Strategic Small Business Intelligence - Frequently Asked Questions

GENERAL QUESTIONS

I already have more reports than I have time to run. Why should these be any different?

The information on just one iSEE report may be worth more than all your others put together. Once you become more familiar with the power of predictive analytics you won't see these as just another set of "reports." Quite the contrary, it's more like seeing the future of your business through a crystal ball.

When will the Deltalytics iSEE software be available?

A closed beta initiative will begin 4Q 2007 with general release to follow in Q2 or Q3 2008.

How does the pre-release special offer work?

For a limited time, we're accepting registrations for a free, six-month subscription to the iSEE Basic Edition software. This offer can end at any time, so we encourage you to register for a no-strings, no-obligation subscription now.

What kind of business can benefit the most from iSEE? And which kind would benefit the LEAST?

iSEE analyzes past events to predict future ones. It therefore needs a rich set of non-recurring transactions to detect and project future behavioral patterns (rich meaning multiple/repeat orders per customer, and non-recurring meaning orders which do not repeat on a cyclical basis). So, two kinds of companies will benefit the least by using iSEE:

Those who see relatively few and very infrequent buyers (e.g. a funeral home). and
Those whose customers are largely on continuity/standing order programs (e.g. Whatever-Of-The-Month Club)

A business that sees relatively few and, especially, single-purchase buyers, will gain little from iSEE that couldn't be accomplished with some basic statistics and a spreadsheet. A new car dealership, given the long inter-purchase cycle, won't get much bang out of their iSEE buck, either (unless they have an active service department with a loyal clientele and treat service visits as sales orders). In fact, the car dealership can benefit greatly from Deltalytics' defection analysis and detection by alerting the service manager to customers who, for example, failed to make an expected service appointment.

The worst kind of prospect for iSEE, however, is a continuity club like Book-Of-The-Month. These businesses, although often very successful, have almost no variability in customer behavior. Customers are either signed-on and receiving a shipment every month, or they've actively defected and no longer doing business with the company at all. Unlike the car dealership example, whose customers will passively attrite (i.e. stop ordering), the continuity club member must actively terminate their relationship with the company. Book-Of-The-Month doesn't need to figure out who their defected customers might be; they already know because these customers have actively cancelled their membership.

Those companies who will benefit the most from iSEE are the remaining 95% of all businesses that are heterogeneous by nature (i.e. and have a varied and dynamic customer base). In particular, iSEE requires customer reorders to work its magic. If the majority of your buyers purchase a single time and never return, there's little that iSEE can predict beyond the rate of new customer acquistion (and you can do that yourself with Excel and a simple regression formula). But if most of your customers place multiple orders for a different products, at different times and with no apparent rhyme or reason.. well, then iSEE is definitely for you. There are latent patterns in your customer order data which can be uncovered and used to predict future customer behavior and, consequently, business performance.

Isn�t this Deltalytics concept just a fancy word for CRM?
Not at all. Deltalytics supports CRM initiatives, but is not an initiative in itself. CRM can be thought of as managing the interactions between a company and its customers. Deltalytics, on the other hand, uncovers trends in the mountains of data that your business accumulates. Specifically, it examines customer behavior in order to (i) predict their future behavior (and, consequently, future business performance); and (ii) provide key insights which will enable you to positively influence that behavior and, hence, improve their financial outlook.

The information you provide is kind of sketchy. I don't see any screens or reports. Why is that?

Frankly, we're very concerned about exposing too much of our intellectual property before generating sufficient market share and momentum to ward off potential competitors. The Deltalytics methodology, because it's so unique and effective, is certain to attract copycats. Consequently, it behooves us to keep as much of details of what we do (and how we do it) under wraps. Once we're better established, and able to effectively defend our proprietary technology, we'll share a lot more about it on our website. That said, you may take a look Under the Hood by agreeing to our basic Non-Disclosure Policy.

Can ∆LYTICS be characterized as a marriage between data mining and predictive analytics?
Yes, that's a fair statement. The key to Deltalytics is the way in which it treats the data and the unique and exceedingly powerful reports it's able to generate in the process. Deltalytics is the only powerful yet sensibly-priced strategic effectiveness software available today.

INSTALLATION & USE

How do we get our order information into the iSEE application?

A generic data import tool is available to "map" your existing order data to your iSEE MS-SQL database. In addition, a connector for QuickBooks^tmprovides for one-click extraction and transfer of data directly from QuickBooks. Connectors to other accounting and order management applications will be added as time, resources and user-demand dictate. When you sign up for your FREE iSEE SUBSCRIPTION, you'll be asked what software you currently use for Order Processing. We'll use this feedback to help decide which connectors to develop and in what order of priority.

Does it matter if we export our invoice data to iSEE instead of orders?

Definitely! One should not feed invoice data to iSEE if the invoice date is generated when the order is shipped and is consequently different from the customer's order date. For example, say a customer places an order on June 5. It's backordered and doesn't ship until July 10 when the invoice record is created. The correct date to pass to iSEE is June 5th (the order date) and not July 10th (the invoice date). Why? Because the application analyzes customer behavior, i.e demand, which is unrelated to back-end order fulfillment. Another fatal downside of using invoice date is the fact that multiple invoices for a single order may be created if, for example, split-shipments are necessary to complete it. Multiple, unique invoice numbers -- rather than the single, unique order number -- will look like multiple purchases to iSEE, completely undermining the integrity of your reorder rate metrics. In short, always export order-level data [where the customer's unique order_number ID represents a single purchase].

How much data can iSEE handle?

iSEE uses the free MS-SQL Server Express as its default database engine and is thereby limited to a maximum storage capacity of 4GB per database. We're running a series of test database loads to determine the typical user profile and, from there, to estimate how many records (specifically customers and lineitems) the application can accomodate. Suffice to say, however, that there should be more than adequate capacity for most iSEE users. For those who may require additional storage, a low-cost upgrade will allow the application to use the fully-licensed (no database limitation) versions of MS SQL Server.

Do I need an internet connection to use the program?
Yes, and for two primary reasons: First, to periodically verify the status of your subscription. And secondly, we store and run certain algorithms on our servers rather than embed within the application to protect our proprietary technology. Your sensitive data is never sent over (or even exposed to) the internet, however, so it's always completely safe and secure.

How can I get technical support?

Support will initially be available for email/forum only. We're setting up a forum for that purpose now and it will be activated well in advance of the product's official release.

SECURITY

Is my company data secure?

Yes, your data is totally secure. iSEE will be deployed locally on your computer. This way, your company data is never transmitted over nor exposed to the internet in any way. The few internet-based functions that it performs -- subscription verification, license administration and proprietary algorithm execution -- are fully encrypted and pose no risk whatsoever.

TECHNOLOGY

No questions at this time. Please see our Integration & Technology page for more.

POLICIES

Do you offer a money-back guarantee?

Yes, because we belief so strongly in our claims and product. If, at any time and for any reason, you decide that Deltalytics has not provided an exceptional return on your investment, we'll refund up to three months of your subscription payments.

Do you encourage users to make suggestions for product improvement?
Absolutely! As a matter of fact, we offer one free month of service for every suggestion that we eventually adopt. When iSEE is released we'll simultaneously launch a User Forum where, among other things, user comments and suggestions may be posted. Other users will be encouraged to rate these suggestions to help us decide which to adopt and in which order of priority.

AFFILIATE PROGRAM

Do you offer an affiliate program?

Not at this time, but we plan to in the near future. The program will be incredibly generous (up to 50% of revenue generated including recurring revenue). For more information, please sign up here and we'll forward details to you as soon as they become available.