Dashboard objectives
Price Advisor is the Novecare pricing tool that aims at providing sales and marketing teams with latest costing information as well as pricing guidelines that help them building their price offers.
Dashboard structure and indicators
Price Advisor pulls data from multiple sources (see “Data sources” section at the end of the page for more details), over a period of 24 months, and combines them into different tabs in one single dashboard.
Costs shown in Price Advisor are Integrated Costs, which is how Integrated Margin is calculated. See here what are the differences between Standard Variable Cost and Integrated Variable Cost.
Cost forecasts are derived from raw materials forecasts that are provided by Noveare purchasing team on a monthly basis for ~400 raw materials (see 1. Novecare Pricing Process).
Tab | What's in it for you |
|---|---|
Price / Cost evolution - Highlights | A consolidated view mainly aimed at top management to assess the risks (due to cost increase) and opportunities (by increasing prices). |
| Price / Cost evolution - Analysis | This tab contains 5 sub-sections:
|
| Price / Cost evolution - Report | Fully customizable report (like an Excel pivot table) which allows user to perform their own analysis. |
| Trend Visualization | Graphical display of selling prices, volumes and integrated contribution margins evolution, month by month or quarter by quarter. |
| Scatter Plots - Price Policies | Pricing dispersion among customers that buy the same products. |
| Scatter Plots - Margin Policies | Margin dispersion among customers that buy the same products. |
| Scatter Plots - 80/15/5 Margins | |
| Sold Product List | This tab gives access to the following information: is a specific product sold already in a given Region? By which Market? In which packaging is it sold today? Is it a dangerous good? What is the lead time to get a product out of the Shipping / Manufacturing Plant? What is the minimum order? Has this material a Special Status? Accountability for data update: supply chain teams in respective plants. /!\ Contains incomplete information for Plants that are not under SAP system. |
| Bill of Materials | Bill of Materials of all finished products (specific users only). |
The below table contains the list of all Price Advisor indicators and where they can be found in the dashboard.
Select a dashboard tab to filter on its indicators or search for a specific indicator by typing its name.
/!\ Display is limited to 15 lines. Use > button to see other pages.
Use cases
The below slides show how Price Advisor can concretely be used in your daily job.
Click on 
button below the slides to display in full screen size.
Review the high level cost forecast impact on your existing business
Access
If you are a Salesforce.com user, access via "My applications" tab. If you are not a Salesforce.com user, access via QlikView portal, which requires you to be connected to Solvay network (in-situ or via VPN).
BU / Region / Country restrictions are based on a matrix that has been approved by Novecare ELT and that takes into account the job position.
Access restrictions for sales team are the following:
Access here the full matrix
Request a Price Advisor access for new users
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Non-Refundable VAT for products exported out of China included in the Integrated Costs shown in Price Advisor?
→ No, it is not. You must use the following spreadsheet to calculate the Non-Refundable VAT impact. - The Sales Rep name shown in Price Advisor is not correct (wrong sales rep associated to a given customer), what should I do?
→ You must contact your Customer Service Officer to perform the change in SAP. - How can I be sure that I have understood the main aspects of Price Advisor tool?
→ Take Price Advisor quiz to assess your capabilities
Data sources
Cost Explorer sources are updated on the 9th of each month.
Source Type | Source Name | Content used in the dashboard |
|---|---|---|
| SAP Business Objects | PPS (orders) and PPE (invoices) | External sales and integrated margin by customer from both WP1 (Rhodia legacy) and PF1 (Solvay legacy) systems. Will soon (Q1 2020) be replaced by SAP BW Profit & Loss (P&L) query to be aligned with CRM Analytics. |
| Third party application | pVelocity | Finished products Bill of Materials and cost forecasts calculated based on raw materials cost forecasts provided by GBU purchasing teams. Will soon (Q1 2020) be replaced by a SAP BW query built internally. |
SAP BW | Integrated Costs | Integrated manufacturing costs : raw materials + packaging + freight / duties of intermediates transferred between Solvay plants + fixed (machine / man / amortization) costs. |
| SAP BW | BW_QRY_DAFICE01_0001 Exchange rates | CAR3 exchange rate type. More details here about the different exchange rates types used within Solvay. |
| SAP BW | BW_QRY_DPNOVQV1_1 Material Master data | Most of data shown in tab "Sold Product List" |
| Google Spreadsheet | Margin Policies | Margin targets set by each BU (usually Regional Market Director, Business Development Manager or Global Marketing Director) at BU and Region level. |
| Google Spreadsheet | Engagement | Price increase objectives set by each BU (usually Regional Market Director) at Product and/or Customer level. |
Google Spreadsheet | Contracted Business | List of signed customer contracts > 6 months maintained manually by each BU (usually Regional Market Director and/or Global Marketing Director) |
| Google Spreadsheet | Customer Segment | Classification of the Ship-to KA (end-user): Key Account, Direct Customer or Distributor. Information usually provided by each BU Global Marketing Director. |
| Google Spreadsheet | Cost / Value driven flag | Indication whether the product is rather Cost driven or Value driven. Information usually provided by each BU Global Marketing Director. |
| Google Spreadsheet | Push emails | Distribution list to send monthly alerts to Sales Rep, along with their Regional Market Directors, who are exposed to the bigger squeeze risk. |