You may have heard that collecting a lot of data is great for making business decisions. While this is true, your information isn’t worth much if you have no way to analyze it and present everything in an easy-to-read format. That’s where business reporting tools help.

Business reporting tools now make up a large part of the business intelligence process. Believe it or not, 46% of companies now use reporting tools for core parts of their business strategies.

If you want your business to make the most of your data, you need to find the right reporting solutions. Below is a short guide that will help you look through your reporting tool options and pick the best one for your needs.

Consider Your Reporting Needs

In the past, you needed to create a report, run the reporting process, and get the results of your search query. Today, that’s not the case.

Modern reporting services offer real-time reporting that gives you new information on-demand. That means you can make decisions with the most up-to-date information.

However, not all businesses need that capability. Consider your reporting needs when making your choice to determine if you need real-time capabilities.

Look for Predefined Templates

While you can get much more out of your reporting software by customizing things, not every business has specialists that know how to make the most of report customizations. Many companies rely on predefined report templates to get the information they need.

If you’re in this situation, look at the reports offered by default from your reporting solution. These reports can offer a lot of insights into the capabilities of reporting software.

You can take what you learn from predefined templates to create custom reports that provide even better insights from your data.

Examine the Educational Resources

While some software is easy to use out of the box, the same isn’t always true with reporting tools. Every situation is unique with data, so you may not have the ability to get up and running immediately with your reporting tool.

That’s why education is critical in the business reporting space. Reporting services need to offer plenty of educational resources to help companies get up to speed with a tool’s capabilities.

These resources are usually public, so look through a tool’s documentation to see how everything works.

Look for Software Integrations

You can get very advanced reports with a reporting tool’s customization options. Unfortunately, you may not have specialists on your team that know how to get the most from your reporting tools. That’s why many companies rely on predefined report templates to get their information.

Tools like the ASP .NET core reporting tools can connect to your business intelligence systems to link business systems that offer integrations. As a result, you’ll get a more connected business infrastructure that can easily share data.

Look to see what integrations your business reporting software has out of the box and how it integrates into your current setup.

Do Your Research When Buying Business Reporting Solutions

With how much businesses rely on data to make crucial decisions, you can’t afford to have a lousy data reporting tool. Unfortunately, not every option will meet your needs and give you the reports you need to make critical decisions. Use the guide above when researching reporting solutions to filter out the bad choices and find the best tool for your company.

Do you want to learn more tips that will help you run a more profitable business? Read the latest posts on the blog to learn how to best grow your company.