Benjamin Rietti Benjamin Rietti is CEO of E-Tabs Ltd, specialists in report automation solutions and consulting for the Market Research industry, and a winner of The Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation, 2010. Read the full biography here.

Dispelling the myth

– Report Automation is only for trackers

30 April, 2010

"Every researcher has at least one project that comes to mind, when we talk about report automation, that they couldn't even have started without the help of some new process."

According to Carrie McCracken, former Research Support Team Leader, and Automated Charting specialist at Millward Brown in Naperville, IL (USA), projects which are large in size and scope, projects involving multiples such as multiple countries, markets or category/branch reports and projects that place heavy demands on resources - even if only for limited amounts of time, are easy candidates for report automation.

Tracking studies are a clear “no brainer” for report automation. Any study which is repeated wave after wave should see a return on investment in the short to medium term. One could argue that set-up for the first wave of reporting may take a similar amount of time compared with manual methods. However, it’s populating the reports on subsequent waves where those savings come into play. Automating those subsequent waves takes up only a fraction of the time invested in originally setting up the first wave.

There is a common misconception that report automation is only for the “big” players, or that it is only useful for tracking studies.

There is a common misconception that report automation is only for the “big” players, or that it is only useful for tracking studies. Projects that are large in size and scope are clearly well suited for report automation - however, there is good reason to go beyond just the “big” and to explore the wider benefits of automating your charts and reports.

Report automation solutions enable researchers, without technical programming skills, to populate charts, graphs and PowerPoint presentations directly from their data tables. Eliminating manual data entry tasks can reduce project turnaround times; ensure data accuracy and lower operational costs. Let’s take a look at how this technology can impact other types of projects.

A key benefit when we consider syndicated projects is that multiple clients buy into the same survey. Typically each client would receive an identical (or near-identical) report; hence the value associated with the syndicated approach. However, using report automation could enable you to easily add value to each member’s individual report. You could automatically tailor each of them according to their brand; re-rank tables and charts to place their brand on top, highlighting it, comparing the difference of their brand versus competitors, even re-formatting each report with their own colours, logos, branding, and more; essentially providing the client with a custom report for the price of a syndicated one!

Reporting on Omnibus surveys couldn’t be made simpler than setting up a master template/shell, and automatically populating it with the relevant number of charts for each question asked. The presentation will then grow according to the questions and charts needed. The same can be true for copy-testing and ad/concept tests – use a master template and automatically customise it for each test report.

Studies requiring multiple outputs are a pleasure to automate. Whether multi-segment, multi-country, regional, departmental, category or product, you would simply set up a single master report, and then re-populate it over and over again according to the number of reports required, each with its relevant ‘slice’ of the overall data. The biggest gains in this category are likely to come from loyalty research and customer or employee satisfaction studies.

Sure automation can be described as “cookie cutter” style, but that doesn’t mean that your reports can’t be customised!

Comparisons against norms, performance targets, regional or national values, highest, lowest, you name it – and the automation can calculate and then automatically highlight those values and differences with the appropriate graphical indicators or formatting.

Another common myth highlighted by Carrie is the belief that report automation is in direct opposition to any kind of customisation and story telling. ”As an end user I really don’t feel that way. Nothing breaks my heart more than spending time generating hundreds of slides for a report, to find out later that only 35 were shown in the presentation to the client. I’d much rather press run on the reports I’ve set up and return from my lunch break to 150 slides that we can then comb through, picking out the meaningful pieces to make the story. This doesn’t mean next time you won’t have a totally new story! You’ve got all that data to work from, you have it sooner rather than later and you can craft your story or stories after that.”

When it comes to the not so obvious project candidates, ad hoc projects still make good candidates for report automation. Of course each project is different, of course the charts will change, of course you will need to “build the story line” as you go along but why should that prevent you from taking advantage of the efficiencies offered by report automation?

What are you going to do when the ultimate delivery date cannot be moved, fieldwork has dragged on to the point that DP won’t be able to run the final tabs until Friday afternoon, and your finished deck of 100 slides is due to the client on Monday morning?!

There’s always the option of having a couple of researchers donate their weekend for the better good, and risk the typo errors that will inevitably creep in due to having to burn the candle at both ends….

Automating the reporting process would enable you to actually use fieldwork time to prepare the report template and set-up the charts and formatting. You’d be able to simply click GO on that Friday afternoon and sit back and enjoy watching each and every slide, chart and table come to life with the final numbers? Nice thought, eh? And it’s very real, and very attainable.

Carrie recounts another typical scenario:

“So your original delivery’s been turned in, all was well until you received a phone call from the client requesting that same report, only for a different target group that they have a meeting about tomorrow. Having taken the time to set up things properly you can meet your client’s expectations and your answer can be a resounding YES!”

Create time!! How about utilising fieldwork time to prepare report templates? This means any extra requests or follow ups will have significantly shorter project turnaround times. Within an hour all 100 slides can be re-populated, values re-ranked, indicators automatically calculated and re-positioned.

Even when it comes to ad hoc projects report automation creates time, reduces the risk of error and enables you to offer your clients added value “After all if the meeting is tomorrow the meeting is tomorrow. You cannot deliver the report 2 or 3 days later.”

Research companies today are juggling their need to respond to tightening budgets with the need to add value to client offerings to remain competitive

Research companies of all shapes and sizes have utilised the time savings and improved accuracy brought on by report automation to add value to a range of different client projects - fulfilling extra requests, providing additional insights and including valuable recommendations in their conclusions.

Research companies today are juggling their need to respond to tightening budgets with the need to add value to client offerings to remain competitive. By boosting efficiencies, report automation offers a way for research companies to remain focused on the business of research, enabling them to meet or exceed client expectations and take on additional or complex projects without the need for further resources.

Our experience has shown that clients report their project set-up can be completed much quicker using automation versus manual hand-posting of numbers, and when taking accuracy of data entry into the equation, and the various scenarios described above, this provides a compelling reason to consider the software for all types of projects, not just “trackers”. The bottom line – A massive Return on Investment time after time.

Benjamin Rietti

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