Analysis beats reporting

Nick Calver, Marketing Director

Summary reports may offer captivating headlines but often fail to convey the details. When you can explore information to drive deeper understanding, you upgrade from a report reader to an analytical thinker.

For most people, reporting has now become the universal way that we ask for information – we use “report” and “reporting” without even thinking:

  • “It’s in the report!”
  • “Can you run me a report?”
  • “Have you seen the latest report?”

Reports are indispensable, providing insights into the efficiency and effectiveness of consumer packaged goods (CPG) activities and indicating when adjustments are necessary. However, the value of reports is not without limitations. They can be too superficial to unearth the underlying causes of issues or so dense that they obscure the insights they’re meant to reveal.

Complicating matters further, many organisations find themselves inundated with reports, each slightly differing in name, focus, and parameters, yet collectively contributing to an overwhelming information overload. The real challenge lies not in generating reports but in distilling them to extract meaningful intelligence.

In all of this endless reporting, consider these scenarios:

  • How quickly can you identify and act upon immediate issues and mid-term trends?
  • Can you determine your key drivers for growth, such as which products, subcategories, brands, and customers provide the best mix to meet shopper demand?
  • Are you able to capitalise on new channels, using your traditional reporting tools and approach?
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“As a former buyer for two of the UK’s largest supermarket chains, I know from experience that most buyers aren’t aware when the lines they look after are going out of stock. With SKUtrak, I have the insight that I need to very gently let retailers know that they’re running low. I can tell them when they might be under-forecasting, or if their projections for an upcoming promotion are being skewed by previous stockouts. It shines a light on things that might otherwise go unnoticed.”

James Heller, UK & Ireland Sales Director at Famille Perrin

The value of analysis in making informed business decisions

In contrast, analysis delves deeper into the ‘Why?’ and ‘How?’ aspects behind the data. It’s not just about collating information, but interpreting it to develop answers to critical questions and propose specific actions. While reporting plays a crucial role in linking and comparing data, it’s analysis that transforms it into actionable recommendations.

Bottlenecks create a slow “drip drip” of insights

Too many organisations struggle to access the insights needed to be truly effective.  What tends to happen is that they end up with surface-level or partial insights that tend to be drip-fed on request. That’s typically because:

  • Aggregates are rarely insightful: The data that CPGs collect is usually highly detailed – but is aggregated for reporting and analysis since users lack the tools and technical capabilities needed to navigate fine-grained data. Many are still reliant on basic spreadsheets.
  • Expertise tends to be siloed: Retailer datasets are complex and often need specialist expertise to interpret them effectively. That tends to create a high-risk model for analysis with multiple points of failure (and bottlenecks).
  • Data is complex and dry: The insights within flow-of-goods data can often be obvious and easy to spot once data is aligned and presented effectively. However, generating actionable insight requires data to be collated, structured and presented in the right way – which isn’t usually the case due to its highly numeric nature.

Above all, it is a time-intensive and resource-hungry process and that tends to mean that people spend excessive amounts of time capturing and manipulating the data rather than spending time interpreting it.

Empowering performances with personalised insights

Demand intelligence platforms are pivotal in addressing these challenges by democratising data-driven decision-making throughout the organisation in real-time.

Modern self-service platforms have revolutionised how data is categorised and utilised for reporting and analysis. These platforms offer various types of dashboards, each designed for specific role types (commercial/supply chain) and purposes (along with data-sharing functionality):

  • Reports dashboards: Ideal for understanding past events, these dashboards enable users to analyse trends and outcomes from historical data.
  • Manage dashboards: These dashboards use interactive visual elements for task-oriented problem-solving, focusing on managing and monitoring ongoing processes and providing real-time insights.
  • Explore dashboards: Designed for in-depth data exploration, these dashboards use interactive elements to conduct detailed analyses, identify patterns, and generate strategic insights.
  • Data-sharing: Provide direct access to mission-critical information and insights into the CPG’s own reporting tools, analytics platforms and enterprise business systems.
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“Giving people access to their own data is about more than just time-saving. If you’re always getting that information from someone else, there’s a risk that you don’t engage with it as fully as you should. With SKUtrak, everyone has the opportunity to really get to grips with the insight for their specific account and interpret it in the right way. That leads to fundamentally better conversations internally and with our partners too.”

Kelly Holman, National Account Executive at Valeo Foods Group

With this mission-critical functionality, organisations can start to move beyond limited homemade spreadsheets that so often lack the sophistication needed to interpret complex data fully. Sophisticated, yet user-friendly analytical tools provided by these platforms offer a more accurate and comprehensive view of data. This includes capabilities like:

  • Identifying high-performing products, 
  • Pinpointing low-stock areas, detecting discrepancies in stock and sales performance, 
  • Analysing waste patterns, 
  • Evaluating promotion performance,
  • Prioritising focus areas for different departments,
  • and much, much more….

Embracing advanced data analysis

Transitioning from traditional reporting to advanced, analysis-driven methods is crucial in today’s data-centric CPG world. Demand intelligence platforms mark a significant advancement, enabling detailed, personalised analysis accessible across organisational levels. Adopting demand intelligence is key for CPGs aiming to harness their data’s full potential to enhance daily decision-making for improved outcomes.

Want to see SKUtrak in action? Contact us today for a demonstration of how SKUtrak can help provide actionable intelligence and easy-to-understand reports.