Business Analytics with Simple KPIs

by David Custódio

Using Viur to create useful KPIs

If you already use Viur you know that it connects to all kinds of data sources enabling you to unlock the value of stored data without needing to be a data scientist or a developer.

For those who don’t know us yet, we offer an analytical platform that connects with your business data (cloud and on-premises) allowing you to visualize and explore that data.

So, with this in mind, we would like to show you how to create some sales KPIs (key performance indicators) using our demo database. For this demo, we chose to use the Northwind database that exemplifies a typical relational model for a store with orders, products, clients, suppliers, employees etc.

Viur’s interface uses the data warehouse nomenclature so as a quick refresh:

A Measure is a property on which calculations (e.g., sum, count, average, minimum, maximum) can be made.

Dimensions provide structured labeling information to otherwise unordered numeric measures. The dimension is a data set composed of individual, non-overlapping data elements. The primary functions of dimensions are threefold: to provide filtering, grouping, and labelling.

in Wikipedia

So without further ado let’s build some KPIs just by dragging a few blocks and applying simple modifiers.



KPI 1 - Orders per country

To know where are your clients are.

Metrics: Count of Orders.”Order Id” sorted descending

Dimensions: Orders.ShipCountry



KPI 2 - Order volume

See if you are getting more orders over time.

Metrics: Count of Invoices."Order Id"

Dimensions: "Order Date" grouped by month



KPI 3 - Average order value

This is a useful KPI because it shows you if your customers are spending more.

Metrics: Average of Invoices."Extended Price"

Dimensions: "Order Date" grouped by Month



KPI 4 - Employee’s dispatched orders

Compare employee’s productivity

Metrics: Count of Orders."Order ID"

Dimensions: "Order Date" grouped by year and Employees.Last Name



KPI 5 - Top products

Find which are your top selling products

Metrics: Order Details.Quantity sort Descending

Dimensions: Products."Product Name"





So that’s it for now, we hope this post was useful to show how to do business analytics KPIs by exploring a conventional database without any SQL code.

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If you have any doubt please contact us or go to www.viurdata.com .