How You Use Ask Crafter
Using Ask Crafter is a simple, two-step process: selecting a focus area and submitting your query. The interface is designed to handle the heavy lifting of data retrieval so you can focus on strategic questions.
🚀 Initiate a Query
1. Navigate to the Module:
From the left navigation panel, you click Ask Crafter. This opens the dedicated conversational workspace.
2. Select a Focus Area:
The main screen displays several pre-defined cards representing key analytical questions. You can click on any of these cards to set the context for your query. Selecting a focus area helps the AI understand the specific lens through which you want to view your data:
- Procurement Data: For general spend information and broad summaries.
- Top Vendors by Spend: To identify the highest-spending suppliers across the organization.
- Top Spending Entities: To discover the largest spending business units or geographic subsidiaries.
- 3-Year Spend Growth: To analyze year-over-year trends and long-term financial shifts.
- Top Spend Categories: To discover the largest areas of spend within your taxonomy.
- Supplier Performance Metrics: To explore quality, delivery, and reliability trends.
3. Enter Your Query:
In the text box at the bottom of the screen, you type your question or command in plain English. There is no need for SQL or technical code.
💡 Example Query
"Show me the year-over-year change in cloud hosting spend for the US entity."
💡 Pro-Tips for Better Queries
| Goal | Technique |
|---|---|
| Specificity | Mention specific timeframes (e.g., "last 6 months" or "Q3 2025"). |
| Comparison | Ask the AI to compare two segments (e.g., "Compare spend between Vendor A and Vendor B"). |
| Filtering | Combine focus areas with specific filters (e.g., "Top vendors in the Facilities category for the EMEA region"). |
🔄 What Happens Next?
Once you submit your query, Ask Crafter will process the request and generate a response that typically includes:
- A Natural Language Summary: A brief explanation of what the data shows.
- Visualizations: Charts or tables that best represent the answer.
- Refinement Options: Suggestions for follow-up questions to dig deeper.
Next Step: Once your results load, move to the Review and Refine Results Guide to learn how to iterate on your analysis.