10 years ago I presented my CEO with a vision of how implement a new generation of reporting into our CRM product.The vision was to add a layer for business metadata into the product so customers could have generated reports like “show my sales status” without customization.
The answer was a partnership with Cognos and some “canned” reports that all needed customization by the consulting team.
The outcome for the customers was a lack of usable reports mostly due to implementation budget constraints. Of course this increased the perceived cost of ownership and the ROI for the management was considerably lower.
6 years later I had the opportunity to help a customer with their vendor selection for a CRM application. The framework defined by the management team was a simple request: “We need to know what is going on in our organization”. You can imagine my surprise when all vendors stressed the “canned reports” again. This time the number was much higher (one vendor was proud to announce the availability of 80 (!) canned reports), but at least the advance in hardware and technology had made it easier to customize them.
What a task for the management to look at all those reports and extract the information that defines what is going on in the organization!
Looking back, this was the moment the idea of corporate:insyte was born.
The answer to this simple request: “We need to know what is going on in our organization.”
- Like a stock ticker for your own organization.
- Presented in channels like television.
- Technology that should make your life as a manager easier and more efficient.
While our competition has probably moved on to more than 100 canned reports.