Running a successful partnership program requires an understanding of how your program is currently performing as well as how it’s going to perform in the future. Forecasting is a necessary function when it comes to tracking your progress towards goals and KPIs but without the right tools, you’ll waste hours modeling. If you have to do forecasting manually, you probably only have time to forecast at the program level. You won’t have time to build forecasts for each partner.
Let’s face it, building out comprehensive forecasting models and manually surfacing data anomalies is hard work, but we’ve got you covered. Forecasting and Anomaly Detection by Impact has been designed to automate and optimize your forecasting and goal tracking initiatives.
Where to find Forecasting and Anomaly Detection and how to use them
Forecasting and Anomaly Detection by Impact is packaged into three distinct reports, Performance by Partner with Anomaly, Forecast by Partner, and Anomaly Detection Summary. You can find all three reports by going to the left navigation in your UI.
These reports were created to be used in conjunction with one another so forecasting program performance and identifying anomalies within your program is all one workflow.
Forecast by Partner
Forecasting takes into account performance metrics, all historical data, and seasonal trends to forecast performance out up to 90 days. The Forecast by Partner Report allows you to understand how your program is likely to perform over your forecasted range so you can peer into the future and take early action instead of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. Additionally, you can filter by partner and see a graphical representation for that specific partner’s performance.
Performance by Partner with Anomaly Detection
Once you’ve established the future performance of your partnership channel, the Performance by Partner with Anomaly Detection Report will enable you to periodically check in to see how you’re pacing towards the goals and KPIs you previously forecasted. Upon selecting the “Anomalies” button, you’re given the upper and lower bounds of your forecast and whether or not your program performance falls within that range. Anomalies will be represented when your current performance trend line exceeds the upper and lower boundary, as shown below.
The Performance by Partner with Anomaly Report eliminates the need to run multiple reports in parallel to check in on how your partnership program is performing relative to the forecasted value. Additionally, anomalies are easily identifiable when viewing this report, reducing the time it takes to manually search for them in spreadsheets.
Now that you’ve created a forecast, compared your current performance to that forecast, and have identified an anomaly . . . What’s next?
Anomaly Detection Summary Report
The Anomaly Detection Summary Report is the third, and final, instalment in the Forecasting and Anomaly Detection feature. You can use this report as a way to drill down into the anomaly that was surfaced via the Performance by Partner with Anomaly report.
For example, if there were three days of over-performance from Feb 1-20 identified in the Performance by Partner with Anomaly report, you can then go to the Anomaly Detection Summary Report and drill down on Feb 1-20 for a more in depth analysis. This report is conditionally formatted to display exactly what type of anomalies occurred, down to the partner level. Actual and anomalous metrics are displayed side by side for comparison.
Forecast your future with Impact
Forecasting and Anomaly Detection are essential tools for tracking goals and assessing discrepancies within your program’s performance. Use these reports in combination to strategize and account for the future of your partnership program. Forecasting and Anomaly Detection is available now via an Enterprise level account or with the Optimize add-on.
Want to learn more about foretelling the future? Reach out to Impact’s growth technologists at grow@impact.com.
