Business intelligence reporting tools using data cubes

Data cubes and reporting software - Analyse your data with bisTrack’s data cubes

Data cubes (or OLAP* cubes) are an excellent visual tool for looking at your data. The data cube builder can be used whenever you need to filter and aggregate your bisTrack data and build a business intelligence report.

A simple wizard guides you through the data cube building. For example, you could select sales and margin by branch, by rep and by major product group.

You can then build the cube. Further on, you can work with the results in Excel, or any familiar reporting and analysis tool. Date cubes are a terrific way of presenting your sales data visually. Every copy of bisTrack’s business management software ships with the data cube creator and viewer.

Working and reporting with data cubes

You can sort the data in your cubes in as many ways as you like. The query you first build is just an initial view — you can ‘slice and dice’ the data any way you like, once the cube has been built.

Cubes give you new insights into your trading patterns. Because it is so easy to look at the figures in so many ways, this means you can quickly pick up patterns that would take a very sharp mind to spot with traditional printed reports.

Extended reporting

Your unique needs demand flexible analysis and reporting. bisTrack gives you access to well-structured tables for custom reporting and queries. We use standard SQL database tables, so your data is all fully accessible. It’s your business data – do what you like with it!

Example ways you might report your data:

  • Rep by product group
  • Customer by product group
  • Branch by product group
  • Branch by customer by product group
  • Area by product group
  • and so on...

Data structures

Product group coding can be up to five levels deep, and is not limited to a simple product analysis code. Analysis measures may be sales value, cost and margin. For timber, total cubic metres can be reported on, whilst for steel a tonne measure is used.

Analyse ALL your business data

Any other bisTrack table can be used as source data for reports or queries. For example, stock movements, sales order header/lines, purchase order header/lines and invoice lines, to name a few. Reporting on business trading patterns and performance is all the more easily communicated to people in your business.

Your choice of reporting tool

Typical reporting tools might be Crystal Reports, Microsoft Access, iSQL Query Analyser, Excel pivot tables, or Cognos. bisTrack uses meaningful names for tables and fields to make querying easier. The whole data architecture is as open as possible.

Reports library or custom — you choose

bisTrack ships with a huge library of standards reports. The chances are there’s a standard report for your needs, but you always have the option of building your own – customise an existing report or start from scratch with bisTrack’s using open data policy.

Benefits: Examine your data in novel ways, query it, graph it, flip it. New ways of slicing the data are achieved instantly, revealing new patterns to your figures without costly overhead. High-level business intelligence reports and understanding are now at your finger tips with the help of bisTrack’s data cubes.

*What is an OLAP data cube?

OLAP cubes – OLAP stands for Online Analytical Processing, and the cube reference is the 3-dimensional cross-referencing of the data in question. A spreadsheet is a good example of a 2-dimensional representation of data . The 3rd dimension comes from an additional matrix of data behind that layer.

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Testimonials

  • "Our relationshiip with PSI has been transformed this year. This is due almost entirely to having an Account Manager as a single point of contact, who knows our system and our business."

    Eric Jones, IT Manager, Alsford Timber

  • "We looked at several systems, but most of them were using the same out-of-date technology as the system we were replacing!"

    Rodney Scoles, Director, T Brewer & Co

  • "bisTrack was a big investment for us but it's the best change we've ever made. We've grown so much over the last four or five years, we simply couldn't have carried on using a manual system."

    Gerwyn Thomas, partner, TL Thomas (builders' merchant)

  • "It's a very nicely laid out system with easy to follow structural menus and taskpads which, even if I haven't used a particular function before, I find relatively simple to complete."

    Chris Pratt, Pratts Timber and Builders Merchants Ltd

  • "We spent a long time evaluating several systems and I'm confident that bisTrack is the best available."

    Andrew Laver, Arnold Laver Timberworld

  • "I was working with 2.7 in our test environment and looking at all the work you have done. Just wanted to let you know how much we appreciate all you do to make this a great technology partnership."

    Brian King, Lumber USA

  • "It's a very nicely laid out system with easy to follow structural menus and taskpads which, even if I haven't used a particular function before, I find relatively simple to complete."

    Chris Pratt, Pratts Timber and Builders Merchants Ltd

  • "I'm happy bisTrack will grow with us. If we find we need something which isn't already incorporated, I'm confident Progressive will work with us to fill the gap."

    Operations Director, CF Anderson

  • "Stock counting is one of the best facilities in bisTrack ever. Stock counting across multiple locations is effortless with multiple entries of the same product. Entering a count is even easier. Counting 10,000 lines used to take two of us 4 days. This time it was 8 hours."

    East End Group

  • "The time was right for a change of software at Alsford's and we selected bisTrack from a shortlist of three. The key criteria was 'business fit'. We wanted a Microsoft Windows, intuitive solution which would best serve our claim to be 'The Timber Experts' in all our 20 branches."

    Neil Fuller, MD, Alsford Timber

  • "I can export information into Excel by right-clicking and manipulate it to my heart's content."

  • "Stock counting is one of the best facilities in bisTrack ever. Stock counting across multiple locations is effortless with multiple entries of the same product. Entering a count is even easier. Counting 10,000 lines used to take two of us 4 days. This time it was 8 hours."

    East End Group

  • "It was obvious the company was being held back by the limitations of the old system."

    Operations Director, CF Anderson

  • "I can drop-down and drill into any business information easily, which enables me to analyse a situation very quickly. It gives me complete control."

    Mark Congdon, Financial Director, Noyeks Newmans

  • "The great thing is we can always export information to Excel and produce any report we need — such as an aged debt report by sales rep, or our bespoke ‘exposure’ report, which helps us assess potential credit risk and protect ourselves."

    Damien Cosgrove, Credit Control Manager, Noyeks Newmans

  • "With bisTrack we now have real-time information on our profitability, which allows us to continually optimise and make decisions on our business plan."

    Stuart Hall, General Manager, Lawcris Panel Products

  • "The great thing is we can always export information to Excel and produce any report we need — such as an aged debt report by sales rep, or our bespoke ‘exposure’ report, which helps us assess potential credit risk and protect ourselves."

    Damien Cosgrove, Credit Control Manager, Noyeks Newmans

  • "The great thing is we can always export information to Excel and produce any report we need — such as an aged debt report by sales rep, or our bespoke ‘exposure’ report, which helps us assess potential credit risk and protect ourselves."

    Damien Cosgrove, Credit Control Manager, Noyeks Newmans

  • "If we hadn't changed to bisTrack we simply couldn't have grown like this."

    Nigel Williams, Chairman, Premier Forest Products

  • "We spent a long time evaluating several systems and I'm confident that bisTrack is the best available."

    Andrew Laver, Arnold Laver Timberworld

  • “A member of our buying group told us about bisTrack, although we looked at four or five other software packages. Key factors in the eventual selection of bisTrack were its SQL platform and our confidence in the people we dealt with.”

    Gordon Rothwell, James Hargreaves (Plumbers Merchants)

  • "I can export information into Excel by right-clicking and manipulate it to my heart's content."

  • "bisTrack is an excellent piece of software and getting better. Their approach to meeting our needs is excellent. eBusiness is not going to be big for another 12 months but PSI are there already, which means we’re ahead. They're very open to ideas and keep getting better at turnaround."

    Adam Myers, Beesley & Fildes

  • “Hargeaves are ideally placed to take advantage of the offer – whilst we plan to continue using e-Xact to update our product file we also want much better control over special product sales and purchases."

    Gordon Rothwell, James Hargreaves MD

  • “A member of our buying group told us about bisTrack, although we looked at four or five other software packages. Key factors in the eventual selection of bisTrack were its SQL platform and our confidence in the people we dealt with.”

    Gordon Rothwell, James Hargreaves (Plumbers Merchants)

  • "I was working with 2.7 in our test environment and looking at all the work you have done. Just wanted to let you know how much we appreciate all you do to make this a great technology partnership."

    Brian King, Lumber USA

  • "We chose bisTrack because we needed to move on to the next generation of software."

    Stephen Fairbairn, MD, Henry Alty

  • "I can export information into Excel by right-clicking and manipulate it to my heart's content."

  • "It was obvious the company was being held back by the limitations of the old system."

    Operations Director, CF Anderson

  • "We chose bisTrack because we needed to move on to the next generation of software."

    Stephen Fairbairn, MD, Henry Alty

  • "I was working with 2.7 in our test environment and looking at all the work you have done. Just wanted to let you know how much we appreciate all you do to make this a great technology partnership."

    Brian King, Lumber USA

  • "I'm happy bisTrack will grow with us. If we find we need something which isn't already incorporated, I'm confident Progressive will work with us to fill the gap."

    Operations Director, CF Anderson

  • "I can export information into Excel by right-clicking and manipulate it to my heart's content."

  • "Progressive's experience was important, as was the link with Microsoft. We think that's the way ahead for all merchant systems."

    Stephen Fairbairn, MD, Henry Alty

  • "I was working with 2.7 in our test environment and looking at all the work you have done. Just wanted to let you know how much we appreciate all you do to make this a great technology partnership."

    Brian King, Lumber USA

  • "We were drowning in paper and, as a business turning over £2.2 million, the time had come for us to invest in business management software."

    David Biddle, MD, Huntingdon Timber & Roofing

  • "Our staff have margin figures right in front of them now, so they're much more aware of the profit they are making."

    Robert Blumsom, Blumsom Fine Timber

  • "I can drop-down and drill into any business information easily, which enables me to analyse a situation very quickly. It gives me complete control."

    Mark Congdon, Financial Director, Noyeks Newmans

  • “Hargeaves are ideally placed to take advantage of the offer – whilst we plan to continue using e-Xact to update our product file we also want much better control over special product sales and purchases."

    Gordon Rothwell, James Hargreaves MD

  • "Our computer system impacts on every aspect of the business. Buying, selling, importing, transport planning, as well as accounts. If you install the wrong software, without the right level of performance or functionality, it will cause significant problems throughout your business."

  • "We spent a long time evaluating several systems and I'm confident that bisTrack is the best available."

    Andrew Laver, Arnold Laver Timberworld

  • "It was obvious the company was being held back by the limitations of the old system."

    Operations Director, CF Anderson

  • "We improved net margin by 3% within 6 weeks of going live on bisTrack."

    Andy Halpin, Payne Timber

bistrack Customer Portal | Progressive Solutions UK

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