Reporting Headaches for Small and Mid-Sized Organizations
Reporting requirements for businesses are not going away anytime soon. However, the good news is that the tools for minimizing the effort involved and increasing the efficiencies of report creation are quickly improving.
Jennifer Thiel is the finance manager for a family trust fund, set up by the cofounders of a Fortune 500 domestics retailer. Between the 2 families, I have about 35 family members, each having multiple investment accounts that require monthly statements. It takes me about 9 working days out of the month just to produce the reports. The process is very manual, with re-keying of data from different sources into excel spreadsheets. Mistakes are inevitable says Thiel.
She went on to say that shed like to automate this process, not only for the accuracy of the information and format options, but to free her up to do whats more important: manage the investments for optimal return.
This is a common struggle of many business people. They work with legacy, disparate and/or manual systems that house their information but are not designed to meet the requirements of a growing entity.
Fortunately, many of todays ERP systems can successfully address these challenges. Not only are robust reporting features built in, such as crystal reports, but the user has the luxury of a familiar interface with the option of creating them in excel should they wish. On-the-fly multi-dimensional analytic reports involving sales, purchasing, inventory, manufacturing, etc. can be designed in minutes. Customization tools allow users to create the look and feel of their choice. Still another benefit is that web-access and intranets enable key executives to access information independent from their line-of-business subordinates and in real-time.
All this improvement gives business people access to critical information needed to run their organization without the administrative headaches of the past.
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