Demonstration Study • Executive Business Intelligence
The numbers should tell leadership where to look next.
A working management dashboard connecting sales, product cost, channel performance and stock exceptions. Change the reporting scope and explore the evidence behind each management question.
A management question
Sales grew. Did the economics improve everywhere?
Growth and margin need a shared view.
Across the sample’s two sales channels, the 2013 extract contains 49.93 million source monetary units in recorded sales. For the comparable January–September window, sales rose 52.7% on 2012. The full extract shows 6.27 million gross contribution and a 12.6% contribution margin. Reseller records end on 29 November, so these are recorded-period totals rather than complete-year business results.
The channel view changes the conversation: internet sales contributed 6.77 million after product cost, while reseller sales contributed −491,870. The aggregate improvement therefore conceals different channel economics.
Management response: examine reseller product mix, discounts and recorded cost before changing prices or making a channel decision. This dataset does not establish the cause or include operating expenses.
Stock requires a different reporting grain.
At 31 December 2013, 13 of 606 source product-key stock positions had balances below their recorded reorder point. That is an exception list for investigation, rather than evidence of 13 stockouts.
Sales measures accumulate across a period. Inventory balances describe a point in time. Combining them without that distinction can make a dashboard look precise while overstating the stock available.
Management response: review each flagged position alongside product version, planned demand, incoming supply and lead time. The source does not support a complete procurement recommendation.
Interactive executive view
One reporting scope. Clear definitions.
Sales filters apply to the commercial view. Inventory remains a separate year-end view, with the category filter applied.
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Management briefing
Monthly sales
Source reporting monetary units. Sales exclude tax and freight. The table also shows contribution and distinct orders.
View exact monthly figures
| Group | Sales | Contribution | Margin | Orders |
|---|
Channel economics
Gross contribution = sales − recorded product cost. This excludes operating expenses, tax and freight.
| Group | Sales | Contribution | Margin | Orders |
|---|
Sales by country
Country follows the source sales territory, not the customer’s address.
Product category
Order counts can overlap across categories. The overall KPI counts each channel + order only once.
| Group | Sales | Contribution | Margin | Orders |
|---|
Management exceptions
The editable threshold is an illustrative review rule, not an AdventureWorks target or an industry benchmark.
Stock positions below reorder point
| Product position | Balance | Reorder point | Gap | Record date |
|---|
Method and reporting discipline
A dashboard backed by a reporting system.
Data model
The model connects 121,253 sales lines across internet and reseller channels to product, category and sales-territory dimensions. Inventory comes from 776,286 daily product-balance records. The commercial dashboard retains calendar periods 2011–2013. Records outside these years are excluded. Reseller sales stop on 29 November 2013: Q4 and full-year comparisons involving that channel are suppressed, while Q1–Q3 comparisons remain available.
Amounts are accumulated at the source’s four-decimal precision. Distinct order membership is preserved through aggregation. Inventory uses the last available record per ProductKey at or before each year end. ProductKey stock positions can include historical product versions and must not be read as distinct physical SKUs.
What the evidence can support
The sample supports a demonstration of management visibility and exception review. It does not contain a complete profit-and-loss statement, cash collections, actual customer delivery events or procurement lead times. The dashboard does not invent those measures.
Amounts use the source reporting values. No foreign-exchange conversion or claim about Nigerian market economics is made. The historical sample is not a current operational feed.
Core definitions
| Measure | Definition | Management use |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | Sum of SalesAmount in the selected order-date period. Tax and freight excluded. | Track commercial scale and comparable-period change. |
| Gross contribution | Sales less TotalProductCost. Not net profit. | Compare the contribution of channels and product categories. |
| Contribution margin | Gross contribution divided by sales. Unavailable when sales are zero. | Investigate changes in sales economics. |
| Distinct orders | Distinct channel + SalesOrderNumber in the selected slice. | Separate order volume from individual sales lines. |
| Stock exception | Last balance at or before year end is below the source product’s reorder point. | Create a product-position review list. It does not prove a stockout. |
A practical management rhythm
A live implementation would use a refreshed weekly brief for exceptions and a monthly performance review for trends. Every flagged issue should have an owner, an investigation and a review date. In this historical demonstration, those are reporting-design recommendations rather than evidence of implemented improvements.
Source: Microsoft AdventureWorksDW sample database. Microsoft identifies the database as fictitious. Derived analysis and dashboard by ONE Light Analytics. Source licence.