Actionable Insights is a business intelligence solution in LS Central that collects large amount of data from various sources within LS Central, and then periodically runs the data through an analytical calculation functionality and presents the essential business information with data visualization tools. This solution provides insights into the patterns that are inherent to your daily operation in a single place, it informs you proactively about exceptional situations, and lastly the solution enables you to take immediate action.
LS Retail provides the Actionable Insights Base Pack by default, as well as the LS Insight reports for Actionable Insights. If needed, LS Retail's partners can also easily build and extend their own KPI packs.
Actionable Insights comes with a KPI (Key Performance Indicator) hierarchy, allowing you to define which KPIs should be monitored. The current status of a KPI is calculated based on rules that define the expected value ranges. The calculated result is called Signal, it holds the value for a specific calculation date. If a Signal is outside the expected value range, an Alert will be created, which describes the expected and the current value. An optional Notification can be raised for an Alert to keep you informed about the exceptional situations, and this information is shown on a Dashboard or Tasklist.
KPIs are defined in a hierarchical manner of four levels:
| Hierarchy Level | Description |
|---|---|
| KPI Pack |
The KPI Pack specifies the highest level of the hierarchy and is used for industry/vertical specific grouping. KPI Packs can be originated from LS Retail but also partners. A KPI Pack has a Calculation Codeunit and a Workflow Codeunit. The Calculation Codeunit is used to initialize the KPI Pack and to calculate the Signals for the KPI. The Workflow Codeunit is used to guide you to the relevant data behind the KPI calculations. Examples: Actionable Insights Base Pack, LS-Hotel, LS-Pharmacy, LS-Hospitality, and so on. |
| KPI Family |
The KPI Family describes the themes in the KPI Pack. Examples for the Actionable Insights Base Pack: Replenishment, Budgets, and so on. |
| KPI Group |
The KPI Group describes groups in the KPI Family. Examples for Replenishment Family: Journals, Out-of-Stock, and and so on. |
| KPI |
The KPI describes the actual measures in the KPI Group. Examples for Out-of-Stock Group: Current Out-of-Stock Situations, New Out-of-Stock Situations, and so on. |
The usage of the various Rules in Actionable Insights:
| Rule | Description |
|---|---|
| Calculation Rule | To define general settings, calculation frequency, data group, and filtering. It is used to calculate Signals for a specific KPI. A KPI can have more than one Calculation Rule. |
| Alert Rule | To define the condition of when an Alert should be raised for a specific KPI and a Calculation Rule. Alerts are raised if the Signal's values exceed the threshold defined. |
| Notification Rule | To define if a notification should be created for the Alert raised, and who to notify. A Notification Rule is tied to an Alert Rule. Notifications can be sent to users or user groups via email for them to act on. |
The following table is a list of Actionable Insights related tasks with links to the topics that describe them.
| To | See |
|---|---|
| Learn more about the Action Hub dashboard, its charts, and the notification workflow. | Action Hub |
| Initialize KPI Packs and learn how a business extension pack can be built. | How to: Initialize KPI Pack |
| View and set up the KPI Families, KPI Groups, and KPIs. | How to: View and Set Up KPIs |
| Set up the Actionable Insights Users and User Groups responsible to track the Alerts and Notifications. | How to: Set Up Actionable Insights Users and Groups |
| Set up the Calculation Rules and calculate the Signals. | How to: Set Up Calculation Rules
How to: Calculate Signals |
| Set up the Alert Rules and calculate the Alerts. | How to: Set Up Alert Rules
How to: Calculate Alerts |
| Set up the Notification Rules and calculate the Notifications. | How to: Set Up Notification Rules
How to: Calculate Notifications |
| Delete the calculated Signal, Alert, and Notification entries. | How to: Delete Actionable Insights Entries |
| Have an overview of the KPI Families, KPI Groups, and KPIs, as well as the Signals, Alerts, and Notifications that have been calculated. | Actionable Insights KPI Overview |