Business Analytics: How to Create Automated, Custom Reports
Discover how to streamline your reporting process by automating custom reports. Learn the best methods, tools, and practices to make your reporting more efficient.
Team Ablaze Collective
June 5, 2024 • 7 min read
Overview
In today's data-driven world, businesses generate vast amounts of data, but it's only useful if it’s presented in an understandable and actionable format. While manual reporting can be tedious and time-consuming, automated custom reports offer an efficient alternative, providing consistency and accessibility across teams.
Automated reports not only save time but also ensure data accuracy by reducing the risk of human error. This guide explores different ways to automate your reports and deliver timely insights to your stakeholders.
Why Automate Your Custom Reporting?
Automating custom reports allows businesses to generate information from raw data automatically. These reports can be scheduled to update at regular intervals, ensuring that teams have real-time data when they need it, across various devices.
Benefits of Automated Reporting Systems
Time Savings: Automation eliminates repetitive manual tasks, freeing up your team to focus on higher-value activities.
Cost Savings: With fewer manual processes, employees can focus on strategic initiatives, saving on labor costs.
Data Accuracy: Automation reduces human error, ensuring more accurate and up-to-date reports.
Accessibility: Automated reports can be easily shared across teams, providing consistent access to critical data.
How Can You Automate Your Reports?
Several tools and approaches are available to automate custom reports, each with different levels of complexity based on your organization's needs. Let's explore the three primary methods:
Using built-in capabilities in existing software
Building a custom automated reporting system
Leveraging off-the-shelf solutions
Create Automated Reporting Using Built-in Capabilities of Your Current Software
Many software platforms already include built-in automated reporting features. These may be limited in scope but are often easy to set up and come at no additional cost.
For example, Google Analytics allows you to schedule the delivery of website performance reports. It also offers pre-built dashboards, such as those tracking SEO or website KPIs, that can be automatically updated and shared with your team.
Create Automated Reporting by Building a Custom System
If your organization has unique reporting needs, you might consider building a custom reporting system from scratch. While this provides maximum flexibility, it also comes with challenges.
Pros of Building a Custom Reporting System
Unlimited Flexibility: You can tailor the system to meet your specific business needs.
Complete Customization: Developers can build features that are unique to your organization’s requirements.
Cons of Building a Custom Reporting System
Resource-Intensive: Custom systems require significant development time, maintenance, and updates.
No External Support: With a custom system, you won't have access to external customer support teams when issues arise.
Long-Term Costs: Maintaining and updating a custom system can be costly, especially as your organization grows.
Before committing to building a custom solution, consider consulting with data analytics experts at Ablaze Collective. Our team specializes in designing and implementing custom data solutions that can save your organization time and money in the long run.
Create Automated Reporting Using Off-The-Shelf Solutions
Business analytics platforms like Tableau, Microsoft Power BI, and Qlik offer built-in tools for automating custom reports. These platforms provide interactive dashboards, drill-down capabilities, and data visualization features, making it easy to generate reports with minimal setup.
However, the native automation and sharing features in these platforms can be somewhat limited. This is where third-party tools, like Ablaze Collective's Portal, come into play. Our Ablaze BaaS (Back End as a Service) App allows you to expand the capabilities of these platforms, creating centralized analytics hubs for your executives, staff, partners, and customers. You can easily customize and automate reports that are interactive, real-time, and tailored to each audience.
Benefits of Using Off-the-Shelf Solutions
Quick Implementation: Off-the-shelf tools are faster to implement than custom-built systems.
Unified Data View: Data from multiple sources can be integrated into a single platform for a holistic view of your business activities.
Self-Service: Employees can generate insights on their own, saving time and freeing up IT resources.
Polished User Experience: Commercial software often provides intuitive drag-and-drop features and visually appealing dashboards.
Disadvantages of Business Intelligence Tools
Cost: These solutions can be expensive, especially when factoring in multiple user licenses.
Learning Curve: Some tools have a steep learning curve, especially when attempting to use advanced features.
Incomplete Data Integration: If you don’t integrate data from all relevant sources, the report may provide an incomplete picture of your business.
Report Automation Tips and Best Practices
To ensure your reports are not only automated but also effective, consider the following best practices:
Define Your KPIs: Clearly identify the key performance indicators that are most relevant to your business goals.
Set Reporting Frequency: Choose how often your reports should be generated based on the needs of your users and the frequency of data updates.
Verify Data Accuracy: Ensure that the data feeding into your reports is accurate, up-to-date, and complete.
Gather Feedback: Share your reports with stakeholders to collect feedback and adjust the format or content as necessary.
Finally, working with experts can help you avoid common pitfalls in setting up automated reporting systems. The team at Ablaze Collective is ready to assist with designing and implementing custom reporting solutions tailored to your organization’s needs. Schedule a consultation with one of our data specialists today.
Automating custom reports can significantly improve your organization’s efficiency, data accuracy, and decision-making capabilities. Whether you opt for built-in tools, a custom solution, or an off-the-shelf platform, automation is key to unlocking the full potential of your data.