I want to groan out loud as I start up my computer. And it’s not just the Monday morning blues attacking me, this is the last week of the month, and I hate it with a passion. You would too if you had to spend the whole week digging through databases, pulling data for the month, and compiling reports. For not one, but multiple clients. And the cherry on top? I seriously doubt anyone actually reads the reports!
One question which I always get asked is: “Why does it take you a week to put the reports together?” It is a fair question given the task seems repetitive in the extreme. The challenge is: a different set of information is relevant for every department and client.
The challenge with scheduled reports
A business collects an incredible amount of data on a daily basis. This data can be a great asset if treated correctly. It can help the business learn and grow organically. This is where the science of Business Intelligence comes in. The aim of compiling periodic reports from the relevant data is to help the business identify what works and what doesn’t.
To give you an idea of what sort of reporting requirements arise in business, consider the following:
Shift change reporting: It ensures a seamless flow of work between shifts by informing the staff on critical open issues.
Daily transaction reporting: This could be for anything, from cash-flow to inventory to project pipelines.
Weekly reporting: This provides a bigger picture of the important functions like change management or project planning.
Monthly reporting: Monthly reports help the senior management or your clients make strategic decisions and determine whether the plans already in place are effective or not.
BI tools for the task
As you can see, different reports generated at varying intervals are required to gather intelligence from the available data. There are several BI tools in the market, like:
- Sisense
- SAP BI
- Zoho Analytics
- SSRS
- Crystal Reports
More and more businesses are investing in these tools to help them pull BI from their data. On a high level, all these tools provide:
- Smart, interactive dashboards
- Powerful BI capability
- Flexibility in the types of reports that can be created
On the flip side:
- Limited scheduling of report delivery
- Not user-friendly
- Require extensive technical knowledge to operate and maintain
The solution for scheduled report delivery
Yurbi
This is the one-word solution for end-of-the-month madness. Yurbi provides the best of both worlds; interactive web-based dashboards and the scheduled delivery of reports via email (and in multiple output formats). No add-ons or additional costs are required, it’s provided out-of-the-box.
Highlights of Yurbi
Self-service scheduling: I can set up my own schedule for mailing out reports and notifications.
Centralized scheduling: I can set up and manage the schedules for each of my customers at one centralized location.
User-level security: With Yurbi, I can switch parts within a report on or off depending on whom I am sending the report to. This means I can use the same report for multiple clients while ensuring that they each see only what is relevant to them.
Formatting flexibility: Have you ever received a report without a date-range? If you have, then you know how useless it is! Yurbi allows me to format meaningful headers and footers for my reports. I can add dates, client logos, etc. automatically to the reports.
Multiple attachments formats: Yurbi allows me to attach data in multiple formats like PDF, Excel, CSV, etc. I can also directly add data to the email in HTML format.
Image support: Charts, dashboards, or graphs can be attached as high-resolution .png files for better viewing.
Benefits of moving to Yurbi
- Yurbi saves time. It is easy to use, which means I can compile my reports effortlessly. I can also re-use the same report for multiple clients and yet ensure they get what they want.
- Yurbi allows control. Scheduling report generation and mail-out for all my clients can be done from one centralized location.
- More secure. Yurbi provides data governance and auditing capabilities, thus making reporting more secure.
The team at Yurbi is approachable and friendly. Contact us to find out how you can tailor Yurbi to your specific BI needs.