An analytic snapshot is used to run a report on historical data. We can save tabular or summary report results to fields on a custom object, and then map those fields to the corresponding fields on a target object. We then schedule when to run the report to load the custom object's fields with the report's data.
For example, the library manager can set up an analytic snapshot that reports on the books that have been checked out every day at 5:00 p.m. and store the data in a custom object. The library manager can then spot the trends in book issuing and the readership.