As humans, we aren’t great at repetitive, manual tasks. It’s easy to zone out because of our thoughts or become distracted as we overhear a nearby conversation.
The result? Manual reporting takes way longer than it should. Plus, there’s a guaranteed chance of at least one error.
Researchers found that unverified data entry by a professional has an error rate of 4%. This number may not seem like much. But even small datasets will have your team dealing with thousands of inputs. Plus, your team’s error rate is likely higher than 4%.
But there is a solution.
Benefits of Report Automation
Businesses that use reporting automation enjoy:
- Increased productivity: Detailed business reports take hours to generate. Plus, teams spend even more time finding and fixing errors. But with automation, your team can spend this time on high-value tasks.
- Real-time insights: Automation gives high-level management on-demand insights. They can use these to identify anomalies, trends and potential opportunities.
- Improved trust: Errors can cause distrust between departments and staff. And cause them to question each other’s skills and commitment. The good news is that automation can remove this friction.
- Lower labour costs: Surveys show that departments that embrace automation see 11-30% savings in time and money. Your team can then put this extra time towards revenue-generating tasks.
How WCIG and Auspro Improved Their Reporting
Two of our clients, Auspro and WCIG, had concerns about their reporting habits. So they turned to us at Insight38 for help.
Auspro
Auspro deals with thousands of customers each year, including big names like Mercedes-Benz. For this reason, the CEO wanted to analyse the company’s health through regular reports.
But each manual report took several hours to create. And they couldn’t justify spending this amount of time creating daily reports.
WCIG
WCIG is a non-profit that supports its community through various programs and initiatives. Even though they only reported monthly, they spent a lot of time finding and fixing reporting errors.
On top of this, these errors were causing a lack of trust between departments.
How Insight38 Helped
To determine their needs, we sat down with key stakeholders at Auspro and WCIG. And after the initial analysis, we looked at their excel reports and processes to see how we could help.
Both Auspro and WCIG used many systems to generate their reports. So we knew that automation could help.
Using Python, SQL Server and Power BI, we pulled the data from each system into a single database where we applied business logic. We then created reports in Power BI and emailed them using the software’s subscription service.
The results?
- Auspro’s CEO receives daily financial insights that would otherwise take 20 hours to produce each week. These insights help stakeholders uncover early trends that shape business decisions.
- WCIG’s team creates accurate reports that build trust with stakeholders while saving four hours each month. Plus, they have the flexibility to increase the number of reports they generate.
Does Your Team Still Use Manual Reporting?
Manual reporting takes time away from teams and managers.
Instead, automate your reports to:
- Save countless labour hours that your team could use for tasks requiring a human touch.
- Keep key stakeholders up to date with real-time insights.
- Prevent inevitable errors that happen with data entry.
- Build trust between departments through high-quality reporting.
Want to automate your reports like Auspro and WCIG? Get in touch with us to see how automation can increase productivity, accuracy and trust within your organisation.