Prospect Needs Self-Assessment
To help you determine what you need out of an Analytics solution, the following questionnaire lets you rate the importance of different aspects of data analysis. Select an “importance rating” of 1 – 4:
1: Not important 2: Somewhat important 3: Very Important 4: Essential
Technical Challenges
In your analyses of your business, do you wish you could . . .
1 2 3 4 drill-down into individual or groups of records shown on a report?
1 2 3 4 display business metrics in a graphic or dashboard format?
1 2 3 4 have a single report that lets you dynamically change how its results are viewed – such as
sales by revenues, gross profit, cost-of-goods sold, etc?
1 2 3 4 predict likely future behavior based on past performance?
1 2 3 4 take a report and say “what if” (e.g., (“what if my sales increase by 15%?”)
1 2 3 4 see projections of likely business activities (e.g., will I have enough stock in 3 months?”)
1 2 3 4 use plain English (Google-like) commands to dynamically build an ad-hoc report?
1 2 3 4 create a new report without needing help from some techie in IT?
1 2 3 4 analyze business activities across multiple ERP modules/silos (e.g., have a single cash
flow analysis report that combines AP, AR, Cash, & Payroll details)?
1 2 3 4 analyze business conditions between multiple business applications (e.g., between
ERP and CRM?)
1 2 3 4 reduce the runtimes of certain reports (and not have to wait hours to get results you need)?
1 2 3 4 get (in a single report) time-comparison results, such as sales this month or year versus last?
1 2 3 4 dynamically re-arrange the order of records, or opt to see just the top or bottom ‘x’ producers?
1 2 3 4 graphically see geographic distributions – such as sales per state, region, or country?
1 2 3 4 get a single report that includes both graphic representations (e.g., a bar chart of client sales)
and spreadsheet-level details (such as individual client invoice details)?
In your accounts payable, do you wish you . . .
1 2 3 4 could avoid late fees?
1 2 3 4 had better visibility into early pay discounts?
1 2 3 4 had instant access to vendor aging, such as debts over ‘x’ days old?
1 2 3 4 could easily see overdue (& coming due) invoices?
1 2 3 4 had a dashboard showing open vendor balances by due date?
1 2 3 4 could always know which vendors were coming due, overdue, or had damaged deliveries?
In terms of overall sales, do you need to know . . .
1 2 3 4 sales this period versus last (with dollar & percentage variances)?
1 2 3 4 your geographic sales distribution, highlighting top growth & decline regions?
1 2 3 4 salesrep performance – who’s met their numbers, who hasn’t, & who’s close?
1 2 3 4 key stats, including sales, gross profit, qty sold, & top clients, salesreps & items?
1 2 3 4 multi-year customer sales rankings (who’s going up; who’s going down)?
1 2 3 4 forecast sales over the next ‘x’ weeks/months/years for specific items, salesreps, or clients?
1 2 3 4 major variances in sales trends by month & year, including total sales & gross profit?
In your receivables department, do you need to know . . .
1 2 3 4 sales this period versus last (with dollar & percentage variances)?
1 2 3 4 who’s over 30, 60, 90, or 120+ days old?
1 2 3 4 which clients & salesreps are most challenged with collections?
1 2 3 4 what regions have the highest outstanding debts?
1 2 3 4 what your DSO (days sales outstanding) is?
1 2 3 4 who your highest-risk debt customers are?
1 2 3 4 what your potential bad debt exposure is?
In terms of client sales figures, do you need to know . . .
1 2 3 4 how sales compare this period vs prior?
1 2 3 4 who’s met or exceeded last year’s sales?
1 2 3 4 who your top performers are?
1 2 3 4 who’s top in sales growth or decline?
1 2 3 4 which top clients have no current sales?
1 2 3 4 whose business have you kept (and whose have you lost)?
1 2 3 4 where clients rank in net & gross profitability?
In your product sales analyses, do you need to know . . .
1 2 3 4 which products are selling better or worse than last year (and by how much)?
1 2 3 4 which products are your top-sellers to your top clients?
1 2 3 4 which top-selling products are not being purchased by your top clients?
1 2 3 4 your best (& worst) sellers, along with transactional-level detail?
In terms of pending sales, do you need to know . . .
1 2 3 4 which clients have pending or overdue sales (and how much they’re worth)?
1 2 3 4 your sales ‘velocity’ (total opps, close rate, avg sale, avg days to close)?
1 2 3 4 the number and type of activities scheduled per client & by salesrep?
1 2 3 4 your sales funnel (opps & dollars in various stages of the funnel)?
1 2 3 4 which products have pending or overdue sales (and how much they’re worth)?
1 2 3 4 scheduled shipments that have been missed?
In the management of your inventory, do you need to know . . .
1 2 3 4 current & future stock shortages or outages?
1 2 3 4 overstock or slow-moving items?
1 2 3 4 items that have not been sold in ‘x’ days?
1 2 3 4 quantity on-hand & days of stock remaining?
1 2 3 4 quantity sold per item over timeframe ‘x’?
1 2 3 4 time-sensitive lots that are due to expire?
1 2 3 4 about any excessive price increases?
In your purchasing department, do you need to know . . .
1 2 3 4 POs that are overdue (& by how many days)?
1 2 3 4 POs that are coming due (within the next ‘x’ days)?
1 2 3 4 vendors who miss their delivery deadlines?
1 2 3 4 changes to shipping terms?
In your financial reports, do you need to know . . .
1 2 3 4 cashflow projections for time range ‘x’ – combining AP, AR, Cash, & Payroll?
1 2 3 4 overall financials dashboard – with revenues, gross profit, operating expenses, & net income?
1 2 3 4 profit & loss tracking – for time range ‘x’?
1 2 3 4 budget versus actual comparisons?
1 2 3 4 balance sheet & trial balance – with period-to-period comparisons?
(Note that the above questions represent only a sampling of the kind of insight available from DataSelf’s library of over 8,000 pre-configured reports & dashboards.)