Spending Too Much Time on Operational Reporting? Tips to Help You Streamline

In a climate of economic uncertainty, operational reports play a vital role in providing decision-makers with the information they need to respond rapidly to changing business conditions and shifting priorities. Accurate and timely operational reporting is the underpinning of greater business agility and resilience.

The challenge of reporting stems from the inefficiencies in how these critical snapshots are created. Further, the volume and type of requests for operational reports are rapidly increasing. According to Hanover Research’s Operational Reporting Global Trends Report, most decision-makers are generating recurring reports on at least a weekly basis.

Also, time is not on the side of those tasked with building operational reports. Increased reporting frequency strains resources considerably. Half of the reporting professionals surveyed need four hours or more to create certain operational reports. Multiplying that time by the number of reports needed on a daily or weekly basis, it is clear to see that time constraints are a significant factor for operational reporting. The need for better operational reporting tools has never been higher.

No Time for Analysis

Deep, proactive analysis is crucial for making key business decisions that benefit profitability, increase ROI, and reduce costly errors. 41% of the participants identified strategic decision-making as a priority, but report generation without automation hampers their ability to analyze data from reports. If you’re spending most of your time creating reports instead of analyzing them, it leaves you at a disadvantage.

Hanover Research found 71% of those surveyed are forced to involve IT in the reporting process. Nearly 90% of professionals face challenges with operational reporting tools, including Microsoft Excel, Power BI, and out-of-the-box reporting tools. Half of them cited that manual processes hamper their ability to execute necessary tasks. And when deadlines for period-end close draw near, manual processes leave little to no time for critical analysis.

Take Control Over Your Operational Reporting

What’s the takeaway for those who are tasked with Operational Reporting? Teams must think carefully about their choice of tools for reporting. To address the most common challenges, decision-makers should look for tools that:

• Allow non-technical users to generate reports easily.
• Automate recurring reporting.
• Allow users to drill down to a granular transactional level.
• Enable real-time access to source data from existing business systems.

Most teams strongly prefer to work in Microsoft Excel because it is powerful, flexible, and very familiar. Unfortunately, many teams use this tool by copying and pasting data from their source systems manually into the spreadsheet and manipulating it from there for analysis and presentation.

With its seamless Excel integration, Spreadsheet Server provides an excellent complement to DELMIAWorks data.

Spreadsheet Server makes it easy to create reports that span multiple entities and answer users’ specific questions without relying on specialized technical expertise. Because Spreadsheet Server is a dedicated reporting tool, it makes the process more powerful, flexible, and user-friendly. By using Spreadsheet Server with DELMIAWorks, teams have greater control and accuracy over the reporting process.

Spreadsheet Server enables teams to:

• Build and manipulate custom and ad hoc reports without IT or consultants
• Easily track performance
• Drill down on data
• Devote more time to valuable analysis

How to Streamline your Reporting with DELMIAWorks and Spreadsheet Server

Spreadsheet Server solves reporting challenges by extending the reporting options available in Excel, without IT. With a near real-time connection to your DELMIAWorks data, coupled with intuitive formula-based functions and your existing Excel skills, you can easily create any report you need.

To learn more about what’s happening in the world of operational reporting, join our upcoming webinar, “Operational Reporting: Trends, Challenges, and the Key to Success,” on Wednesday, April 19. We will dive deeper into the findings of the Hanover Operational Reporting Global Trends Report and discuss the role automated reporting with Spreadsheet Server plays in a successful reporting program. REGISTER NOW!