Three kinds of product business
Vendors, distributors and retailers face the same underlying data and reporting problems from different sides: the data the business depends on is spread across systems, spreadsheets and peoplePick the one that describes you
What the three have in common
The segment changes the vocabulary, not the underlying problemThese are the patterns we find in almost every engagement
Data is scattered
BAS/1C, CRM, ERP, Excel, Google Sheets, email, marketplaces, and warehouse systems each contain only part of the information required for management reporting.
Reporting is manual
People copy, reconcile, and assemble reports by hand, so reports are already outdated by the time they are assembled.
Plan-fact is weak
Plan, actuals, deviations, and the person responsible live in different files, if they are tracked at all.
Data quality is low
Duplicates, mismatched SKU names, broken reference data, and manual errors distort every report that reads from them.
No early signals
Problems become visible only after money or time is lost, rather than while there is still time to correct them.
Decisions are slow
Managers get the numbers late or in a format that takes more work to read than to act on.
However you sell, the work starts the same way
A Business Audit documents what you actually operate today, then Process Automation builds on it in the order the roadmap sets.