Designing and developing reports has long been the domain of IT departments. If an end user identified a need for a particular report, he or she would typically have to submit a request to the IT department or some other functional group assigned to report development and creation. The process of designing and creating the report would then be assigned to a developer who, more than likely, had a number of other tasks waiting to be completed. Not surprisingly, the end user would not receive his or her report for several days, if not weeks or months! By then, it is entirely possible that the end user's needs may have changed and the anticipated report has become obsolete before it can even be used for the first time.

Is it any wonder then, that this inefficient practice has quickly given way to a more flexible process? While many situations still require the involvement of an experienced technical developer, in today's business environment, end users have a reasonable expectation that they will be provided with the tools necessary to create their own reports. As business software becomes more accessible and easier to use, end users increasingly expect to be equipped with the tools they need to create their own reports. This allows end users to design and create reports that match their specifications and to do this in a much quicker time frame than would be possible if this report were being designed by an individual in another department.

On the surface, this trend offers an extraordinary level of efficiency and flexibility that should be welcomed throughout all organizations. Certain challenges with this model do exist, however, and developers and consultants should be aware of these. Of course, end users who wish to create their own reports cannot have unfettered access to an organization's production database, nor will most of them understand the hardware and network requirements for working with reporting tools that handle large amounts of data. Therefore, while traditional IT departments are no longer the key designers and creators of most reports, they still have a key role to play in providing central oversight for the reporting needs of the entire organization. Additionally, developers and consultants must also expand their focus beyond the IT department to ensure that end users are well-equipped and trained in making the most effective use of their reporting tools.

In years past, access to reports was typically limited to members of the Executive team. As the long-term decisions makers for the company, it was the Executive team that benefitted most from reporting tools that provided a snapshot of company performance over a period of time. Reporting at other levels of the organization was generally an afterthought if it was not ignored entirely. Of course, one reason for this may lie in the fact that ERP systems were generally not as adept in capturing information from all aspects of the business; instead, the focus was on capturing general ledger information, which is generally perceived to be the domain of the Executive and Accounting teams. Additionally, perhaps for reasons of security and trust, Executive team members often did not see a reason to share key metrics and information with lower level team-members.

In recent years, however, as ERP systems have become more adept at capturing a wider variety of information across all functions of business, reporting across all levels of the organization has become more important. Executive teams are no longer the exclusive focus of an organization's reporting efforts. Today, in an effort to gain competitive advantage, all levels of the organization must utilize reporting tools to improve their ability to make decisions on a day-to-day basis. In other words, organizations are now focused on putting their hard-earned business data in the hands of those who can benefit the most from it. They are also discovering that transparency can improve an employee's performance and focus. Employees can quickly and easily see how their individual and team performance is impacting the overall company performance. This leads to greater buy-in and focus from all levels of the organization.

As a developer or a consultant tasked with developing reports, the focus is no longer just on developing balance sheets and income statements for an Executive team. While such reports are still relevant and necessary, additional reports for lower levels of the organization are also important. The Sales manager expects improved insight into customer spending behaviour. The Warehouse manager demands access to reports that identify orders behind schedule. Developers must be aware of the various reporting audiences that exist within an organization, the types of reporting that are required by these audiences, and the security that is required to ensure that sensitive information is only seen by the right individuals.

Successful organizations are the ones that make their data available to all levels of the organization. One reason for this trend lies in the fact that newer, more effective reporting tools have improved the ability of users across all levels of an organization to access company data. In previous years, hardware and resource limitations meant that reports were generated at specific times such as month-end close. In a less-connected business environment, where decisions did not have to be made on a minute-by-minute basis, companies could afford to wait until certain points in time to generate and review their financial statements.

In today's hyper-competitive business environment, however, this is no longer a luxury that organizations can afford. Instead, any report, whether a key financial statement or an aging trial balance, must be capable of being generated at a moment's notice with near-to or real-time company data. Organizations' members cannot afford to wait until the weekly sales meeting or the quarterly Executive team meeting to review key reports; instead, they must be generating and reviewing these reports on a daily basis.

Developers and consultants must be aware of this trend and seek ways to make reports more readily available to an organization. Issues such as latency and hardware must be considered to ensure that reports can be generated at a moment's notice without any negative impact to transactional processing. One of the most effective ways to do this is to make a wide range of reporting tools available to all levels of the organization and then equipping team members with the knowledge necessary to utilize these tools effectively.