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What is ad hoc reporting and its importance in today’s business?

Big data has become a holy grail for businesses to succeed in the present day. Every day, thousands of businesses turn to hard data to make key decisions, and more often than not, this strategy works. Even more often than that, businesses struggle to find the best ad hoc reporting software solutions available.

While it’s a good thing for businesses to be data-driven, here’s the problem – many businesses don’t have the bandwidth or financial resources to manually churn out dozens of numbers within minutes using Excel sheets, let alone hire .net developers to do the job.

What businesses need is the best ad hoc reporting system out there to serve their purposes. This is why ad hoc reporting software was invented.

What is ad hoc reporting software?

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Now that you understand the problem, we’ll help you understand the solution.

You may have heard of the term ‘ad hoc’ when some additional work from a client has come your way at the eleventh hour. In that sense, the term may sound like a load of bricks, but it’s actually not. ‘Ad hoc’ literally means ‘when needed’ or ‘for this purpose’ in Latin.

Moving on, let’s understand what ad hoc reporting software is. Without getting too technical, ad hoc reporting is a process in business intelligence used to quickly generate reports as and when they’re needed.

Ad hoc reporting software, then, is a tool or system which allows users to generate reports on a need-basis.

Why do businesses need ad hoc reporting software?

Every business wants to get its foot in the big data door in order to outdo its competition, and this race is a fast one that only automation can keep up with.

On-demand reports provide businesses with valuable data for one-time use after which they become redundant. This is why businesses need technology to do the brainwork for them instead of people. This type of technology is called ad hoc reporting software. 

The best ad hoc reporting platforms on the market come with extreme granularity. If you’re the Marketing Manager of a fast-food business, you might want to send out an apology email to a defined set of customers who received food that was below your restaurant’s standards. Ad hoc reporting system will let you pull very detailed drill-downs of data right down to the number of customers in New York City who placed orders for a poor quality Classic Beef Burger last night between 7:00 PM and 9:00 PM.

The data needs of businesses are highly dynamic – they keep changing as and when, let’s say, orders are placed or customers sign up on an online store. Since such activities on global e-commerce giants such as Amazon happen every millisecond, data that was valid an hour ago is now redundant.

At this rate, what businesses need is not a data entry officer or a Sales manager who’s a pro at Excel but, rather, ad hoc reporting software that’ll allow all kinds of reports to be generated as and when necessary, any time, anywhere.

Nowadays, ad hoc reporting tools are popularly referred to as business intelligence software because of their very nature – they’re used specifically for business intelligence (BI). They’re most commonly used by banks and other financial businesses for ad hoc financial reporting. Retail, food & beverage and other types of e-commerce businesses also rely on ad hoc reports to drive key decision-making.

At this point, you must be wondering what ad hoc reporting software looks like. Have you ever seen a dashboard or generated sales, marketing or financial reports on the back-end of an online store? If yes, you’ve seen ad hoc reporting software.

Which is the best ad hoc reporting software for businesses?

If you’re reading up on ad hoc reporting, you’re either a .net developer who generates reports for businesses or a business that’s looking for an ad hoc reporting software to integrate with its platform. Whatever the case may be, you most likely want to know of the top ad hoc reporting system on the market.

Deciding which BI solution businesses should use is a time-consuming process. It can take days to explore the features of different options in order to arrive at a decision. Because your time is valuable, we’re here to help you out.

Essentially, what you want to look for in a BI solution is an ad hoc report builder that will enable you to generate all kinds of reports at a moment’s notice.

However, not every business intelligence software will give you the data you need. The most popular ones out there don’t come with the capability to generate highly specific reports. Some are too costly while others are too complicated for novice users to make sense of.

Moreover, most ad hoc reporting systems are either available on-premises or on cloud servers but not both which limits their security and accessibility respectively.

That said, we’re here to recommend the best ad hoc reporting solution and explain why businesses need it.

Why DotNet Report is the top adhoc reporting software for businesses

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If you haven’t heard of DotNet Report, now is the time to explore it.

DotNet Report is a simple, embeddable ad hoc reporting engine. Unlike others, DotNet Report comes with an ad hoc report builder that offers a host of useful features for every .net software developer to create powerful BI reports. Of all of them, here are the features you need to know about.

  1. Easy installation

Are you someone who likes to get work done at hyperspeed? We’ve got some good news for you. It takes only a few minutes to install DotNet Report on your device, configure it for the system you need it for and start running test reports. You’ll be saving plenty of valuable time and energy here.

  1. Open source frontend

Forget about writing code for ad hoc financial reporting from scratch. With DotNet Report, code is open for anyone and everyone to use for any system free of cost. All you need to do is configure it.

  1. Customized visualization

Visual appeal is extremely important when generating analytics. With DotNet Report, creating statistical data representations has never been easier, and reading it is even easier. Users can easily create custom dashboards and hundreds of different reports whenever they need them.

  1. Integrability

DotNet Report is easily integratable with any platform that needs ad hoc reporting software. The API integration process is quick with no rocket science to it. 

  1. Fast report builder

DotNet Report is designed for users to build hundreds of their own customized reports for sales, marketing, finance and other uses within minutes. You’re free from frequent time lags and downtime.

  1. Flexibility

DotNet Report easily morphs with the systems it’s embedded in. It’s also flexible in that it enables you to save reports both on-premises and in cloud storage.

  1. Actionable insights

DotNet Report drives smart business decisions for its users by enabling them to draw deep, auto-generated insights at any time. What’s more, they can sort and filter data to view dozens of different drill-down options.

  1. Responsive customer support

DotNet Report users can reach out to a robust Support team through email, the website’s Contact Us page and online forums at any time of day or night. A response within 24 hours is guaranteed.

Do you need ad hoc reporting software? Schedule a demo today.

Conclusion

By now, you’ve probably made up your mind about which is the best ad hoc reporting software for your business or clients. 
If you’re not yet convinced, give DotNet Report a shot here. It’s free!

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Shift to Dotnet Report

Take the first step towards more efficient, flexible, and powerful reporting and experience the power and simplicity of Dotnet Report Builder today!

Ready to Make a Shift to DotNet Report

Take the first step towards more efficient, flexible, and powerful reporting and experience the power and simplicity of Dotnet Report Builder today!

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