Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Wish #6045 -- better stats on Sales by PN ( line ) code sales

This may turn into a long wish list of things to make review of line code sales better and easier --especially for MULTI-STORE jobbers - the exisiting reports are crude as best - and a long way off what one comes to expect in 2010. This request has been sent to Raleigh today.

I hope I can re-sort this - but for now - this is listed as I come across them

1) we need a MULTI-STORE report for sales by PN Codes ....

here is a sample we made from J-Con data ( this one is Dec 2006 data --the colors identified which store ( or count across - 1 -2 3 ) ...how you will do this with a 10 store chain - not sure - nice thing about excel -- it is very very wide

2) we need a way to IGNORE obsolete lines - since we can't delete data ( generally ) - we need some way to IGNORE the data ... maybe if we had an option in the line code entry screen to flag these lines as OBSOLETE --then we could do a couple of things --- see pull down window - for Parts-Labor-Freight -- how about an addition for OBSOLETE ??
- remove them from reports
- run inventory for all obsolete and verify all stock has been properly transferred

3) while we are in the Line Code Entry screen -- it would be really a great idea if we had the opportunity to have STEPS in our reports by line Code -- so we can see a progression of detail the deeper we go into any one store -or have a report at this 'level' across all stores in the multi-store jobber group.

Here is sample of data we where able to pull from J-Con and work our own BUCKET data for sales --I have blanked out ( in red ) some data as confidential - since this will also be posted on the internet

I wrote WISH #5681 on Nov 2006 requesting the basically same thing ... Here is a copy .....

Begin forwarded message:

From: Greg HENDERSON
Date: November 7, 2006 5:11:03 PM GMT-05:00
To: Rick Young , Greg Donnells , Joe Zucchero , Keith Swainey , David Credle , , Paul Pierce , Steve Gushie
Cc: Marc Blanc 'Marc Blanc' , Mike Washington , Larry Sloan , Moe Armstrong , Doug Crowe , 'Sheila Langteau'
Subject: Exploris Wish # 5681 - STATS - drill down stats

Hello Rick et al

This needs to part of the multi-store I.C. Review & conference call if
possible.

Stats in J-Con are really bad! Really bad! Good data really makes making
good decisions somewhat easier. We need to be able to see the possibilities
if we increased stock - what might it do for anticipated sales by group or
salesman.

We need the ability to have very general data ( TOTAL STORE SALES and
growth to last year - with options for YTD to rolling 12 months ) along
with optional inventory turns ....

Then we need ability to DRILL DOWN to get more detail ONE STEP at a time

- sales matrix of product BUCKETS ( eg. All things BRAKE ; or
UNDERCAR; or Welding & Industrial - with the number of buckets in the 10 to
20 range .... And since I said MATRIX --the other AXIS would be by
CUSTOMER TYPE or SALESMEN ( optional )

-then you could go into 'sub-buckets ( all friction within brakes ;
all chassis parts within Undercar )

-then you can continue to drill down to more detailed info
- by zip code
- by line code and sub/line code
- with inventory turns data at every step.

We needs CHARTS/GRAPHS as well as numerical data.

Regards





Here is another example written in 2007 .......


Begin forwarded message:

From: Greg Henderson
Date: December 3, 2007 2:57:14 PM GMT-05:00
To: Rick Young , Debra Rosenbaum , Greg Donnells , Joe Zucchero , Steve Gushie , Keith Swainey
Subject: Exploris Wish #5892 -Stats- Customer stats that compress-expand on demand

Hello Rick

Please accept this Exploris Request #5892 for Customer Stats in Exploris

We need to have complete customer stats that will expand and contract as the requirements dictate.. We need the ability to 'drill down' on specific issues or customers; but also have the opportunity to see the '20,000' foot level when only a summary will provide that kind of overview

I recently found a way to extract ALL defective returns from a 6-9 in J-Con to excel and then matched with sales data --so we can see the RATIO of defectives to sales by store - by store by customer - and by store by line - - by store by customer & line - for any given period (with graphs ) ... etc etc ....this is a most beneficial report for both the jobber and the warehouse.

We look forward to having that kind of power in Exploris.


Background -- a couple of unnumbered e-mails previously we have requested:
Date: October 26, 2004 11:08:25 AM EDT (CA)
To: Terri Ballard
Subject: Varying levels of customer stats ? In Exploris

Hello Terri

I have been invited to a National Accounts Customer Sales & profit review
meeting in Toronto on Nov 2nd ... So I am trying to prepare

Question - can we access some web based training for Exploris to see what
'Exploris' will allow us to see on various reports for customer
profitability?

Does Exploris allow us some flexibility to consolidate data - say - take all
brakes lines ( BDO-FRI-BRK etc etc ) and have one total for all brake sales
( or any user specified or system set ? ) by customer. We had something
similar in our previous Autologue system.


In another we explained the 'bucket' idea
From: "Robert Blair"
Date: November 4, 2004 2:33:47 PM EST (CA)
To: "Greg HENDERSON"
Cc: "Brian Taylor"
Subject: RE: Customer stats on Exploris - can anything be as bad as J-Con
Reply-To:

The only thing missing is the meeting in Toronto which Brian is going to set
up so now you can bug him to give you a date which will doubtless dispel a
lot, if not all, of your "anxieties"
Robert
-----Original Message-----
From: Greg HENDERSON [mailto:Greg.Henderson@wrenchead.ca]
Sent: Thursday, November 04, 2004 10:04 AM
To: Robert Blair
Subject: Customer stats on Exploris - can anything be as bad as J-Con
Hello Robert

Forgive me if I have mentioned this previously - but the customer stats
from J-Con suck

Trying to prepare for the recent National Accounts meeting hi-lighted how
bad the stats resources are.

To use an analogy - I want the population for Canada - ok - now I want the
population for all provinces ... Ok now the same data by county ... List
the top 10 cities... Some way to go up and down theists of consolidation and
expanding the data headings.

In Exploris I should be able to apply 'grouping buckets' for lack of a
better word. In our old ACS system we had 24 buckets to use and
consolidate various line codes into.

So - I want detail ( like I have now - fine - by line by sub line ) -- but
if I want just ALL BRAKE LINES grouped together by customer - in
descending customer order and compared to last year -- and of course I
want this seamlessly exported to Excel. Looking for data that works and
fits on ONE PIECE of paper.

The silence of what Exploris can do is very frustrating. If there was more
known - then maybe I wouldn't worry as much?


Regards




4) we need EXPLORIS to have some way to make all LINE CODES common in all stores - at present it is a very time consuming job to go thru than match up the lines codes --for example Store # 2 has 4 MORE line codes than Store # 3 --and store #3 has 2 more lines codes than store #1 --so I can not just line upa nd clean up --I must find which lines are not shared -- a very time wasteful process....

It highlights some shortcomings in Exploris - like the inability to delete out obsolete line codes -- store # 2 has BA9 somehow as a EXPLORIS line --so we had to make BA9 in the other stores to help us better match up these lines for future use....


5) while we are at it -- what reports need accuracy to the penny and what reports DO NOT NEED PENNIES .... I think this report would be much cleaner if you set the format to DOLLARS ONLY for the sales & inventory data ...and set turns to just one digit of decimals

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