Why smart reporting is critical for intelligent decision-making

Success in today’s competitive business landscape is harder than it has ever been. Businesses are under pressure from rising costs, cuts in consumer spending and on-going economic volatility.  

In addition to economic uncertainty, telcos are faced with their own turbulence; competition from hyperscalers, evolution of telco business models and the possible end of integrated telcos.

Organizations at the forefront of the industry are often left looking at their end-to-end processes, questioning how they can protect their sales and prevent margins from shrinking any further. 

In order to answer these major questions, business leaders need to act on insights that derive from reporting data to maintain competitive advantage. 

Elevated decision-making

“Going with your gut” leads to poor decisions being made, while decisions that are based on quality data are more likely to be successful. 

With the help of data-led reports, vital information is not only delivered to the right people, but business leaders can convert these insights into action. 

Decision-makers get a clear picture of what key decisions need to be made by metrics that are the most valuable to them.

Adaptability

With economic uncertainty, changes in consumer behavior and rising costs, the competitive landscape is showing no signs of becoming more forgiving. In this constant state of flux, businesses need to be able to leverage data to make more informed decisions.

Data driven decision making makes businesses adaptable to the ever-changing business landscape. 

Reports ensure the organization is able to meet market demand and avoid costly mistakes, allowing for resilience when unforeseen disruptions occur. 

Business leaders are also able to understand what is going on internally on a deeper level ensuring that any further decisions that are made maintain any competitive advantages and lead to profits. 

Visibility is key

According to LinkedIn’s Get Closer to Your Sales Team guide, an estimated 24% of forecasted deals go dark. Without visibility of processes and insights, organizations fall victim to decision fatigue. 

Having access to real-time data and information is critical for monitoring performance indicators, and driving decision making. Organizations need 360-degree visibility of all transactions in order to identify roadblocks easily.

Reports provide complete visibility allowing decision makers to identify where improvements are needed for efficiency, profits and cash flows

Thirty two percent of surveyed workers believe that visibility will allow them to be more efficient. Even if it seems like you are doing everything you can to maximize sales, without 360° visibility of the entire end-to-end process, you are losing out. 

Leveraging the wealth of insights available at your fingertips leads to a healthy bottom line. With visibility on productivity, decision makers are able to expose shortcomings, and potentially correct them before the bottom line is impacted. 

Efficiency Gains

Organizations have access to a large pool of data that is generated from operations and customer behaviors. If not organized properly it’s easy for employees and key decision makers to get lost in all the noise, held back by the manual nature of handling spreadsheet data.

A sophisticated reporting function should offer a centralized and organized view of data, which can be used to generate useful insights. If business leaders can extract predictive insights, they can eliminate bottlenecks, implement targeted improvements and improve operational efficiency.

Having the ability to identify what is selling and what isn't creates a better view of the lifespan of a product, what is draining costs and what a viable product bundle is. In this manner, managers are able to immediately address any problems or complications they may face before they lead to further customer loss.