Pros and Cons of Cloud Reporting
Cloud-based reporting has become the latest rage in the business community lately. Its diverse features and enhanced efficiency is greatly relevant to the 21st century business; therefore more and more businesses prefer cloud-based reporting over traditional software programs when delivering information to their stakeholders.
But before you consider moving your business’s substantial parts to cloud, take into consideration the benefits and drawbacks of cloud reporting. Though the pros and cons vary across organizations, there are some general advantages and disadvantages too; take a look at these:
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Advantages of Cloud Reporting
Cost – Effective
As you move your business from traditional software to the cloud, it will instantly reduce your expenditures, as now you won’t have to maintain hardware, upgrade computers, infrastructure and equipment. This also reduces the cost of having traditional IT to setup to maintain software; this can now be managed by hiring a smaller IT staff.
Energy efficient
Cloud computing and reporting is a greener option than traditional IT equipment as they won’t require heavy office computers to perform big tasks and thus will save electricity.
Sustainability
God forbid if a natural disaster strikes your business; it won’t be able to destroy your computing capability because it resides somewhere else in the cloud and has nothing to do with your present location.
Accessibility
Cloud tools make the collaboration within and outside organization extremely easy. Staff members, stakeholders, owners, and anyone you want to share information with, can access it easily from anywhere in the world, from their home, on the road or from another city. To access it all they need is a gadget – laptop, computer or tablet – through which they can access the internet and data lying there in the cloud.
Flexibility
The flexibility of cloud computing and reporting makes it highly useful for small business as they pay only for the tools and features they need at the start of the business. And gradually as their business grows, they can use more resources by paying more. Another practical feature is the customized infrastructure offered by the cloud providers which is designed in light of users’ needs.
Efficient
Cloud reporting is an efficient means of reporting in any organization as compared to software installation. The reason is installing software across all computers in the organization and regularly updating them is a time and money consuming process; cloud – based financial reporting saves on both.
Easy to use
Cloud reporting is exceptionally easy as all the hectic administrative functions are left for the cloud providers and web based applications to handle. They relieve the business owners from the development workload, hectic management, billing, invoicing, etc and thus they can invest their abilities in more constructive activities which are beneficial for their business.
Drawbacks of Cloud Reporting
Security
Data security and compliance issues regarding sensitive data is the primary concern of any business when it is turning towards cloud computing. Moreover 69% cloud providers believe that data security is the responsibility of end user and this raises doubts on cloud computing.
Service Outages
Business that completely relies on cloud computing and reporting can face complete disruption if the cloud provider faces service outage.
Going out of Business
The danger of a new business going out is never out of sight and if your whole database resides in the cloud and their business crashes, it will take you down too. Look out for backup options and the way you can extract data if any untoward incident happen. Make sure that the cloud provider has a 3rd party that routinely backs up their data.
Limited Customization
Though the cloud providers offer diverse features, but still some organizations may find them deficient if they won’t incorporate their specific requirements, hence they won’t turn towards cloud reporting. The limits in customization should not be minimized. There can be custom processes that are taken care of easily at the database level by internal IT staff. Many of these customization may not be possible when moving to the cloud.
Reliable Internet
Now you will be in continuous need of a reliable internet connection with suitable bandwidth, so if you face internet issues in your area, cloud reporting is not for you.
More Front Office Staff are Needed
This is attributed to the limited customization in the previous paragraph. Again, I cannot emphasize enough how this should not be underestimated. Cloud providers service many clients at once, so there is very little customization allowed in their application for one single client. They also do not allow direct access to the database but instead typically through a web layer (API) that may or may not give you what you need. There may have been many internal processes that were automated that now become time intensive. Therefore the savings of having less IT personnel is lost because more front office people are needed for the new manual processes.
eRPs we work with
ReportingGuru works with almost every ERP and database out there. We are database developers, so we know how to find the data in any database/ERP. If there is a database, we can build reports.
How ReportingGuru can help with Cloud Reporting
No matter whether you keep your reporting onsite or move to the cloud, ReportingGuru can help. There will always be the need for custom reports. Let us help you objectively look at your company needs and not sell you any specific software.
Excellent Communication and Top Tier Customer Service
With Report Development, one of the most important, but often overlooked, skills is Communication. Obviously it is necessary to have the required technical skills, but it is super important to have the necessary communication skills to gather the requirements and ask the right questions. Our team is 100% located in the US and has excellent communication skills. Without the communication barriers, we are able to meet with our clients as needed to help flush out any requirements or reporting obstacles smoothly and efficiently, which translates into saving our clients money. We’re proud of our team and how they interact and collaborate with our clients to build relationships and help meet all of their report development needs.
Top Customer Service
We always give same day responses to let our customers know when a report will be complete. This isn’t an extra charge; this is just how we do business by providing great Customer service.
We have a Project Manager that makes sure everything is going in the right direction. Our project manager will ensure that we get responses back to our clients to keep the ball rolling. And we ensure that reports are delivered on time to our customers.
We Believe in Great Communication
Our team members work 100% is the USA, and they are great communicators. At ReportingGuru, we understand that building reports is an iterative and collaborative experience. It’s imperative that our clients are able to relay requirements and the necessary feedback to our team and that we are able to understand and turn that around to deliver exactly what our clients are looking for. This may involve a phone call or a screen sharing session. For this reason, we hire report developers who really know how to talk to clients!
We Have worked with every industry
Every industry has different types of reports that are important to that specific industry. So, jumping in and understanding the business and having prior knowledge of the industry is important. Since we have been in business over 15 years, we have worked with almost every industry out there.
Our team members work 100% in the USA, and they are great communicators. At ReportingGuru, we understand that building reports is an iterative experience. For this reason, we hire report developers who really know how to talk to clients!
Financial Reporting
Maybe you need Balance Sheets, Income Statements, Aging Reports, Investor Packets, ETC.
Manufacturing Reports
Are there processes in your manufacturing process that can me improved with reporting?
Logistics and Distribution
Delivery management is information intense. Let ReportingGuru build our your logistics reports.
Medical Reporting
ReportingGuru can setup and build hospital and medical reports.
Insurance Reporting
Whether is it the statistical analysis or the compliance reporting, ReportingGuru can help.
Lots more Industries
We have worked with Farming, Poultry and Meat Processing, Sign Companies, Equipment Maintenance, Private Equity, Metal Recycling, Utility Companies, Home Builders, Retail Sales, Mining, Engineering, Law Home Sales, Waste Management ..ETC
You can expect the following:
- ReportingGuru understands your business requirements
- ReportingGuru helps make sense of your data with analysis
- ReportingGuru helps build report and dashboard specifications if necessary
- ReportingGuru sets up BIRT if necessary and optimizes if necessary
- ReportingGuru writes the complex database reports and dashboards
- ReportingGuru does the database programming if necessary
- ReportingGuru integrates multiple applications or locations together if necessary
- Use ReportingGuru On Demand - As Needed
- No weekly or monthly hourly minimums - we only bill for the hours we work
- No up front cost. We don't expect any prepayments for our work.
You Can Feel Confident That The Job Is Being Done Right Because of...
- Our Project Management System
- Daily Updates
- Strict Adherence To Project Roadmap & Timelines
- Customer QA & Acceptance Of Each Phase Of The Project
We're So Easy to Work With
We specialize in report writing and database development and integration. We know how to extract information from every popular program out there. We’re also able to develop or integrate databases, with a mind to helping out clients reduce workloads at their workplaces.
For example, if you currently have staff members entering the same information in different databases, you’re wasting valuable time and money. When we create a database for you or perform software integration, your team members will only need to add information once!
All of our services are designed to lower your operating costs. When you use our company on an as-needed basis, you won't need to hire a full-time report developer to work at your place of business. Instead, you'll be able to get reports and related services when you need them and just pay as you go! It'll be way cheaper and you'll get reports which are custom and which are created by report developers who know everything about your particular software platform.
Talk To An Expert Today
As you can see, there’s no downside to hiring our company. You’ll get your reports and other services that you want, such as database integration, and you’ll pay less than you would if you had the same tasks performed by a full-time staff member at your workplace.
As well, you’ll access expertise from our team, as well as great communication.
We know that report creation is an iterative process and this is why our team members go out of their way to build strong bonds with clients. They talk and share information with them regularly, in a streamlined and efficient way.
To discuss your needs with us, just call or email (or fill out our convenient online form, on the right side of this Web page) in order to access caring advice from app and ERP report experts. We look forward to showing you just how affordable and accurate our reports and related services really are!
