Reporting software utilizes modern technology to create reports from different sources of data. These reports can be displayed on dashboards to enable the user to understand the data and share it with other individuals within the organization.
A number of big businesses capitalize on such software to make sense of large amounts of data collected by research teams and fed into the system for interpretation.
The software can retrieve and then analyze data and transform it from complex figures into human-readable information. This information helps to guide the business in making strategic future decisions.
Understanding Reporting Software
Every day, businesses have to make key decisions, these decisions are fueled by data collected by the teams. The data collected by the teams, however, are just figures and the decision makers cannot go through each and every figure collected.
Reporting software, however, is able to analyze these figures collected and present to the decision maker a clear picture of what is going it can provide information about current trends and possible future trends. The Software has a user-friendly dashboard which displays the information in an easy to understand way.
For example, a marketing department can use the software to understand how a product is doing in the market, which kind of people are interested in it and what time of the year it has the highest demand.
The software is a powerful tool for managers to see into the future by using current trends to predict what the sales will be like in the coming year or what they have to do to hit their targets.
The reporting software can also be used to create comparisons. A manager can choose to compare data from different locations or times as well as companies.It will be able to identify relationships between different categories.
10 Best Practices You Need to Know
Before getting started, there are a few key areas of importance that need to be addressed. First of all, it is important to have basic training for all individuals who will be using the software. Even though it is user-friendly,when dealing with data of this kind, it is best to avoid any margin of error.Ensure everyone using the software knows what they are doing.
Also, since the organization will be dealing with large amounts of data, it is important that the right hardware is available. The computers should be able to handle this amount of data or else they could easily crush under the volume they may have to deal with. Compatibility of the hardware and the software needs to be verified.
Automated Data Collection
The reporting software relies on consistent data from different reports along with verified data to come up with reports that save the user’s time and reduce the margin of error. The collection of data is done automatically along with computation and report creation. This cuts down the amount of time spent on business analysis.
Eliminate Bureaucracy
With the use of simple login details, the software eliminates the need for users to go through different authorization protocols to access reports. Access to reports is fast and easy and limits access to only people with the already authorized credentials.
Information on the Go
Reporting software can be accessed on the go using mobile devices. A user can use the same log in details they would use in the office, to access reports on their mobile phone as they work in the field. This also reduces expenditure on computers since everyone has a mobile phone so no need to facilitate them with laptops to access reports while they are out of the office.
Planning
Planning makes up part of the process of the initial transition stage from the old reporting style to the reporting software adoption. Planning should involve training of the individuals who will be handling the software, understanding the needs of the people who will use the reports and how.
The planning process will determine the success of the software implementation.Time taken to transition should also be considered.
Data Conversion
Accuracy in data conversion is essential. It is important that the data entered from the old reporting system into the new system is accurate. The data entered into the new software will determine the accuracy of the reports generated. It is therefore important to perform a gradual conversion process of the data and eliminate any errors.
Training
Like with any new software, users need to be able to use it effectively and get the best out of it. All the users who will use it, regardless of their level,need to understand how the software will enhance their performance. If they are trained, they will be able to implement the desired transition with ease and the results will show.
Find out the Specific Needs of the User
Ask as many questions as possible that will help understand the purpose of the reporting tool. It makes no sense to carry out training for users if you do not know how they intend to use the software. You might find out that in certain areas, there is no need for the software or discover a need that has never been identified until then.
Business Disruption
The transition phase is likely to result in downtime for a business that doesn't have the right resources to compensate for the time when the new software is being integrated. Downtime is bad for any business as it will affect the bottom line.
The planning stage for the implementation of reporting software should take this into consideration and plan ahead. The old reporting model should have an effective stand in as it is slowly converted and the users need to be prepared for the interruption so that there is fluid transitioning.
Keep Stakeholders in the Loop
As the implementation goes forward, the stakeholders should always be informed about what is going on and the progress made so far. Transparency is key towards the success of the implementation so all people that need to be aware of progress should be updated regularly.
Watch out for Scope Creep
Scope creep occurs when you fail to meet the set deadline and the resources need to be stretched further than expected. Scope creep is a sign of failure to implement the planned scope of work. It is not uncommon for this to happen, so you need to be on top of things to ensure it does not happen.
A well thought out plan is the best way to ensure the project goes smoothly.Keep the time frame and budget realistic and you should succeed.
Take a moment to try out the available reporting software and see how it can improve your business.
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Adds various capabilities such as inequalities,descending sort, joins, and other functions.
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SQL Select Debugger
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Added a Query tab as a field for typing or pasting in a select statement
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All tags using that Data source will be automatically updated with that name.
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New single interface to replace 2 separate dialog boxes
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Displays of all the tags in the template, structured as they are placed in the template. This provides a simple & intuitive way to see the structure of your template. Also provides the capability to go to any tag and/or see the properties of any tag.
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The ability to integrate the Windward Engine into Google’s cloud computing platform for developing and hosting web applications dubbed Google Applications Engine (GAE).
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This new integration will allow for processing of complex scripts and bi-directional text such as Arabic. Your PDF output will be much tighter and more closely match your template, and we’ll be able to respond rapidly to PDF requests and fixes.
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Includes support for new ForEach and slide break handling, table header row repeat across slide breaks, and native Microsoft support for charts and images.
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Tags are color coded in the template by type, making it easy to visually identify them.
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Version 13’s core code has been reworked and optimized to offer a reduced memory footprint, faster PDF generation and full documentation of supported features and limitations in the specifications for DOCX, XLSX and PPTX.
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Documents can include advanced Word image properties such as shadows, borders, and styles.
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Windward has updated HTML output to reflect changing HTML standards.
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Windward now works with a slew of new datasources: MongoDB, JSON, Cassandra, OData, Salesforce.com
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The Generate Code tool in the designer allows you to open an existing template and, with a click of a button, automatically create a window with the code needed to run your current template with all data sources and variables. Simply copy this code and paste into your application's code in the appropriate place. You now have Windward integrated into your application.
You only need to do this once. You do not do this for each template. Instead, where it has explicit files for the template and output, change that to parameters you pass to this code. Same for the parameters passed to Windward. This example uses explicit values to show you what to substitute in where.
Any pivot tables in an XLSX template are carried over to the XLSX output. The ranges in the pivot ranges are adjusted to match the generated output. So your final XLSX will have pivot tables set as expected in the generated file.
This makes creating an XLSX workbook with pivot tables trivial.
In an imported sub-template, if its properties for a style (ex. Normal) differ from the parent template's properties for the style, the use in the sub-template can be set to either use the properties in the sub-template, or the properties in the parent.
You set to retain when you don't want the child template's styling to change when imported. You set to use the parent when you want the styling of the imported template to match the styling in the parent.
Any explicit styling is always retained. This only impacts styling set by styles.
Tags can be placed in text boxes. Including linked text boxes. This gives you the ability to set the text in a textbox from your data.
Tags can be placed in shapes & smart art. This gives you the ability to set the text in a shape from your data.
When generating HTML output, the engine can either write bitmaps as distinct files the generate HTML references, or it can embed the images in the HTML providing a single file for the output.
You can place tags in pretty much any part of a template, including in footnotes & endnotes.
Any parts of a DOCX or XLSX (PowerPoint does not support this) file that are locked in the template, will be locked the same in the output.
If a font used in the template does not exist on the server generating a report, the font to substitute can be specified.
In addition, if a glyph to be rendered does not exist in the font specified, you can specify the replacement font. This can be set distinctly for European, Bi-Directional, and Far East fonts.
If you need this - it's essential. And if you don't need it, it's irrelevant.
Windward enables you to build a document by applying multiple datasources to the template simultaneously. When Windward is merging the data into a template, it processes the template by handling each tag in order, and each tag pulls from different datasources. (As opposed to processing all of one datasource, then processing the next.)
This allows the select tag to use data from another datasource in its select. For example, if you are pulling customer information from one data source, you can then pull data from the sales datasource using the customer ID of the customer presently processing to pull the sales information for that customer. If you're interested in patching together your data from multiple datasources, read this post on our blog.
