Published on October 9th, 2020 | by Ayushi Sharma

Operational Reporting: What it is, examples and benefits

Operational Reporting is the process of providing ready to analyze the view of the day to day operations of an organization. These reports can range from sales updates to the hospital administration reports. Spanning across various industries and verticals, operational reporting can be of several types. Based on the type of data the report needs to present, and the desired way of a presentation determines which type of report will be most suitable for which purpose.

Operational Reports Examples

Operational reports give the analysis of day to day activities using business intelligence to enable its audience monitor and track the performance of whichever activity, for example, employee performance, machine efficiency or anything else. These reports can be used inside the company or can be viewed by clients as well. This helps the viewer to stay on top of their work and track the important operations. The kinds of reports can vary industry-wise and usage wise, below are a few examples of how various industries uses these reports:

In marketing and sales meeting, these reports can generally display the campaign performance KPIs, number, and quality of leads generated, conversion, and customer acquisition rates.
In technology or IT domain, it can present a comprehensive view of the quality of services delivered, performance efficiency, and ROI based on the timeliness of deliveries.
For the healthcare industry, the reports can display key metrics regarding patient care, efficiency regarding resource allocation, and overall administration.

Types of Operational Reporting

The operational reports can vary in terms of formats, some can be in the form of dashboards, some can be PDFs and documents, and some can be in presented in hardcopy.

If the reports contain details like invoices, documents, or highly specific formats, then the best kind of report to suit this need is the Pixel perfect reports. The reports having dashboards made via business intelligence tools can be dynamic. They can present real-time data to give live updates to key stakeholders and allow quick decision making.

Companies can use embedded tools to create and distribute these business reports.

Given that there are various types of reports available, to choose the one suitable for a specific purpose the user can identify which types of data it is that needs to be presented. The user also needs to know the frequency of these reports and how frequently the addressed data is subjected to change. The goal that needs to be achieved via these reports must also be clear.

Reports in the form of dashboards and tables can be used to analyze a large amount of data and view it in a concise way and make strategic decisions. Using embedded reports and dashboards, the accessibility of these reports increases, and the format becomes favorable helping improve the day to day efficiency.

Operational Reporting Benefits

Given the wide usability of operational reporting, there are multiple benefits one can get out of n these reports:

Business leaders are using these reports to analyze trends and monitor important KPIs in real-time to get all the important information at one place and glance.
Various reports, dashboards, and information can be integrated into one application which helps in increasing accessibility, improve efficiency, track performance and help in inducing data-driven decisions for each member of the report audience.
For various industries like marketing and sales, it can be a core form of displaying progress and results. They can present the correlation between marketing efforts and sales numbers in one place and can derive meaningful insights for both the domains to optimize their workflow.
The organizations can use this capability not just inside the company but can also avail the benefits of these to the customers, for example, many financial institutions provide spend analysis and tax information to the clients in a more comprehensive form. The clients can use this service to analyze their spending and manage it better.

Conclusion

The operational reporting comes in various forms and shapes depending upon the need. Using Business Intelligence tools these reports can be presented in more structured formats enabling various stakeholders to access and utilize them optimally. The adaptation and usage of these reports in the regular and day to day life of the employees can bring significant change to the organization.

Tags: benefits, examples, operational reporting