The Need for Analytics

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The top two technical features of analytics; the top three statistics behind client needs for analytics

Standard – “out of the box” – ERP reports typically provide pre-determined ways to view historical data. For example, a year-over-year sales report may look at gross revenues – failing to show geographic variances, over and under-performing products, and other mitigating factors.

Most glaringly, traditional reports do not “slice and dice” or “drill-down” into the data presented you. For example, a Salesperson Performance report may show that some of your reps are underperforming, but it doesn’t give you the flexibility (and interact-ability) to find out why – perhaps identifying specific products, regions, or even times of year when a rep’s numbers are abnormally low.

So – although Analytics are all about improving future success, their ability to do that depends entirely on their ability to do a better job than standard reports in analyzing the past.

A recent poll of organizations that were investing in BI were asked their reasons why – and the top three answers are telling:

  • 60%  wanted to produce & deliver more sophisticated & flexible reports.
  • 70%  gave monitoring cash flow as a top reason.
  • 80%  stated that optimizing inventory was a chief concern.