Exploring ERP and reporting

The main principles of reporting are reliability of business information and the ability to produce the right information at the right time for the right person. Reports that analyze the ERP data in a meaningful way represent the output of the ERP implementation; it is considered as the cream of the implementation, the next level of value that the solution owners should aim for. This ideal outcome results from building all reports based on a single information source, the ERP solution where the business is recording all transactions on a daily basis.

As shown in the following diagram, the organizational reporting levels are divided into the following three main layers:

Each level has a different perspective of report usage, irrespective of whether it is tactical/short-term usage or strategic/long-term usage, and a different opinion on a report's complexity.

The dimensional characteristic of information is divided into two dimensions; the first is scope of information and the second is types of decision making.

The scope of information defines the required level of detail for each managerial level. Typically, the scope can be described as follows:

The type of decision making used by an organization is another dimension of reporting analysis. Typically, decision-making styles can be described as follows: