Challenges of Channel Analytics and Data Visualization
Even after channel data from multiple sources has been cleansed and normalized and various other kinds of processing (inventory analytics, incentive analytics, royalty and revenue analytics) completed, the danger of having information silos still exists. A related issue is that the data is presented in ways that are not easy to digest.
For example, sales operations may have great information on inventory down to every SKU, the revenue accountant may have automatically made journal entries and the marketing manager has a handle on the ROI of her individual programs. However, companies still run into some familiar problems:
- The CFO, just before he flies off to Japan to meet with the country manager, wants to get a consolidated picture of revenues by region, compared to commissions and back-end credits: he wants to understand what the real margins and operating expenses are by region.
- The VP of Sales and Marketing is re-negotiating a contract with his biggest distributor and wants to know revenues, days of inventory and the total of all channel incentives extended to this distributor.
- Amazingly, these requests always come in at 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon! People seldom have the luxury of waiting several hours, or even days, for someone in IT, or operations or an outsourced service provider to create a manual report.
What if executives could have the information they needed at their fingertips? What if they could see channel performance on demand: updated to the latest data in real-time? What if channel operations personnel could view the details they needed to control channel activity? What if you could visualize the entire channel online and in real-time?
Unmatched Channel Control with cCRM
Entomo’s integrated Channel Control Dashboards and Analytics module provides the business intelligence you need to gain multi-dimensional channel insight and take control of your channel, online and in real-time. Rather than letting you drown in a sea of data, the cCRM channel analytics and dashboards give you visibility into large data sets in a manner that highlights those aspects of the channel data that are most pertinent to your job function, and to maximizing revenues and margins.
The following core capabilities of Entomo’s SmartHub® Channel Control Dashboards and Analytics module empower executives and managers at all levels:
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Charts and Graphs
Charts and graphs can be created and embedded into tabular reports, which allows for instant top-level visualization with drill-down capabilities.
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Consolidated Views
Information from various solution modules can be aggregated to provide comprehensive views of channel activity.
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Configurable Views
Each user in the system can create their own dashboard and channel analytics views, without requiring any IT or Entomo involvement. This includes the ability to add, size and position dashboard elements.
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Sharable Views
Functional teams such as sales, finance, marketing, or compliance can configure their own report groups as a way to share function-specific business intelligence and channel insight.
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Background Jobs and Scheduling
Reports can be scheduled to run in the background. The user is notified upon completion.
Entomo has an extensive library of templates for dashboards and channel analytics. Our implementation includes best practice guidance from our professional services on modifying these templates to meet company and function-specific needs.
