Signal lines / oat, graphite and coral

A data analytics and BI implementation proposal for a distributor whose monthly report takes six working days to build in spreadsheets. It covers how the report is made today, the metrics to define, what gets built, a ten-week timeline, the team, a similar client’s results and three one-time options.

Data Analytics and BI Implementation Proposal

Overview

<h2 style="line-height: 1.14; font-family: var(--proposal-font-heading); font-size: max(18px, clamp(28px, 4.2cqw, 44px)); font-weight: 700;"><strong>Thank you for showing us the monthly pack</strong></h2><p style="line-height: 1.5;">You want one set of numbers your leadership team trusts, ready on the second working day of each month.</p>

Introduction

<h2 style="font-family:var(--proposal-font-heading);font-size:clamp(28px,4.2cqw,44px);line-height:1.14;font-weight:700">How the monthly pack is made today</h2><p style="font-size:clamp(20px,2.1cqw,23px);line-height:1.5">Four manual steps, done by two people in finance.</p>

<p>Twelve exports from NetSuite, HubSpot and the warehouse system on the first working day.</p>

Export

<p>Customer and product names matched by hand, because each system spells them differently.</p>

Clean

<p>Formulas across 40 tabs, which break when a branch or product line is added.</p>

Combine

<p>The finance director checks the totals and emails a PDF to the board.</p>

Check and send

Working day of the month the pack reached the board

Your situation

<h2 style="font-family:var(--proposal-font-accent);font-weight:500;line-height:1.14"><span style="font-size:clamp(30px,4.2cqw,52px)">We recommend agreeing the definitions before building anything, so every dashboard shows the same number.</span></h2><p style="font-size:clamp(20px,2.1cqw,23px);line-height:1.5">These are the first five. The full list of about twenty is agreed with your finance and sales leads in weeks one and two.</p>

Our recommendation

<h2 style="font-family:var(--proposal-font-heading);font-size:clamp(28px,4.2cqw,44px);line-height:1.14;font-weight:700">What is included</h2><p style="font-size:clamp(20px,2.1cqw,23px);line-height:1.5">Everything in the recommended option, Warehouse and dashboards.</p>

<p>Nightly loads from NetSuite, HubSpot and your warehouse system, with an alert if a load fails.</p>

Data connections

<p>A warehouse on your own Azure account, holding five years of history, so you own the data and the costs.</p>

Data warehouse

<ul><li>Board pack</li><li>Branch performance</li><li>Sales pipeline</li><li>Stock and purchasing</li><li>Customer profitability</li></ul>

Dashboards

<p>A written definition for every metric, visible inside each dashboard, signed off by your finance director.</p>

Definitions

<p>Two sessions for managers on using the dashboards, and one for your analyst on changing them.</p>

Training

<p><strong>Not included:</strong> Power BI licences, Azure running costs of about $300 a month, budgets and forecasts, and fixing data that is wrong in the source systems.</p>

<h2 style="font-family:var(--proposal-font-heading);font-size:clamp(28px,4.2cqw,44px);line-height:1.14;font-weight:700">Ten weeks from kickoff</h2><p style="font-size:clamp(20px,2.1cqw,23px);line-height:1.5">Work starts on {{START_DATE}}. Your current spreadsheet runs alongside until the dashboards match it.</p>

<p>Workshops with finance and sales to agree about twenty metrics.</p>

<p>Nightly loads from all three systems, checked against last month’s pack.</p>

Connections and warehouse

<p>Five dashboards, reviewed with the people who will use them.</p>

<p>One month-end with both the spreadsheet and the dashboards, then training.</p>

Run alongside

What is included

Who you will work with

<h2 style="font-family:var(--proposal-font-heading);font-size:clamp(28px,4.2cqw,44px);line-height:1.14;font-weight:700">Results for a similar client</h2><p style="font-size:clamp(20px,2.1cqw,23px);line-height:1.5">A plumbing supplies distributor, three months after go-live.</p>

Results for a similar client

<h2 style="font-family:var(--proposal-font-heading);font-size:clamp(28px,4.2cqw,44px);line-height:1.14;font-weight:700">Options and fees</h2><p style="font-size:clamp(20px,2.1cqw,23px);line-height:1.5">Three options. We recommend Warehouse and dashboards.</p>

Board pack

Warehouse and dashboards

Dashboards and forecasting

<p>Fees are in USD and exclude tax. Power BI licences and Azure costs are billed to you directly. This proposal is valid until {{VALID_UNTIL}}.</p>

Options and fees

<h2 style="font-family:var(--proposal-font-heading);font-size:clamp(28px,4.2cqw,44px);line-height:1.14;font-weight:700">Common questions</h2>

<p>Because the numbers would still disagree. Agreeing definitions first is what makes the board and branches see the same margin.</p>

Why not just build the dashboards?

<p>Power BI licences for people who edit dashboards, about $14 a person each month. Viewers on your existing Microsoft 365 plan can read them.</p>

Do we need new software?

<p>We show you where, with a list of the records affected. Fixing them in NetSuite is up to your team.</p>

What if our data is wrong at source?

<p>You do. It runs on your Azure account, and every connection and dashboard is handed over with notes.</p>

Who owns the warehouse?

<p>About six hours from your finance director in the first two weeks, then an hour a week for reviews.</p>

How much of our time is needed?

<p>Yes. One training session is for your analyst, covering how to add measures and pages.</p>

Can our analyst change dashboards later?

Questions

<h2 style="font-family:var(--proposal-font-heading);font-size:clamp(28px,4.2cqw,44px);line-height:1.14;font-weight:700">Next steps</h2><p style="font-size:clamp(20px,2.1cqw,23px);line-height:1.5">How we start.</p>

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