1. Sage Reporting Workshop
Understanding the Information/Reporting Requirement
Graham Hoyle, Cherryl Holliday 1

2. Agenda Who we are Why we are here What we know What we don’t know
The Workshop
Next Steps 2 2

3. Who we are Cherryl Holliday – Senior Business Analyst (Sage 1000)
Graham Hoyle – Business Analyst (Line 500) 3 3

4. Why we are here
Feedback Sage received from delegates at the 2008 Conference
Customer experience team and product manager Amanda Turvill
A number of themes emerged which require further definition
Two major themes were:
Information and reporting in Line 500/Sage 1000
Usability and the user interface
Objectives of this workshop are:
To understand the information/reporting requirement in an Informal interactive workshop.
Open up a channel of communication with members of this group to further define this requirement and review proposed solutions in this area and others.
Put the ‘Information’ back into ‘IT’ 4 4

5. What we know Delegate Feedback Some of the solutions used today
Wide variety of industries and sectors
Some generic and some specific information/reporting requirements 5 5

6. Delegate feedback on reporting
“Better reporting from core product”
“Better reporting in Line 500”
“Better integration with Microsoft i.e reports etc can be exported/copied in excel etc without further intervention or the use of other reporting tools”
“More work into/and with Sage BI”
“Report writer is not user friendly - could Sage not be supplied with a user friendly GUI report writer …without us having to spend £1000's.
“Integrate BI / Reporting tool, KPI display via user specific dashboard”
“Ability to save various enquiries and reports in purchasing module as excel spreadsheets using a straight forward option from the action bar”
“Import data via Excel”
“Reporting from the system other than via 3rd party software. Re-vamping report writer” 6 6

7. Some of the solutions used today
Standard Sage reports
Report writer as a tool
Standard Sage Enquiries
Product browses within the options
Drill downs
API’s
Cognos
Business Objects
SQL Reporting Services
Crystal
Dashboards: Sage 1000, QlickView, Excel, Web page or Sharepoint
Excel (exports from system, or ODBC queries)
Sage BI
Good 3rd party vendors such as: Sl-ect, and Codis Excelerator
Production of external facing document using: DBForms/Paperless/ /Work Templates 7 7

8. Let’s hear from you 8 8

9. What we don’t have
A clear definition of the reporting/information requirement
Business’s who we can work with to further define this requirement and review proposed solutions in this area and others 9 9

10. The Workshop
This workshop is designed begin to define the problem area by identifying examples where you want to obtain information/reporting from the ERP system
The examples could be:
Financial reports such as IFRS reports
Management Information to share and collaborate with colleagues
Analytical Information you need to make business decisions e.g Trend Analysis/KPI
Operational Information you need to complete a task e.g purchasing
Other?
We have split information requirement into the above categories
What we want from you is:
Fill in the further involvement form (give it to Graham or Cherryl )
Write examples on the category sheets 10 10

11. Workshop: Example Format
What types of information do you need (examples)?
Trial balance, free stock, aged debtors, sales trends, report to head office, enquiries.
Why do you want this information?
Decision making, review, audit, management meeting
How you are getting this today & why?
Sage standard report, report writer, Dashboards, excel, Cognos, SQL Reporting services, crystal, dashboards, Click View, Browse, or ‘Find’ type enquiry. Using data warehouse?
Where does it go when you’ve got it?
Print it, it, file it, save to disk, export to excel or pdf
How often?
Is it hourly, daily, weekly, monthly or yearly.
Obstacles to getting the information?
Cannot find it?.. 11 11

12. Next Steps Consolidate this information
Provide consolidation back to this group, for information and further examples
Begin to engage with those who want to be part of the development customer experience program to build better products which meet the needs of our customers 12 12