A consultant is a paid professional engaged to diagnose problems and propose solutions. Outside help may be needed when a task exceeds the store team’s internal capabilities.
Before work begins, agree on the business question, expected outcome, and task boundaries. Define the budget, timeline, and acceptance criteria. Diagnostic analytics requires clean, relevant historical data.
Formulate the question for analysis
Define the business question you want answered. A hypothetical example: “Why have sales in a certain product category declined?” This is a question to investigate, not an established cause.
Select historical data relevant to this question. Check its quality and suitability for analysis.
Agree on the scope of work
Specify the following in the task description:
- Objective: the question to be investigated.
- Expected outcome: what should be delivered when the work is complete.
- Boundaries and exclusions: what is included in the task and what remains outside it.
- Constraints: budget and timeline.
- Acceptance criteria: the signs that the outcome meets the agreed task requirements.
Compare the consultant’s proposal with this description. Clarify separately whether implementing the proposed changes is included in the commissioned scope.
If the task involves technology consulting, request a proposal with the price, timeline, and work stages.
Clarify documentation and system access
A scope of work description usually includes documentation requirements for the duration of the project. Agree on these requirements for your task.
If the consultant needs access to store systems, provide only the minimum system permissions and resources necessary to perform the task. This is the technical principle of least privilege.
Consider the sequence of root cause analysis
In root cause analysis, the search for solutions follows the identification of causes and a detailed understanding of the problem. Take this sequence into account if the commissioned task specifically involves this kind of analysis.
What source data you can obtain in Torgsoft
For a question about sales of a particular type of product, one possible source of input data is the “Sales analysis by product type” mode. It shows trading results by product type.
When generating the “Product report for a period”, you can specify the reporting period and sales time. To do so, open the menu “Report” → “Product report for a period.”
Select data according to the business question. Identifying the causes of a problem requires separate analysis.
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