Sales & Finance Analytics Accelerators

This is part two of our series that covers Fortude’s data accelerators. In the first blog, we discussed Fortude’s Lakehouse Accelerator – a solution that helps lay the foundation for a solid data platform and supports your organization on its data-driven journey. In this blog, we are looking at Fortude’s Sales and Finance Accelerators.

In the first blog, we compared the Lakehouse Accelerator to the foundation of a home – without it, the structure wouldn’t stand. If we extend that metaphor, the Sales and Finance Accelerators can be seen as rooms within that home. When you enter the rooms of your home, you see how they serve different purposes – one for cooking, another for recreation – all made possible because the right foundation is in place. Similarly, the Analytics Accelerators provide insights into different business functions, helping you understand each area in greater depth.

You could also think of them as pre-built rooms, equipped with all the necessary components, so you don’t have to start building from scratch.

This blog will help you understand these accelerators, how they can support your business, and how global organizations are already using them to gain fast insights and, in turn, strengthen their processes.

While the Lakehouse Accelerator is the backend of the engine, the Sales and Finance Accelerators form the front end of it.

These plug-and-play accelerators can be implemented on your ERP system, such as Infor M3 or Microsoft Dynamics 365. Instead of spending months building dashboards and KPIs along with the data structures that enable them from scratch, these accelerators can help transform business decision-making in just a few weeks since it comes with a pre-built data structure, KPIs and dashboards.

Here’s a quick look at how each works:

The Finance Analytics Accelerator

This accelerator is designed to help you make data-driven financial decisions and improve profitability through key financial analytics. It helps you stay in control of your finances by offering detailed profit and loss analysis, critical revenue insights, and expense tracking.

Its in-built data mart organizes key financial information across several dimensions, enabling the accelerator with quick insights:

• Profitability metrics such as gross profit margin and net profit margin.
• Budget details, including budgeted revenue and total expenses.
• Balance sheetcomponents like assets, liabilities, and financial ratios such as quick ratio and debt-to-equity ratio.

The accelerator also includes standard financial reports, such as the income statement and balance sheet, giving you a clear view of your organization’s financial health.

The Sales Analytics Accelerator

This accelerator is focused on helping your sales teams optimize performance, maximize revenue, and identify opportunities to streamline sales processes.

Its data structure organizes sales information such as sales orders, returns, and targets and provides quick insights into:

• Sales performance metrics like achievement versus projection.
• Operational indicators, including on-time delivery and sales-to-returns ratio.
• Volume metrics such as ordered and delivered quantities.

With these insights, your teams gain immediate access to reports that monitor monthly and yearly sales trends, track sales flow, and analyze both sales achievement and distributor performance.

These accelerators come with a few standout features that support businesses looking to tap into their data for better insights and build a data strategy that truly works for them.

Here are some of the key highlights:

• Fast implementation: The setup can be completed within just two to three weeks, with minimal customization required.
• A stepping stone for your data strategy: A quick way to help businesses understand what they need to do to further strengthen their data strategy.
• Lightweight implementation: Doesn’t require a heavy toolset to get started.
• Scalable across data volumes: Regardless of how vast your data is, the accelerators can be implemented effectively.

• When we partnered witha diversified Australian connectivity and communications group, the goal was critical: bridge the data gap between their ongoing Infor CloudSuite transactions and the historical data stuck in their legacy system. We knew our accelerators could cut through that complexity. First, we rolled out the Lakehouse Accelerator – the essential foundation that allowed us to quickly build a data lakehouse-oriented architecture. The accelerator fast-tracked implementation with pre-built pipelines to ingest and curate data, seamlessly pulling it from both the legacy and new ERP systems, as well as from critical Excel sources. Next, we leveraged our Sales and Finance Accelerators to bring domain-specific analytics into play. By incorporating over 50 key business metrics into a unified analytics model, these tools help consolidate reporting and ensure that key insights are readily available to support business operations.

• More recently, we began implementing our Sales and Finance Accelerators for a leading Australian supplier of aluminum window and door systems. The company designs and supplies raw materials, including aluminum extrusions, hardware, and technical support, to a nationwide network of independent manufacturers who fabricate and sell the final window and door products. To strengthen performance visibility across its sales and finance operations, we are deploying the Sales and Finance Accelerators to connect and analyze data from their systems. These accelerators provide pre-built dashboards and KPIs to track order performance, profitability, and sales trends, enabling the business to make faster, insight-driven decisions and streamline reporting across its nationwide partner network.