Enterprise Report Management

Enterprises have spent many years implementing and perfecting their core transactional systems of record. For most companies, these systems perform well and get the job done. However, capturing reporting information from these core systems of record is still a challenge for virtually every enterprise. Information today resides in many different areas including structured data in multiple systems of record and various point solutions and unstructured data resident in spreadsheet based processes. The information is there - it’s just really difficult to get at it.

It is even more difficult to get the data in a timely manner that allows managers and executives to make appropriate “real-time” business decisions. Most reports today are flash reports delivered on a weekly or monthly basis. The problem is that no one has an understanding of what has changed from the previous report and why unless they do a manual comparison with the previous report. This can be tedious and unproductive work, especially if you are tracking changes to information at the detail level.

The BCP Enterprise Report Management (ERM) solution solves these problems and more. With ERM, you get a patented enterprise platform that creates a persistent data environment allowing you to customize the reporting information you see from multiple structured and unstructured systems of record. The key is that this information is delivered and displayed on-demand to your desktop in a spreadsheet. This allows you to control the data you want to see, but more importantly, allows you to see what has changed (and why) since the last time you viewed the data. No other solution on the market today gives you a persistent, cell-level reporting environment.

Enterprise Reporting Challenges Challenges

Key Information resides in many different systems throughout your enterprise. Since each application has its own reporting system, capturing data from multiple systems can be difficult and expensive. How do you coordinate the information that needs to be collected and displayed? What do you use as a repository of this information? How flexible is the system when you want to make changes to the format? How do you solve these problems?

Reporting change management is a constant challenge. How often have you run a report that allows you to see the current state of the information, and then ask yourself what has changed? What good is a report if all you are seeing is static data? Imagine having a sales team of 50 people and each sales person is managing 50 opportunities at various stages in a traditional sales pipeline report. Changes are made every day by the field sales reps in the system of record like (Salesforce.com). Opportunity dates are updated, opportunity values are changed and deals are actually moved on and off the pipeline. When you get your report on Monday morning, all you see are the current opportunities, dates and values. You have no idea what has actually changed unless you compare last week’s report to this week’s report. Doing this for 2,500 opportunities is a nearly impossible task.
Timely reporting of information is key to decision making within the enterprise. Information within your transactional systems is being captured real-time and information in unstructured processes outside of the systems of record is changing real-time as well. Understanding if a large order has cancelled or if a supplier can’t meet a ship date is vital to making proper and timely business decisions. When changes occur, you need to know as soon as possible. Why then do we wait for a report to deliver this information once per month or once per week? If you had the information soon after the changes were made, imagine the value this would provide your enterprise.

The Boardwalktech Solution: BCP-Driven Enterprise Report Management

The BCP Enterprise Report Management (ERM) solution allows you to capture data from any number of enterprise transactional systems of record. It also allows you to capture unstructured data from various spreadsheet based processes by including these processes as collaborations within the Boardwalk Collaboration Platform. The BCP ERM solution acts as a repository for the exact data that want to see (structured and unstructured) on the desktop and can be set up so information is updated in a virtual real-time mode in a spreadsheet on your desktop.

Change management is a key feature within the BCP ERM solution. BCP's Enterprise 2.0 database technology creates a persistent data environment which tracks and versions each change. This persistent data environment allows you to see exactly what has changed from the last time you viewed the report. Further, you can drill down at the cell, row, or entire spreadsheet level and review every change ever made within the report.

Information is gathered from many sources, dumped into a spreadsheet, and delivered to management or executives on a weekly or monthly basis is no longer acceptable. The speed at which information is exchanged and the need to make decisions in "real-time" requires that information be immediately available. The BCP ERM solution and its unique persistent database delivers information in a "live" reporting environment. The reports within the BCP ERM solution dynamically refresh showing changes made at the cell level. These changes are tracked so you can always see how critical information is changing over time.

Benefits of using ERM solution for Enterprise Report Management

Establish a controlled, secure, managed reporting environment built specifically for working with structured and unstructured data

Insure reliable and timely data throughout your reporting process by leveraging BCP enterprise quality integration connecting you to multiple systems of record

Establish access control for data and reports so only specific people or groups see the data or reports they are allowed to thereby securing the viewing and management of the data

Since BCP is built upon and uses the familiar Excel environment, adoption is rapid, training is minimal, and the investment in capturing your existing spreadsheet reporting based processes is preserved

Automating the collaboration, consolidation and reporting process means cycle times are reduced freeing up employees to focus on activities which improve operational results

Extend reporting to more participants since BCP connects the desktop with the enterprise using Excel to securely view only the reporting data they need to see.

Eliminate the confusion of trying to gain visibility into and understand what's changed in your report using BCP's spreadsheet-based, cell-level change management and audit trail functionality

Reported data is updated on-demand at the cell-level versus having to email new versions as changes are made, thus giving you immediate notice of changes so better decisions can be made

Develop dashboards on the fly to capture and report to management or specific teams and individuals data changes within each process so everyone has a clear view of the current status