There is a reason why Formula One races are so gripping and have been able to create a large follower-base over the years. Every move in a Formula One race is connected to time. Be it the qualifying time, the time for each lap, or even the time taken in each pit-stop break. These are not only recorded in real-time, but are also analyzed in great detail after each race and compared with the other racers. This analysis helps many drivers to improve their performance on the track.
Businesses also follow a similar pattern. Organizations like to keep a record of various parameters, which are then analyzed and compared with the competition to find gap areas and areas for improvement. Based on the changes in the industry and the working environment, businesses are expected to make changes that help them respond to the changing ecosystem around them. Thanks to big data and analytics, business managers are not expected to deal with a ton of papers to bring up actionable insights.
Business intelligence helps modern managers to focus on the trends and bring out steps that can be taken to address the concern or find an opportunity. Business intelligence software allows you to generate multiple reports which can be used for business growth. The reporting tools in business intelligence also help department heads to look at the growth of various trends and what can be done to boost the performance of their departments.
To use business intelligence reporting effectively, it is important to understand the various types of reports that are available and how each one can be used effectively towards the end goal.
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What are Reports in Business Intelligence?
Reports in business intelligence are expected to provide you with shareable reports to help you make business decisions. The reports are generated by preparing and analyzing data and extracting valuable insights that are actionable in business.
The data required for preparing the business intelligence reports may be taken from various sources like your CRM software, marketing automation system, finance platforms, and HR management systems, among others, that help you get the raw material for your data analysis and reporting.
By putting the data from all these sources in a single place, you can analyze the data on multiple queries and present it in your report, which helps management make business decisions.
How To Create a Report On Business Intelligence Software?
The most common question a person is hit within this process is ‘How do I write a business intelligence report? Or is there any business intelligence report template I can use for my report?’ But it is important to understand that to create a report on business intelligence software, it is important to understand why rather than how. The manager needs to understand the purpose behind generating the report rather than sweat too much about the process of generating the report.
The business intelligence software that is being used by managers today is so advanced and intuitive that you do not need to have a deep knowledge of technology to create a business intelligence report template.
You can follow these steps to generate a report on business intelligence software:
- Define your stakeholders:
You should be clear about for whom you are creating this business report. This would help you in using the right set of KPIs for creating an effective report. In case you are not clear about the stakeholders, you would end up using more KPIs that would waste time and resources of the stakeholders.
- Choose the right metrics:
Once you have selected the stakeholders, it is now time to focus on the KPIs that are to be included in the report. You should consider the business goals, audience, and context of the analysis to develop KPIs for generating a report on business intelligence software. This would be a good starting point to select the right KPIs for your business report. Also, you may decide to add more KPIs in case you want to focus on any trend or an opportunity.
- Use data visualizations:
One of the biggest advantages of business intelligence platforms is to showcase the data visually that helps you in making a decision. As humans process visual information 60,000 times faster than text, you can use visualizations in your business intelligence report to explain your findings. The BI software also allows you to add filters and create interactive dashboards which can be used depending on your requirement.
- Data Monitoring:
The strong case for BI software does not lie in visualizations and trend spotting; it is in the ability to use artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to analyze a large amount of data. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the manager generating the report to monitor the data being used and decide if data from any other source is required for report generation.
- Focus on a data-first approach:
For BI software to succeed in any organization, it is important to create a data-first approach that helps you in making a decision based on trends and numbers rather than on gut feel. You should empower your team to use BI software for report generation, invest in the data literacy of your team, and promote accessibility for strong usage of such platforms.
- Learn and adapt:
The key to using BI software effectively for report generation is to never stop learning. You should continue to learn and adapt in your efforts to create an appealing report using BI software.
Business Intelligence Report Examples
There are various kinds of business intelligence reports that can be used by a business. These could be related to the regular tasks a business faces, a one-time requirement, or a historical analysis of the business. For each of these requirements, the kind of report that is generated on BI software is different. As a result, it is important to understand the various types of business intelligence reports that can be generated to finalize the one that will help you in your objectives.
On a broad level, business intelligence reports can be divided into three broad subgroups that are as follows:
- General Reports
- Aggregate Reports
- Dashboard Reports
The type of report that will be selected will depend on the business intelligence reporting requirements. It is critical to understand the various types of business intelligence reports so that you can select the right one.
- General Reports
As the name suggests, general reports or standard reports in business intelligence are the most commonly used type of reports in business intelligence. These can be further divided into the categories of the basic report, query report, and data entry report. General reports are typically useful in building department-level reports and employee performance reports and conducting other regular business tasks using data.
These can be explained as follows:
- Basic report: A basic report supports calculations like a year-on-year or a month-on-month analysis of the data.
- Query report: A query report allows you to use filters that help in showcasing the data using filters or a parameter query. The usage of filters allows you to showcase data and trends as per the requirement of the business intelligence reports.
- Data Entry report: The usage of business intelligence software is to increase visualization of data, but in a business case, the workforce also needs to use it to add, modify, or delete the data. This is typically done using data entry reports.
- Aggregate Reports
As the name suggests, the aggregate reports are created by including multiple modules of a business to present the analysis. These modules are usually independent and do not affect each other. Aggregate reports help managers build extensive business reports by combining multiple business modules.
For instance, the functions in Excel may limit you with consistent height and width of rows and columns across the spreadsheet. However, you do not have this limitation while using a business intelligence software. As a result, you can simply show multiple modules of a business in a single window.
Aggregate reports are used effectively in scenarios when you need to compare business growth across departments and create a KPIs-based scorecard report.
- Dashboard Reports
Dashboard reports are the most preferred business intelligence reports when it comes to decision-making. Using a simple drag and drop mechanism, you can create a variety of dashboard reports that help you in data visualization and charts. You can also include a variety of data displaying a combination of business indicators to help you explain trends, opportunities, and threats that you may face in a business.
Source: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/tools/25-important-business-intelligence-tools/
Dashboard reports are interactive and can create a business dashboard for a business to understand various scenarios in an organization. The dashboard reports are typically useful for the management of a company to decide on the future roadmap for a business.
The dashboard reports can be used across devices and geographies, and the user can also analyze the data based on the requirements at hand.
Dashboard reports are typically useful in creating interactive reports and embedded business intelligence reports using predictive analysis.
Conclusion
These are the various types of business intelligence reports that can be used based on your objective. For business intelligence reports to work seamlessly, it is important to have the end objective clear in your mind even before you start the groundwork for the report.