Excel is an excellent tool for working with data, and with add-ons and plugins, Excel becomes an extra powerful tool that automates tasks, saves time and enhances efficiency. Orbit Analytics offers powerful add-ons and plugins for Excel that magnify its capabilities, allowing users to harness real-time data and advanced analytics directly within the familiar Excel interface. Here, we explore the key features, benefits and applications of these tools, focusing on how they can transform data management and reporting processes.
Orbit Analytics Add-Ons for Excel
Orbit Analytics is focused on enhancing data accessibility and usability and offers solutions that are designed to empower business users by simplifying complex data processes and providing real-time insights crucial for informed decision-making. Orbit Analytics’ user-friendly interface allows business users to perform advanced analytics and generate detailed reports with minimal technical expertise. This self-service capability is particularly valuable in nurturing a data-driven culture within organizations, as it empowers users at all levels to harness the power of data for strategic insights.
Orbit Analytics constantly evolves its offerings to include features that significantly reduce the time and effort required to deploy analytics solutions, ensuring that businesses can quickly adapt to changing market demands and operational needs.
One of the key strengths of Orbit Analytics and what sets it apart is its Excel Reporting. Orbit’s Excel Reporting tools allow you to pull real-time data from multiple applications and data sources into Excel. When Excel Reporting fetches and refreshes data in Excel, it will only update with the data users can access with their role-based authentication.
Key Add-Ons and Plugins
GLSense is a unique software purpose-built for financial reporting. It is directly integrated with ERP financial applications like Oracle Cloud ERP, Oracle E-Business Suite, and Oracle NetSuite to provide detailed financial data, allowing users to create instantly refreshable reports and comprehensive financial statements. GLSense supports drill-down capabilities to live GL transactional details, making it an invaluable tool for finance departments. By integrating seamlessly with Excel, it facilitates collaborative financial analysis and improves the accuracy and efficiency of financial reporting processes.
Some core functions of GLSense are –
- Financial Statements
- Real-Time Account Analysis
- Faster Period Closing
- Drill-down to Details
- ERP Integrations
Orbit XLEdge is a versatile Excel add-in that enables real-time data integration from multiple applications into Excel, and helps make decisions on real-time insights. It allows users to access and analyze live data from enterprise systems such as Oracle E-Business Suite and Oracle Cloud. With features like scheduled data refreshes and secure data access, XLEdge ensures that users always work with the most up-to-date information without compromising data security. Users can select from the over 1,000 finance, HR, supply chain, and other pre-built business reports that come with Orbit and are certified for Oracle E-Business Suite. These reports can be run on-demand or submitted through the Orbit Scheduler. While refreshing data, XLEdge automatically retains all of the custom formatting, calculations, charts, and pivots that were built earlier.
This add-on is particularly useful for operational reporting, where timely and accurate data is critical for decision-making.
Orbit SQLEdge is designed for advanced ad hoc reporting and data analysis within Excel. It allows users to run custom SQL queries against Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications, directly in Excel, simplifying the process of data comparison and exploration. This tool is particularly beneficial for users who need to perform complex data analysis without leaving the Excel environment. It also eliminates multiple versions of the truth by regularly refreshing live data.
Practical Implementations and Benefits of Orbit Excel Add-ons
Orbit Analytics’ Excel add-ons enhance various aspects of business operations, from operational reporting and financial analysis to ad-hoc reporting and custom data queries, thereby driving efficiency and informed decision-making across organizations.
- Operational Reporting
XLEdge is extensively used by businesses to create operational reports. Let’s consider a global logistics company that experiences a surge in delivery volumes during the peak holiday season.
With Orbit XLEdge, the operations team monitors real-time data on delivery times and routes. They identify that certain routes are consistently delayed due to traffic congestion. The team uses this data to adjust routes dynamically, reducing average delivery times. They can also schedule maintenance for a vehicle showing signs of potential issues. They monitor fuel consumption and identify and address inefficiencies.
- Financial Analysis
GLSense is tailored for detailed financial reporting and analysis and can transform financial reporting processes, improve accuracy, and support strategic decision-making in a complex, multinational business environment. In this case, during a quarterly close, the finance team at a manufacturing company faces a tight deadline to produce consolidated financial statements for regulatory compliance and internal review.
Using GLSense, they quickly pull data from all subsidiaries into Excel, ensuring consistency and accuracy. If there is a discrepancy in one subsidiary’s revenue figures, the team identifies it through GLSense’s drill-down feature and resolves it promptly. The automated refresh ensures that the consolidated reports are always up-to-date. As a result, the company completes its period-end close process much ahead of time, enhancing its compliance and providing timely insights for strategic decisions.
- Ad-Hoc Reporting
One of the significant advantages of Orbit Analytics’ tools is the ability to create ad-hoc reports on demand. SQLEdge empowers users to run custom SQL queries directly in Excel, enabling them to explore underlying data and generate reports as needed, reducing the dependency on IT departments.
For example, at a financial services firm’s quarterly board meeting, the firm’s chief analyst uses SQLEdge, for a custom SQL query to extract data on loan defaults segmented by age group, income level, and geographic location. The resulting report reveals that younger borrowers in urban areas have higher default rates compared to other segments. So, the firm decides to adjust its risk assessment models and develop targeted financial literacy programs for these high-risk segments. Orbit SQLEdge can transform ad-hoc reporting by enabling detailed, real-time data analysis directly within Excel, reducing reliance on IT, and ensuring that businesses can adapt to changing circumstances and make data-driven decisions in real time.
Benefits of Using Orbit Analytics Add-Ons in Excel
Orbit Analytics add-ons significantly boost Excel’s capabilities, driving improved performance and smarter decision-making within organizations.
- Enhanced Data Analysis: By integrating real-time data from various enterprise applications, Orbit Analytics add-ons allow users to perform in-depth analyses, uncover trends, and make data-driven decisions with greater accuracy and speed.
- Improved Efficiency: These add-ons with features such as automated data refreshes streamline data management and reporting processes, reduce manual efforts, minimize errors, and improve overall efficiency.
- Better Data Visualization: Orbit Analytics add-ons provide advanced data visualization options, enabling users to create interactive dashboards and detailed reports directly within Excel, presenting them in a more understandable and actionable format.
- Seamless Integration: The add-ons integrate seamlessly with existing enterprise systems and Excel, ensuring that users can continue working within familiar environments while leveraging enhanced capabilities.
- Enhanced Decision-Making: With real-time access to accurate and comprehensive data, users can make more informed decisions. The ability to drill down into data and perform detailed analyses ensures that decisions are based on solid evidence and insights rather than assumptions.
- Improved Collaboration: These tools facilitate better collaboration across departments by providing a unified view of data that can be easily shared and analyzed. Features such as collaborative financial analysis in GLSense allow teams to work together more effectively, ensuring that everyone is aligned and informed.
Getting Started with Orbit Analytics Add-Ons
Implementing Orbit Analytics add-ons like XLEdge, GLSense, and SQLEdge is simple and easy with comprehensive guides available for integration with existing systems. Training resources and detailed documentation are available, and Orbit offers robust support to assist with any issues. Take advantage of our demos and free trials to explore the features and benefits of these add-ons to ensure they meet your specific needs.
To explore how these tools can transform your data management, get in touch with us at https://www.orbitanalytics.com/contact-us/