Use this article to understand the main analysis workflows Ask Yarken can support across Yarken data.
Spend analysis
Use Ask Yarken to understand total technology spend and the dimensions behind it.
Typical spend questions include:
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What are the top vendors by spend this year?
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Which applications have the highest spend this quarter?
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Break total spend down by cost center and entity.
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Show the top spend increases month over month.
Ask Yarken can summarize spend, compare trends, break down results across multiple dimensions, and highlight the main drivers behind the totals.
Budget and variance analysis
Use Ask Yarken when you need to understand where actuals, budgets, and forecasts are moving apart.
Typical variance questions include:
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Why is infrastructure spend over budget this month?
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Which cost centers drove the largest forecast variance this quarter?
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Compare actuals versus budget by account.
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Identify the top drivers behind this overspend.
Ask Yarken can explain the variance, identify the dimensions involved, and suggest next actions such as review, reforecasting, or cost control follow-up.
Cloud and FinOps analysis
Use Ask Yarken to analyze cloud spend, usage patterns, and optimization opportunities.
Typical cloud questions include:
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What drove the increase in cloud spend this month?
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Compare AWS and Azure spend by service category.
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Which business consumers drove the highest infrastructure spend?
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Recommend actions to reduce cloud overspend this quarter.
Ask Yarken can connect cloud analysis to providers, services, business consumers, solutions, and other mapped dimensions available in Yarken.
Vendor and contract analysis
Use Ask Yarken when you need to review supplier concentration, contract exposure, or renewal timing.
Typical contract and vendor questions include:
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Which contracts are expiring in the next 90 days?
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Show vendor spend by cost center for this year.
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Identify vendors that should be reviewed for renegotiation.
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Which vendors show unusual spend growth?
Ask Yarken can combine spend and contract context where those records are available in your Yarken environment.
Planning analysis
Use Ask Yarken to compare actuals, budgets, and forecasts and to understand planning performance.
Typical planning questions include:
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Show budget versus actuals by cost center for this quarter.
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Explain the largest forecast variances by account.
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Compare this quarter against the same quarter last year.
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Identify where the forecast should be adjusted.
Ask Yarken can highlight pressure areas, performance drift, and the dimensions contributing to the change.
Chart requests and deeper detail
Ask Yarken can also generate charts and, where data is available, drill into granular-level detail.
Useful chart requests include:
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Create a line chart of monthly cloud spend by provider.
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Show a column chart of top applications by spend.
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Create a stacked chart of cost center spend by month.
Useful drill-down requests include:
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Show granular-level detail for the top 5 spend increases.
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Break this result down by account and consumer.
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Drill into the transactions behind this variance.
Next step
Configure Playbooks and SOPs for Ask Yarken
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