Northwind Traders - KPI Performance Dashboard

Project Overview: You are a BI Analyst working for Northwind Traders, a global import and export company that specialises in supplying high-quality gourmet food products to restaurants, cafes, and specialty food retailers around the world. As part of your role, you've been tasked with building a top-level Key Performance Indicators (KPI) dashboard for the executive team. Its purpose should be to allow them to quickly understand the company's performance in key areas, including:

• Sales trends
• Product performance
• Key customers
• Shipping costs

The dashboard is built to evolve and accommodate new data over time, but you've been encouraged by your manager to have insights & recommendations ready to share with the VPs.

Key Deliverables:

• Gross/Net Revenue
• Total Products Sold
• Key Regions
• Employee Performance
• Monthly/Yearly Sales Performance
• Top Customers/Products

Insights

Overall Sales

From July 2013 - May 2015, Northwind Traders generated £1.35M in gross revenue and saw a significant growth in business in 2014, with the total quantity of products sold at the end of the year increased by 15K. Overall revenue increased rapidly towards the end of Q3 + Q4 in 2013, however the quantity of products sold decreased more rapidly than profits from the end of Q2 onwards in 2014.

According to the trend patterns, the increases in revenue during 2014 could account for the acceleration in the demand for new ships around the time. The Investor's Chronicle reported in 2014: "Fast-forward to late 2013 and orders for new ships started to accelerate again, with the ClarkSea index of ship earnings - often referred to as the industry's heart-rate monitor - 9 per cent ahead of its historical average. But the second and (to date) third quarters of 2014 were tough again, and the index has now reverted to early 2009 levels."

The most products sold were in the 'Dairy Products' category, namely Gorgonzola Telino, which accumulated over £12K in revenue during the two year period.

Employee Performance + Key Regions

Between 2013 and 2015, US sales surpassed UK sales significantly by £598.4K. The employee that drew in the most sales was Margaret Peacock in the NYC office, making over £11K in revenue, 26%+ of the total sales of the five employees in the US region.

Considering the success of sales in New York, a trial expansion to another major U.S city for one year would be advantageous and could see correlated growth towards the end of that year.

Top Customers

QUICK, SAVEA and ERNSH all bought over £110K worth of products each, making them the top three customers throughout the two year period. United Package shippers made the most revenue, responsible for over £570K worth of deliveries.