Making Your Data Reporting Work for You 

Data can tell you a lot about your business — in fact, it can tell you nearly everything. It connects the dots between disparate metrics and provides an actionable view of how your business is performing. However, when data is used incorrectly or you aren’t looking at the full picture, it can lead to decisions based on inaccurate assumptions. When you have complete information, you can generate calculated business value instead of relying on gut instincts. By making data-driven decisions, you can generate calculated business value instead of relying on gut instincts for your decision-making. Reporting is essential for any organization, no matter how large or small, and it has become more straightforward and cost-effective for small and medium businesses in recent years. In this article, we’ll discuss why data matters, how you can make it work for you – and how RVR can help you derive accurate and timely data from your business that will help you drive value and make smart business decisions. 

What Is Data Reporting?  

Data reporting shows you what has happened in your business and how it is performing. Graphs, charts and tables can tell the story of your company’s key performance indicators (KPIs) and integrate data from multiple sources like your payroll, timesheet and accounting systems. Data reporting has been in use by big, leading companies since as early as the 19th century, but the most significant shifts have occurred within the past 10 years. Technology has made data reporting more accessible for businesses of all sizes, enabling small and medium businesses to benefit from accurate and timely reporting information.  

Why Reporting Matters 

According to the Harvard Business Review, nearly 100% of companies say they’re investing in data to help guide their business decision making while a staggering 24% of them describe their organizations as data driven. The incentive is high for companies that use data-driven information: research shows that they outperform their competitors by up to 20 percent.  

On the other hand, a recent report from Fivetran found that 82% of companies work with outdated data. In addition, 85% of companies acknowledged that stale information resulted in inaccurate decisions, poor business outcomes, and revenue losses. 

How To Start Analyzing Data 

For company leaders who do not yet utilize their business data or who use it infrequently, you might worry that you don’t have enough information to generate insights. But if you think about the quantity of information your company is generating on a daily basis across your ERP, CRM and other systems – you’ll quickly see that you have the ingredients needed for RVR to help you create an insightful data dashboard that will allow you to make informed, timely decisions. You’ll be able to unlock new insights like which sales representatives brought in certain clients, how profitable they are for your company and your total return on investment for a particular sales rep. In a highly competitive market, you can level the playing field with the right business intelligence tools. 

Many companies have seen some success from manually extracting data from individual reports or data in a spreadsheet, but there’s a significant opportunity to extract more meaningful information by using digital tools and working with RVR to help build your data reporting process. Data management solutions that once were only accessible to big organizations are now increasing profitability at small and medium-sized companies.  

How RVR Insights Can Help 

At RVR, we help clients by connecting them with a Chief Financial Officer-Level Resource to understand how your business is performing, what you’re trying to achieve and your overall goals. We use that information to determine which information you need in a set of data dashboards and develop those for your organization. By pulling individual data sources and reports into a dashboard that’s tailored to your business, you can understand the full picture of what’s happening in your company across sales, operations and your resulting financials. Ultimately, you will have a clear understanding of how the information relates to your KPIs and long-term goals. 

By capturing your key data over many months, RVR can build a repository of reports and meaningful historical data that unlock important trends and insights. We work with clients to review the individual systems, data, and reports your business is currently using and pull that information into a dashboard that tells the full story of what’s going on in your business. We can identify what information might be missing or inaccurate. Sometimes, a business owner will see that their sales are flat, but they don’t really understand why. At RVR, we can dig into the data to help reveal whether there’s more competition in your market area and your product isn’t positioned right, or maybe your sales operation isn’t meeting its potential. We’re able to derive metrics and look at your KPIs to understand the real drivers of success in your business and diagnose any issues you might be experiencing. 

There’s a lot to unpack when it comes to what else you can do when you have a strong data reporting process established — and we’ll dig into that next time. But for now, it’s clear that data reporting is transforming the way companies across industries conduct business. Fortunately, now more than ever, becoming a data-driven business doesn’t have to be complicated. You don’t need to have highly advanced data to start. Using data effectively and routinely is key to achieving results. We assist our clients in reviewing their data and turning it into actionable insights that drive initiatives and change behaviors. By getting your data into a usable format that allows you to make smart, timely decisions, RVR will set your company up to analyze and apply data that will position your business up for long-term success.  

Interested in learning how RVR can assist your business with data reporting? Reach out to us at 407-677-0400.  

By: Frank Fontneau, Partner of RVR Consulting Group

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RVR Consulting Group provides your company with resources to support your vision and generate faster returns. By operating from both a strategic and tactical position, we protect clients during critical periods of uncertainty. Our services include advising, talent acquisition, sourcing fractional employees, exit planning, and selling your business. Regardless of your challenges, our firm’s experience is structured to make the road to your objectives faster, simpler, and more profitable. Our goal is simple: help you maximize the value of your business.

We are motivated to foster growth and develop opportunities for companies and their internal staff. Those economic impacts transcend into communities when our clients succeed and have invaluable, lasting effects.

For more information, visit https://rvrteam.com/contact/