Executive Summary
Most companies today know that their management reporting is not as good as it should be. Many however are slow to take action to correct it. We believe strongly that a good management reporting system is not a ‘nice t have’, but essential to a well-run business, much like an ERP or general ledger. For those that don’t fix this problem there are real costs involved. If a manager cannot readily access the information they need to make a decision they will most likely involve others in the search for this data. Precious resources will be redirected from high-value analytical tasks to data gathering, retrieval, cleaning, and formatting. In some cases if the right at a can’t be found and presented in a timely manner a key business decision may end up being made without sufficient supporting information. In a worst case scenario, where there are multiple data sources the wrong data may be presented and a decision is made based on misinformation. On a daily basis, lacking the ability to get the right info ration to the right people at the right time can put a company at a significant competitive disadvantage. Their peers may be faster at analyzing the potential revenue opportunities of a new market trend for example and ending up being the first to capitalize on it. …
