Spider Impact offers several powerful analytics capabilities that help you understand your data and make better decisions. Beyond traditional analytics, the software incorporates intelligent features that proactively deliver insights and keep you informed of important changes. Here's a comprehensive guide to our analytics capabilities:

Traditional Predictive Analytics

Forecasting

Spider Impact uses time-series analysis to predict future values based on historical data. The software automatically detects patterns and selects the best forecasting model:

• Automatically detects seasonal trends
• Uses exponential smoothing algorithms (Simple, Holt's, and Holt-Winters)
• Shows 90-99% confidence intervals
• Allows manual model selection and seasonality adjustments

For more information about forecasting, see the Forecasting section of the Building Charts article.

Trend Analysis

You can add trend lines to any chart to see underlying patterns:

• Calculate trends across single or multiple data series
• Customize trend line appearance and data sources
• Add above/below fills to highlight deviations

Trend lines are covered in detail in the Trend Lines section of the Building Charts article.

Performance Analytics

Earned Value Management (EVM)

EVM calculations are built into the Initiatives Overview tab to automatically predict initiative completion date and costs based on current performance:

• Tracks both schedule and cost performance
• Automatically calculates key EVM metrics
• Projects completion dates and final costs
• Only requires updates to percent complete and actual costs

For more information about EVM, see the What is Earned Value Management? article on our website.

Initiative Impact Analysis

Spider Impact can determine how initiatives affect your metrics by:

• Analyzing pre- and post-initiative performance
• Detecting statistically significant changes
• Identifying positive, negative, or mixed impacts
• Using both trend and absolute performance changes

Initiative impact is covered in detail in the Determining Initiative Impact article.

Clustering

For discovering patterns in large datasets, Spider Impact's clustering analytics can:

• Find natural groupings in your data
• Work with multiple dimensions simultaneously
• Use sophisticated k-means++ algorithms
• Help identify meaningful segments and profiles

Learn more about clustering in the Advanced: Clustering Analytics article.

Proactive Intelligence

Smart Alerts

Spider Impact continuously monitors your data and automatically notifies relevant stakeholders of important changes and updates. The alert system includes:

• Performance alerts when KPIs turn red
• Notification of replies to comments and discussions
• Reminders for KPI data updates
• Alerts for linked item modifications
• Customizable alert preferences and delivery schedules

For comprehensive information about alerts, see our Overview of Alerts article.

Automated Reporting

Spider Impact can automatically generate and distribute reports on a schedule, keeping stakeholders informed without manual intervention:

• Schedule reports for regular delivery (daily, weekly, monthly)
• Customize report content and recipients
• Include critical performance indicators:
• Red KPIs and downward trends
• Over-budget or delayed initiatives
• Data quality issues

Learn more about automated reporting in our Overview of Reports article.

When to Use Each Type

• Use Forecasting for projecting future metric values based on historical patterns
• Use Trend Analysis to understand underlying patterns in your data
• Use Clustering to discover natural groupings in large datasets
• Use Initiative Impact and EVM to track and predict project performance
• Configure Alerts to stay informed of important changes automatically
• Set up Scheduled Reports to regularly distribute key performance information