Best practise report-writing methodology for sound Business Intelligence for SME’s

Alchemex is an industry expert in affordable Excel-based business intelligence software for small to medium enterprises. This white paper is written in an effort to share some of the tricks and traps that exist in delivering quality Business Intelligence and relevant information to the right people in SMEs.

The reality is that 80% of customers who commission the services of either external or internal consultants to deliver on their information requirements are disappointed by the eventual outcome. There are too many unhappy, non-paying customers out there with an equal number of unhappy, unpaid consultants/service providers – WHY?
You do get unreasonable requests from time to time, but fortunately these are far and few between. I believe that the primary reason for failure on these projects is a result of bad communication between the customer and provider.

Often the customer does not really know what they want – they know they need better information to run their business more efficiently, but what information, who needs it and why? This is critical to establish at the start of the project. The customer should be asking questions like: What decisions do I need to be able to make to have a better business? And then, what information do I need to be able to make these decisions? Answer these 2 questions up front and you are well on the way to avoiding information overload, which can be very destructive. Remember, for your customer ‘Clarity is Power’. Start simple and deliver value. If you ask the right questions up front, your roll out will continue to add value to more and more people in the organisation as you follow this simple method.

I believe companies try to “run before they can walk” and the scope of the initial project is so complex that often not even 10% of it is achieved and the budget for the lot is gone. It is the responsibility of the service provider to ensure that this doesn’t happen, particularly when it is obvious that the customer is uncertain about what their needs are.

In the paragraphs that follow, I will share a methodology that works more often than not, resulting in happy paying customers, profitable service providers, and ultimately customers who run more profitable businesses! This methodology is proposed in the context of using tools available in the market like Alchemex which is designed specifically for SME’s and that ships with solution sets for specific install bases, helping customers and providers get a solution quicker. For example, if the challenge is to smartly deliver sales-related information to the sales force of an organisation, then a typical approach would be to first see if the standard sales templates cater for the need. If they do, then use them to fast track the solution. If they don’t, it may mean either making a few changes to the template or creating the solution from first principles.

Fortunately when Excel-based BI tools are being used, it is efficient to simulate the output of what the customer will get, because they can type it up in Excel with little effort. This forms the blueprint of what information will be delivered, and in what format it will be presented. This is such an important aspect to get right, because this is where things go wrong. If you don’t do this, the customer invariably has one picture in their mind of what the outcome will be, and often the provider has a completely different picture – this spells trouble! Signing off this outcome between the two parties means the customer knows exactly what they are going to get, and have acknowledged this. The service provider also knows exactly what to deliver and is committing to doing so with an understanding of what is involved to do it.

In summary, understand your customer’s requirements exactly and sign off a physical layout of what you have agreed you will deliver, preferably designed by your customer with your guidance.

Now it’s over to you to decide how, who, when and at what cost you can deliver the solution and what skills will be required to do it. Listed below are some of the key questions you need to ask and answer before you start making these decisions?

• 1. Does all the information required exist in the customer’s source data?

Why is this important? Believe it or not, some customers do request information that just does not exist. This happens because sometimes the people who need the information are not that close to the operations where information is or is not being captured. A good example of this is a manager who wants to see a profit and loss analysis by projects, only to find out that certain expenses/journals have not been captured against project codes. Problem. Be careful to check this out.

2. If not, can it be derived from the source data?

If your choice of tools allows you to create information on the fly that can be derived from other source data then you’re OK. If not, you need to consider that there may be some form of manual entry/preparation which could challenge the customer’s expectations, especially if total automation was agreed.

3. Does it come from more than one source?

You need to be sure that the tools you are using cater for this in a way that data integrity is preserved through automation, and that loose Excel spreadsheet use is eliminated. Generally this leads to a more complicated setup and will cost more.

4. Is the information related/structured or unrelated/unstructured?

If the information is related there is good chance that you can use standard query language to create the relationships and extract the information in one process which is quicker and easier. If this is not the case, you may have to build more than one process to extract the data and then consolidate it using a union process which will mean a more complex structure that costs more.

5. Has the data been consistently captured over the time frame required for output?

This is important and ties back to the first step of the process where the customer’s expectations are defined. A good example of this is when a company changes its processes over a period of time. For example, if the requirements are to track sales trends by sales representative over a period of 5 years, and the way in which sales were processed changed after 3 years, then you have may have to consider how your solution will handle the two types of data. Another example is if a company has run a debtors book using the balance forward method, and they then switch to an open item method where invoices are matched against payments, you have 2 scenarios to cater for which may cause complications. In light of this, be sure to check the completeness of data before committing to timeframes and solution delivery.

6. Depending on what tools you are using, are there any relevant solution sets/templates that can help fast track the solution?

If your choice of tools comes with pre-formatted templates that cater for the ERP/accounting/payroll system that you are getting the data from, be sure to see if any of these can help you fast track the solution delivery as it may save you from reinventing the wheel and assist you to build a customised library of solutions for your customer.

7. Who needs to get the information, how often, and how are they connected/located?

Creating the solution is one thing, but delivering it to the areas of the business that need it closes the loop on driving value to the customer’s organisation. Really, what is the use of having excellent information on a business if it is not delivered to the right people, or if they don’t have access to it. Always identify who needs what, where they are located and the potential security implications of making this information available. Again depending on what tools you have, your options should cater for challenges relating to frequency and real-time access to data, delivery to desktops, bandwidth constraints, or access via WEB protocol. One of the ultimate goals of a good Business Intelligence platform is that people in the organisation can “help themselves” to relevant information that they can trust. It is critical to free up resources (usually within the financial and IT departments) that have historically spent most of their time preparing and sending out ad-hoc unstructured information to the rest of the business. Be sure that the tools you choose cater for this.

The temptation is always there to “impress” your customer quickly, but compliment this attitude with a sound and thought-through methodology, and your customer will respect and trust your services as you build a relationship to add massive value to your customer’s organisation. There are many ways to skin a cat, but this is a method that works well. Take short cuts and the majority of your projects will fail. Your customers won’t pay you, and you will struggle to be profitable.

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Alchemex reporting software delivers automated management packs and other decision-support solutions in Microsoft Excel directly from the database of a company's accounting and/or payroll application, integrating with ACCPAC, MYOB, Pastel Evolution, Pastel Partner, Pastel Payroll, VIP Payroll, Sage 50, SAP Business One, Sybiz Vision and SYSPRO. Tools can be implemented standalone on any compliant data source or alternatively integrated into vendor applications.

For more information:
Visit: www.alchemex.com
Email: gary@alchemex.com
Tel: +27 31 2669112

Should any UK resellers be interested in becoming an Alchemex business partner, please contact Charles Teversham on charles@alchemex.com

Powered by Alchemex, www.mymonthlyreports.com provides a secure online reporting solution for small businesses, drawing data directly from a company’s existing accounting package into formatted Excel report templates automatically and on demand, making business intelligence technology easy and accessible. Valuable time savings can be made every month through the elimination of manual report preparation and repetitive data extracts, while users can view, manipulate and analyse trusted information in the familiar environment of Excel. No large budgets, no specialist staff, no hassles.

For more information:
Visit: www.mymonthlyreports.com
Email: charles@alchemex.com
Tel: +27 31 2669112