Business Insights
Exploring
Business Insights are essentially SQL scripts that are exposed as Tiles in a SYSPRO web view. These tiles are context-driven and enable you to act instantly on events, facilitating both informed business decisions and sound business behavior.
Key performance indicators (KPIs) on tiles can be used to highlight values that approach or exceed pre-determined objectives or thresholds. This lets you proactively keep an eye on approaching targets. These targets could be a certain value, company-wide goal or a specific agreed target for a person or a role within the organization.
Tiles can be added to the main SYSPRO menu to surface company information (e.g. the total backorders for the company) or they can be added to specific programs and provide the key field as a context (e.g. the total backorders for a customer).
Additionally, when you click on a Business Insight tile, you can drill down to more detailed information displayed in a list view that derives its context from the specific tile measurement parameters.
You can also create administration insights (e.g. failed transactions, users logged in, etc).
Starting
- Ensure that the SYSPRO 8 e.net Communications Load Balancer service is installed and running and that the e.net service details are correctly configured within the System Setup program.
You can restrict operator access to activities within a program. These are configured using the Operator Maintenance program.
Controls whether an operator can edit VBScripts or change customized panes. It also controls whether an operator can access the Visual Designer program (displayed from the submenu of the icon). This does not apply to importing customized panes, which is controlled by the Allow to import customized panes activity.
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Tile definition file names can only include the characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9 and '_' (underscore) and must end with .SQL.
Solving
The custom folders in SYSPRO 7 Update 1 have been relocated to the \Plugin folder in SYSPRO 8.
Unfortunately, you will have to manually move any custom tiles you created in SYSPRO 7 Update 1 to the \Plugin\CustomStore folder in SYSPRO 8
Using
Standard SYSPRO Business Insights (i.e. those shipped with the product) include a number of categories, each comprising a list of specific insights:
- Average Days to Pay by Branch
- Average Days to Pay by Company
- Average Days to Pay by Customer
- Average Value of Invoices by Branch
- Average Value of Invoices by Company
- Average Value of Invoices by Customer
- Average Value of Invoices by Customer Class
- Average Value of Invoices by Geographic Area
- Average YTD Invoice Value by Company
- Average YTD Value of Invoices By Branch
- Average YTD Value of Invoices By Customer
- Average YTD Value of Invoices By Salesperson
- Customer Days Outstanding by Branch
- Customer Days Outstanding by Company
- Customer Days Outstanding by Customer
- Customers on Hold By Branch
- Customers on Hold by Company
- Customers on Hold by Customer Class
- Days Since Last Sale by Company
- GP Margin as % of Sales by Branch
- GP Margin as % of Sales by Company
- GP Margin as % of Sales by Customer
- Return on Asset by Company
- YTD Sales vs Target for Customers
- Number of Backorders for Company
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Average days to pay for branch
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Average days to pay for customer
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Receivables days outstanding for branch
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Receivables days outstanding for customer
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Average YTD invoice value for branch
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Average age of stock based on FIFO buckets
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Average age of stock based on inventory movements
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Average days to pay for company
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Customer balance as a percentage of total debtors balance
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Days cover for stock code
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Inventory FIFO current month value for stock code
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Inventory FIFO previous month 1 value for stock code
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Inventory FIFO previous month 2 value for stock code
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Inventory current cost current month value for stock code
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Inventory current cost previous month 1 value for stock code
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Inventory current cost previous month 2 value for stock code
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Inventory last cost current month value for stock code
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Inventory last cost previous month 1 value for stock code
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Inventory last cost previous month 2 value for stock code
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Inventory warehouse costing current month value for stock code
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Inventory warehouse costing previous month 1 value for stock code
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Inventory warehouse costing previous month 2 value for stock code
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Percentage of total debtors balance for branch
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Receivables days outstanding for company
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Return on assets for company
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Value of stock on hand for warehouse
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WIP Ledger balance summary
- Average YTD invoice value for company
- Average YTD invoice value for salesperson
- Average invoice value for branch
- Average invoice value for company
- Average invoice value for customer
- Average invoice value for customer class
- Average invoice value for geographic area
- Days since last sale for company
- GP margin as percentage of sales for branch
- GP margin as percentage of sales for company
- GP margin as percentage of sales for customer
- WIP at a glance labor cost
- WIP at a glance labor issued
- WIP at a glance material cost
- WIP at a glance material issued
- WIP at a glance total WIP
- WIP at a glance total hours booked
- Average YTD invoice value for customer
- Customers on hold for a branch
- Customers on hold for company
- Customers on hold for customer class
- Number of lots nearing expiry for company
- Number of lots nearing expiry for stock code
- Number of lots nearing expiry for warehouse
- Number of lots on hold for company
- Number of lots on hold for stock code
- Number of lots on hold for warehouse
- Cycle time customer order processing
- Number of backorder lines for branch
- Number of backorder lines for customer
- Number of backorder lines for salesperson
- Number of backorder lines for stock code
- Number of backorders for branch
- Number of backorders for company
- Number of backorders for customer
- Number of backorders for customer selection
- Outstanding orders for customer
- Number of active jobs
- Number of active jobs for customer
- Number of active jobs for stock code
Standard tiles
Standard tiles shipped as part of SYSPRO are stored in the \Base\Samples folder and named UX_Tile_?????_xxxxx.SQL, where:
- ????? is the TileID (which must be unique across all tiles).
- xxxxx is a string that briefly describes the tile (e.g. UX_Tile_SOR001_Backorders_For_Company.SQL).
Custom tiles
Custom tiles must be stored in the \Plugin folder and named CX_Tile_?????_xxxxx.SQL, where:
- ????? is the TileID (which must be unique across all tiles).
- xxxxx is a string that briefly describes the tile.
Business Insights are added and customized at operator level. Customization can be done at the time of adding a business insight or web view tile, or edited at a later stage.
Customizations include:
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Setting the tile size
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Assigning icons
- Setting the tile text color
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Select the Design Web View (or Edit Web View) option from the Customize and control this application icon ().
The icon is available on the toolbar of the main SYSPRO window as well as on each toolbar of a SYSPRO program.
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From the Visual Designer program, select the Add layout section function.
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From the Configure new layout section window, select Tile Section.
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Optionally enter a Section title at the Widget title placeholder and assign an icon to the tile if required.
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Select the Add section function.
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Click in the add tile block (designated by the icon).
A list of KPI and Metric categories are displayed. The number of available insights are indicated by a number in brackets alongside each tile category.
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Drill down into a category and select the tile you want to deploy.
You can optionally choose the tile width, text and tile background color as well as assign an icon.
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Select Add tile to assign the tile to the current layout section.
Continue adding tiles to the current layout section or to a new layout section.
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Select Save and Exit.
Your tile will be displayed in the web view, immediately showing the appropriate insight information.