2. Not “Just” Sales Reports – Part 1
In the second blog post in this series, we asked the DBI team to give examples of some key projects they have worked on which illustrate that working with our customers often extends to include some development projects that take us far from the basic sales reports, which are a given in most implementations.
Typically when we speak about our jobs, we tend to over-simplify our roles and say something broad like, “we create reports using our customers’ data to enable them to identify where they need to take actions, to help improve their business outcomes”. It’s easier to use sales reports as an example as these are available in just about every ERP or BI system. But as you will find out from the examples described below, we have to be flexible and creative in finding ways to plug information gaps or free up business process deadlocks, as most data comes from silos that cannot speak to each without some external mechanism that can bring it all together.
Here are the first 6 examples from: Bob Corr, John Spilllane, Paul Duggan, Debbie Lonsdale, Elaine Breen and Lorenzo Lumanlan.
1. Bob Corr (Managing Director DBI)
Sales data and sales reporting together create the foundation stone of most BI implementations, and we excel at delivering standard sales reports. But we add value to those sales reports because we can incorporate many different data sources into the same data model. For example we can combine sales with purchasing and stock data, giving users a more comprehensive view of how the business needs to react to higher or lower sales demand. They monitor every product line and view the sales side-by-side with what is on order and what is in stock; what needs to be increased in stock and what needs to be promoted to get rid of slow-moving stock.
We also design standalone Stock Availability, Stock Turns and Aged Stock reports which enable our customers to get a detailed understanding of what is happening at inventory level.
As an important performance measurement feature we can bring in target or budgetary data which typically is held outside of the main ERP system and not usually automated. We can join budget data, at whatever level the customer specifies, to the ERP source sales data, and create reports or KPI indicators on the results. Our sales v budget capabilities drive many a customer’s management meetings and highlight performance highs and lows, allowing action to be taken immediately if corrections are required.
2. John Spillane (Technical Director DBI)
The platform we use for our application development (The Diver Platform) has, for a while now, included data input features. These have become invaluable to us because within the interfaces of the platform we can now design screens for data capture into bespoke Diver tables. These are now used as powerful replacements for a tangle of spreadsheets. Through careful design we have been able to solve many more customer pain points with new applications using our data input screens combined with integrated data models.
One of these is trading rebates. Rebates are financial supports received or given between trading partners and are a crucial element of a buying group’s business model. We have created a Rebates application which centralises all rules, calculations, reports and enquiries in one place, accessible online within a BI portal.
The Rebates application has been warmly welcomed by a growing number of our customers as rebate deals are notoriously labour intensive, complicated calculations that work out deals from a variety of data sources and have historically been manually updated in spreadsheets. As new rules emerge, this process becomes more complex as different versions of the spreadsheet calculations may be in operation. These highly manual procedures take up large amounts of time and involve multiple parties interacting haphazardly by email to agree values. The lack of shared visibility using this method made a proper rebates workflow and business oversight very difficult, which is why our rebates application solves so many issues, as everything is centralised and we automate as much as possible.
For more details about rebates please see https://dbinform.com/services/obis-online-business-insights-service/ and download the pdf on Rebates.
3. Paul Duggan (Software Development Manager DBI)
In addition to the general BI sales type reporting which is present within most of the implementations used by our customer base, I’ve been involved in designing some operational modules that process other types of data which can impact on the efficiencies of their daily business activities. These have ranged from combining telecom brokerage data from multiple sources to produce accurate invoicing and the physical invoice documents, to reporting on transport and driver efficiencies, and analysis of delivery information, which informs logistics KPIS and alerts.
One module that I’ve been working on recently has involved creating a system for automating text message alerts to Waste Disposal customers, which advise them of changes to routes, timings or reminders of the type of bin to be collected. This allows the Company to react dynamically to changing demands whilst at the same time keeping their customers well-informed of any unexpected scheduling amendments, and so streamline their operations efficiently.
4. Debbie Lonsdale (Senior BI Consultant DBI)
The input features of the Diver Platform were once again crucial for designing an application to calculate driver commissions for a business that has over 40 oil depots. They badly needed to streamline the laborious process of manually updating spreadsheets. The drivers make daily deliveries of home heating oil to their customer base and certain data points need to be recorded in order to accurately attribute commission. We needed to automate the mapping of trip data which includes litres delivered, payment types and date of payment, plus work out other components for payroll, holidays, overtime and supplementary payments. Some data was coming from handheld devices, some from the oil ERP system and some from input screens designed to capture the additional payroll data.
All of these elements were combined together in scripts designed in Diver to calculate commissions derived from business rules applied to the data as a whole.
Every week the scripts run automatically, everything is checked by payroll staff and any anomalies resolved, then outputs are generated: as files which can update the payroll system and as individual pdfs for each driver detailing their weekly commission payments. This application cut manual processing time using spreadsheets, by 55 man-hours per week.
5. Elaine Breen (Senior BI Consultant DBI)
I have worked on a number of unusual projects outside of the standard BI reports. One that stands out is an application that we host as SaaS for a customer in the Food Service sector.
We designed a portal that enables over 350 of their suppliers to submit product price changes for their approval, with supporting documentation to be uploaded for review. The portal allows for the vendors to view a screen with a full listing of their own products, and by clicking on each product they can enter a new price and a reason for the change, with a requested start date. The Diver scripts send an email to the buyers alerting them to the proposed price change. The status for each product then shows as “pending approval” until the decision is made to approve or reject the price change, which displays on the initial input screen.
This application replaces and centralises all the old processes which were managed using email by all the buyers with separate threads for each vendor. By using access control features in the portal, vendors and buyers see only the data they need to action, but management users can see all the price change information in one place. This system is now central to their pricing workflows.
6. Lorenzo Lumanlan (BI Developer/Consultant DBI)
I’ve spent time on several bespoke applications which have involved using so many of the features of Diver’s Workbench and input technologies – as are many of our more complex implementations.
One key application that I work on is for a chain of hardware stores. We provide them with a SaaS portal for all of their vendors to access screens to book in their product deliveries, choosing delivery slots at their distribution centres and stores. As we already process the purchase order data for the customer’s own in-house reports, we can bring that information into the portal and present each vendor with a list of their open purchase orders with expected delivery dates. The vendors can select each PO and choose a delivery slot from those available. We manage the delivery slots and the inputs using Diver tables and input forms. Currently there are nearly 1,000 users accessing this portal and it’s key to their supply chain.
This system centralises all the delivery information in one place and has the added benefit that we can provide many other reports on supplier compliance regarding the delivery of their orders.
In part 2 of “Not Just Sales Reports” we will hear from Olatz Iturbe, Anthony Wright, YY Tsang, Jer Colbert and James Grace.
