Parcel 101 Video Series: Parcel Reporting Best Practices

Full transcript: "Reporting is really intended to be a tool. It's not a data dump. It's actually a tool in order to help you identify quickly, a gap, to do strategic analysis around that gap, and then to provide the data underneath that, in order to drill down and truly solve problems, and identify what those problems are at a quick glance. So that's the true intent of having a good report. We label the data based on the customer's distribution centers, their stores, the way that it makes sense to them, so they're not having to read through lines and lines of data. We actually do the labeling on the front end, and then the customer is able to quickly see, in human, readable terms, what those things are that they're looking for. Also, good reporting will allow you to drill down once you see a gap or a trend that you're curious about. It'll allow you to very quickly and easily drill into that, and identify what those gaps are, and really mine out the data, just the pieces of the data that you need. So those are the key aspects of reporting. To enhance the carrier's data, we also want to bring in customer data, so that we can actually understand SKU profitability, for example. Is that item even worth shipping, or does it cost more to ship the item than you actually get in revenue? Be able to provide faster accrual processes for your month-end closing, so that you know what you've shipped before the carriers even billed it, and we can tell you what those accruals should be. In addition, some other key things that the customers look for is, you know, what is that true click to deliver time, that order cycle time, so as that customer places that order, how long did it take to really get there, versus the promise that you've made to that customer. So those are the key things that we look for in reporting at Green Mountain Technology, and how we want to have that set up to provide the customer the best experience possible."