Text: Lydje Snieders and Jolanda Harper-Simonis

Photography: Robin Kuijs

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JoLanda HaRpeR-SimoniS And LydJe SniedeRS

work at TOPdesk. Jolanda is a consultant and Lydje works at the Relationship Management department.

RepoRtS: on the Shelf oR in uSe?

Nobody will deny that reports can be incredibly useful. A report provides you with insight into working procedures, and can help you optimize processes; however, it is quite common for reports to disappear into the cupboard along with other piles of paper, with no conclusions being drawn or action being taken.

eporting should not be a goal in itself, but rather contribute to the goals of the organization. The real

Step 1: determine your target (audience)

Creating a good report begins with determining your goal and target audience. There are generally three possible target audiences for reports: (external) customers, the management and your own department. Each target audience uses reports in a different way and for different ends. Reports for customers are usually designed to give them a means of control, or to influence their perception. Management can use reports as a monitoring tool or to gain insight into processes. Reporting is usually employed within your own department to support operations

management or motivate employees. Whatever your goal, the objectives must be formulated in a SMART way; they must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-bound.

question, however, is what happens to the report? We notice that, in practice, reports are often not used optimally; for example because the target audience was not involved in compiling the report. As a result, the report does not appeal to the target audience, meaning the organization will not use the finished report much or even at all. Creating a useful report appears to be quite difficult. Thats why in this article we describe four steps for making a good report that is actually valuable to your organization.

Step 2: discussion and collaboration

To determine exactly what the objectives of the target audience are and which method of reporting your organization should use, the person responsible for creating the report must collaborate with the target audience. This person usually knows how the application works and how to interpret the results in the report. >>

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It is useful to apply this knowledge at an early stage and, together with the target audience, determine what they want and why; or in other words: What would you like to achieve with the report? What exactly would you like to see in the report? How often would your target audience like to receive a report? How would the target audience like the report to be delivered?

There are a number of tips for generating a report: keep the reasons for the report in mind, think ahead, make choices and keep it simple. When you tick all the options for a report in TOPdesk, you will get an unreadable report that no one can use. In order to maintain an overview, you must limit the number of fields. Instead of bundling all information together in a single report, it can be more useful to deliver several (short) reports. Give this careful consideration and produce reports sparingly. Here too you should be careful not to overdo it.

Asking these questions and brainstorming with the target audience improves the quality of the report. Above all, you can use this information to keep the report as short as possible. As a rule of thumb, the longer the report, the less people will read of it. Asking critical questions will enable you to fine-tune the operational process. When creating a report, you must determine which information needs to be recorded beforehand. Is this information already being recorded, or do you need to adjust working procedures in order for this to happen? By remaining critical regarding how your organization will use the report and why, you will prevent needless registration for the purpose of the report. This saves not only time, but you will avoid wasting unnecessary effort recording irrelevant activities. When interpreting the report, the results are examined with the objective in mind. A report without any interpretation does not say much at all. For example, a transportation company made agreements about the maximum number of delays per year in order to keep customers satisfied. A report demonstrated that the company kept to its agreements; however, most delays occurred during rush hour. As a result, a relatively large proportion of customers experienced delays. The report did not represent customer satisfaction, and therefore did not (entirely) fulfil

Step 4: interpretation
The report is generated and all results have been neatly displayed in numbers and charts, but the task of the person who created the report is not over. This person knows how the report has been compiled, and therefore how to read the results. Use this knowledge to help the target audience interpret the report.

CREATING A GOOD REPORT BEGINS WITH DETERMINING YOUR GOAL AND TARGET AUDIENCE

its purpose. It is also important to analyse not only the current results, but past results alongside them. The transportation company from the previous example may have met their SLA, but if it transpires that 90% of services were on time this month, while the figure was 95% last month, then things are still not running optimally. It is important to compare results to determine whether your services are improving, and thus whether your hard work has had the desired results.

Step 3: generating the report

The report should be generated by someone who is familiar with the applications setup, as well as the underlying processes and procedures. The application will generate exactly the information requested. The trick is knowing exactly what to ask to ensure that the results provide an accurate depiction of the situation.

Best practices
If everything has gone according to plan, you will have made agreements in step 2 on the format of the report and to what extent the interpretation is expected from the person who created the report. You can include a number of topics in the report, depending on the agreements and target audience. Below are a number of examples that have proved useful in practice.

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REMAIN CRITICAL ABOUT HOW YOUR ORGANIZATION WILL USE THE REPORT
Do not tick all the options when creating a report

It can be useful to suggest possible causes alongside the results. For example, if there is a spike in a report, try to determine the cause. Was a piece of equipment broken? Had the service desk just become more easily accessible? Had the coffee run out?

reports should change accordingly. Run through every step each time you create the report. It is important to always discuss the report to evaluate whether requirements have changed. Is the report still used? If so, for what? does the report still meet the requirements? In short, stay curious and take action!

It is nice when you can see the result of the report right away. By giving a short and understandable summary of the report, the chances that the reader understands the essentials of the report will increase significantly. Using symbols, such as emoticons or a thumbs up or down can even provide an effective overview.

Go the extra mile

Creating reports is something which is done a lot; however, the difference between a barely-read pile of paper on the shelf and a useful and useable document comes down to conferring with and designing for the target audience. Above all, keep in mind how the information from the report will actually be used.

discuss the reports with the target audience at regular intervals. If the target audience is your own department, plan to discuss the report at the weekly or monthly team meeting. If the target audience consists of external customers, make a recurring appointment to discuss the reports. Alternatively, join the management meetings regularly to discuss the report that they requested.

need help creating relevant reports?

TOPdesk consultants can help you get on top of the reporting process within your organization and harmonize your procedures with TOPdesk. TOPdesk also offers a Reporting with TOPdesk course.

Reporting is an ongoing process

It is important to report periodically in order to assess whether adjustments have led to improvements. do not assume that you can keep using the same report. Organizations develop, and For more information, visit http://www.topdesk.com/en/services/courses