Choosing The Right Business Reporting Software Program
This excerpt from Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Reporting (But Were Afraid To Ask) helps you choose the best reporting solution for your organization. It pinpoints criteria to consider during the evaluation process and poses key questions.
From start to finish, how quickly can reports be produced?
No business can afford to waste resources, especially in today's economic climate. We're all looking for an edge in operational efficiency. A reporting solution that allows you to quickly produce the reports you need saves your company substantial time and money. Plus, high-quality reports facilitate better business decisions, leading to overall improved company efficiency.
In evaluating a reporting solution's efficiency, it's critical to look at the entire lifecycle of report generation. Add up how much time and energy is expended:
- Designing a template
- Adding data to the template
- Running the report
- Modifying the template
- Repeating any of the above steps when necessary
The process is streamlined when it is accomplished by the best and fewest people necessary. This is why we recommend you, the business professional, be as involved as possible in creating reports. You know what information the report recipient needs, and you understand the best way to go about presenting that information. The more input you have into each step, the more efficient the process becomes.
How quickly and easily can reports be designed?
Training, professional services and ongoing day-after-day costs of creating and revising reports make up the bulk of the investment in a reporting solution. One of the biggest expenses in the report creation process directly correlates to the design tool's ease-of-use. Some solutions use proprietary design tools and others use design interfaces you already know, such as Microsoft Word or Excel. The latter tend to be easier to use because you already are familiar with many of their features.
Ask yourself how easy it will be to learn the design tool. Is there significant training involved? Have you used a similar program before? Does the tool come with well-written documentation? The process of getting up to speed on the design tool often is the primary determination of whether a reporting solution is a wise investment. Then, ask yourself how quickly you can use this tool once you've mastered it.
Is the interface clunky or intuitive? Does it contain all the necessary features, or will you need to spend time customizing the software to get the reports to look the way you want them to? Do you have the knowledge to use the tool effectively at your fingertips, or will you always -- no matter how much training you have -- need to rely on folks in the IT group to get the report design the way you want it?
And, consider the process for modifying reports. How time-consuming is it to edit templates? Can you make the modifications yourself, or does someone else need to be brought into the process because you don't have the necessary technical knowledge?
Also, think about what happens down the road. Will someone new be able to pick up where others left off? If the primary person in charge of system implementation leaves, will someone be able to seamlessly carry on with the reporting effort?
Lastly, if you're planning to continue using old templates created in another program, don't overlook the time and effort that will be spent converting them to your new reporting solution.
How simple is it to generate and schedule reports?
Picture this: You run a report and present it at a staff meeting. Two weeks later your boss asks you for a copy of the updated report, ASAP. You're in a quandary because although the report was accurate at the time, you can't generate reports in real time.
Don't let this happen to you. A reporting solution should give you access to vital data when you want it, not when you can convince an overworked employee in another department to get around to providing what you need. Can you simply make a request with a button click to access an updated report, or do you need to jump through hoops?
In addition, consider the process for generating ongoing reports. Does the solution have a built-in scheduler? If so, how flexible is the scheduler? Ask yourself what options are available for distributing reports through the scheduler. Can you schedule reports to be automatically printed or sent via email? Where are the reports stored? How many iterations of each report can you store?
Will the report convey the information I need it to?
Clearly a useful report must include good data representation, which means the data is accurate, complete and relevant. A reporting solution where data isn't re-keyed but instead flows directly out of the database into the report helps ensure the data's accuracy, leaves no room for error, and guarantees a level of security.
As for completeness, keep in mind that many reports are the summary of bits of data in different formats that reside in different databases and different types of databases. When evaluating reporting software, find out what data sources can be used in the reports, how many different data sources may be used at one time, and what types of data may be included.
This is especially important if you're engaging in mail merge, because contact information often is spread across multiple data sources and is stored in a range of formats.
Plus, remember that you must also be able to select only relevant information. It's crucial for you to understand what key data must be included. At the same time, you must know what to leave out or risk compromising security or your competitive secrets. This is where the business professional's expertise is unmatched. An IT staff member designing a report might know how to pull information from various databases but not know which specifics are off-limits.
Lastly, consider how the report template itself handles your data. For example, if you generate dynamic reports such as inventory sheets, you'll want to take advantage of the reporting software's built-in formulas. Does the software allow you to filter data categories, easily sum totals, and perform other necessary calculations -- and how difficult is it to learn how to use these features?
Will the report look the way I want it to look?
Just as a report can take many forms (letters, invoices, insurance policies, government statistics, budget requests, investment reports, utility bills, etc.), the look and feel of a report can vary widely. Consider the types of reports your company generates, and then think about their current visual impact – and how you'd ideally like those reports to appear.
Do your reports contain large chunks of data that would be best organized in highly configurable tables? If you produce multipage reports, would headers, footers and tables of contents enhance these documents? Would charts and graphs be the optimal format for displaying some of the information in the report? Would you like to use text tools such as vertical text and preset styles when designing your templates?
One major factor in determining whether your reports can look the way you want them to look is whether the reporting solution is banded. A banded solution is one in which a report's elements (images, charts, paragraphs of text, etc.) appear in layers, and there can be only one element per band. A non-banded solution, such as one that uses Microsoft Word as the design tool, allows for more flexibility and can make a giant difference in efficiency. For example, a non-banded design tool lets you lay out a paragraph of text next to a table, and each element could change according to the data that populates it.
Remember, report design is more than simply a way to make data easy to read. Well-organized reports allow you to make more sense out of your data, thus enabling you to make better decisions – decisions that are fundamental to your company's success.
You can get the rest of this book at the Windward Reports Free Reporting Guide.
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