AI for insights and analytics
Industrial distribution runs on quotes, branches and contracts. AI analytics reads the quote log, the invoice ledger and the contract price file, answers questions like which customers use us to check another supplier's price, and shows the rows that say so.
These are the questions industrial distributors ask. Each one maps to a measure our tools compute from your files. The AI model chooses the measure and explains the result; the arithmetic is done by our code, and every total is checked.
| The question | The measure behind it | What comes back |
|---|---|---|
| Which customers quote us and never buy? | Quote conversion, count and value | Conversion by count and by value per customer, with the estimating hours spent on the ones under ten percent. |
| Which accounts are past their usual order gap? | Dormant accounts, by prior value | A list by prior-year revenue against each account's own pattern, by branch and rep. |
| Where are we invoicing below contract? | Price realisation against contract | Invoiced price against the contracted price by line and customer, the leakage totalled. |
| Which key sites buy most of a category from someone else? | Share of spend at key sites | Our share of estimated site spend per category, with the gap in dollars. |
| Who walks in and buys at the counter without an account? | Counter sales without an account | Counter revenue with no account number, by branch, and the repeat buyers among it. |
| Which lost lines are costing us orders? | Lost lines | Lines a customer used to buy and no longer does, valued at the prior run rate. |
Every figure below was computed by a tool from the rows and checked before it was shown. The lines sum; the percentages match; each line opens to the rows that make it.
How much quote value did we lose last quarter, and where?
Lost quote value is $4.9m across 3 branches, against 26 percent conversion by value. Eastside branch accounts for $2.4m, 49% of the lost value.
| Eastside branch | $2.4m | 49% of the total |
| Riverside branch | $1.6m | 33% of the total |
| Northgate branch | $900k | 18% of the total |
| The 3 lines sum to | $4.9m | 0 unexplained |
Who is behind the Eastside figure?
3 customers hold $2.0m of the $2.4m lost at Eastside branch, 84% of it. Two of them have sent more than forty quotes each and converted under ten percent.
| Kestrel Engineering | $980k | 47 quotes, 4 won; 62 estimating hours |
| Bramley Fabrication | $720k | 41 quotes, 3 won; 55 estimating hours |
| Oak Ridge Plant | $310k | 12 quotes, 5 won |
| These 3 are | $2.0m | 84% of Eastside branch |
What do we do about the two price checkers?
Decide, rather than keep quoting. Either a contract price that removes the reason to shop, or a quote fee, or a slower turnaround. The estimating hours are the cost of not deciding.
| Eastside branch manager | Meet Kestrel and Bramley with a contract price proposal | This month |
| Sales manager | Put quote conversion by value on the weekly branch call | Weekly |
| Estimating lead | Flag customers under ten percent conversion before quoting | Ongoing |
Each measure has one formula, one source and one meaning. They are computed per branch and rep and in total, and every one carries an identity that must hold before it is shown.
| Measure | Formula | From | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category penetration | Accounts buying the category ÷ accounts in the segment, by branch; categories held per account against the segment norm | Ledger with category; account master | Which accounts buy three categories where similar accounts buy six |
| Dormant accounts, by prior value | Prior-year revenue of accounts past k × own order gap ÷ prior-year revenue | Ledger | Revenue that stopped, ranked for a call |
| Quote conversion, count and value | Quotes matched to orders ÷ quotes decided; quoted value converted ÷ quoted value decided | Quote log; order file | Where estimating time goes and which customers price-check |
| Lost lines | Value of lines cancelled or unfulfilled for no stock, by branch, item and account | Order and shipment files | Sales the shelf turned away |
| Counter sales without an account | Cash and card sales by payer, repeated visits, value | Counter sales file | Walk-in customers worth a trade account |
| Coverage at cadence | Revenue of accounts touched within tier cadence ÷ revenue assigned | CRM; assignment file; ledger | Whether key accounts are being spoken to |
| Price realisation against contract | Invoiced price ÷ contract or matrix price, by line | Ledger; price file | Contract prices not applied; overrides at the counter |
| Share of spend at key sites | Revenue at the site ÷ estimated site MRO spend, from headcount or stated budget | Ledger; account master with site data | How much of a plant's spend you hold |
| Reactivation rate | Dormant accounts that ordered within 60 days of a logged call ÷ dormant accounts called | Ledger; CRM | Whether working the dormant list pays |
| Contribution per customer | Gross margin − cost to serve | Ledger; delivery and order files | Accounts that earn after what they cost |
Each measure is worked through, with the export it comes from and what to drop, in Sales KPIs for industrial distributors.
From your question and the measures declared for industrial distributors, the model picks the one that answers it, and the period and comparison the question implies.
Deterministic code reads the rows, computes the measure, and checks the identities below. The same question on the same data gives the same answer, every time.
The AI model writes the sentence around the result, naming the branch or account behind it. It states no figure that is not in the result, and every figure links to its rows.
| Quote conversion | Quotes = converted exact + converted probable + lost + open within validity |
| Lost lines | Lines ordered = shipped complete + shipped short + cancelled no stock + cancelled other + open |
| Category penetration | Category revenue sums to the ledger; every account in one segment |
| Dormancy | Customers = dormant + active + too few orders |
The exports industrial distributors already produce. Column names are mapped once and the mapping is reused. A file is the way in; scheduled delivery and connections to your systems come with the plan, and every source is listed here.
An answer is a list with an owner and a cadence, or it is a chart nobody works.
| Measures | Owner | Cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Dormancy; coverage; reactivation | Sales manager; branch manager | Weekly |
| Lost lines | Branch manager with purchasing | Weekly |
| Quote conversion; counter sales without an account | Branch manager; inside sales lead | Monthly |
| Category penetration; price realisation; contribution; site share | Commercial director | Quarterly |
Because count conversion counts a fifty-dollar quote the same as a fifty-thousand-dollar one. A branch at 41 percent by count and 26 percent by value is winning the small quotes and losing the big ones, and the second figure is the one that explains the revenue line. The tool reports both, side by side, so the difference is visible.
Yes. It needs a quote file with the customer, the date, the value and the outcome, plus the invoice ledger to confirm what was actually bought. Column names are mapped once, on the data map, and the same mapping is reused for every later file.
If you give it the contract price file, price realisation against contract is computed line by line: invoiced price over contracted price, by customer, with the leakage totalled and the lines listed. Without the file it falls back to list price, and says so.
The AI model never produces a figure. It picks the measure that answers your question, our tool computes that measure from the rows and checks it, and the AI model writes the sentence around the result. If the question needs a measure the tools cannot compute, it says it cannot compute that, rather than guessing.
Quote conversion · Dormant account · Price realisation · Lost line · Share of wallet · Contribution
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Bring a few thousand rows. The data map opens next, every column mapped once, and the first question is answered in minutes. Free, in your browser, no account.