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What is Enterprise Reporting? A Facts and FAQs Overview

Lauren Christiansen

What is enterprise reporting.

Large enterprises and corporations often utilize internal data in order to gain insight into how the company is performing as a whole. Data analysis can include anything from the company's annual revenue to the business expenses of one single department. Business intelligence tools can then turn this information into self-explanatory reports that help owners and other invested stakeholders make better business decisions. Enterprise reporting can also be utilized to analyze various trends within an organization.

What Does Enterprise Reporting Help With?

• Explanatory Reports This is a report that explains information to an outside group of individuals. For example, a human resource department might create an explanatory report to help new employees understand the company's standard operating procedures. The report teaches a group of people (new employees) information (standard operating procedures), so the report recipients can become better informed about a specific topic.
• Progress Reports Progress reports tell a brief summary of how a department or particular employee is performing under various metrics. A progress report might include the total number of sales closed and prospective leads that an employee-generated in a specific time frame. It would only give a quick summary of the information rather than including any expanded insight, such as what factors contributed to the number of sales closed.
• Analytical Reports Unlike the progress report, analytical reports provide analysis into the data extrapolated. For example, the difference in sales generated on a Monday can be compared to the sales generated on a Friday. The report would explain which variables affected those numbers to have differed from each day.

FAQs on Enterprise Reporting

• Dashboards - Dashboards are an information management tool that tracks and stores information. Users utilize dashboards in order to see data report visualizations. Dashboards present information in a customizable way so stakeholders within an organization can analyze data and draw conclusions.
• Performance Management - Managers and owners can analyze key performance indicators to see how employees are performing within the organization. Enterprise reporting solutions decipher trends to see how employee performance can be improved.
• Ad-Hoc Reporting - If a manager has one specific query, they can utilize ad-hoc reporting in order to generate a simple report. Ad-hoc reports are customizable and narrow in scope.
• Gather Requirements - Organizations should first decide what their requirements are, and what type of system they might need.
• Compare Solutions - Businesses should look at various systems that meet their requirements and compare and contrast key differences and benefits.
• Try Them Out Companies can pick their top choices and try them out. Demos and free trials allow companies to experiment with the system and see if the tool is a good fit.

Features of Enterprise Reporting Tools

• Perfect Formatting - Reporting solutions can customize reports so they can be printed or viewed from a presentation platform, whether that be online or through PowerPoint.
• Data Filtering & Sorting - Users can filter through data and then choose what they want to utilize for a report. Users can sort data by date, time frame, location, franchise, etc.
• Data Grouping - Once the data has been filtered and sorted, enterprise reporting tools organize and group it so the user can see specific trends.
• Different Report Images - Reports can be displayed in different formats. Some of these include jpeg, png, and svg. The user can discern which format to save the data in and choose accordingly.
• Charts - Enterprise reporting provides data visualizations in the form of charges, graphs, columns, meter charts, bubble charts, and more. The user can decide which type of chart is most appropriate for the extrapolated data.
• Report Delivery - Reports can be delivered to emails, dashboards, and websites in different languages and formats.
• Field Explorer - Data can be divided into fields or general categories that describe each set of data. For example, a field might be the names of employees or each year of business operation. The field explorer feature gives a list of all relevant fields and allows users to arrange them on the dashboard.
• C ustomizable Templates - Users can make customized report templates if they find themselves frequently utilizing a specific report type. They can save this template so it doesn't have to be re-created in the future.
• Report Exporting - Reports can be exported in the form of PDF, Microsoft Workbook, HTML, Microsoft Excel, and more.
• Subreports - Subreports display a smaller report inside of a larger one. Enterprise reporting solutions allow users to create subreports of data that receives parameters from parent reports.

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What is Enterprise Reporting?

Enterprise reporting is the creation and distribution of reports concerning business performance to key decision makers in an organization. This may include reports on metrics on key performance indicators or information curated for day-to-day activities. Enterprise reporting provides users with a comprehensive view of the business and its performance at a high level with metrics, dashboards , graphs, and other user-friendly business intelligence tools.

Why is enterprise reporting important?

Design and deliver large volumes of reports to your business and customers in any format: from printed documents and PDFs to fully interactive reports on the web. End-users can interact with the reports you publish or build reports of their own. With enterprise reporting software, you can easily and affordably scale reporting to thousands of users.

What are the benefits of enterprise reporting?

• Enabling better decision making : Empower people to make better decisions faster by placing mission-critical information at their fingertips. With a developer-grade, cost-effective platform that's truly designed for reporting, you can inform the masses.
• Delivering great customer experiences : Provide users with an easy-to-use interface to view and dive into their data. Distribute pixel-perfect reports on the web, inside an application, and even on mobile devices with Jaspersoft's modern production reporting software.
• Increasing productivity : Spend less time fulfilling every request for a new report. Distribute the report-building load with a self-service report designer that enables business users to create reports on their own or modify existing reports started by IT or developers.
• Connecting to innovation : Legacy enterprise reporting tools hold you back from innovation. They are outdated and not compatible with new technologies needed in the digital era. With modern enterprise reporting software, you can take advantage of modern APIs, emerging data sources, and new deployment methods.

What are the necessary capabilities for enterprise reporting?

• Interactive Reporting : Experience full interactivity with tables and charts including sorting, filtering, conditional formatting, moving/hiding columns, string search, zoom in/out, along with format changes that can be saved for re-use.
• Pixel-perfect reporting : Seize complete control of your report design. Every element of a report—visualizations, text, images, and more—can be formatted to the individual pixel. Meet any regulatory requirements or simply be beautifully precise.
• Self-service reporting : Build interactive , ad-hoc reports with an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop report designer. Make report-building easy for non-technical users in a highly configurable secure environment.
• Open architecture : Built on an open architecture, enterprise reporting software lets you connect to any data source, deploy using any method, and work with modern RESTful APIs. Take source code and add your own custom features to it.
• Multi-tenant support : Need to distribute client statements? Deliver financial or regulatory reports? Embed reports in software applications? With multi-tenancy, you can easily control access to data and reports across all levels of users, groups, and customers.
• Distribute in any format : Deliver your reports as printed documents and PDFs or as fully interactive web content. Enterprise reports can be published in PDF, XLS, XLSX, XML, HTML, PPT, CSV, DOC, RTF, ODT and JSON format.

Enterprise Reporting with Jaspersoft

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Business Intelligence Reporting

What it is, why it matters, and best practices. This guide provides practical advice to help you do business intelligence reporting right.

BI REPORTING GUIDE

What is bi reporting.

Business Intelligence reporting is broadly defined as the process of using a BI tool to prepare and analyze data to find and share actionable insights. In this way, BI reporting helps users to improve decisions and business performance.

More resources:

Learn the 3 steps to a stronger KPI strategy

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BI Reporting Examples

The term business intelligence reporting can refer to a wide range of use cases in BI—from static reports to interactive dashboards to embedded analytics . While your immediate need may be one specific use case, it's important to plan your BI strategy with the bigger picture in mind. For example, static reports may also need alerts when KPIs pass a threshold. This may lead to requiring real-time dashboards. Dashboards may lead to the need for full self-serve BI so that any user can explore the data to quickly answer questions themselves.Here are the primary business intelligence reporting capabilities and use cases:

Self-service BI  enables users to easily analyze data without writing code. Further, modern  BI platforms  that use an associative engine allow users to explore data freely in any direction, recalculating analytics and highlighting data relationships after each click.

Dashboards and data visualization  are used to improve understanding, allow collaboration and share information across an organization.  Interactive dashboards  that include  rich data visualizations  of charts, graphs and maps make it easier for stakeholders to understand and collaborate. Modern BI tools make it simple for any user to easily interact with the data themselves and create their own custom dashboards with drag-and-drop tools.

Static reports and alerting  are also important ways for stakeholders to stay on top of their business and take quick action. BI software should allow users to easily build and share static reports in popular document formats and to set up data-driven, real-time alerts when KPIs pass a threshold. It’s important to understand the difference between  analytics vs reporting .

Augmented analytics  uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to enhance human intuition with suggested insights and analyses, automation of tasks, search & natural language interaction, and real-time advanced analytics.

Embedded BI  integrates business intelligence capabilities within applications, products, portals or processes. This lets employees, partners, customers and suppliers quickly access data and insights in their workflows rather than switching to a separate application. In this way, embedded BI helps people find insights and make better decisions faster.

Mobile BI  means that users can share their insights and collaborate with other stakeholders on any device, even if they’re offline. Given the way work happens today, users need to be able to access and analyze their data wherever they are.

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BI Reporting Best Practices

Effective business intelligence reporting starts with a set of proven best practices.

Identify your audience and their needs. Define in advance of any project or program all BI reporting requirements for different stakeholders. Use KPI examples to help guide teams in selecting the most impactful key performance indicators.

Prep your data. Turn raw data into clean, business ready information via data replication, ingestion and transformation to combine different types of data into standardized formats stored in a repository such as a data lake or data warehouse.

Be flexible and scalable. Make sure you have a flexible deployment and scalable multi-cloud architecture so that users can access and share data insights between on-premise and cloud deployments while keeping governance and trust standards high.

Govern your data. Traditional BI tools require users to go through the IT team to set up permissions. Modern BI tools provide a governed data catalog which profiles and documents every data source and defines who can take which actions on which data.

Tell your data story. Learn how to produce compelling visualizations and design dashboards so you can highlight important information and use visual cues to tell your data story in an engaging way.

Iterate and evolve. Be willing to adapt your BI reporting process to advances in technology and changes in business needs.

Cultivate data literacy. Leverage data literacy training and tools to help your organization become more data-driven.

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The 16 Best Enterprise Reporting Solutions and Software for 2024

• Best Practices ,

Solutions Review’s listing of the best enterprise reporting solutions is an annual sneak peek of the top tools included in our Buyer’s Guide for Business Intelligence Platforms and companion Buyer’s Matrix Report . Information was gathered via online materials and reports, conversations with vendor representatives, and examinations of product demonstrations and free trials.

The editors at Solutions Review have developed this resource to assist buyers in search of the best enterprise reporting solutions to fit the needs of their organization. Choosing the right vendor and solution can be a complicated process — one that requires in-depth research and often comes down to more than just the solution and its technical capabilities. To make your search a little easier, we’ve profiled the best enterprise reporting solutions all in one place. We’ve also included platform and product line names and introductory software tutorials straight from the source so you can see each solution in action.

Note: The best enterprise reporting solutions are listed in alphabetical order.

The Best Enterprise Reporting Solutions

Platform: Alteryx Platform

Related products: Alteryx Designer, Alteryx Server, Alteryx Connect, Alteryx Promote

Description: Alteryx is a self-service data analytics software company that specializes in data preparation and data blending. Alteryx Analytics allows users to organize, clean, and analyze data in a repeatable workflow. Business analysts find this tool particularly useful for connecting to and cleansing data from data warehouses, cloud applications, spreadsheets and other sources. The platform features tools to run a variety of analytic jobs (predictive, statistical, spatial) inside a single interface.

Learn more and compare products with the Solutions Review Buyer’s Guide for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms .

Platform: BOARD

Related products: BOARD Cloud

Description: BOARD combines business intelligence, performance management, and predictive analytics into one platform. As a result, any change to data, data models, security profiles or business rules is immediately propagated to every application. The solution provides all the tools required to create and update databases, data presentations, analyses, and process models. The company also offers BOARD Cloud, a SaaS version of the platform, backed by Microsoft Azure.

Platform: Domo

Related products:  Domo Everywhere, Domo integration Cloud

Description: Domo is a cloud-based, mobile-first BI platform that helps companies drive more value from their data by helping organizations better integrate, interpret and use data to drive timely decision-making and action across the business. The  Domo  platform enhances existing data warehouse and BI tools, and allows users to build custom apps, automate data pipelines, and make data science accessible for anyone across the organization through automated insights that can be easily shared with internal or external stakeholders.

Hitachi Vantara

Platform: Pentaho Platform

Related products:  Lumada Data Services, Pentaho Data Integration

Description: Hitachi’s Pentaho analytics platform allows organizations to access and blend all types and sizes of data. The product offers a range of capabilities for big data integration and data preparation. The Pentaho platform is purpose-built for embedding into and integrating with applications, portals, and processes. Organizations can embed a range of analytics, including visualizations, reports, ad hoc analysis, and tailored dashboards. It also extends to third-party charts, graphs, and visualizations via an open API for a wider selection of embeddable analytics.

Platform: Cognos Analytics

Related products:  IBM Watson Analytics, IBM Watson Studio, IBM Hybrid Data Management

Description: IBM offers an expansive range of BI and analytic capabilities under two distinct product lines. The Cognos Analytics platform is an integrated self-service solution that allows users to access data to create dashboards and reports. IBM Watson Analytics offers a machine learning-enabled user experience that includes automated pattern detection, support for natural language query and generation, and embedded advanced analytics capabilities. IBM’s BI software can be deployed both on-prem or as a hosted solution via the IBM Cloud.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6U7hnXpNuo

Infor Birst

Platform: Networked BI

Description: Infor Birst is a cloud-based analytics solution that connects an organization using a network of interwoven virtualized BI instances. The provider’s flagship product is its Networked BI platform. The tool features an adaptive user experience, multi-tenant cloud architecture, user data tier, and a completely virtualized data ecosystem. These capabilities enable use of BI across multiple regions, product lines, departments, and customers. Customers most commonly use the product for BI provisioning, and because it is cloud-based, decentralized analytics as well.

Platform: Power BI

Related products: Power BI Desktop, Power BI Report Server

Description: Microsoft is a major player in enterprise BI and analytics. The company’s flagship platform, Power BI, is cloud-based and delivered on the Azure Cloud. On-prem capabilities also exist for individual users or when power users are authoring complex data mashups using in-house data sources. Power BI is unique because it enables users to do data preparation, data discovery, and dashboards with the same design tool. The platform integrates with Excel and Office 365, and has a very active user community that extends the tool’s capabilities.

MicroStrategy

Platform: MicroStrategy 2020

Description:  MicroStrategy merges self-service data preparation and visual data discovery in an enterprise BI and analytics platform. MicroStrategy provides out-of-the-box gateways and native drivers that connect to any enterprise resource, including databases, mobile device management (MDM) systems, enterprise directories, cloud applications and physical access control systems. Its embedded analytics tool allows MicroStrategy to be embedded in other web pages and applications such as portals, CRM tools, chatbots and even voice assistants like Alexa.

Platform: Oracle Analytics Cloud

Related products: Oracle Data Visualization Desktop

Description: Oracle offers a broad range of BI and analytics tools that can be deployed on-prem or in the Oracle Cloud. The company provides traditional BI capabilities inside its Business Intelligence 12c solution. Oracle Data Visualization provides more advanced features, and allows users to automatically visualize data as drag-and-drop attributes, charts, and graphs. The tool also enables users to save snapshots of an analytical moment-in-time via story points.

Pyramid Analytics

Platform: The Analytics OS (Pyramid v2020)

Description: Pyramid Analytics offers data and analytics tool through its flagship platform, Pyramid v2020. The solution touts a server-based, multi-user analytics OS environment that provides self-service capabilities. Pyramid v2020 features a platform-agnostic architecture that allows users to manage data across any environment, regardless of technology. The tool enables those users to prepare, model, visualize, analyze, publish, and present data from web browsers and mobile devices.

Platform: Einstein Analytics Platform

Related products: Salesforce Einstein Discovery, Salesforce Einstein Data Insights

Description: The Salesforce Einstein Analytics platform is available in a number of flavors based on role, industry, and included features. The product’s automated data discovery capabilities enable users to answer questions based on transparent and understandable AI models. Users can also tailor analytics to their use case and enhance insights with precise recommendations and specific guidance. Einstein lets you create advanced experiences using customizable templates, third-party apps, or custom-build dashboards as well.

Platform: SAP Analytics Cloud

Related products:  SAP BusinessObjects BI, SAP Crystal Solutions

Description: SAP offers a broad range of BI and analytics tools in both enterprise and business-user driven editions. The company’s flagship BI portfolio is delivered via on-prem (BusinessObjects Enterprise), and cloud (BusinessObjects Cloud) deployments atop the SAP HANA Cloud. SAP also offers a suite of traditional BI capabilities for dashboards and reporting. The vendor’s data discovery tools are housed in the BusinessObjects solution, while additional functionality, including self-service visualization, are available through the SAP Lumira tool set.

Tableau Software

Platform: Tableau Desktop

Related products:  Tableau Prep, Tableau Server, Tableau Online, Tableau Data Management

Description: Tableau offers an expansive visual BI and analytics platform, and is widely regarded as the major player in the marketplace. The company’s analytic software portfolio is available through three main channels: Tableau Desktop, Tableau Server, and Tableau Online. Tableau connects to hundreds of data sources and is available on-prem or in the cloud. The vendor also offers embedded analytics capabilities, and users can visualize and share data with Tableau Public.

Platform: TARGIT Decision Suite (Decision Suite 2019)

Description: TARGIT offers a modern BI and analytics platform that includes built-in data integration capabilities. The solution runs securely on-prem, in the cloud or in a hosted environment. TARGIT Decision Suite supports all major relational and multidimensional database technologies. The provider’s 2019 platform refresh includes an entirely new design experience, fully integrated reporting, super intelligent documents, and new mobile apps. TARGIT has also upgraded to the tool’s installer to improve the entire upgrade and installation process.

Yellowfin BI

Platform: Yellowfin Suite

Description: Yellowfin is an Australia-based BI and analytics company that specializes in dashboards and data visualization. Its platform features a machine learning algorithm called Assisted Insights that provides automatic answers in the form of easy-to-understand best practice visualizations and narratives. Yellowfin comes pre-built with a variety of dashboards, and users can embed interactive reports into third-party platforms, such as a web page, wiki, or company intranet. The company also offers native apps for mobile devices.

Platform: Zoho Analytics

Description: Zoho Analytics is a self-service BI and data analytics tool that lets you incorporate data from a wide range of sources, blend it together, and create cross-functional reports and dashboards. The product features a drag-and-drop designer, as well as different visualization tools to drill down to specifics. A “smart” assistant called Zia can answer questions in the form of reports and KPI widgets via AI, machine learning and natural language processing. Users can share and publish reports and smart data alerts ping you when outliers or anomalies happen.

This article was written by Tim King on October 24, 2023

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Tim is Solutions Review's Executive Editor and leads coverage on data management and analytics. A 2017 and 2018 Most Influential Business Journalist and 2021 "Who's Who" in Data Management, Tim is a recognized industry thought leader and changemaker. Story? Reach him via email at tking@solutionsreview dot com.

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sharing my experiences with the Microsoft data platform, SQL Server BI, Data Modeling, SSAS Design, Power Pivot, Power BI, SSRS Advanced Design, Power BI, Dashboards & Visualization since 2009

Doing Power BI The Right Way – for Enterprise Reporting

I started a series of blog posts back in 2020 about best-practice guidelines for planning and designing enterprise reporting solutions with Power BI. To make the topics covered in this series of posts easier to find and follow, they are listed on this page: Doing Power BI The Right Way – for Enterprise Reporting | Paul Turley’s SQL Server BI Blog which you can access from the main menu on the blog. We have a few more topics to go so check back and subscribe for notifications.

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Paul Turley

Microsoft Data Platform MVP, Principal Consultant for 3Cloud Solutions Specializing in Business Intelligence, SQL Server solutions, Power BI, Analysis Services & Reporting Services.

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Microsoft Fabric Roadmap & Feature Status Report

I created this report to summarize the release status for all Fabric features that are documented in the Microsoft Fabric Roadmap. The information on this report is collected and updated frequently from the Fabric Roadmap hosted by Microsoft, and displays status information in a convenient, single-page Power BI report. Each feature area on the report has links to the detail documentation on the official roadmap site. For convenience, I’ve shortened the report path to TinyURL.com/FabricRoadmapReport.

Power BI Direct Lake and DirectQuery in the Age of Fabric

I just returned from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference in Las Vegas. Over 4,000 attendees saw a lot of demos showing how to effortlessly build a modern data platform with petabytes of data in One Lake, and then ask CoPilot to generate beautiful Power BI reports from semantic models that magically appear from data in a Fabric Lakehouse. Is Direct Lake the silver bullet solution that will finally deliver incredibly fast analytic reporting over huge volumes of data in any form, in real time? Will Direct Lake models replace Import model and solve the dreaded DirectQuery mode performance problems of the past? The answer is No, but Direct Lake can break some barriers. This post is a continuation of my previous post titled “Moving from Power BI to Microsoft fabric”.

Direct Lake is a new semantic model storage mode introduced in Microsoft Fabric, available to enterprise customers using Power BI Premium and Fabric capacities. It is an extension of the Analysis Services Vertipaq in-memory analytic engine that reads data directly from the Delta-parquet structured storage files in a Fabric lakehouse or warehouse.

Moving from Power BI to Microsoft Fabric

Fabric is here but what does that mean if you are using Power BI? What do you need to know and what, if anything will you need to change if you are a Power BI report designer, developer or BI solution architect? What parts of Fabric should you use now and how do you plan for the near-term future? As I write this in March of 2024, I’m at the Microsoft MVP Summit at the Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington this week learning about what the product teams will be working on over the next year or so. Fabric is center stage in every conversation and session. To say that Fabric has moved my cheese would be a gross understatement. I’ve been working with data and reporting solutions for about 30 years and have seen many products come and go. Everything I knew about working with databases, data warehouses, transforming and reporting on data has changed recently BUT it doesn’t mean that everyone using Power BI must stop what they are doing and adapt to these changes. The core product is unchanged. Power BI still works as it always has.

The introduction of Microsoft Fabric in various preview releases over the past two years have immersed me into the world of Spark, Python, parquet-Delta storage, lakehouses and medallion data warehouse architectures. These technologies, significantly different from the SQL Server suite of products I’ve known and loved for the past twenty years, represent a major shift in direction, forming the backbone of OneLake; Microsoft’s universal integrated data platform that hosts all the components comprising Fabric. They built all of Fabric on top of the existing Power BI service, so all of the data workloads live inside familiar workspaces, accessible through the Power BI web-based portal (now called the Fabric portal).

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1. What Is Enterprise Reporting?

2. what is the difference between enterprise reporting and business intelligence, 3.common problems with enterprise reporting, 4.enterprise reporting strategy , 4.1 build enterprise reporting architecture, what is the goal of an enterprise reporting tool, what is good enterprise reporting tool, the benefits of the enterprise reporting portal , using finereport to build the reporting portal, summary .

Enterprise reporting is a process of extracting, processing, organizing, analyzing, displaying, and reporting data in the companies. It uses enterprise reporting tools to organize data into charts, tables, widgets, or other visualizations. It may offer a range of interactivity, so users can find business problems and make data-driven decisions via the reports.

The core steps are generating reports based on the business data, distributing reports, and managing the reports. 

In the first step, the reports are usually made by the enterprise reporting tool. The enterprise reporting tool helps set manual reports as report templates to realize the automation of the business report.  

Then the reporting engine publishes these reports to the reporting portal to allow non-technical end-users access. In this way, users can gain insights from the data and make data-driven decisions.  

The enterprise reporting portal also helps organize and manage reports according to business topics to facilitate users to find reports easily.

According to the functional architecture of business intelligence , the BI can also be divided into three levels: display, analysis, and support.

The central one is the data visualization technology at the display level. Despite the different order of magnitude and the need for an in-depth analysis , data visualization technology can fulfill the most basic BI goals-transforming data into information and assisting decision-making . And enterprise reporting is the primary data visualization technology in most enterprises. 

Therefore, business intelligence is a broader category that includes data processing, performing reporting, analytics, and visualization functions. And enterprise reporting is a more specific category within BI. Also, the features of an enterprise reporting tool can be associated with business intelligence (BI) software suite.

For IT departments , the enterprise reporting construction always has a long project life cycle and frequent delays. This makes team members under pressure and overtime work. Besides, it may be difficult to fast respond to new demands because of the poor expansion of the system. And it is time-consuming to maintain the enterprise reporting system.

For reports developers , the business data is too scattered to utilize. The manual data processing results in a heavy workload, low accuracy, and poor security. Additionally, the original reports may fail to adjust to serve the new business. 

For manages or other end-users , there is not a unified reporting management portal to have a comprehensive view of all the information. And it is inconvenient to show the reports in the meeting or check it on the business trip. 

The most important in enterprise reporting strategy is: build enterprise reporting architecture, choose an enterprise reporting tool, and build an enterprise reporting portal.

Today, many enterprise reporting software has good support for the underlying data and can both make reports as report software and manage reports as a reporting portal .

Here, I would take FineReport as an example in the following enterprise reporting strategy. It has helped more than 10000 companies solve the problems in enterprise reporting and transform data into value.

Let’s see how we can actually use this?

According to the process from data to knowledge, the functional architecture of a general enterprise reporting system is shown below: It is divided into three functional levels: the underlying data, data analysis, and data presentation.

The underlying data is responsible for data management, including data collection, ETL, building a data warehouse, etc.

Data analysis is mainly about extracting data from the data warehouse and analyzing it with the analysis methods such as query, OLAP, data mining, and data visualization to form the data conclusion.

In the end, display data insights such as reports and visual charts through data presentation.

Besides, at the underlying data level, an enterprise generally has several business systems, such as CRM, ERP, OA, etc., and business data are scattered in these independent systems. It is troublesome to extract data from different systems and integrate them. You may need different database reporting tools.

Therefore, it would be much easier if there were a platform to connect these systems and put the data together.

FineReport can do it. Because FineReport supports multiple data sources and data integration. It can define multiple data sets in a report and extract data from different databases into a table.

4.2 Choose an Enterprise Reporting Tool

Besides the goal of data visualization mentioned above, the enterprise reporting tool can reduce the cost of repetitive report making and improve the efficiency of data acquisition. Via interactive analysis such as drill-down, the problems in business can be located. 

1.Easy to use

The drag-and-drop interface is user-friendly to non-technical users. Anyone can create a report template within 1 hour. Once the template created, the reports will be updated automatically based on the latest data source, which improves the efficiency of making reports to a large extent.

2. Report design modes can meet different needs 

Report developers often receive a variety of report requirements in their work. FineReport provides three reporting modes : general report, aggregation report, and dashboard.

General Report Mode is for making regular reports such as grouping reports, master/subreport, tree reports, and other customized reports.

Aggregation Report Mode is for irregular reports. If we use Excel to make the complex reports shown below, we need to merge and split cells frequently. In the aggregation report mode, each aggregation block is independent; you can drag&drop and put them together to create irregular reports.

Dashboard Mode is for making a multi-perspective analysis. Only design once, you can adaptively display on a variety of devices such as mobile phones, tablets, large screens.

3. Support remote design 

Typically, the report designer is installed on the report developer’s computer, but the server deploying the project is on a different computer. In this case, we need to put the designer and the report project on the same machine, and then we can modify and operate the files remotely . However, the remote operation is lagging in this situation. 

After deploying FineReport, you can use its remote design capabilities to design locally, publish templates remotely.

4. Convenient data query and filter

In the enterprise reporting application , the reports also need to meet the query needs of different departments. This requires reporting software to facilitate the convenient data query .

For example, the financial department often needs to check the annual financial statements of the past years. In the past, the data of each year may need to be separately extracted and summarized into tables. But with FineReport, the annual report data can be inquired by setting year parameters. After the parameters are set in the parameters panel, select the year you want to query, and the corresponding data will be retrieved in a click.

5. Smart and distinctive data entry function 

Reports are generally for data presentation, extracting data out of the database, and presenting it in various charts. However, in many cases, we need to add or modify the data in the database. For example, the personnel department often needs to input or change employee information. With the data entry function of FineReport, the operation will be much more convenient.

After the report template is set and the bound the cells to the fields of the corresponding database, the data in the database can be added or deleted directly through the report. To avoid errors of data formats, you can set conditions to verify and check the data.

4.3 Build an Enterprise Reporting Portal

A unified enterprise report portal has been an important part of an enterprise reporting solution.

The reporting portal can organize the business reports scattered in the different business systems and put them together to achieve unified management. It also gives a very secure environment for the users and implements comprehensive user management and access controls. Some enterprise reporting portal also provides data analysis such as flexible query and multi-dimensional statistics.

The above-mentioned has solved the problem of making the reports; let’s see how to use FineReport to solve the problems of managing and accessing the reports.  

1.User management

Generally, the reports developed by the enterprise are embedded in each system. It is time-consuming when the managers want to have a comprehensive view of the reports. The best solution is to build an enterprise report management platform, to access each system through a unified application.

There is a decision-making platform built-in the FineReport. It can directly manage access controls, system resources, configuration, etc. Managers at all levels can see all reports within their permissions through this reporting portal system.

2.Schedule 

 To obtain data from various aspects timely, the managers will ask the business department to submit daily and weekly reports, which will add a lot of workload to the report developers. The schedule function of FineReport can implement weekly and daily reports regularly. The specific tasks can be performed according to the cycle frequency or condition that has been set. You can also set sending the report to the leader by email or text message.

3.Mobile App

At present, many enterprises rely on the PC to check their reports. However, for decision-makers, it is common for them to go on business trips. Therefore, they cannot check the report on PC timely and sometimes miss the best time to adjust business problems. Therefore, FineReport provides mobile reporting tools for checking the reports on time.

It is not difficult to construct an enterprise reporting system. The core of the enterprise reporting is the processing and presentation of data. Therefore, it is critical to choose the right enterprise reporting tool. 

Click here  to download FineReport for free use. And you can also follow FineReport Reporting Software on Facebook for more information!

Also, please feel free to make an appointment for a live demo with our product experts. We will be more clear about your needs and see how FineReport can help you and your organization to transform data into value.

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7 enterprise reporting tips for social media marketers

Written by by Brent Barnhart

Published on  August 24, 2023

Reading time  10 minutes

The stakes are high when it comes to enterprise reporting. Because as your company scales, so does the scope of metrics your business monitors. Wrangling reporting at the enterprise level isn’t just about how much data you’re dealing with. In fact, there’s a much bigger challenge in how you communicate that data across departments. And all of this highlights the importance of in-depth, share-ready social media reporting . Chances are you already have stakeholders and outside departments that want to see your numbers. The ability to communicate return on investment (ROI) and business impact clearly is crucial for social marketers today. Streamlining your enterprise reporting process can help you provide consistent and confident answers. Below we explain how you can make it happen and why it should be a priority.

Table of Contents

What is enterprise reporting?

Why is social media important for enterprise reporting, what are the benefits of enterprise reporting, how to create an effective enterprise report in 7 easy steps, how to leverage social media data in your enterprise reporting.

• Enterprise reporting FAQs

Enterprise reporting refers to analyzing and communicating company-wide data across an organization. These reports track KPIs across your entire organization, including department-specific data.  Through enterprise reporting, you get a holistic view of how your business works (together). These are reports that cover business KPIs, operations, productivity metrics and beyond. The goal of enterprise reporting? Communicate results and takeaways to key stakeholders organization-wide. Reports are most valuable to teams by ticking three boxes:

• The data reported is accurate and up-to-date
• Reports get to the right stakeholders consistently and securely
• Data is clear, actionable and interpreted accurately

The points above may seem straightforward enough. The reality? Achieving all of the above with hundreds or thousands of employees is no small feat.

Simply put, social media is a goldmine when it comes to business intelligence reporting . That’s because your social presence impacts so many sects of your business. This includes your sales and marketing funnels. The wealth of data to gather via social is nothing to scoff at. Below is a quick snapshot of why social media matters so much for enterprise reporting:

• Brand and product research on social media is at an all-time high. As brand discovery on social media grows, so do opportunities to gather data beyond lead gen. This includes customer insights and shopping preferences based on engagement.
• Uncover marketing wins (and future opportunities to assist other departments). From customer service to sales and beyond, social interactions are almost guaranteed across the buyer’s journey. Reporting on those key touchpoints can highlight value for your department and beyond.
• Social media is integral to audience research. Beyond engagement metrics, the qualitative data you can gather from social media is critical. From market research to competitive analysis , there’s no better place to track real-time trends.

You probably already feel like you’re dealing with more than enough data as-is. You’re already tracking your share of numbers so why add more to your plate? That’s why more businesses are investing in enterprise reporting tools, though. Time spent tracking KPIs shouldn’t go to waste. Through more accurate and streamlined company reporting, you can take those numbers beyond your dashboard and translate them into real results. Here’s a sample of the benefits of better enterprise reporting for any given business:

Point to ROI for stakeholders without second-guessing

Proving social media ROI is consistently one of the top challenges of marketers year after year. That’s because some stakeholders are still skeptical of its value. That’s all the more reason to present hard numbers in the context of results and KPIs. In-depth social media analytics go hand in hand with enterprise reporting as you present more than surface-level business impact.

Make company-wide decisions (and predictions) with more confidence

Brands are spoiled for choice when it comes to potential social media campaigns. Content marketing. Social ads. ABM. The list goes on. Understanding which platforms, processes and tactics produce real results means digging into the data. Doing so can help you prioritize and make predictions with better accuracy.

Break down silos and build toward unified company goals

Enterprise reporting encourages you to keep a pulse on the numbers that matter not to you but to other teams. Likewise, you can focus on the tactics that align directly with timely objectives. Data silos are a universal challenge for enterprise companies. The bigger your company, the bigger your silos. These silos result in misinterpreted reports, lost productivity and wasted time.  On the flip side, breaking down silos via company-wide reporting encourages cross-team collaboration. This can also reduce the burden of decision-making on your marketing team.

Now that we know how enterprise reporting helps businesses in theory, let’s look at it in practice. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of what goes into a report that resonates with stakeholders.

1. Roll out reporting templates for faster collaboration

Enterprise social teams are constantly juggling reporting requests. For example, one department might want click attribution data. Maybe another department was context on an ad campaign’s engagement rate or reach. The ongoing and growing need for cross-departmental reports puts marketers in a tricky situation. At a glance, your options are:

• A. Create multiple, tailored reports for each team on demand
• B. Send a generic, one-size-fits-all report across departments

Of course, both options aren’t exactly ideal. Option A can quickly become a time-sink. Not to mention it takes away from your marketing efforts and strategy elsewhere.  Option B might be more time-efficient but leaves room for error. Data can get misread by stakeholders or (even worse) ignored altogether. That’s where templates can save the day. Creating a social media report template for each department should be your first priority. Doing so upfront saves countless hours in the long run. You’ll also encourage cross-team collaboration and find opportunities to delegate work. You can create and save templates DIY with tools like Google Docs, Sheets (or Excel) and Slides. Which one you use depends on your preference and presentation style. Better yet, consider a social media management solution like Sprout Social. Custom reports in Sprout meet the demands and depth of enterprise reporting. The Report Builder tool instantly aligns your social data and is a nice added bonus. Also, Sprout’s platform makes it a cinch to share reports across teams ASAP. This encourages a streamlined reporting process that delights your entire company.

2. Include an executive summary

Once your report leaves your outbox, there’s no telling where your data will end up. Going unread happens. Things get worse when reports get shared beyond who they were intended for. Your recipients may have meant well when sharing. However, this often creates follow-up questions and confusion. You might be asked to explain data you already explained in your original report. This is yet another waste of time and energy. That’s why  sharing reports with context is so important. Data on its own doesn’t mean much.  For example, an uptick in brand mentions could mean people are loving your service. But it also could mean people are making complaints. To make sure your data is always framed with the big picture in mind, include  an executive summary . Executive summaries provide a brief overview of report findings. This allows you to control your data narrative.

Features in Sprout like text elements available in our custom reports are huge here. You can use them to add in context that showcases the full ROI of social. This includes benchmarks, data from Google Analytics and more. These details make reports more valuable by being accessible and actionable. Anyone seeing it can understand it without having to interpret the metrics themselves.

3. Create a data glossary

Let’s assume your team is fully aligned on your KPIs and business impact. You know what your progress means and how it all ladders up into business goals. However, anyone beyond the marketing department doesn’t live and breathe social metrics. They may understand how an engagement differs from a click. However, they don’t know how that connects back to department and company goals. With a data glossary, you can attach a quick recap of the “why” behind your goals with every report that you send. A  formal data glossary is a collection of all the terms that define your data across systems. These are often large undertakings led by an IT department but they don’t have to be. A simpler, marketing-specific version can be created quickly and with minimal effort. Making it happen starts by compiling information. This starts when you first set your quarterly or yearly objectives and KPIs. Sort that in a table format with a quick recap of each KPI and how it supports a business or marketing objective. This provides external stakeholders with all everything they need to contextualize your reports. Here’s an example of what an entry could look like:

Impressions: A reach metric that tracks how many times a post or profile has been seen. Our quarterly and annual impressions goals ladder up to the marketing department’s brand awareness goal.

You can also use your data glossary as a document hub that links out to:

• Benchmark data
• More in-depth  social media KPI explainers
• Strategy documents to encourage interested parties to learn more about team initiatives.

4. Align your reporting with your business goals and needs

This might seem like a no-brainer but it’s easier said than done. Especially since social media given how many areas of your business it touches.  To assess what should go into your reports, start by considering big-picture business goals. For example, increasing MRR or increasing lead quality. Then, look at more granular data points that tie into them. You can likewise break your reporting down by different types of KPIs such as:

• Strategic KPIs related to ROI, profits and revenue
• Operational KPIs related to time (or time spent) on certain tasks and initiatives
• Functional KPIs related to your department and its performance

Not every metric you track is going to tie directly to a business goal. That’s okay! However, your reports should ideally prioritize metrics that matter most to your stakeholders. Extra information can lead to lost interest and likewise distract from your wins.

5. Create data visualizations that provide actionable insights

Anything you can do to make your reports understandable ASAP is a plus. That’s where data visualization comes in. For example, you can translate numbers in reports into formats including:

• Area charts
• Line charts
• Scatter plots

Food for thought: nearly two-thirds of people consider themselves to be visual learners. On that note, nobody wants to sift through a laundry list of numbers even with context. With data visualization, your reports instantly become:

• Easy to understand at a glance
• More shareable

Sprout Social automatically generates visual reports for your social media performance. You can generate visuals for internal reports including case performance and team reports. You also can easily track follower growth rate, measure post performance and compare yourself against the competition through these visual reports.

6. Leverage an enterprise reporting tool

Given the wealth of social data to go through, tracking number by number DIY isn’t realistic. In the case of enterprise brands, measuring customer interactions and engagement metrics alone across multiple channels is a massive time-sink. This highlights the value of an enterprise social media tool like Sprout Social.  Sprout leverages the rise of AI with social listening tools to gain business-critical learnings from millions of unfiltered thoughts, opinions and feedback. This empowers you to upgrade your strategy and guide future action. Automated engagement tools both gather and analyze the data so you can focus on action and gather your data accordingly.

7. Share reports proactively

Social media has transformed how businesses operate and deliver value to their customers. Firsthand insights into consumer needs, trends and competitive intelligence are massive. This is especially for the enterprise. The problem? Only 8% of marketers say social data is treated like  an organization-wide business intelligence resource . As the old saying goes: “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Many businesses aren’t leveraging social data to the fullest because they don’t know what it can do. Leading with social data starts with you. Create teaching moments illustrating the value of social media and its business impact. Proactively sharing social data lay the groundwork for future strategic initiatives. Especially when shown to people that didn’t ask for it. All the ‘while maintaining control over where your data goes and how it is shared. On top of that, it’s as easy as a quick CC or a scheduled PDF send.

Again, you’re probably already sitting on a mountain of social media. That’s not a bad problem to have! Especially for the sake of building out comprehensive enterprise reports. To wrap things up, we’ll provide some examples of opportunities to translate your numbers into action.

Gain a competitive advantage through social insights

• Messaging: Understand which values (think: affordability vs. ease-of-use vs. ethics) matter most to your audience, how your messaging compares to your competitors, which types of messages and pieces of content result in the highest (or most valuable) interactions
• Sentiment: What thoughts or feelings are associated with your brand based on conversations about your brand (this includes specific phrases, reviews and comparisons between your brand and competitors)
• Content types: Which social assets actually move the needle, what do they have in common in terms of format (think: photos versus photos) or goal (think: customer education vs. offers vs. community-building)

Get a better understanding of your target audience

• Pain points: Detect common challenges and pain points based on conversations, comments and feedback on social media (both publicly and within DMs)
• Favorite products: Uncover which products your audience is talking about or inquiring about the most, understand which specific features or details they gravitate toward
• Sources of engagement: Which pieces of content drive the most interactions and meaningful social media leads across your platforms (think: IG vs. TikTok)

Gather quick insights for better data-driven decision making

• What to publish: Content formats based on engagement rate, reach and interactions
• Where to publish: Which platforms earn the most interactions or generate the most leads from social media
• When to publish: Understand your brand’s ideal publishing frequency on each platform to maximize your time and productivity

Is your brand equipped with enterprise reporting?

The role of social media in business intelligence can’t be overstated.  Now’s the time to break down enterprise silos and start maximizing your data. If you’re already tracking it at scale, translating your data into action should be your next step. That’s where Sprout Social’s enterprise features can save the day. If you haven’t already, check out Sprout’s suite of tools to help you share reports quickly and effectively.

Enterprise Reporting FAQs

Business intelligence is a bigger-picture concept related to the technology and methodology for companies analyzing KPIs and data. Enterprise reporting is a function of business intelligence.

Nope! “Enterprise story” is a journalistic term related to news reporting, not business reporting.

An enterprise reporting strategy refers to how you implement your analytics and deliver reports across your organization. For example:

• How often do specific departments send their reports?
• What are your criteria for which stakeholders see reports (and which don’t)?
• Is there a universal format for reports in your organization?

It depends! Enterprise reporting tools vary in price based on their features and functionalities. For example, some businesses might emphasize features related to visualizations while others may be more concerned about comprehensive report-sharing.

Examples of enterprise reports include (but are definitely not limited to):

• Sales reports that measure SQLs, deal size, individual employee performance and more.
• Human resources reports that measure employee engagement and performance.
• Marketing reports that measure the performance of advertising channels and lead generation efforts.
• Leveling Up
• Social Media Analytics

Why you need to share an executive summary of your social media reports with leadership

The social media metrics to track in 2024 (and why)

The journey of a data point: Turning numbers into social media intelligence

How to use LinkedIn hashtag analytics to boost content reach

• Now on slide

Build and grow stronger relationships on social

Sprout Social helps you understand and reach your audience, engage your community and measure performance with the only all-in-one social media management platform built for connection.

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6 essential elements of modern enterprise reporting software

If you’re looking around at web-based reporting tools , I want to help you avoid that mistake.

The first (and most important) piece of advice is this: Never assume. Don’t just assume that every tool is equal, or has similar features. Some tools may look impressive, but completely leave out some “basic” features. Other tools might get all the press but lack important features.

The big question: What makes for good reporting software? What should you look for?

For the most part, the answer to those questions lies in your company’s needs. But, I do believe that all “enterprise-class” reporting solutions must have certain essential elements. Today, we’re going to explore these elements in more detail.

Now, before we get into it, I want to add a couple of caveats:

First , I won’t get into the general must-have’s of enterprise software. Open architecture, broad database support, external security, etc… are all good examples. These topics are important but apply to any software purchase. I want to keep it reporting specific.

Second , I won’t get into vague features. Every reporting vendor makes vague claims of simplicity, ease-of-use, robust functionality, etc….

Rather, I like to focus on specific features that you can ask the vendor about. In this article, we’ll explore 6 must-have elements to look for in enterprise reporting software. Sound good? Let’s dive in.

1. Look for these 5 user-based security features

What’s one of the leading causes of data breaches? Employees who have access to far more data and capabilities than they should.

The general rule of thumb : Give employees access to only the data they need. Make sure that your reporting software includes essential user-based security features.

“Make sure that access to data in the reports is granted on a need-to-know basis only – this will reduce potential risks associated with unauthorized access to report summaries,” says Ilia Sotnikov, Vice President of Product Management at Netwrix .

Which specific security features should you look for? Here are the most important areas to examine:

Row-level (or multi-tenant) security Not every user should access the same data. Multi-tenant security lets you control data access within a single application at the row level. This means that many users access the same application, but view different data.

Application-level security Does every employee in your organization need access to every application? Probably not. That’s where application-level security comes into play. It lets you control reporting application access on a per-user role, or per-user basis.

Single Sign-on (SSO) SSO is a session/user authentication process. It lets users login in one place and authenticates the user for all authorized applications. The benefit: It eliminates login prompts when switching between applications in a single session.

User-specific data sources This security feature applies to the database level. It lets you build a single application that accesses different data sources depending on the user. It provides flexibility, as it lets developers control database access on a user level.

User privilege parameters This lets you personalize features and security to individual users. Saved to a user’s profile, user privilege parameters control user-specific features throughout every report.

2. Look for these 6 reporting types

“Regarding reporting tools, it is important to look at what stock reports are built into the system and what can be done from an ad hoc perspective,” says Ian McClarty, President & CEO of PhoenixNAP Global IT Services . “Reporting engines that are based on BI (business intelligence) typically go all ad hoc whereas reporting tools that are built for a specific CRM or ERP already have built-in reporting that meets the majority of the business needs. Either easy customization without a strong developer or pre-built reporting is the desired outcome, you get one or the other, rarely both.”

From a capabilities standpoint, look at two areas: Customization and baked-in reporting options. Let’s explore each one:

Customization Customization is pretty straightforward. Can you customize the generated reports to fit your business? Can you create new reporting types or reporting templates? Some tools make this easy, while others need extensive consulting work.

Baked-in reporting types What types of reports should you look for in a tool? While this will vary depending on your needs, here’s a short list of reporting types that every tool should include.

• Ad-hoc reporting Ad-hoc reporting is essential because it lets end users create and distribute reports on the fly. The user selects the data elements he/she wishes to see in the report. Then, they can either export the report into a format of their choosing or email it from their web browser.
• Ranking report A ranking report lets you rank the top/bottom aspects of your business. For instance, suppose you wanted to see your top 10 products over the last year. Or, suppose you wanted to see which regions performed the worst over the last 5 years. The ranking report makes both tasks simple.
• Web pivot tables Pivot tables are powerful interactive reports that let users view data from many perspectives. They let users rearrange fields and see their data from any angle they desire. Pivot tables are great for analyzing data, making comparisons, and discovering trends.
• Interactive reports Interactive reports display as much or as little data as the user desires, and lets users perform data analysis in different ways. It starts out with a high level view of business data and lets users filter, sort, and drill down to the most minute details. Interactive reports are so useful because they let users view their data in any way they wish.
• Dashboards A business dashboard displays high-level graphs and reports in one easy-to-use interface. It lets executives see critical data and can alert a company to problems before they get out of hand.
• Cross-tab reports Cross-tab reports are great for summarizing and comparing data. They cross-reference row data with user-selected column data in a simple matrix format.

3. Look for multi-function reporting

Analytical reporting The most common type of reporting, this provides a historical view of your data. Analytical reporting lets you explore data from a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly perspective.

Operational reporting This type of reporting provides details about current activities. It’s intended to support the day-to-day activities of the organization. While real-time data isn’t that important with analytical reporting, it’s essential with operational reporting.

“While real-time refresh rates can be encumbering, it’s still important to have near real-time database refreshes,” says Ata Khan, Co-Founder of Xoobo . “The bare minimum for many businesses is every hour (depending on what you’re looking to do).”

Self-service reporting Self-service tools give end-users the ability to create their own reports. This takes the reporting burden off of the IT department and gives users instant access to their data. If you plan deploy self-service reporting, involve end users in the purchase process. Make sure they’re comfortable with the interface and the report creation process.

“Consider the ease of use,” says Peter Purcell, Co-founder and Managing Director at Trenegy, Inc . “An enterprise reporting tool should be intuitive and easy to use. Business users should be able to write their own reports. Drag-and-drop functionality allows users to make reports easily. Overall, easy-to-use tools are more effective due to quick adoption and understanding.”

Optional Function: Embedded reporting Embedded reporting is a powerful function but doesn’t apply to every company. While I can’t list it as a “must-have”, it is important enough to define and explain.

What is it? Embedded analytics tools let you embed reports and dashboards within existing software. Embedded reporting is typically used in a couple of ways:

• Software Vendors use embedded reporting tools to add reports, analytics, and dashboards to their existing software product. This helps them improve their offering and differentiate their software from the competition. They use an embedded reporting tool because it’s easier and faster than building the capabilities themselves.
• Other businesses use embedded reporting for a couple of reasons. First, some use it to replace inferior reporting features found in the software they use. For example, if their ERP system’s reporting features didn’t meet their needs, embedded reporting software helps them create custom reports and embed them in their ERP system . Second, some use it to bring analytics to their user’s daily routines. They embed reports in software and applications their employees already use. This improves user adoption, as users can access important data without leaving their current workflow.

4. Look for low-code capabilities

As Forrester mentions in this article , modern business intelligence tools are turning this approach around. They’re including low-code development features that let users take their data even further. For instance, a reporting tool with low-code capabilities will provide features like:

Data write-back In the past, BI & reporting software were “read-only.” They pulled data from the database, but couldn’t write data to the database.

As businesses become more “data-driven”, we’re seeing this change. Modern BI reporting tools should include read and write capabilities. This gives users the ability to send alerts, perform actions based on data, and trigger workflows.

Automated alerts and notifications With traditional BI reporting tools, you need to physically look at the reports or dashboards to gain any insights. Modern tools should be proactive, and let users set up alerts and notifications for critical data changes.

“Everyone needs to know what data to focus on,” says Derek Wilson, President and CEO of CDO Advisors, LLC . “Currently, we can all see data and have more and more access. The trick is to know what is important. Executives I work with are always wanting an easy way to be alerted about changes in critical data or KPIs.”

Reporting portals Report distribution is almost as important as creation. How do users access the generated reports? The best approach: Reporting portals .

Reporting tools with low-code capabilities will let you create secure reporting portals. A reporting portal is a centralized location where users can access reports and dashboards. The key feature is user or role-based security. Each user can only see the reports they’re authorized to access in the portal.

Workflow capabilities Modern reporting software should let you create and trigger workflows based on changes in data. This might include actions like approval workflows, sending emails, running reports, etc…

5. Look for these dashboarding capabilities

“I see a dashboard feature as a high priority feature for reporting systems,” says Karen Donoghue, Principal Interaction Architect at HumanLogic . “A strong dashboard feature allows enterprise users to build and execute queries on reporting metrics that are important to their organizations. A good dashboard experience aggregates these metrics in a single “glanceable” view that can help surface trends and provides links that serve as shortcuts to deeper analysis.”

I completely agree–dashboarding is essential to any modern reporting tool. That said, you can’t treat it like a checkbox item. Not all dashboard capabilities are equal.

In other words, it’s not enough to look for dashboarding. Look at the dashboard capabilities provided by the reporting software.

What should you look for? I won’t get into every point, as it’s a topic I covered in this article , but here’s a quick list:

• Drill-downs : Users start with a high-level view of data and can click on various elements to get more information.
• Cross-platform : A modern dashboard should adapt to any device or screen size.
• Customization : Each user should be able to customize the data and look/feel in their dashboard.
• Saved views : Users should be able to save dashboard customizations for quick access later.
• Organization options : The dashboard should have the option to separate different categories into tabs.
• Intelligent alerts : This feature alerts you when data rises or falls beyond a certain threshold.
• Row-level security : Each dashboard user can only see the data they’re authorized to access.

6. Look for open APIs

These days, software architecture has moved from a monolithic to a microservices approach. Microservices are like software “building blocks”. They provide a single capability which can be shared across applications. They connect and share data with other applications via Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).

How does this apply to reporting software? Some reporting tools offer open APIs while others have closed APIs. An open API is accessible for anyone to access. It can connect with almost any data source or pass data easily between applications. On the flip side, a closed API is controlled by the vendor. It won’t connect to every data source and could limit your integration capabilities.

Let me ask you a question: What happens if you choose a reporting tool that doesn’t communicate easily with other software? You’ll have trouble getting data in and out of the reporting software. You’ll get stuck pulling data out of various systems manually and importing it into your reporting tool. It will turn into a constant frustration.

This is why you cannot afford to ignore APIs when choosing a reporting tool. As explained below, poor integration can ruin your reporting efforts.

“Look for a solution with open APIs,” says Purcell. “Users should be able to connect to and extract data from any data source. Many companies will want to connect the tool to their ERPs as well as other systems. Without the capability for connection, the tool is essentially useless.”

I’m sure this list could be longer, but I believe the elements listed above are absolutely essential to any enterprise reporting tool. Would you add anything to this list? Feel free to share in the comments.

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6 thoughts on “6 essential elements of modern enterprise reporting software”.

It’s really helpful detailed blog post. I agree with your words that the focus shall be on creating software that is easy to use and robust as well.

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Connectivity: Modern reporting software should be able to integrate with multiple sources of data, from on-premises databases to cloud applications such as Salesforce, Box, or Google Analytics. It should also offer an API so that developers can build custom integrations with other systems.2. Data preparation: Even the best-designed reports can be rendered useless if they use inaccurate or incomplete data. Modern reporting tools should automate data preparation tasks such as data cleansing, de-duping, and aggregation before delivering reports. Data preparation also includes building connections between different systems, so users can get the most relevant information without having to spend time on manual processes like copying and pasting data between spreadsheets or other types of documents.3. Visualization: The best way to communicate complex information is through visualizations that allow users to quickly understand what is happening in their business and why it matters.

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Enterprise Reporting Software Development: A Guide to Data-Driven Success

Why settle for mere numbers when you can unlock the secrets they hold?  

Ever wonder about the goldmine hidden in your data? It’s not just numbers; it’s the pulse of your business, the key that opens up the untapped potential. But let’s face it: sorting through this data jungle can be daunting. That’s where enterprise reporting software swoops in as the hero of the story.  

In a world where data rules supreme, enterprises needed a way to make sense of the chaos. Enter stage left: enterprise reporting software, the ultimate problem solver. No more drowning in spreadsheets or drowning in charts. It’s about time-saving, decision-boosting magic.  

Fast forward to today, and the demand for this software isn’t just on the rise; it’s skyrocketing. Businesses big and small are realizing the power of data-driven insights. And with each passing day, enterprise reporting software isn’t just a tool; it’s the driving force behind smarter decisions and brighter futures.  

Ready to take your business to the next level? Say goodbye to guesswork and hello to data-driven decision-making with enterprise reporting software development. It’s not just about writing code; it’s about crafting solutions that propel your business forward.  

Whether you’re a seasoned developer looking to refine your skills or a business owner eager to unlock the full potential of your data, this is the best time. Read on to dive deep into the captivating world of enterprise reporting software development. Or, if you want to skip the reading, our doors are always open for 30-minute free consultation, fill the form right away and let’s talk!  

Starting with the basics first.  

• Enterprise reporting software transforms raw data into actionable insights, empowering informed decision-making at every level of your organization.  
• Streamline operations and boost productivity with streamlined reporting processes that eliminate manual tasks and accelerate data-driven workflows.  
• Gain a competitive edge in today’s fast-paced business landscape by harnessing the power of enterprise reporting software to anticipate trends, seize opportunities, and stay ahead of the curve.  

Table of Contents

What Is Enterprise Reporting Software and Why Is It Important?  

Enterprise reporting software is a powerful tool designed to gather, organize, and analyze data from various sources within an organization, presenting it in a comprehensible format for decision-making purposes. It goes beyond basic data visualization by providing detailed insights and customizable reports tailored to the specific needs of businesses.

The importance of enterprise reporting software lies in its ability to transform raw data into actionable intelligence, enabling businesses to make informed decisions quickly and efficiently.

Think of it this way: your business is a puzzle, and data is the missing piece. Enterprise reporting software swoops in to complete that puzzle, painting a clear picture of your operations, finances, customer behavior, and more. With this tool in your arsenal, you’re not just making decisions; you’re making informed decisions, backed by solid data.

Let’s not forget the simplicity it brings to the table. No more drowning in spreadsheets or scratching your head over complex reports. With enterprise reporting software, insights are just a few clicks away, presented in a way that even the least tech-savvy person in the room can understand.

And here’s the kicker: In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, where every company is vying for a competitive edge, digital transformation services are the name of the game. And guess what? Enterprise reporting software is at the heart of it all, driving efficiency, innovation, and growth like never before.

So, if you’re ready to take your organization to new heights, then enterprise reporting software development is your ticket to success.

Let’s see the numbers now!

Enterprise Software Market Statistics for Better Decisions  

The enterprise reporting software market is booming, thanks to powerful market drivers that are reshaping how we manage data and make decisions. Let’s dive into the numbers and uncover what’s fueling this exciting growth.  

The size of the global enterprise software market is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.3% from 2023 to 2030.

Market Drivers:

Data explosion:  .

The exponential growth of business data is propelling the demand for enterprise reporting solutions, as organizations seek effective solutions to manage and analyze large volumes of information.   

Real-Time Insights:  

The need for instant access to actionable insights is driving the adoption of enterprise reporting software, enabling businesses to make informed decisions swiftly in response to changing market conditions.   

Business Intelligence Focus:  

Increasing recognition of the importance of data-driven decision-making is fueling the demand for advanced business intelligence tools like enterprise reporting software, which provide valuable insights for strategic planning and performance optimization.  

Regulatory Compliance:  

Stringent regulatory requirements necessitate robust data governance and reporting solutions. Enterprise reporting software offers features for compliance reporting and data security, helping organizations adhere to regulatory mandates.   

Cloud Adoption:  

The shift towards cloud-based solutions is reshaping the enterprise reporting software market, with cloud deployment offering scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness, making reporting solutions accessible to businesses of all sizes.  

Integration of Advanced Technologies:  

Incorporation of AI, ML, and NLP technologies enhances the capabilities of enterprise reporting software, enabling predictive analytics, anomaly detection, and automated report generation, thus augmenting its value proposition.  

Each of these market drivers acts as a turbo boost for the enterprise reporting solutions market, catering to the varied needs of businesses in our data-centric universe.  

Major players include Microsoft (Power BI), Tableau Software, SAP (BusinessObjects), Oracle (Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management) and IBM (Cognos Analytics)  

All-in-all, Enterprise Reporting Software is the ultimate tool for businesses seeking to harness the power of data for informed decision-making, streamlined operations, and competitive advantage.  

But wait, isn’t that just like Business Intelligence? Not quite! Let’s delve into the nuances and uncover the real differences!  

Difference B etween Enterprise Reporting and Business Intelligence  

The main difference between enterprise reporting and business intelligence lies in their focus and scope. Enterprise reporting typically involves generating predefined reports based on structured data from various sources within an organization, providing standardized views of performance metrics and operational data.

On the other hand, business intelligence (BI) encompasses a broader set of tools and processes aimed at analyzing and interpreting data to uncover trends, patterns, and insights that drive strategic decision-making. While enterprise reporting is more about presenting historical data in a structured format, business intelligence involves deeper analysis and exploration of data to support informed decision-making and strategic planning.

At Matellio, we specialize in the development of both enterprise reporting and business intelligence solutions, tailored to meet your specific needs and preferences. Whether you’re looking for standardized reports to streamline operations or advanced analytics for strategic insights, our enterprise solutions have got you covered. Let us guide you through the nuances of each, ensuring clarity and confidence in your data-driven journey.

Ready to Transform Your Data?

Contact Us for a Custom Reporting Solution!

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Why You Should Consider Investing in Enterprise Reporting Software  

Considering an investment in enterprise reporting software? Here’s why it’s a game-changer.  

In today’s fast-paced business world, data is king. But without the right tools to harness its power, you’re left in the dark. Enter enterprise reporting software – your beacon of light in the data jungle. It centralizes your data, crunches the numbers, and serves up actionable insights on a silver platter. With it, you’ll make smarter decisions, spot trends before they happen, and stay steps ahead.  

Beyond short-term gains, enterprise reporting software development offers long-term benefits such as increased competitiveness, improved customer satisfaction, enhanced regulatory compliance, and greater strategic alignment. It provides a solid foundation for sustainable growth and success in today’s dynamic business environment.  

Don’t let data chaos hold you back. With enterprise reporting systems, you can harness the full power of your data and propel your business to new heights. Let’s chat about how we can tailor a solution just for you and revolutionize the way you do business. Together, we’ll turn your data challenges into opportunities for GROWTH and SUCCESS.  

F eatures That Can   M ake a G ood   R eporting S oftware 

Crafting a robust enterprise reporting software involves integrating key features that streamline data management, enhance usability, and deliver actionable insights. Here are essential features to consider for your enterprise reporting software development:

Drag-and-Drop Interface:

Simplify report creation with a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface. Adding this feature can empower users to effortlessly arrange and visualize data, streamlining the reporting process. With intuitive controls, even beginners can create professional-looking reports in no time.

Customizable Templates:

Tailor reports to specific needs with customizable templates. This will allow users to personalize their reports, enhancing flexibility and efficiency in data presentation. By providing a range of templates, users can easily create professional reports that meet their unique requirements.

Real-Time Data Updates:

Keep reports current with real-time data integration. This feature ensures that insights are always accurate and up-to-date, enabling timely decision-making. With real-time updates, users can act on the latest information with confidence, driving better business outcomes.

Interactive Charts and Graphs:

Bring data to life with interactive charts and graphs which will make insights easier to understand for users. Having interactive elements can quickly help in identifying key insights and making informed decisions.

Automated Report Scheduling:

Save time with report automation. This feature allows users to set up regular report generation and distribution, reducing manual effort. By automating the reporting process, users can ensure that stakeholders receive timely updates without constant supervision.

Also Read: Report Automation Software – Features, Development Process, and Cost

Mobile Accessibility:

Stay informed on the go with mobile accessibility. Your users will be able to access reports from any device, increasing flexibility and collaboration. Mobile access will allow them to make informed decisions anytime, anywhere, enhancing productivity and responsiveness.

Role-Based Permissions:

Ensure data security with role-based permissions. This feature controls access to sensitive information, reducing the risk of unauthorized access. By assigning permissions based on roles, users can protect valuable data assets and maintain compliance with regulations.

Drill-Down Functionality:

Dive deeper into data with drill-down functionality. Let users explore details and uncover insights at a granular level with this feature, enhancing analysis capabilities. With drill-down options, users can investigate trends and anomalies with ease, driving deeper understanding and better decision-making.

Filtering and Sorting Options:

Fine-tune reports effortlessly with filtering and sorting options, zeroing in on what truly matters. This turbocharges usability and efficiency, empowering users to spot trends and insights with ease. With flexible capabilities, every report becomes a tailored masterpiece, supercharging decision-making like never before.

Exporting and Sharing Capabilities:

Spread insights like wildfire with exporting and sharing capabilities, ensuring no valuable nugget of information goes unnoticed. Seamlessly export reports in various formats and share them across platforms, fostering collaboration and alignment. It’s the key to ensuring insights land in the right hands at the right time, igniting teamwork and driving results.

Data Governance Tools:

Fortify data integrity and compliance with governance tools that instill trust in every byte of information. By embedding this feature, you bolster confidence in the accuracy and reliability of reports, paving the way for sound decision-making grounded in solid data foundations.

Integration with External Systems:

Forge seamless connections with external systems, harmonizing data flow and amplifying reporting efficiency. This game-changing feature centralizes data management and slashes manual efforts, unleashing a new era of precision and agility in reporting processes.

Multi-Language Support:

Speak the language of global users with multi-language support, breaking down barriers to accessibility and usability. By embracing this feature, you ensure that every user, regardless of location, can wield the software effectively, empowering organizations to thrive on a global scale.

Feedback and Collaboration Tools:

Cultivate a culture of collaboration and innovation with feedback and collaboration tools that spark dialogue and creativity. By infusing this feature, you foster engagement and unity, empowering users to pool their expertise and drive towards shared objectives with unwavering momentum.

By weaving these features into your enterprise report management software, you’re not just building a tool—you’re crafting a data-driven powerhouse! As your trusted enterprise software development company , we’re here to guide you on this journey. Let’s unlock the true value of your data and drive business success together!

Get Exclusive Features Added to Your Enterprise Reporting Software with Our Experts!

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Technology Trends to Follow for Enterprise Reporting Software    

Staying ahead in the realm of enterprise reporting software means keeping a keen eye on emerging technology trends. This will not only give you a competitive edge but also ensure that your reporting solutions remain relevant and impactful in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape.

Here are some key trends:

AI and Machine Learning Integration:

Integrate AI and machine learning algorithms into your enterprise reporting software to enable advanced analytics, predictive modeling, and automated insights generation. With AI reporting software development, you can uncover hidden patterns and make data-driven decisions with greater accuracy and speed.

Natural Language Processing (NLP):

NLP technology allows users to interact with reporting software using natural language queries, making data analysis more accessible to non-technical users. By incorporating NLP capabilities, you can provide intuitive and conversational interfaces, enhancing user experience and adoption.

Augmented Analytics:

Embrace augmented analytics, which combines AI, machine learning, and natural language processing to automate data preparation, insight generation, and visualization. This lets users uncover insights and trends in real-time, driving faster decision-making and empowering your team to become citizen data scientists.

Data Visualization Enhancements:

Adopt advanced data visualization techniques, such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), to transform the way you interact with data. By incorporating immersive visualization capabilities, you can gain deeper insights and facilitate more engaging data exploration experiences.

Edge Computing:

Edge computing brings data processing closer to the source of data generation, enabling real-time analysis and insights at the edge of the network. Integrating edge computing capabilities into enterprise reporting software allows organizations to analyze and act on data in real-time, even in remote or bandwidth-constrained environments.

Blockchain for Data Security:

Blockchain technology offers enhanced security and transparency for data transactions, making it ideal for ensuring the integrity and authenticity of enterprise reporting data. By leveraging blockchain for data security, enterprise reporting software can provide tamper-proof audit trails and secure data sharing across organizational boundaries.

Cloud-Native Solutions:

Cloud-native architecture enables scalability, agility, and cost-efficiency for enterprise reporting software deployments. By embracing cloud-native solutions, organizations can leverage on-demand resources, automated scaling, and continuous delivery to accelerate innovation and stay competitive in a rapidly evolving landscape.

Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Deployments:

Hybrid and multi-cloud deployments allow organizations to leverage the best of both worlds by combining on-premises infrastructure with public and private cloud services. By supporting hybrid and multi-cloud architectures, enterprise reporting software can provide flexibility, resilience, and scalability to meet diverse business needs and regulatory requirements.

Staying in sync with these tech trends is a must for companies aiming to get the most out of their enterprise reporting software investments and lead the pack in today’s data-centric era. Embracing these new technologies and tapping into AI development services opens doors to fresh opportunities, fuels innovation, and supercharges your ability to gather insights and make swift decisions.

Popular Applications of Enterprise Reporting Software  

Enterprise reporting software finds widespread applications across various industries and organizational functions. Here are some popular applications:   

Financial Reporting:  

Enterprise reporting software is extensively used for financial reporting, including generating balance sheets, income statements, cash flow statements, and other financial metrics. It helps organizations analyze their financial performance, track expenses, and make informed decisions about budgeting and resource allocation.   

Sales and Marketing Analytics:  

Enterprises leverage reporting software to track sales performance, analyze customer data, and measure marketing campaign effectiveness. It provides insights into customer behavior, sales trends, and ROI, enabling organizations to optimize sales and marketing strategies for better results.  

Operations Management:  

Enterprise reporting system helps organizations monitor key operational metrics, such as production output, inventory levels, and supply chain performance. It enables efficient resource utilization, identifies bottlenecks, and streamlines workflows to improve operational efficiency and productivity.   

Human Resources Reporting:  

HR departments use reporting software to track employee performance, manage workforce demographics, and analyze HR metrics such as turnover rates, recruitment costs, and employee engagement levels. It supports strategic workforce planning and decision-making to optimize HR processes.   

Compliance Reporting:  

Enterprises rely on reporting software to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards. It helps generate compliance reports, audit trails, and risk assessments, facilitating adherence to legal and regulatory obligations while mitigating compliance risks.   

Customer Service Analytics:  

Reporting software is employed to analyze customer service metrics, such as response times, resolution rates, and customer satisfaction scores. It enables organizations to identify areas for improvement, enhance service quality, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.   

Executive Dashboards:  

Use enterprise reporting system to create executive dashboards that provide senior management with a consolidated view of key performance indicators (KPIs) and business metrics. It enables executives to monitor organizational performance, track strategic goals, and make data-driven decisions.   

Supply Chain Analytics:  

Reporting software helps organizations optimize their supply chain operations by analyzing inventory levels, supplier performance, and logistics data. It provides insights into demand forecasting, inventory management, and supply chain efficiency, enabling organizations to minimize costs and maximize customer satisfaction.   

Risk Management Reporting:  

With this feature in enterprise reporting system, you can assess and mitigate risks across various business functions, including financial, operational, and compliance risks. It helps identify potential risks, assess their impact, and develop risk mitigation strategies to safeguard organizational assets and reputation.   

Business Intelligence and Decision Support:  

Reporting software serves as a critical tool for business intelligence and decision support, providing stakeholders with actionable insights and data-driven recommendations. It enables informed decision-making, fosters innovation, and drives business growth by leveraging data effectively.  

Stay Ahead of the Curve with Our Expert Enterprise Reporting Software Development Team!

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Enterprise Reporting Software Development Process  

Let’s break down the enterprise reporting software development process step by step:  

Discovery Phase:  

You start by peering into the heart of your business, understanding its needs and aspirations. It’s like uncovering hidden treasures! By chatting with stakeholders, you discover what your reporting software must achieve and map out the path ahead. It’s the exciting first step towards building something truly transformative.  

Unearth the potential of your business with our guidance. Our team specializes in extracting insights from stakeholders, helping you define the scope and objectives of your reporting software with clarity and confidence.   

Planning and Design:  

Think of this phase as sketching the blueprint of your dream house. You gather around the drawing board, envisioning the features and layout of your reporting software. It’s where ideas come to life! You meticulously plan every detail, ensuring your software is not just functional but also a joy to use.  

Sketch out the blueprint of your dream reporting software with our expert designers. We’ll gather around the drawing board, turning your ideas into a visual masterpiece that not only meets your needs but exceeds your expectations.   

Data Gathering and Integration:  

Time to gather your data soldiers! You scour through your organization’s data sources, collecting the raw materials needed for your reporting software. It’s like gathering ingredients for a recipe! With precision and care, you integrate these data streams, ensuring they flow seamlessly into your reporting system.  

Let us lead the charge in gathering and integrating your data streams. With our expertise, we ensure a seamless flow of information into your reporting software, so you can focus on harnessing its power to drive business success.   

Choosing the Right Tech Stack:  

Choosing the right technology stack is like laying the foundation for a skyscraper – it’s crucial for ensuring the stability, scalability, and success of your reporting software. Your tech stack determines the tools, frameworks, and programming languages used to build your software, impacting its performance, flexibility, and future growth.  

A well-chosen tech stack can streamline development, enhance user experience, and future-proof your software against evolving technological trends. It’s essential to consider factors such as scalability, compatibility, security, and ease of maintenance when selecting your tech stack.  

Here is the reference table for tech stack used based on the category:  

Our technology consulting services can guide you through this process, helping you choose the best combination of programming languages, frameworks, and tools for your specific needs.

Development and Testing:

Welcome to the construction zone! Your development team rolls up their sleeves and gets to work, coding and crafting your reporting software with finesse. It’s like building a skyscraper – each line of code is a brick in the foundation of your software empire. And just like a sturdy building, rigorous testing ensures your software stands tall against any storm.

Watch your reporting software come to life in the hands of our skilled developers. We’ll code and craft every line with precision, rigorously testing each feature to ensure your software stands strong against any challenge.

Deployment:

The curtains rise, and it’s time for your reporting software to take center stage! With careful planning and execution, you deploy your software into your organization’s ecosystem. It’s like unveiling a masterpiece to the world! Smooth deployment ensures minimal disruption, allowing users to embrace your software with open arms.

Entrust the deployment of your reporting software to our capable hands. With meticulous planning and execution, we ensure a smooth rollout that minimizes disruption and maximizes user adoption from day one.

Monitoring and Maintenance:

Just like a garden, your reporting software needs regular tending to flourish. You keep a watchful eye, monitoring its performance and addressing any glitches or hiccups along the way. It’s like nurturing a bonsai tree – with care and attention, your software grows stronger and more resilient over time.

Keep your reporting software running smoothly with our proactive monitoring and maintenance services. Our team is here to deal with any issues or glitches, ensuring your software remains reliable and resilient at all times.

The journey never truly ends – it’s a perpetual quest for excellence. Embark on a journey of continuous improvement with our team by your side. We’ll gather feedback, analyze usage data, and explore new possibilities together, ensuring your reporting software remains at the forefront of innovation.

And there you have it a step-by-step guide to developing enterprise reporting software that’s easy, catchy, and conversational. Now, go ahead, contact us and let’s turn your reporting dreams into reality!

Why Choose Matellio for Enterprise Reporting Software Development  

Looking to revolutionize your enterprise reporting game? Look no further than Matellio! With our unparalleled expertise and passion for innovation, we’re your ultimate partner in crafting cutting-edge enterprise reporting solutions tailored to your exact needs.  

At Matellio, we go beyond mere development – we’re your trusted advisors, guiding you through every step of the journey. From inception to deployment and beyond, our team is dedicated to delivering excellence at every turn.   

So why settle for ordinary when you can soar with the extraordinary? Choose Matellio for your enterprise reporting software development needs, and let’s embark on a journey of transformation together. Your success is our mission, and with Matellio by your side, the possibilities are endless. Fill in the form right away and let’s make your reporting dreams a reality!   

What are the key benefits of investing in enterprise reporting software development?

Enterprise reporting software development offers numerous benefits, including streamlined decision-making processes, enhanced data visibility, improved operational efficiency, and better strategic insights. By leveraging custom-built reporting solutions, organizations can unlock the full potential of their data and gain a competitive edge in today's data-driven world.  

How long does it take to develop enterprise reporting software?

The development timeline for enterprise reporting software can vary depending on factors such as the complexity of the project, the scope of features, and the availability of resources. Typically, development timelines range from a few months to a year or more, with iterative releases and updates based on user feedback and evolving business needs.  

What is the cost of enterprise reporting software development?

The cost of enterprise reporting software development depends on factors such as the scope of the project, the level of customization required , and the technology stack used. It's best to consult with a software development company to get an accurate estimate based on your specific needs.  

How can I ensure the security of my data with enterprise reporting software?

Ensuring the security of your data with enterprise reporting software involves implementing robust data encryption measures, access controls, and regular security audits. Additionally, choosing a reputable software development partner with experience in data security is essential.  

What are the benefits of outsourcing enterprise reporting software development to a specialized company like Matellio?

Outsourcing to a specialized company like Matellio offers several benefits, including access to skilled developers with expertise in reporting software development, cost savings compared to hiring an in-house team, faster time-to-market, and ongoing support and maintenance services to ensure optimal performance.  

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5 Enterprise Reporting Software Tools (+ How to Choose One)

The right reporting tool will help you analyze large amounts of data more efficiently as your business grows. Here are the top five tools we recommend.

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by Matias Emiliano Alvarez Duran

Enterprise reporting software opens a window to the key performance indicators (KPIs) of your business so you can get actionable insights and easily forecast scenarios. 

Without a reporting tool, you’ll end up relying on the data engineering team and overwhelming them with daily requests that stop them from completing other important tasks. Instead, you could have direct access to dashboards that answer your most urgent and frequently asked questions.

Here are the top five reporting tools for enterprise and our tips for choosing the right option for you. Spoiler alert: if you’re thinking about creating custom reporting software, we’ve included a solution for you too.

Table of contents

What to look for in enterprise reporting software, 5 best reporting tools for enterprise, buying existing reporting software vs. developing a custom solution.

Which enterprise reporting solution is right for you?

Frequently asked questions about enterprise reporting software

Ready to build your own custom software with a team that cares about you and your processes? We’re not code monkeys, we care about you . 

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Researching new software for your business can get old pretty fast. Eventually, all tools start to look the same.To be in the best position to scale with your enterprise software , look for a tool that’s secure and has a shallow learning curve. 

Here’s everything you need from your next enterprise reporting tool:

1. Connectivity to different data sources 

A reporting tool centralizes all of your business data in one place. So you need your enterprise software to connect to your multiple data sources at the same time. Before you research different tools, list all the different databases. servers, tools and 3rd party APIs that you need to connect to. For example, you might need a tool that can retrieve data from SQL and no-SQL databases, or you might want to plug it into your customer relationship management (CRM) through an API connector.

2. Robust security features

Enterprise-level software security is especially important when you’re searching for a reporting tool as it’ll have access to all of your company’s data. Granting access to the wrong one might make you vulnerable to a ransomware attack—which could cost you millions of dollars to get your data back. Look out for these security characteristics:

Single sign-on (SSO) to ease user authentication and integration with your organization.

Multi-tenant or granular access security so you can determine specific permissions for each unique user.

User-specific data sources to allow certain queries or database access depending on the user.

User privilege parameters to control user-specific permissions per report database (row-level security).

3. Powerful reporting functionalities

Each business intelligence or KPI dashboard software will come with its own ad-hoc reporting capabilities. The best features for enterprise reporting software are:

Drill-downs and drill-throughs. These allow you to access hidden data from the main dashboard by clicking and scrolling down or clicking and opening more information in a different tab.

Filters. This feature lets users change the variables and review different correlations between their data in the same dashboard. 

Chart zoom. This functionality is basically like zooming in on a particular data set. For example, let’s say you have a graphic showing your historical sales in Michigan. It shows data starting in 2002 up to now. If you want to review a particular month in 2021, you can use this feature to zoom in on March 2021 and see the detailed sales information during that time.

Custom fields. A crucial feature to look for in enterprise reporting software is the ability to add and customize your cells and calculations. This means you can create custom formulas and correlations easily without needing to write an SQL query. 

Data maps and interactive diagrams. You want your reporting software to let you edit and make custom connections with your data. You can do this by editing the data maps and creating interactive diagrams where you can choose which links you want your data to have.

Dynamic text boxes. Dashboards need to be visual. You should be able to see your most important metrics at-a-glance. Dynamic text boxes allow you to highlight relevant metrics that may not require a graphic or visualization. For example, you can create a text box to share your always-updated cash flow instead of adding a trend chart to show the fluctuation over time. 

4. Shallow learning curve

Some reporting software has a steeper learning curve than others. It doesn’t necessarily make one better than the other. However, if you need to start using it right away without much intervention from your data engineering team, you should pay for one that’s easier to set up and use. Some reporting software is no- or low-code, but others require a lot of coding background and SQL knowledge. Keep this in mind when you’re choosing one for your business.

5. Excellent performance

Pay attention to user reviews and performance reports from other enterprise-level companies. Since these tools manage a ton of information, they can become slow or buggy for enterprises as the data may be too large for them to handle efficiently. Make sure you choose software that  supports large-scale data processing so your reports can grow with your business.

You can either host on your servers or use a cloud-based platform that accesses your data directly rather than making a copy of it—this makes the app more lightweight and efficient.

Go for enterprise reporting software that has most of the mentioned characteristics. Price is also important, but you shouldn’t make it the decision-maker.

An enterprise reporting tool should be suitable for the size of your company and your internal analytics needs. These are the five we recommend:

MicrosoftPower BI

Looker Studio

1. Sisense 

Use Sisense to review your business's most important KPIs at a glance. Source: Sisense.com

Sisense is an enterprise reporting software that uses predictive analytics and machine learning to forecast future scenarios based on historical data . It connects to over a hundred data sources of any form: applications, cloud data warehouses, or files (Excel and .csv). 

Sisense doesn’t make a copy of your data, but accesses it directly from the source, which makes it more lightweight. This tool also allows you to add data from different sources and merge them using Elasticube.

Best features 

Highly secure. Sisense approaches security from three different perspectives: users, data, and platform. It allows you to regulate user access and permissions and secure data access and assign row-level security. It also lets you do session management, white list domains, and use secure socket layers (SSL).

High performance. This platform is mostly known for processing large amounts of data at a fast speed. It can process 10 terabytes of information in 10 seconds due to in-chip analytics. 

Powerful dashboard capabilities. Sisense comes with a large library of data visualization options for you to tell your business story. It also comes with templates that you can use right off the bat.

Main drawbacks

Steep learning curve. You need SQL knowledge to use their Elasticube technology to merge datasets and to set some front-end customizations. But, once you do that, reporting with Sisense becomes relatively easy as the interface is highly intuitive.

Pricey. According to user reviews, Sisense is a costly solution. Pricing isn’t disclosed on its website, but this seems to be one of the biggest drawbacks. However, if you’re basing your business decisions on the data that comes from these tools, you can’t go for the cheapest solution as the data might be outdated or inaccurate.

Sisense offers a free trial but doesn’t disclose prices online. However, some users have shared their quotes online showing that they set prices based on: 

Annual contracts

Hosting type (on-premise or the cloud)

Number of users

Rating: 4.3/5

Sisense is rated 4.3/5 stars on G2 .

Mode has a strong filtering feature that allows users to review different data segments in the same dashboard. Source: Mode.com

Mode is an enterprise reporting and dashboard software that allows users to create powerful data visualizations in a few minutes. This is a great tool for companies of all sizes. It mixes SQL, Python/R notebooks with powerful and interactive dashboards.

Shallow learning curve. Mode claims that it takes less than an hour to create a metricsdashboard that leads to actionable insights.

Customizable features. This software lets you add calculated fields to reuse and create custom formulas. It also lets you customize your graphics and visuals as you’d like. 

Secure platform. Mode is a secured platform and meets GDPR, HIPAA, CCPA, and AICPA/SOC requirements.

Lacks some automation. Users need to run queries to get the most up-to-date data as it doesn’t happen automatically in real time. 

Time to load. Some users say that Mode takes longer than expected to get answers to their queries, especially when managing large files. 

Rating: 4.5/5

Mode is rated 4.5/5 stars on G2 .

Mode doesn’t disclose its prices online but you can get a free trial on its startup plan. 

3.  Tableau

Tableau offers one of the largest visualization suites in enterprise reporting software. Source: Tableau.com

Tableau is an analytics platform for creating business intelligence (BI) interactive reports. It’s owned by Salesforce and uses its own programming language called VizQL. This tool connects to databases and servers and allows you to merge them by creating relationships between them.

H4 Best features 

Large visualizations library. Tableau is a reporting software that offers a wide variety of visualizations that exceed regular bar graphs and interactive tables.

Dual hosting options. If you use Tableau, you can choose to use the cloud-hosted version or the self-hosted one. That means you can control where you want your data to be located. 

Customizable security. This platform lets you customize your security preferences. You can configure your authentication, data security, and network security to your needs.

Speed and performance. Tableau will process extremely large datasets but it’ll take time (around 2 mins per drag-and-drops) if your information isn’t properly organized in a workbook. Hosting your information on internal servers streamlines this process.

Learning curve. It can be easy to use Tableau’s basic functionalities. However, if you want to create custom complex queries, you’ll need to have some SQL knowledge. 

Rating: 4.4/5

Tableau is rated 4.5/5 stars on G2 .

Tableau defines the price per user and varies depending on where it’s hosted. 

$70 per month per each “creator” or admin (same for cloud or self-hosted)

$12 to $42 per additional user per month (varies depending on cloud or self-hosted)

These prices are based on the annual subscription.

4. MicrosoftPower BI

The Power BI desktop solution has a similar toolbar to Excel or other Microsoft Office products. Source: PowerBI.microsoft.com

Power BI is a reporting solution that uses DAX as its proprietary formula and natural language query builder. It’s owned by Microsoft, so the interface will feel intuitive if you’re familiar with Office products. Power BI connects to multiple datasets at the same time and can be hosted in the cloud or on-premise as an open-source solution.

Large suite of visualizations. Power BI has an intuitive drag-and-drop interface that lets you create hundreds of different visualizations. 

Highly secure. This platform is encrypted end-to-end, monitors access in real-time, lets you configure roles, and assign granular access permissions. 

Connections. Power BI can use data coming from API connections, CSV files, spreadsheets, Google Analytics, Salesforce, and multiple other data sources. 

Performance. The on-premise version of Power BI can feel slow when analyzing large databases. The cloud-hosted version is slightly faster but it’s paid. 

Steep learning curve. Similar to Tableau, Power BI is easy to use at a basic level and when creating dashboards out of templates, but you’ll need someone with coding knowledge to fully understand DAX and build custom queries. Also, if you choose to use the open-source version, you’ll need IT to help you set it up.

PowerBI is rated 4.5/5 stars on G2 .

Power BI offers a free open-source version that you can host on-premise. To pay for the cloud-hosted version, you can pay for a number of data capacities. Prices for this version vary from $9.99 to $20 per user per month. Pricing if you opt for capacity starts at $4,995 per month.

5. Looker Studio

Looker Studio (formerly Google Data Studio) is a great free reporting software solution. It lets you create interactive dashboards using different data sources. Source: Cloud.Google.com

Formerly known as Data Studio, Looker Studio is a Google interactive reporting solution for businesses that use the Google Workspace suite. We use Looker Studio at NaNLABS because it’s easy to use and lets us automate using Apps Scripts —which also integrates with all other Google products.

Ease of use. Looker Studio is easy to connect to different data sources and create advanced reports using powerful visualizations. 

Security. This tool comes with great authorization granularity as it uses the same Google user directory.

Price. This is a free tool for all Google users, and while it might feel limited to non-developers, at NaNLABS we code custom scripts for any automation that we can’t find. 

Limited features. If you’re not tech-savvy or a developer you can find this tool lacking in functionalities and automations.

CSV size limitations. Looker Studio isn’t suited for company-wide access to a central database. It’s more useful for departmental use or for smaller businesses. 

Looker Studio is rated 4.4/5 stars on G2 .

Looker Studio is free to use, you only need to have a Google email account. 

Deciding whether to buy existing off-the-shelf reporting software or develop a bespoke solution isn’t necessarily a tough decision. There are enough great solutions on the market that most businesses won’t need to go down the custom enterprise software development  route. 

However, for some companies, the benefits of custom enterprise software are undeniable. Here’s our advice.

Off-the-shelf software will do the trick if you…

Will only use it internally for reviewing analytics, forecasting scenarios, and making decisions

Only need to answer simple queries or queries with some level of complexity that can be solved with an SQL script

Will find it more cost-effective in the long run, as these tools can get quite pricey as your business users increase.

You need a custom solution if you…

Have specific queries that you can’t answer with a simple SQL script

Have specific security requirements and need to have the data hosted in your servers and without third-party dependencies

Will sell it as part of your software as a service (SaaS) tool. For example, if you sell a CRM platform that comes with an analytics dashboard module, you should build your own internal product. The same applies if you’re selling a BI dashboard tool as software.

How to build custom software without the in-house talent

If you want a custom reporting module for your enterprise, but don’t have the in-house capacity or expertise, then you should consider team augmentation or software consultancy services with an agency like NaNLABS. 

The same applies if you have some in-house expertise, but it’s in regular software development vs enterprise software development . When you partner with NaNLABS, we’ll integrate fully with your team to make sure that you benefit from our experience and Agile development practices.

" “NaNLABS is part of the team,” said the Chief Product Officer from a privacy management company. “They participate in my daily stand-ups, do scrum with us, and are part of our sprints. They're integrated into our team on a day-to-day basis.” Like we did for this client, we’ll handle the development, testing, and maintenance of your business intelligence software creation while keeping you fully involved.

We’ve built custom reporting modules for enterprise SaaS businesses before, like a cybersecurity company that analyzes an enormous amount of information and provides highly customized reports to its customers. When we build analytics dashboards, we usually build ETLs (extract, transform, load) to combine multiple sources of data into a single one that’s easier to query and consume. 

Then, we work on the data visualization using libraries such as HighCharts and D3.js in the front end. And we use these other tools when building enterprise application like embedded BI tools: 

For real-time data movement

Amazon Kinesis

AWS Database Migration Services

For analytics

Amazon Athena or Amazon Kinesis for interactive analytics 

Amazon EMR for big data processing 

Amazon Redshift for data warehousing 

Amazon OpenSearch Service for operational analytics 

Amazon Quicksight for dashboards and visualizations 

AWS Glue DataBrew for visual data preparation 

For data lake

Amazon S3, AWS Lake Formation for object storage 

Amazon S3 Glacier and AWS Backup for backup and archiving 

AWS Glue, AWS Lake Formation for data catalogs 

AWS Data Exchange for third-party data management

For predictive analytics and machine learning

AWS Deep Learning AMIs for frameworks and interfaces 

Amazon SageMaker for platform services 

Implementing an internal analytics tool is challenging, but it could enable your business to access a large set of data processing capabilities. This will improve the quality of the insights you gather from your information and improve your decision-making. 

Which enterprise reporting software is right for you?

Whenever you’re looking for business intelligence tools for your enterprise-level company, you should consider: 

Connectivity. Does it connect to your needed sources of information?

Performance. Will it support the size of your data analysis requests?

Security. Does it comply with your internal security guidelines?

Features. Does it empower your non-technical users and allow you to create user-friendly and eye-catching reports?

Our favorite off-the-shelf reporting system is Looker Studio, but if you have the budget, you could consider Sisense. It’s easy to use (for technical end-users), comes with an extensive visualization library, connects to multiple data sources at the same time, and it’s encrypted end-to-end. Plus, it processes large amounts of data in seconds. 

However, if you’re about to offer self-service reporting as part of your SaaS application, or you have strong security requirements, you should consider enterprise applications development with an agency like NaNLABS. We’ll work closely with your team to create a robust solution that you can scale and maintain in the long term.

What is enterprise reporting software?

An enterprise reporting software is a business intelligence tool that lets you easily create reports so your stakeholders can have a visual representation of your business insights in a snapshot. 

What are the benefits of enterprise reporting software?

There are several benefits to enterprise reporting software, some include:

Giving you visibility of your business's most crucial performance metrics at-a-glance

Shortening the data-driven decision-making process

Empowering decision-makers to forecast scenarios through the interactive dashboards

Reducing time spent on manual reports

What’s the difference between enterprise and non-enterprise reporting software?

The difference between enterprise and non-enterprise reporting software is the size of the data that the platform can handle and the ability to connect to multiple data sources at the same time. The first one suits big companies; while the second one is better suited for smaller businesses.

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How do I log in to any of the OFM Enterprise Reporting services?

Login information for Enterprise Reporting standard reports is available on the Standard Reporting Services  page.

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Easy-to-Use and Easy-to-Implement Enterprise Reporting

Initially, IT departments handled enterprise reporting at the project level: “This system or application needs these reports.” But organizations have gradually evolved away from asking for “the report this application can produce” and now expect “the information our enterprise needs.” Reporting is now focused on the enterprise as a whole (regardless of the enterprise’s size) and involves the intersection of reports, users, data access and report delivery—an inherently complex problem.

It’s easy to lose track of the purpose of reporting: To make useful information available to users when and where they need it. By focusing on that, Telerik Reporting provides an enterprise reporting solution that isn’t as complicated as the problem.

The Challenge of Reporting Across the Enterprise

Once upon a time, we’re told, users required the same, detailed reports every reporting cycle. Today, report users want a dashboard that summarizes critical data into key visualizations with the ability to interactively drill down into the detailed information summarized in that visualization.

But that ignores a substantial group of users who don’t need a fixed set of reports—dashboard or otherwise—because their reporting needs are constantly evolving. In that environment, no set of reports will ever serve these users’ goals for long. Instead, these users need a reporting process that delivers new reports quickly and within tight budgets. In fact, in the long run, those users are everybody in the enterprise: As the world and the enterprise changes, reporting users need new information and reports that allow them to innovate to meet those changes.

And that’s just the user-related challenges—you also have to think about the data your reports depend upon. Users need access to data across the whole enterprise, which means data coming from many sources: relational databases (often from several vendors), Web Services, Excel spreadsheets, business objects and more. Because reporting now spans the enterprise, users also expect to be able to combine data from multiple sources in the enterprise to create the information they need.

Reporting also inherits the issues common to any software solution: Reporting tools need to be scalable, must honor the enterprise’s security and privacy standards, must be accessible and not create barriers between users and their data, must be available on any platform and in any form size, must integrate with the enterprise’s applications (without locking the enterprise into any particular software system), and must be available on any device, running on any platform, in whatever format supports the enterprise’s activities.

Let’s face it: It’s a nightmare. And it really doesn’t matter how big or small your enterprise is because every organization faces all of these issues. Telerik simplifies the problem by integrating report creation and report management.

Simplifying Reporting Creation

Telerik Reporting contains three WYSIWYG Report Designers (desktop, web and Visual Studio integrated), which allows users and developers to start creating reports and dashboards quickly and at any level of complexity (or simplicity, for that matter). Once the reports are created, you can use any of the Telerik Report Viewers to integrate with any web development toolset (and many desktop development toolsets).

The report viewers automatically provide a user experience optimized for the user’s platform. The Telerik OLAP data engine is smart enough to generate report data on the server to speed report delivery and then transfer the report’s data to the client so that interacting with the report is nearly instantaneous. The viewers automatically implement the recommended practices in Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 and deliver web content according to the WAI-ARIA standards to eliminate barriers in accessing report information.

And, while Telerik reports can be viewed online on desktops, tablets and smartphones, reports can also be exported to support integrating with business processes: PDF for distribution outside the organization, XLS/XLSX/CSV to manipulate the data in Excel, RTF/XPS/DOCX to integrate into other documents and PPTX to support PowerPoint presentations. Formatting also lets you tailor the look and feel of your reports to incorporate your enterprise’s branding (critical for reports being viewed outside the organization).

If, initially, creating a new report seems daunting, you can use the examples provided on the Telerik site (many industry-specific) as a starting point.

Simplifying Report Management

As the number of reports increases, managing those reports starts to matter. Telerik Report Server addresses those needs. Report Server can be downloaded and installed in minutes to provide a web-based user interface that’s accessible anywhere in the organization.

For very small organizations, Report Server may not be necessary (you can save reports into applications as declarative, platform-independent .trdp files or as compiled .cs files). For enterprises with more than a few reports, however, Report Server provides users and developers with a central store for both saving and accessing the declarative report definitions—a one-stop shop for finding reports, either by report category or through Report Server’s search facility. Report Server automatically also takes care of versioning reports so that report developers can revert back to earlier versions, if necessary.

But, on the user side, Report Designer streamlines managing the relationship between users, reports and data to simplify users’ access to both their reports and the reports’ underlying data. Report Server provides report managers with the ability to control who has access to which reports and which data sources.

For example, Report Server takes care of generating reports for users by letting you set up flexible generation schedules for any report. However, producing reports on any schedule can lead to reports being produced even when “nothing interesting” has happened. Report Server’s Data Alerts let you specify conditions for when a report (or set of reports) is to be produced (and will notify users by email when there’s new data available).

On the data side, Report Server lets you define the data connections to be used by reports, simplifying report creation by freeing report developers from having to worry about how data is accessed. For relational data, Report Server supports creating connections for any ODBC data source (specific support is included for SQL Server and Oracle databases). But Report Server also lets you create connections that leverage domain-specific business objects and Web Services (you can also create reports from Excel and XML files). Once created, data connection can be mixed and matched to create reports that combine disparate data sources.

To support the intersection between users, reports and data, Report Server lets you organize user needs into roles that grant read/modification/deletion/creation rights either to a specific report or to any group of reports. Roles also let you control who has access to which data connections, letting you manage security and privacy. Once roles are created, it’s easy to assign them to users in any combination that makes sense for your enterprise (and it’s equally easy to see which users have which roles).

But the key point here is that Report Server and Report Designer recognize that “managing reporting” isn’t the goal of enterprise reporting: The goal of enterprise reporting is delivering useful information to users. By simplifying report creation and management, Telerik Reporting lets you move your reporting focus back to the real goal.

To see what Telerik Reporting and Report Server are like, you can start a free trial . If you want more than just reporting, Telerik Reporting and Report Server are available as part of Telerik DevCraft , which also includes modern feature-rich UI components for web, desktop and mobile applications, document processing libraries and automated testing/mocking tools. Plus, of course, Telerik offers award-winning technical support (delivered by the developers who built the products) and a ton of resources and training material.

Try Telerik Reporting  

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Peter Vogel

Peter Vogel is a system architect and principal in PH&V Information Services. PH&V provides full-stack consulting from UX design through object modeling to database design. Peter also writes courses and teaches for Learning Tree International.

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11 best practices for effective ERM reporting

In a post-COVID world, risks are like dominos; an unmitigated risk in one business area can trigger a cascade of impacts throughout the supply chain. That’s why enterprise risk management in 2022 isn’t just about preventing bad things from happening. It’s about turning potential risks into business opportunities. Organizations can do this through effective ERM reporting.

With ERM, or  enterprise risk management , organizations attempt to identify events that are likely to occur. But it’s through ERM reporting that businesses evaluate their  risk management  methods to uncover what’s working, what’s not working and how to resolve any potential lapses in risk management.

Effective ERM risk reporting can help organizations turn their risks into a competitive advantage. Businesses must know what it takes to create a good ERM risk report. Here’s how to get started.

What Is an ERM Report?

An ERM report informs day-to-day decision-making by helping boards identify the risks facing their organizations. It also outlines the risk management methods  in place to mitigate them.

Good ERM reports detail lapses in coverage or execution of risk management methods and possible instances of noncompliance. While this is important from a strategy perspective, it’s also a legal matter. Boards have a legal responsibility to understand and act on the organization's risks.

4 Key Audiences for Risk Reporting

Though all risk reports should feature real-time insights, the structure and contents of the report may vary based on the audience. The board, for example, needs to see the  bigger picture of risk impacting the organization , whereas risk owners may need reports that help them drill into daily risk management activities. Tailoring risk reporting to each audience is vital to evaluating ERM reporting risk.

• Board of Directors and Risk Committee: The  board of directors  ensures the company meets its annual objectives. The risk report should have a similar focus, detailing how potential risks could get in the way of set goals. Boards can then use this report to take action or adapt their strategy, ideally before the risk can impact the bottom line.
• Senior Management: Senior management includes executives as well as the CEO, all of whom need more detail than the board. A risk report for senior management often involves reporting up; they want a list of risks and accompanying mediation plans from their ERM staff. This helps senior management ensure that the proper management strategies are in place for the risks in the report, which can feature as many as 15 possible issues.
• Risk Owners: Risk owners are the ERM staff on the front line, including middle managers. These individuals act on the mitigation recommendations from senior management and the board. Reports for risk owners require a high level of detail on each risk, including performance metrics and assessments.
• Regulators: Regulatory agencies are the primary external audience for risk reports. ERM reporting for regulators requires a careful balance; they must help the regulator understand the risks  and  assure that the organization meets regulatory requirements without providing so much detail that it will attract further review.

11 Best Practices of a Good ERM Report

While it’s true that ERM reports should adapt based on the current risks and the audience for the report, good risk reports have some  best practices  in common. In creating an ERM reporting framework, organizations should consider the following:

• Set Measurable Objectives: The report should be tailored to the organization’s objectives. What are the risks that might prevent the organization from achieving those objectives? This is the basis for a good ERM report. 
• Clearly Define the Report: Establish a report structure that clearly defines everything from the recipients to the names of input fields and the calculations required to evaluate each risk. Defining the structure of the report should always come before design. 
• Continuously Evaluate Report Structures: Risks are always evolving, so the report should, too. Organizations should always consider whether they need to include more risks in the report or additional fields to deliver the right information about each risk’s management. 
• Create a Consistent ERM Language: The board of directors may understand and communicate risk differently than the rest of the ERM team. Ensure employees at all levels use the same ERM language to reduce miscommunication surrounding the report. 
• Utilize Both Qualitative and Quantitative Information: Good ERM reports effectively balance hard numbers and anecdotal data to create a clearer picture of the risk, leading to better decision-making. 
• Ensure Data Is Reliable: For ERM reporting to create a competitive edge, the data must be high quality. Validate all risk sources to ensure reporting is based on high-quality, reliable information. Organizations that integrate ERM enterprise-wide are more likely to have access to reliable data. 
• Outline Key Takeaways: Reports can be long, but senior management and the board of directors don’t always have time to read every page. Highlight key takeaways so they can easily find and review the action items that matter most.
• Deliver Reports On Time: Whether organizations deliver reports once a month or once a year, the report should always be on-time according to that timetable. ERM teams should also prepare the report immediately before they deliver it since a report that’s six months old will no longer be useful to the board.
• Integrate ERM Reporting: Risks don’t happen in a vacuum.  All teams should be involved  in ERM reporting so that the organization doesn’t duplicate efforts or miss out on a vital part of mitigating potential risks.
• Make Reports Actionable: Good ERM reports should empower senior management and the board to take action. Recommended actions and strategies should accompany each risk, so the board has all the information they need to move forward.
• Facilitate Effective Decision Making: All ERM reports should do one thing: allow the board to make better decisions. These reports should clarify the organization's potential risks and make it easy for the CEO and the board to take revenue-saving, and even revenue-driving, action. 

Achieve ERM Maturity

Today’s risk landscape is ever-evolving, whether that’s risks related to digitization, remote work or even the volatile nature of today’s economy. To build an ERM reporting system that enhances organizational performance, organizations must first advance the maturity of their ERM.

While each step towards maturity takes planning, the pay-off means creating an ERM framework that not only catches risks before they impact the business but also turns that risk into an opportunity. Download the  guide to performance-enhancing ERM  from Diligent to learn how.

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Planisware Enterprise: Your ESG Reporting Powerhouse in an Evolving Regulatory Landscape

The tide is turning towards environmental, social, and governance (ESG) accountability. New regulations are emerging from the EU , the SEC and even the State of California , demanding that companies report on their ESG performance. Planisware is your trusted advisor and software solution to navigate these complexities and confidently tackle ESG reporting. 

Empower your ESG journey with these Planisware Enterprise features: 

OKRs: Effortlessly align objectives and actions. Bridge the gap between strategy and execution. Planisware empowers you to seamlessly connect your OKRs to relevant sustainability standards, ensuring your goals directly address regulatory requirements. This fosters clear transparency and alignment for all stakeholders, while providing you with clear visibility into progress. Planisware provides a dedicated workspace to store these standards and facilitate effortless linking. 

ESG scorecards: Move beyond rudimentary metrics. Customize your scorecard with a wide range of globally relevant ESG criteria to track your entire sustainability journey. 

ESG Metrics: Visualize ESG progress at every level. Gain real-time insights across projects, programs, and portfolios. Dedicated ESG dashboards display all vital metrics in a single, centralized location. This empowers informed decision-making at every stage of your operations. 

Carbon Computation: Quantify your environmental impact. Leverage our built-in carbon footprint calculation feature to estimate the CO2 equivalent of project costs for simplified environmental impact assessments. Make informed decisions and reduce your environmental footprint. 

ESG Compliance: Future-proof your reporting. Embrace future regulatory requirements with confidence. With Planisware’s built-in business intelligence engine, you can report on ESG goals now and easily adapt to evolving regulations. 

Planisware offers more than software – it's a strategic partnership for your ESG journey.  Contact us today to learn how Planisware can unlock the full potential of your ESG initiatives. 

Charles Marquet is a Product Marketing Manager for the Planisware Enterprise and Orchestra solutions.

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More From Forbes

Xpm: the future of portfolio management in a diverse work environment.

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Founder, Head of SPM Innovation and AI at Projectum , a global technology leader modernizing how companies connect strategies to execution.

In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, the diversity of work—from projects and programs to epics and initiatives—is not only common; it's a given.

This diversity brings a richness of innovation and adaptability to organizations but also introduces complexity in management. Traditional project portfolio management (PPM), strategic portfolio management (SPM), scaled agile (SAFe), product portfolio management and hybrid program management all offer frameworks to manage the complexity.

However, the varied nature of work needs a more inclusive, flexible approach. Enter xPM, a new concept designed to encompass any type of work, with a start and end date involving multiple people, under the portfolio management umbrella.

The Essence Of xPM

xPM is not just a new method, but it's also a paradigm shift in how we view and manage work within organizations. It is any work (x) that involves multiple team members and has defined timelines, managed with rigorous discipline and strategic oversight of portfolio management (PM).

This innovative framework aims to unify various work forms under a single, cohesive strategy, focusing on core PM aspects like demand management, ability planning, financial tracking, benefits realization and KPI reporting. In doing so, xPM transcends traditional categorizations to offer a universally adaptable approach.

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The call for xPM arises from a fundamental shift in organizational dynamics. No longer can companies afford to silo their efforts into distinct categories without losing sight of the bigger picture. xPM addresses this by providing a flexible, comprehensive framework that adapts to various work forms, ensuring alignment with the organization’s strategic goals.

Its importance is magnified in today’s environment, where adaptability and strategic alignment are not just beneficial but essential for survival and growth.

Let's take a look at six of the core components of xPM:

1. Linking Initiatives To Strategy

xPM links all work forms to strategic components like business drivers or OKRs. This ensures every initiative aligns with the organization’s goals, providing a direct line of sight from individual contributions to strategic outcomes. This strategic connection allows organizations to prioritize initiatives based on their strategic impact.

2. Financial And Benefits Tracking

xPM manages financials and tracks business benefits, aligning these metrics with strategic objectives. Through unified reporting and KPIs, xPM assesses each initiative’s financial health and strategic contribution.

3. Unified Reporting Using KPIs

xPM uses standardized KPIs for unified reporting, measuring and communicating diverse work performance. This approach enables stakeholders to gauge initiatives’ progress and impact, fostering transparency and informed decision-making.

4. Change Management

xPM incorporates effective change management, recognizing the human element in transitioning to new work forms. Using methodologies like PROSCI, xPM assesses the impact of change, supports individuals through the transition and ensures changes are adopted and sustained.

5. Risk Management

Risk management within xPM covers individual business cases and cross-initiative dependencies. This dual focus identifies, assesses and mitigates risks at every level. By incorporating risk management, xPM proactively addresses potential issues before they impact strategic objectives.

6. Demand And Capacity Management

xPM offers a bird’s eye view of demand across all work types, ensuring optimal resource allocation, balancing current needs with future growth opportunities.

7. Enterprise Roadmaps

xPM should connect key deliverables from various planning and task management tools. It should also ensure that critical cross-work dependencies are created and tracked automatically.

Implementing xPM In Organizations

Implementing xPM requires a strategic shift, not just in tools and processes, but in mindset, too. It demands organizational alignment from the top down, with a sharp vision that transcends traditional work categories.

Adaptability, scalability, and technology play key roles in this transition. AI and other technological advancements offer powerful tools for predictive analytics, automated reporting and real-time decision support, enhancing the xPM framework's efficacy.

Overcoming Challenges With xPM

Resistance to change is a natural obstacle in the path to xPM adoption. Organizations entrenched in traditional PM methodologies may find the transition daunting. However, the benefits of a unified, flexible management approach—capable of adapting to the diverse nature of modern work—far outweigh the initial hurdles.

Complexity management, another potential challenge, can be addressed through phased implementation and ongoing training, ensuring that teams are equipped to leverage the xPM framework effectively.

Tools And Flexibility In xPM

Embracing xPM’s potential requires selecting tools and platforms that support flexibility and integration, catering to each initiative’s unique needs while aligning with the portfolio. The variety of execution tools today, from traditional project management software to agile platforms, necessitates an xPM solution that can interface seamlessly with these systems.

The focus should be on platforms offering flexibility, like low-code platforms known for adaptability and extensive integrations. These platforms allow efficient data streaming from various work management tools into the central xPM tool, providing a unified view of all initiatives.

Choosing the most flexible platform for xPM is a strategic decision that enhances an organization’s portfolio management agility and effectiveness. By prioritizing tools that facilitate easy integration and provide comprehensive oversight of diverse work types, organizations can ensure their xPM framework supports their strategic ambitions.

As we adopt xPM, the focus should be on leveraging the right technological tools. The success of xPM depends on our ability to integrate and manage various work forms seamlessly, driven by strategic alignment and enabled by adaptable, integration-friendly platforms. Thus, xPM is not just a concept; it's a practical pathway to strategic clarity, operational flexibility and competitive advantage.

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International Edition

5 dead in Kentucky after tornadoes, severe weather. Here's what we know

At least five people have died across Kentucky following two tornadoes and other severe weather on Sunday that damaged property and left tens of thousands without power.

At 12:12 a.m. Monday, Gov. Andy Beshear issued a state of emergency for the commonwealth. This declaration allows the state to bring in additional resources such as the National Guard.

Gov. Andy Beshear held an 11 a.m. press conference Monday — Memorial Day, to address the ongoing weather situation and provide an update on storm damage along with the state’s response plan.

"Last night many families and communities were not safe," Beshear said. "We had devastating storms that hit almost the entire state."

At least two confirmed F-1 tornadoes touched down in Kentucky, according to preliminary survey results from the National Weather Service in Louisville. One tornado with 90 mph winds hit eastern Meade and northern Hardin counties. A second tornado touched down in Butler and northern Warren counties with 85 mph winds.

In Louisville and other parts of the state there were tornado watches and severe thunderstorms that brought down trees and caused property damage.

The Memorial Day weekend storms weren't the state's first run in with tornadoes and storms this year. In April storms moved through Louisville and Southern Indiana leaving destruction, and in March three tornadoes that caused structural damage were confirmed in the area .

Now following yet another series of severe weather in Kentucky, here's what we know:

What part of the state was hit hardest?

Beshear said one tornado in Western Kentucky continued for about 40 miles. This tornado barely missed the prison in Eddyville and barely missed Mayfield, the site of the destructive 2021 tornadoes that the area is still recovering from .

"At least one family who lost their home in the 2021 tornado lost their home again last night," Beshear said.

He noted there were several other tornadoes that "spun down then spun back up." The state is still waiting for the National Weather Service to confirm the total number of tornadoes.

Kentucky Secretary of Transportation Jim Gray said it appears that Western Kentucky was hit the hardest by the storms, noting damages across state highways and roads.

Beshear said not only did the storms take out power for thousands of people, but many roads and interstates were temporarily closed due to the storms. Many businesses and residential areas also suffered "massive damage." Beshear urged individuals to report any and all levels of damage to the emergency management agencies in their county to help the state qualify for FEMA assistance and other resources.

"But like we always see after severe weather events, first responders and everyday Kentuckians rally to help each other in those toughest moments," Beshear said.

Were there any fatalities from the storms?

In the press conference, the governor confirmed at least four people have died and one individual is "fighting for their life" as a result of the Sunday storms.

In a statement sent on X just before 5 p.m. Monday, Beshear confirmed that a fifth person has died related to the severe weather.

"I’m sad to share we have another reported death as a result of yesterday’s storms," read the post. "A 54-year-old man died from a heart attack while cutting fallen trees in Caldwell County. His loved ones are in our prayers during this difficult time."

Confirmed fatalities also include a 67-year-old woman from Mercer County, a 62-year-old woman in Hardin County, a 48-year-old woman in Hopkins County and a 34-year-old man in Jefferson County who was hit by a tree.

Beshear said he is not aware of any unaccounted for Kentuckians.

How many people are without power?

Statewide, there were roughly 175,000 customers without power across the state, Beshear said. While large cities should expect to see power restored Monday, the governor said counties like Trigg and Todd may be without power for several days since there was significant destruction to the power infrastructure in the area.

How many states of emergency have been declared?

Across the state, 14 counties and five cities have declared states of emergency alongside the governors declaration.

Is there a storm shelter set up?

The Red Cross has opened a shelter in Clay County.

Beshear also said Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park will be opened up as a shelter for those in need of rooms. This site is where victims of the 2021 tornado were sheltered.

Are there any environmental concerns from the storm?

On Dale Hollow Lake, a dock broke away, which was believed to have caused a significant fuel spill. The Energy and Environment Cabinet are in the area with a hazmat team but currently no further information is available regarding this potential environmental impact resulting from the storms.

"It's one of the most significant impacts of these storms," Beshear said.

Can I travel currently?

Gray said if you see water in the roads, "turn around, don't drown."

He also expressed other safety notes for people who need to travel in the midst of storm damage including:

• Don't drive over downed power lines.
• Don't touch live wires or downed power lines.
• Beware of debris on roadways.
• If traffic lights are out, treat the intersection as a four-way stop.

Contact business reporter Olivia Evans at [email protected] or on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter at @oliviamevans_ .