The
information paradigm in the business world has shifted. Nowadays the problem is
not the lack of data, but its surplus. Organizations have invested in expensive
information systems that are able to feed, on an almost daily base, executives
with the sales, stocks and costs figures. Now the question is not how much we
are selling or spending but what can we do with the data we have. In other
words: “How can we transform data into information and information into
knowledge that supports business decisions?”
Data by
itself isn't enough to make decisions, it needs interpretation and context. Only
after selecting and organizing the right data can we start to produce
information and establish the foundation for knowledge. We are now entering the
realm of big words like Business Intelligence, Data Mining, OLAP, etc, and
although these are very interesting subjects, the next few posts focus on a
specific component of BI: Reporting.
- 1.1 What is reporting?
- 1.2 What features should a reporting tool have?
- 1.3 When should a reporting tool be bought or built?
- 1.4 Conclusions
1.1
What
is Reporting?
According
to Ranjan (2008) reporting consists in providing aggregated views of data in
order to maintain its users informed about the business performance of their
organization. A reporting tool is a graphical interface that allows the user to
construct the queries needed to a business report and then build the document
presentation. The tool must mask the technical aspects of the query language
and allow the management and reuse of periodical reports (Loshin, 2003) .
In light of
the previous definition, Excel is a reporting tool, since it allows connection
to data bases, enables data import and, as a spread sheet software, has all the
tools needed to produce professional reports. Although necessary, these characteristics
aren’t enough to fulfill all the requirements of a reporting tool.
1.2
What features should a reporting tool have?
The
features that follow are proposed by Kumar (s.d.) and partially considered in (Hagerty, et
al., 2012)
as the criteria to decide between the different BI solutions in the market.
Connection to Data Bases: The reporting tool compatibility
with different types of data bases is an important factor.
Schedule and Distribution: There are reports that take
considerable time to process and therefore justify scheduling updates. The
distribution channels are a big part of the reporting tool and a crucial aspect
for its success since they will directly interfere with content management.
Security: In the business world you need to have
credentials management since different users have different access to the data
base.
Customization: Static reports are rarely a good idea. Users
want the ability to change and adapt the reports to their personal needs. The
degree of customization is one of the most important aspects when choosing or
building a reporting tool.
Export Capabilities: The most common needs consist in exporting to
Excel, PDF and non-property files.
Office
Integration; The Microsoft’s suite leads the market of productive software and
its integration with a reporting tool is usually valued.
1.3
When
should a reporting tool be bought or built?
A company doesn't need to buy an entire BI platform, instead it can acquire only the features
that are worth the investment and develop the rest in house. Beside the lower
costs, this solution has the advantage of creating and keeping behind doors the
knowledge needed to improve and adapt the tools to the company’s necessities.
However this option isn't advisable for crucial IT infrastructures, like the
data warehouse and OLAP systems.
In order to
know if a reporting tool should be bought or built, the following factors must
be considered:
Number of Reports and Users: If the reporting tool will be used
by a big number of people that will request a large amount of reports, then
going for a commercial version may be the right decision. This assures better
support, a more solid platform and takes advantage of the experience of someone
who has already built a lot of reporting tools.
Distribution Channels: If the reports are going to be
shared by email or local networks then it’s reasonable to develop the reporting
tool. If, on the other hand, content management and synchronized distribution
is a major concern then buying makes more sense, since this usually implicates
integration with other software.
Ad hoc Reports: If users must be able to build their own
reports then it’s advisable to buy the reporting tool, since the providers of
this kind of solutions are more experienced and can predict the most commonly
asked features.
Not all
reporting tools have a price tag, some are free, but these are usually more
limited, don’t support integration with the most common data bases platforms
and most come in the form of add-ins to paid software like Microsoft Excel.
Free reporting tools should be seen as an additional aid to your reporting
repertoire that may provide advance and more specific functions like data
mining, reporting templates, etc.
1.4
Conclusions
Reporting
can be a very demanding task according to the business’s complexity it refers
to. Furthermore, its boundaries are not always well defined and often business
analysts see their tools come short in features needed to support their
functions.
It becomes now
clear that a reporting tool depends on a big number of variables, from the
specificities of the data bases it connects to, to the portfolio of features it
must have to satisfy the users’ needs. This usually leads to two things: the
reporting tool is acquired as part of a Business Intelligence platform and
therefore the integration with other software is assured, or the reporting tool is
built and customized to the specific needs of its users. This last option is
going to be addressed in the next posts and the reader will gather the basic
knowledge to build a reporting tool with the use of Excel.
Bibliography
Hagerty, J., Sallam, R. L. & Richardson, J., 2012.
Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence, s.l.: Gartner.
Kumar, R., n.d. Reporting Solution, s.l.:
Binary Semantics.
Loshin, D., 2003. Business Intelligence: The Savvy
Manager's Guide. s.l.:Morgan Kaufmann Publishers .
Ranjan, J., 2008. Business justification with Business
Intelligence. VINE, Vol.38, pp. 461-475.
