Priority’s Executive Information System (EIS) assists managers by extracting and analyzing high-level data for managers. This mechanism extracts information (e.g., sales figures) for a specified period and saves it in separate tables for further analysis. By varying the data cross-sections that are retrieved, the manner in which they are sorted and the levels of hierarchy, various analyses may be performed — all without the need to retrieve and process the data a second time. You can also take advantage of the system’s ability to copy and transfer data to external applications (such as spreadsheets) in order to carry out more complex statistical analysis and/or produce graphics.

For example, sales order information, once calculated for a given period in the Executive Reports module, can be viewed from a variety of perspectives: order values per part, customer, sales rep, branch. You can obtain varied levels of detail — from a period total down to actual order details — and view a wealth of data hierarchies (e.g., total orders for the month, total monthly orders per branch, total monthly orders per customer in the branch).

Many executive reports are also accompanied by a report generator, which allows you to create an unlimited number of instant customized reports utilizing any of the available data in combinations that suit your specific needs. Despite its simplicity of use, these generators are capable of producing highly sophisticated results. For example, you can define calculated fields that display the results of a mathematical operation involving one or more existing columns, which can themselves be hidden from the actual display. You can also determine a report’s input columns, column order, column widths and titles.

OLAP Analysis Reports 

Priority provides a growing list of interactive Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) reports, which enable users to analyze data in various cross-sections. These include interactive three-dimensional graphs for the display of data.

OLAP Analysis can be made in several areas of interest, including:

• Sales orders
• Customer invoices
• Customer shipments
• Purchase orders
• Project reports
• Project human resources
• Journal entries
• Production cost
• Commission orders
• Commission sales invoices
• Sales opportunities
• Service calls
• Purchase invoices
• Project profitability
• Inventory value
• Profit/cost centers

OLAP reports can be run directly from Priority forms. Each relevant data field (e.g., Part Number, Sales Representative) provides a Choose list of all the OLAP reports in which that field appears.

You can save up to five different OLAP templates for future use, featuring the company, year and fiscal periods for which to run the report.