Channel Analytics

Real-time visibility into channel activity including sales, returns, in-transit shipments and inventory levels.

Analysis of sales and inventory data by partner, partner location, product, and end customer via configurable reports and dashboards.

• Channel POS & Inventory Reconciliation
  Automated reconciliation and correction of reported channel data including sales, returns, inventory and in-transit data. Automatic adjustment for mis-alignment of data with respect to several factors including reporting dates and financial periods.
  
  
• Perpetual Inventory
  Perpetual (roll-forward) channel inventory tracking. Provides visibility into inventories held by specific channel partners. Also tracks inventory sold into the channel. Sales can be grouped by a variety of different criteria including the price that each channel partner paid. Sales returns and in-transit data can be used to update the overall inventory information. Flexible calculation rules help users create a representation of inventory on specific dates. Provides accurate inventory status for a specific part, customer, quote, or order. Delivers an aggregated view of channel and direct inventory availability, as well as locations.
  
  
• Inventory Valuation
  Valuation of the inventory in the channel by using a variety of methods including FIFO, “lower of cost or market”, or average price.
  
  
• Shipment Tracking
  Automated tracking of goods in-transit, due and over-due, as well as a summarized view of goods received.

Track royalties (reported vs due) across several levels of licensees and distribution channels. Quickly uncover unreported and dis-allowed sales and unpaid royalties.

Analyze the broad spectrum of sell-thru data received from retail and distribution partners instead of creating manual reports on an ad hoc basis. The Entomo analytics module supplies channel-specific reports that provide detailed partner and product-level demand analysis, enhancing your understanding of target markets. Sort information by region, category, product, or partners.

• Sales In/Out Reporting
  Analysis of sales by distributor end-customer to access purchasing patterns in focus accounts and markets by channel, region, focus account, partner, sales representative, product and commodity group. Monitor and compare the sales activities (volume and value) over time and for different product categories or customer groups. Compare the effectiveness of individual sales representatives or channel partners and use this information for incentive programs or for calculating commission. When integrated with Entomo's data enrichment solutions the solution recognizes end customer identifiers assigned by distributors and consolidates them into one end-customer ID within the system.
  
  
• Returns Reconciliation
  Validation of returns against orders, shipments, lot numbers, and 852 and 867 data to help control product movement and minimize net revenue loss.
  
  
• Partner-to-Partner Sales
  Identification of allowed and disallowed Partner-to-Partner sales, based on channel contracts with individual partners
  
  
• Aggregate Reporting
  Consolidation of data from multiple sources (POS, inventory, shipments, credits, returns, MDF) to access marketing promotion effectiveness, drive demand forecasting, supply chain planning, sales commission payments, and revenue recognition.

• Deferred and Forecasted Revenue Reporting
  Automated reports on all revenue that has yet to be recognized, as well as revenue that has been deferred. Deferred revenue reports deliver detailed data on what revenue has posted. Revenue forecasts indicate what revenue is scheduled to be recognized and when. Easy access to detailed historical and future views of both deferred and recognized revenue leads to smarter, better and more accurate business planning. With full visibility into your company's revenue provided by an integrated reporting system, you can project your true financial position, including sales, cash flow and revenue with a greater degree of confidence.
  
  
• Stock Rotation and Price Protection Exposure
  Real-time calculation of revenue exposure due to channel inventory, contract terms (stock returns) and incentive programs (price-protection, MDF etc.).
  
  
• Revenue Leakage
  Automated identification of revenue leaks due to unpaid royalties, and unqualified channel incentive claims including price-protection and MDF.

• Claims Validation
  View all sales made, inventory in stock and claims - fully auditable and linked to each other. With "one-click", verify performance of each rebate or special pricing claim received against actual sales and inventory data.
  
  
• Chargebacks Reconciliation
  Validation of chargebacks and negative chargebacks against 867 sales and 844 returns to alert chargeback specialists of potential unverified chargebacks, missing negative chargebacks, and missing chargebacks with consequent lost revenue.

Real time visibility into spurious inventory and. gray market activity - sales to unauthorized parties and markets.

Entomo's Channel Partner Performance solution is a customized outsourced service that helps our customers monitor how effective their retail and distribution partners are in terms of generating sales, forecasting demand, and managing inventory. It allows them to benchmark, score, and compare how partners perform -to ensure efficient, effective, and profitable channel programs.

All of this without the need to hire staff and implement systems to do these kinds of analysis in house.

For example Entomo can track and analyze the budget allocation and actual “spend” of MDF or Co-op funds and tie the spend to the actual sales for an accurate cost/benefit analysis. By performing this type of analysis for our customers Entomo helps them identify successful programs and reward successful retail and distribution partners.

Implementing this solution ensures that our customer's marketing programs no longer operate in the dark, without measurable contribution to key strategic business goals. By providing higher levels of visibility and accountability from lead generation through deals closed Entomo's offering provides its customers with a better understanding of how their channel partners and associated initiatives are impacting both the top and bottom lines.

• Custom Reports
  Ad-hoc query capabilities enable you to easily slice through the data and deliver customized automated reports specific to your needs.
  
  
• Charting & Trending
  Charting and trending across multiple dimensions - territory, region, SKU, product family, partner, customer, etc.
  
  
• Dashboards and KPIs
  Summary graphical view that integrates all critical business data across departments. Enables users to spend time analyzing and acting on crucial business data—not gathering it. Personalized for each employee. The dashboard offers instant snapshots of key performance indicators (KPIs), such as new sales orders, commissions and forecasts. Easily access performance metrics and data - such as sales growth, product availability, and profitability of various channel programs. Quickly understand results and trend figures.and evaluate how well the channel is performing. Using channel sales and inventory data, the dashboard provides up-to-the-minute performance metrics and status views that include inventory positions, product mix, up-to-date sales trends, and fulfillment costs. Information relating to orders, inventory, products, partners, forecasts, and alerts are factored in and presented in a format configured to the users role and function. That way, each user accesses specific information based on their role, and can customize the dashboard to show only the things they are interested in viewing while filtering out unnecessary information.
  
  
• Scorecards
  For easy benchmarking, measuring, comparing and viewing performance. For example you can analyze distribution partner’s performance using Key Performance Indicators that you set up in a scorecard. Then the system will continuously monitor and report on individual partner performance against these metrics. Include metric incorporated into distribution agreements so that you can pro-actively respond to issues, rather than wait until a quarter's end, say, when it's too late to make corrections. Use the scorecard to understand how well a partner(s) is performing and meeting either program or manufacturer expectations and how one partner compares vs the others with respect to such measures as sales growth, product availability, and marketing effectiveness. Track payments, and maintain auditable records of metrics, adjustments, and calculations. Fully configurable in terms of which metrics to apply, the gating levels, the methods of scoring, and the range of scores, etc.

When needed, Entomo's analysts and senior engineers can design and deliver highly customized analytics solutions to customers who must have them to ensure they are using their channel and revenue data to the fullest advantage. This offering focuses on solving uniquely complex customer specific channel analytics problems that pose data-intensive challenges in a number of different areas including statistical analysis, business intelligence software development, automated data processing, reporting, data conversion, ETL, and data mining.