance indicators—all the elements required for successful execution of strategic plans,” explains Crowther.

As organizations execute on their strategic initiatives, the data generated should provide the information necessary for making informed decisions. But all too often, this process is overly complicated and time-consuming; the i-nexus Advisor strategic measurement and reporting tool eliminates this. The tool ensures executives are equipped with powerful insights into their strategy’s robustness, project portfolio execution, and realized results through intuitive reports and dashboards. Another notable tool of i-nexus is the i-nexus Data Warehouse (IDW), which gives users the keys to the i-nexus data universe so that they can deliver on ad hoc requirements for reporting, analytics, and more. “With IDW, we give organizations control of extracting and manipulating data using existing BI and analytics tools,” mentions Crowther.

The i-nexus Difference

A testament to i-nexus’ competency in helping organizations successfully achieve their goals are the numerous prestigious companies like thyssekrupp, Axalta, Universal Robots, CRH, FSN CAPITAL, and TEKNOS that make up its clientele.

Crowther accredits i-nexus’ continued success to his team. “Each of us has extensive experience in software and strategy execution best practice. We don’t have an army of sales employees, instead, we have practitioners and people that have deployed i-nexus countless times across different organizations, competent at understanding the needs, processes, procedures of these businesses,” informs Crowther. “For us, it’s all about understanding their pain and process, mapping that into i-nexus, and demonstrating value.”

Moving forward with the same zeal and determination, i-nexus wants to add more success stories to its list by bringing in additional capabilities under its wings. To that end, the firm will invest in things like usability, self-service, getting meaningful data, and more. From a manufacturing point of view, with the industry becoming more digital—moving toward industry 4.0—i-nexus is looking to add a human element to streamline processes. “We are investing quite heavily in some exciting projects around predictive strategic planning and predictive project performance. This way, before manufacturers have even started initiatives for their lean manufacturing operations, they will be able to turn around and say if those strategies will succeed or fail,” wraps up Crowther.