Comparing actual sales to quota sometimes requires the comparison of data from different systems. With nextanalytics, comparisons and merging of information fromm spreadsheets and multiple database queries is easily handled.

We read inputs from jdbc, ado.net, as well as files of various formats into a report. Getting data into nextAnalytics, even from a proprietary application, is easy! Once data is in report, where it came from is no longer relevant; you can easily perform analytics using items from different data sources together.  You can even move data from one source to another and the analytic portions do not to be changed.

We're going to explain this using a example comparing sales quota to actual.

We’ll start with two sets of data. The first set is sourced from a spreadsheet which, as normal, has target values that have been prepared quarterly. The second set of data are sales figures that are extracted from a corporate database which are typically recorded monthly.

Distribution, to get the columns to match up

Using the nextanalytics distribution operation, we spread the quarterly budget figures (prorated) into matching months.

Now the budget figures have been distributed over the months in the actuals.  

Comparison Operation 

The next task is to use the nextanalytics Compare operation to compare actuals and budgets.

These values are actual to budget comparisions, in percent.

Multi-DataSource

As demonstrated, the quota information came from a spreadsheet, and the actuals came from a database.  We were able to perform analytical operations on them without consideration to their source.

Taking the Example a Little Further

We consolidate elements into one page, and add visualization. 

We've only applied a very small analytic on this data, nextanalytics is capable of much more processing on these results, but we didn't want to go too far from the original purpose of this post.