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Supplier Training September 2016

Visual Insights Grocery user guide v1.1

Visual Insights system

Supplier User Guide

Packaged (Pick by store) version

Date: September 2016

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Contents

Visual Insights system ............................................................................................................................ 1

Supplier User Guide........................................................................................................................ 1

Grocery version ............................................................................................................................... 1

1.0 Overview and Purpose ..................................................................................................................... 3

1.1What is Visual insights ? ................................................................................................................ 3

1.2 Key Features ................................................................................................................................. 3

1.3 Benefits of using Visual Insights .................................................................................................. 3

1.4 Where does the data come from?................................................................................................ 4

1.5 What data can I view? .................................................................................................................. 4

2.0 Registration for new users ............................................................................................................... 5

2.1Access and logging on ....................................................................................................................... 5

3.0 Basic Navigation ............................................................................................................................... 6

3.1 Page navigation – Tabs and Panels. ............................................................................................ 7

4.0 Service Level Tab .............................................................................................................................. 8

4.1 Summary Panel ...................................................................................................................... 8

4.2 Supplier to DC detail panel .................................................................................................... 9

4.3 Depot to store detail panel ................................................................................................... 10

4.4 Heat Maps ............................................................................................................................. 11

5.0 Purchase Order Tab.................................................................................................................. 12

6.0 Customer Availability ..................................................................................................................... 13

6.1 Sales Based Availability Panel .................................................................................................... 13

6.2 Dotcom Availability panel .......................................................................................................... 14

6.3 Not Available Gaps panel ........................................................................................................... 15

6.4 CSL / Lost Sales panel ................................................................................................................ 16

7.0 Stock holding tab ........................................................................................................................... 17

8.0 Filtering ........................................................................................................................................... 18

8.1 How to use different filter types ................................................................................................. 19

9.0 Exporting To Excel .......................................................................................................................... 20

10.0 Creating and customising reports ............................................................................................... 21

10.1 Datasets & Editor panels .......................................................................................................... 21

.......................................................................................................................................................... 21

10.2 Adjusting existing visualisations .......................................................................................... 22

10.3 Creating new tabs/panels from scratch ............................................................................... 24

11.0 FAQ’s.............................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.

12.0 Glossary ......................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

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1.0 Overview and Purpose

This document is a full user guide for the Visual Insights system. It covers how to navigate Visual

Insights, use filters to access the data you require and to set up and run reports. It also covers examples

of how to use and interpret the Visual Insights data.

1.1What is Visual insights ?

Visual Insights is a web based supply chain system, free of charge to all UK and ROI suppliers. It

provides historical end to end supplier performance data. It enables us to share information with you to

identify trends and root cause issues, so that we can work together to improve service levels and

availability for customers in store.

1.2 Key Features

Daily service level dashboard - provides a graphical view of your service level trend over the last

two years.

Filter functionality – to allow you to drill down and investigate root cause service level issues for

weekly or product drops in availability.

Tabular service level data - to review product level orders and product shorts.

Sales based availability data – to manage availability of products in store by managing inbound

service.

Performance and KPI data drillable to conduct in-depth analysis (sales, availability, shortages,

service level and waste).

1.3 Benefits of using Visual Insights

Proactive management of supply chain to improve availability and improve /maintain service

level.

Identifying trends – the weekly data enables you to review the previous year, over the past year,

and year to date, to identify any potential trends/issues from last year so you can take positive

action before these can become an issue again.

Root causing issues – the daily data allows you to drill down to the lowest level to identify where

you may be experiencing issues and to tackle these specifically.

To improve communication with Tesco – as both internally and externally we are looking at the

same data, it’s easier to have conversations and get to the bottom of issues.

There are both Fresh and Package versions of Visual Insights. Whist they have similar data feeds the

look and functionality of the versions varies. This guide will highlight variations in the two versions.

Visual Insights is built within a MicroStrategy platform. MicroStrategy is an easy-to-use enterprise

analytics platform that delivers dashboards, visualizations, mobile apps, and much more.

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1.4 Where does the data come from?

The data comes from a variety of sources. Service level data is calculated from purchase orders in

combination with data from the Tesco Information Management system (TIMS) (Fresh/PBL products)

or depot’s Failed To Arrive (FTA) reason coding (Packaged/PBS).

Customer availability, stock holding and sales data for each supplier is rolled up from store level data.

1.5 What data can I view?

Visual insights contains data for the last full Tesco year and the Tesco year to date.

For Fresh/PBL the data is updated on a Monday afternoon, and midday for daily information.

For Packaged/PBS the data is updated on a Tuesday morning.

The data you will be able to view:

Supplier ordering and service levels :

Weekly view of shortages and service level split by product, by week, for last year and YTD.

(Fresh) Daily view of shortages and service level split by product, by day, by depot, for last

three months.

(Packaged) Purchase orders split by product, by depot, by week for last 4 weeks.

(Packaged) Depot to Store service level split by product, by week, for last year and YTD.

Customer Availability

Sales based availability, dotcom availability split by product, by week, for last year and YTD.

(Packaged) Not available gaps, CSL split by product, by week, for last year and YTD.

Store data:

(Packaged) Sales Data split by product, by depot, by week for last year and YTD.

(Packaged) Depot & Store stockholding split by product, by depot, by week for last year and

YTD.

Coming in the future -

(Fresh) Sales & Waste volumes and value split by product, by week, for last year and YTD.

(Fresh) CSL and NA Gaps data split by product, by week, for last year and YTD.

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2.0 Registration for new users

Visual Insights is accessible to suppliers via:

https://www.tescolink.com/reporting/MicroStrategy/servlet/mstrWeb

A Visual Insights supplier account is required for access. You can request one through your Supplier

Performance manager or email [email protected].

Registration typically takes 3-5 days to complete.

If you have any problems with registration then contact your supplier performance manager or email:

[email protected].

This requires a web browser; Google Chrome performs best with Visual Insights and is recommended.

2.1Access and logging on

1. Log onto Visual Insights via https://www.tescolink.com/reporting/MicroStrategy/servlet/mstrWeb

2. Enter your user name and password provided.

3. Select the Standard log in Option.

4. Select “Store Ordering Analysis.

5. Select the relevant dashboard to view your data:

Fresh Supplier Performance dashboard (Pick By Line)

Packaged Supplier Performance Dashboard (Pick By Store).

If you have any difficulty accessing Visual Insights, please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions

(FAQ’s) in the Appendix in the first instance. If you require further assistance, please contact :

[email protected].


mailto:[email protected]




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3.0 Basic Navigation

You will land on the following screen once the dashboard has loaded, the contents of this screen are

discussed later in the Service Level tab section.

At the very top of your page is the following bar showing your current folder path. Use the arrows at the

top to go backwards and forwards between folders.

Below this is a black navigation bar. This has a number of features to help you navigate, view, save and

manipulate the data.

On the left hand side of the bar you have the following functionality (from left to right):

- File - for standard navigation and especially for saving custom dashboards.

- View – to open/activate additional panels. Important for editing and building custom reports.

- Format - to change colour scheme to personalise if required.

- Save - shortcut to save your own version of reports. Best to use Save As in File.

- Add data – unavailable to external users.

- Insert visualisation – add a new visualisation to the page.

- Add Visualisations /Filters/Text /Images – use as required.

- Refresh – will refresh the dashboard, pulling in the most the recent data available.

On the right hand side of the bar you will have the following functionality (from left to right):

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- Presentation mode – to expand to full screen. To return to the standard screen press esc.

- Share –Note: this function is Limited use for external users.

- Help – Options of “help” “getting started” and “Quick Tips”. “Quick Tips” may aid your navigation

of Visual Insights. The help section contains a lot of technical detail for developers, any useful

topics from this are covered in this guide.

- Drop down – expands navigation bar.

- X – closes Visual Insights application.

3.1 Page navigation – Tabs and Panels.

Data visualisations in Visual Insights are split up between Tabs and Panels.

The dashboard features 4 Tabs:

- Service Level

- Purchase Orders

- Customer Availability

- Stockholding.

Within each tab you will find a number of different panels which display data related to the tab heading

in a variety of different ways.

Use the circles at the bottom centre of the screen to navigate through panels within a tab. Hover your

curser over the circles to see view the name of the panel and a hint at the contents.

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The guide will now take you an overview of the data available in the four tabs and the panels within

them.

4.0 Service Level Tab

Within the Service Level tab there are currently four panels, navigate between then by clicking on the

circles at the bottom centre of the screen.

1. Summary – Supplier to Distribution Centre and Distribution Centre to store service level is

displayed in a graph for the last 2 Tesco years, plus product level data for Year To Date so far.

2. Supplier to DC detail – provides a detailed look at supplier to DC performance. Order volumes,

shorts, FTA codes are given at overall supplier number and product levels.

3. Depot to Store detail – displays store demand and refusal data for your products at overall

supplier number and product levels.

4. Heatmaps – Visualisations to show impact of shortages on wider area (only useful for Tesco users).

1.1 Summary Panel

This page gives you an overview of supplier to depot performance (volume delivered to DC vs. ordered)

and our DC to store performance (volume ordered by stores vs. what was delivered to them).

Issues highlighted here are likely to have a knock on effect to end customer availability and can be

explored in further detail on the additional panels and tabs.

On the page you will see -

1. Graph of supplier to depot service level over the last 2 years (Blue = current year, Red = previous year).

2. Graph of Depot To Store service level over the last 2 years.

3. Product level supplier to DC shortages and service level, shown as totals for the year to date.

4. Product level depot to store refusals and depot to store service level, shown as totals for the year to date.

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For more detailed definitions of metrics such as Supplier to DC service level,

total refusals etc. Refer to the Visual Insights Glossary at the back of this guide.

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1.2 Supplier to DC detail panel

This page gives a more detailed view of supplier to depot service level data.

In this screen you can view a breakdown of the figures behind the service level calculation, shown at

overall supplier level and product level.

Figures here are calculated from purchase orders and failed to arrive reason coding carried out by

depots.

On this page you will see:

1. Graph of supplier to depot service level over the last 2 years (Blue = current year, Red =

previous year). Repeated from the previous summary panel.

2. Supplier level data showing total volume ordered, supprerssed, shortages, failed to arrive (FTA)

and delivered on time. By default this shows the totals for the current year and last year.

3. Product level data showing total volume ordered, supprerssed, shortages, failed to arrive (FTA)

and delivered on time. By default this shows the totals for the current year and last year.

Figures given in the Supplier and Product data tables are in cases.

You can use this page to drill into the reasons behind a drop in service level, down to

week/product/depot level. More information on how to drill and filter data is later in this guide.

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1.3 Depot to store detail panel

This page gives a more detailed view of depot to store service level data.

You can see a breakdown of the figures behind the DC to store service level calculation, shown at

overall supplier level and product level.

Figures are calculated from weekly store ordering data.

On this page you will see -

1. Graph of depot to store service level over the last 2 years (Blue = current year, Red = previous

year). Repeated from the previous summary panel.

2. Store ordering demand and refusal data rolled up to overall totals for the supplier. By default

this shows totals for the current year and last year.

3. Store ordering demand and refusal data shown at individual product level. By default this

shows totals for the current year and last year.

Figures in the supplier and product tables are given in cases.

Store ordering demand is generated from each store’s stock position and forecasted sales. Supplier to

depot shortages (previous tab) can impact store ordering and result in refusals where store demand

can not be met.

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1.4 Heat Maps

This panel uses heat maps to highlight the main issue areas in terms of Supplier to DC shorts.


1. Heat map split by total shortages by Product Area. The larger the Product Area the higher the

volume of shorts. Green-Red colouring corresponds to the Product Area’s service level %.

2. Heat map split by total shortages by Product Sub Group. The larger the sub group the higher

the volume of shorts. Green-Red colouring corresponds to each sub group’s service level %

3. Table of products showing key figures for Supplier to Depot service level and Depot to Store

service level. Here you can see how Supplier to DC issues may be having a knock on effect to

DC to Store service.

The heat maps can be clicked on and used to filter the table below. For example; clicking on the Frozen

impulse Product area in the first heat map will filter the product table to just show Frozen impulse

products. It will also filter the second heat map to show the subgroups within the product area driving

the biggest issues.

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5.0 Purchase Order Tab

The purchase order tab acts as an extension of the Service level tab and features only one panel and

table by default.

The tab can be used route cause supplier to depot service issues, down to individual supplier/purchase

order/depot level.

A rolling four weeks’ worth of purchase order data is available through this tab.

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6.0 Customer Availability

The customer availability tab features four panels which hold data on our main store availability

metrics.

All four panels are laid out in the same way, with a graph showing the trend over the last two years and

a table showing product level data for the year to date.

1. Sales Based Availability

2. Dotcom Availability

3. Not Available Gaps

4. CSL / Lost Sales

6.1 Sales Based Availability Panel

This panel provides data on the Sales Based Availability measure.

Sales based availability is a probability model where gaps seen in sales throughout the day are

compared to expected sales figures and used to estimate gaps on shelves in stores.

This is the primary measure of on shelf availability for fast selling products.


1. Graph of sales based availability measure over the last two years (Blue = current year, Red =

Last year)

2. Table of products, sorted descending on Sales Based Availability (SBA) gap count to show top

SBA issue products year to date.

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6.2 Dotcom Availability panel

The panel provides data on availability for online customers but also gives a good indication of in store

availability.

Dotcom/Online availability is calculated from the in store online order picking process. Where an in

store picker could not find the product and had to cancel/substitute the customer’s order, a failed pick

is recorded. Dotcom availability is given as the % of orders successfully picked.


1. Graph of dotcom availability % over the last two years (Blue = current year, Red = Last year)

2. Table of products, sorted descending on dotcom failed picks to show the top online availability

issues year to date.

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6.3 Not Available Gaps panel

This panel provides data taken from store’s daily gap scanning routine.

A gap on shelf is reported as a Not Available (NA) gap where the store’s stock record is 0 at the time of

the scan. Therefore this measure shows the number of shelf gaps being caused by a lack of stock.

This measure works for all products including slow sellers (unlike SBA), however can be impacted by

inaccurate store book stocks.

On this page you will see –

1. Graph of not available gaps reported as the total number of NA gaps scanned year on year (Red

= Current year, Blue = Previous year).

2. Table of products, sorted descending by the total number of Not Available gaps recorded for

the year to date.

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6.4 CSL / Lost Sales panel

This panel provides data on theoretical lost sales and calculated customer service level (CSL).

Lost sales are calculated from store book stock data and expected hourly sales performance. When a

store’s book stock reaches 0, expected sales are recorded as lost sales until the product comes back

into stock.

Customer service level is calculated as the % of sales taken vs the total potential sales (sales + est. lost

sales).

Like not available gaps, the figures can be impacted by inaccuracies in store book stocks.

On this panel you will see:

1. Graph of Customer Service Level (CSL) over the last two years (Red = Current year, Blue = Last

year)

2. Table of products, sorted descending by total lost sales year to date. CSL for each product year

to date is given alongside lost sales.

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7.0 Stock holding tab

The stockholding tab features one panel which gives a view of the business’ current depot and store

stock holding.

Both depot and store stock figures shown are the Sunday closing stock figures and are given in terms

of cost of goods (based on cost price), although volume is also available.


1. Graph of depot stock holding over the last 2 years (Red = Current, Blue = Last Year).

2. Graph of store stock holding over the last 2 years.

3. Table of products and their latest depot stock holding figure. Sorted descending by total

depot stock in terms of cost. The table contains data for all weeks back to the start of the last.

Tesco year, but is also sorted so the most recent week is immediately visible.

4. Table of products and their latest store stock holding figure. Sorted descending by total store

stock in terms of cost. The table contains data for all weeks back to the start of the last Tesco

year, but is also sorted so the most recent week is immediately visible.

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8.0 Filtering

There is filtering functionality which will help you when drilling into the data you

require. Use the left hand panel (see figure opposite) to apply various filters.

All tabs have the same basic filters available by default, however some (for e.g.

Purchase orders) may have some additional options.

Standard filters available on all tabs:

Supplier Number ID

Base product number

Hierarchy (Commercial Area, Category Area, Product Area, Product Sub

Group)

Time lines (Year, Tesco year week).

Filters are applied by either typing or pasting into the search boxes, ticking/un-

ticking the checkboxes, or moving sliders (depending on how each filter is

displayed).

When you apply a filter you’ll see a loading sign at the top of the screen which Visual

Insights processes the data. Once complete all tables and graphs within the tab will

update according what filters you have applied.

Watch out -

Filters in the left hand panel apply to every graph and table in your current tab, including those on other

panels within the tab.

They do not apply however to other tabs, so you may need to repeat your filters when switching to a new

tab.

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8.1 How to use different filter types

Using Search boxes and searching multiple records

A list with multiple values can be pasted into a search box. When doing this

wait for Visual Insights to show the All Search Results option and select this

to filter down to the items in your list.

Using checkbox filters

When using a checkbox filter and want to select only 1 option, hover your

cursor over the text then click on the blue Only text that appears.

Clearing filters

To clear a filter, simply click the small down arrow to the right

of the filter name and then select Clear Selections from the

drop down menu.

Changing a filter style

It may sometimes be helpful to change the style of filter

displayed.

To do this click the small down arrow to the right of the

filter name, select Display style and then the type of filter

you wish to switch to.

Using graphs to filter tables

The year on year summary graphs on each panel can be used to

filter the tables below.

Either click on a point of the graph or drag over an area on it to filter

the product tables on a specific time period. By doing this you’ll be

able to see the top products driving dips in the graphs.

To clear graph filters click onto either the x or y axis.

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9.0 Exporting To Excel

Visual Insights allows you to view and manipulate large quantities of data on screen, however it may

useful to output the data to Excel to be used as a source for other reports or analysis.

To export a table or graph –

Hover your cursor over the top right of the table you wish to export, you will see a small down arrow

appear.

You’ll see the following drop down menu appear. Select Export and then Excel to export the table to

Excel. This can take a few seconds or a few minutes depending on the size of the table you’re asking to

export.

Watch out -

Visual Insights can hold multiple millions of rows of data whereas Excel is limited to around 1

million rows (2010). It is therefore best to filter down to just the data you need before

exporting and be careful of the row count you’re asking to export

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10.0 Creating and customising reports

One of the major features of Visual Insights is the ability to customise reports and visualisations to your

liking.

In this section we’ll go through how to edit the existing tabs and panels, plus how to create new

tabs/panels from scratch using the data available.

10.1 Datasets & Editor panels

By default Visual Insights is set up to display the just filter panel on the left then the main

visualisation/data panels in the middle of the screen.

To make the best use of the customisation features you will need to switch on the Datasets panel and

the Editor Panel from the View menu.

From the drop down menu, switch on the Datasets

Panel and the Editor Panel.

The datasets panel will display to the left of the filter

panel, while the Editor Panel will take the place of the

Filter panel.

You can switch back to the filter panel at any time by

clicking the filter icon

The Datasets panel shows all the datasets available for use in the tool.

The datasets can be expanded to show the fields available within them

by clicking the arrows to the left.

The Datasets panel shows all the datasets

available for use in the tool.

The datasets can be expanded to show the fields

available within them by clicking the arrows to

the left.

Fields shown in are known as Attributes

whilst fields in are metrics.

Metrics will automatically sum/aggregate

according to the table or graph they are used in.

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Click and drag the attribute from the datasets panel (left) and

drop into the table (right).

10.2 Adjusting existing visualisations

You can make changes to the standard tables and graphs we’ve set up if you want to view the data in a

different way or at a different level.

Each time you make an adjustment the metric fields (e.g. service level, lost sales) will be re-calculated

and aggregated to match the new structure of the graph/table automatically.

Adding Fields

To add fields to a table you can click and drag Attributes and Metrics from the datasets panel to

tables/graphs, or drag fields around within a table.

For example, here we are adding the Product Sub Group Description from the Product dataset, to a

table on the Service Level summary panel.

You can also remove columns from a table

Tip

You can maximise visualisations to fill entire screen, this can be useful when making changes to

a table.

To do this, go to the top right of the visualisation and click the Maximise icon.

You’ll now see each product’s sub group in the table.

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Removing Fields

You can remove columns from a table by hovering your cursor over the column, clicking the small

down arrow when it appears and from the menu select Remove.

In this example we have removed the Base Product Number and TPNB description, now we’re left with

a table that shows total shortages and service level for the year (The metrics Total Shortage Cases and

Supplier to DC Service Level have re-calculated to match the level of the table).

Using the Editor panel

Adding Filters to the left hand Filter panel

It is often useful to use the Editor panel to add/remove fields rather than

drag into the actual visualisations themselves.

In the same way you can drag fields from the dataset panel directly into

visualisations, you can also drag them into the Editor panel. This is often

an easier way to add/remove attributes and metrics from a table/graph.

On the right you can see an editor panel for a table that shows the Total

depot to store refusals by year and product, plus the DC to store service

level for each year/product.

In addition to adding Attributes and Metrics to tables and graphs,

you can also add them to the left hand filter panel and used to filter

data.

To do this, click and drag a field from a dataset to the left hand filter

panel.

On the right you can see an example where we have added the

PTMM attribute (Products that matter most) to the filter panel.

You may wish the change the type of Filter from the default type VI

sets up. This can be done using the same method as shown in the last

paragraph of page 17.

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10.3 Creating new visualisations from scratch

Although possible to edit the existing tables it is often more useful to build a new visualisation from

scratch.

In this section we’ll go through how to open a blank tab and then add tables and graphs to the page.

We’ll also combine a number of datasets and types of visualisations to show the full functionality

available within Visual Insights.

To demonstrate this we’ll work through an example. Here were are going to build a page which shows

the Depot to Store service level, alongside SBA at a number of different levels.

Create a new tab

Click the + button to the right of the final tab.

Use the Visualisation Gallery to select a graph

The visualisation gallery is on the right of the screen by default. Using this you can set up graphs,

tables, heatmap visualisations and more..

Here we will use a line graph, click on the Line Graph icon.

Using the Datasets and Editor panels to build a graph

With the datasets and editor panels switched on from the View menu, we can now add attributes and

metrics to the Editor panel to build a graph.

We need to use a number of attributes from different datasets to build the graph.

On the screenshot to the right Week Number

from the Weeks dataset has been dragged into

the Horizontal axis, the DC to Store SL metric is

being dragged into the Vertical axis.

To complete the graph and see DC to Store

service level year on year, we also need to drag

the Year Number from the Weeks dataset into

the Colour by Box. (Final result shown below)

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Adding and manipulating additional visualisations

You add multiple tables, graphs etc. to a page.

To add a new visualisation, click on the insert visualisation button in the top menu bar.

A blank space will be added to the page where you can drag fields and metrics into as shown in section

10.2, or drag them into the Editor panel as shown above.

You can change the layout of the page by clicking and dragging the title bar of a visualisation to

another part of the screen.

Combining multiple datasets

It is possible to combine multiple datasets when building

visualisations.

On the right hand screen shot we have created a table

showing DC to Store service level (from DC to Store

dataset) by Product Area (from Product Dataset), by Year

(from Weeks dataset).

The result can be seen below.

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Sorting data

It is often useful to sort tables, for example to see the most recent record first or the highest

orders/shorts/gaps at the top.

This can be done in a couple of ways:

Right clicking a metric or attribute in the Editor panel will bring up a menu, from here you have a 3

sorting options to choose from at the top: Sort Ascending, Sort Descending and Advanced Sort.

You can also hover your cursor over a column in a table, click for the small down arrow to bring up a

similar menu with the same options.

Choosing Advanced Sort allows you to sort across multiple fields: –

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10.4 Saving custom reports

Once you have made customisations you may wish to save your own version of the report and come

back to it at a later date.

This can be done by going to the File menu in the top left of the screen and selecting Save As.

Select My Reports from the Save In dropdown, this is a personal area within your account where you

can save customised reports. Give your report and name and Click on OK to Save.

You can then come back to the report at a later date by navigating to the My Reports folder after

initially logging in. This report will be linked to the main supplier performance dashboard and so will

get automatically updated with the latest data when the other main tool updates.

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