Answering What-if Scenarios on Your Mobile Device with ReportPlus

Chances are you’re familiar with what-if scenarios. By definition,  “A ’what-if analysis’ is a process which helps you evaluate the possible outcomes of an investment or business activity”. And while most might think it is only useful for sales opportunities, the key with what-if scenarios is the outcome. The process can be very useful to assess impacts, hypothesize on what the probable outcomes are, or even work on damage control.

• Assessing impacts and hypothesizing are similar activities in that they imply you haven’t actually changed anything yet. You can use it to see what the probable outcome of your decision/plan is (even though you might want to assess something while it’s happening).

• Damage control, however, can be both part of your planning and/or a post-change activity. Again, this is not necessarily related to sales: you might, for example, be deciding on an action plan after a weather-related catastrophe, trying to manage a huge loss or deciding on what your ideal response should be as an event unfolds.

 

But how does this apply to ME?

Again, while priceless for salespeople, what-if analysis is not necessarily related to sales. Take a look at the following dashboard:

The price in this example, broken down by equipment type, was estimated for a 5-year construction. However, if the construction is extended due to unforeseen delays, prices are sure to go up. According to a forecast report done by Colliers International, construction costs for district malls are expected to increase by 5% in 2016, and an additional 6% by 2017.

To present this price fluctuation in your dashboard, you can include a Variable named “Increase” in the Global Filters and apply it to your widget.

You can then change the Variable value without entering Edit Mode, which will update the widget automatically.

So HOW can I try this for myself?

For more information on Dashboard Global Variables in ReportPlus, refer to the ReportPlus User Guide.

ReportPlus is a mobile business intelligence tool that not only empowers you to create dashboards, but also enables you to derive insights from your data as needed just like in the what-if analysis example above.

Interested on a step-by-step walkthrough? Let us know in the comments section below.

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