Integrated Reporting Platform

  • Article

Report is a very generic term used to define any form of data retrieval for information purposes.Everybody uses reports, in one form or another. It ranges from simple static ready to print reports to complex personalized , dynamic , interactive reports. Reports are usually created for certain purposes and used  by different audiences like business executives to predict the future of business, customer service department to analyze on customer satisfaction, sales team to project and forecast sales operation, marketing to learn market trends to promote products etc. and also using different technologies like Commerce Server analytics, Excel ,  SQL Reporting services, SQL Server Analysis Services, XML, HTML and other web applications etc.

 "What Goes in Must Come Out" is very much true for any data captured in transactional system. Traditionally the “Come out” part becomes the most difficult part as more often the data is captured in various systems in various formats and schemas and essentially not manifested but buried.

The other big challenge is that data captured in transactional system is very raw and may not be meaningful as it is, to be consumed and analyzed to derive certain important measurable parameters to predict rhythm of business, extrapolate using historical data and forecast the future of the business. Also data has to be properly organized - summarized, coupled or merged with internal or external system data, grouped together - to make it more appealing depending on the end user because each individual wants to see the same data with different perspective. It also enables to share and communicate with peers, managers, partners and customers for business purposes.

Today reporting is exposed through different communication channels, many different formats, applying gamut of technologies, using several delivery options. As we advance day by day, more compelling interactive report are made available though technology innovation touching person to person and from business to business.

Integrated and harmonized reporting platform across all the applications is a vital need for any business to better utilize the invaluable digital data captured in various systems and derive the maximum value of out of it to track, communicate, manage and predict the state of the business.

Reports could be

  • Bills/ statements that are mailed to customers
  • Purchase Orders , invoices to your partners
  • Financial or other legal compliance statements to statutory/regulatory boards about your business
  • Status Reports by individual, teams etc.
  • Business Performance reports
  • System reconciliation reports
  • Time scheduled (Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly) state of business review reports  and trend reports for executives
  • System Usages / ROI reports
  • KPI
  • Ad-hoc reports
  • Alerts
  • BI reports and so on
     

And they could be in the form of 

  • Paper reports
  • Excel reports
  • Web based reports
  • XML documents which could be used to share with partners and other systems
  • Html reports delivered to a web portal
  • Device specific reports
  • Word documents / PDF send in emails
  • Interactive reporting –which provides an end-user to modify and issue queries according to his/her needs
    Static reporting – daily news, weekly newsletters, monthly magazines
    Audience-based customized reporting – like role-based, region-based etc.
    Natural language based simplified reporting allows users an easy way to interact using their normal day-to-day language

For many years, every application has it’s own unique reports and IT departments will have to move and duplicate data across systems and build custom reports to get 360 degree view of the business.One of the constant flow of work to IT departments is to create ad-hoc reports for it’s ever changing end users coupled with complex discrete IT systems.

Earlier People were satisfied with ready to print static reports. With growing business demands and complex business systems , the need is high for instant , dynamic , online, interactive reports.

One need to keep in mind that Reporting User Interface is another important function in the reporting process. Graphical user interface plays a major role in exposing data using rich presentation objects like Office system web parts (bar chart, pie chart, graphs etc.) for end users to decipher and understand quickly and easily. By creating standardization report templates, reports can be created easily without spending too much time on building from scratch, thereby could save time and money.

Creation, Presentation, Output options, management, security, personalization, integration, user interaction options/ drill down, linking to other systems have all have become paramount requirements for reporting systems.

Sarbanes-Oxley and other acts coupled with stringent company polices on privacy and  security requirements need to be enforced on the data shared and an integrated reporting platform should enable enforcing such policies at one cental location.

With powerful and easy to use (and understand reporting systems) , now the emphasis is more on putting the power into the hands of end users to carve the information that they want in the way they want without the need to depend on others to create reports for themselves. This cuts the critical time lost and improve productivity and quick decision making.

So to transform valuable digital data into information shared at all levels, derive knowledge /intelligence and use it to make insightful, timely decisions, An integrated reporting platform is a key IT investment area for businesses.

 

- Meysun & Anandh