The Art of Reporting

The end of the year is approaching, which, for many organizations, means that it is time to balance the books. At this time of year, managers find themselves contemplating how their organization has performed. Have the desired targets been reached? To what extent do the procedures for next year need to be fine-tuned? One way to find answers to these questions is to run reports. TOPdesk Consultant, Jolanda Simonis, discusses several things you should keep in mind when creating reports.
TEXT: JOLANDA SIMONIS

Reporting - about what?

Reports come in all shapes and sizes. For IT or Facilities support departments, a report might comprise a list of unresolved incidents to be discussed during a progress meeting, an overview of computers that have been written off for the configuration management database or a report that provides insight into the workload of the service desk. There are more than enough possibilities, and a decent tool makes running reports a very straightforward process. It is making specific reports that many companies find

difficult and, for many, reports often end up disappearing into a random folder soon after they have been generated. Generating reports and then not taking the time to do anything with them is simply a waste of time. Reporting does not have to be an objective in itself; in fact, reports are intended to support the objectives. It is thus vital to determine first what you wish to achieve with the report, and on which data you want to report. Once you have determined the aim assigning incidents

more effectively or reducing the workload, for example you can check whether you are on the right track by examining the outcomes. When determining the aim, you need to pay attention to a number of different aspects. The term SMART is often used for this. An aim should be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timebound. By considering these aspects, you will avoid aspiring towards a vague or unachievable target. Endeavouring to reduce the number of incidents that are logged over the telephone is, for

instance, still rather abstract. You could make this more tangible by aiming to reduce the number of incidents that arrive by telephone by ten percent simply through promotion of the Self Service Desk.

REPORTS COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES

Tactical versus operational reports

Reports can be useful for organizations on both a tactical and an operational level. On a tactical level, reports support the managements responsibilities. Clients often approach me wanting to find out whether they can formulate a report that provides insight into the workload of the operators. The management can then use the results of this report to make decisions and direct the department where necessary. Operational reports, on the other hand, concern those reports that have more day-to-day applications, such as incident reports on which the division of tasks is based. This might also include status reports to investigate how many incidents have the status waiting for caller or client contact required. The operator can then contact these clients using this information. It is important to bear in mind that the intention of reporting is not to monitor the operators activities and tasks; on the contrary, reports are used to support these. The decisions that ensue from this are made to improve the way the department functions. A report on the departments workload, for instance, might lead to the managements decision to employ new staff.

The challenge of reporting

Once you have defined a clear objective for the report, you will need to examine which information you require. You will also need to check whether this information is already registered or whether the procedures for the operators need to be adjusted. To help you envisage the things you need to consider when formulating a report, I will give you an example. In theory, creating a report on the workload of the operators appears relatively straightforward. Logic tells you that you would need to look at the number of incidents

that have been closed. However, when I examine a report like this in more detail with the client, we always encounter a number of problems. The service desk processes the straightforward incidents, while the back office deals with the more complex ones. Incidents of a more complex nature take more time to resolve; thus, the back office ends up completing fewer incidents than the service desk. But does this also mean that the service desk has a heavier workload? You could then choose to include not only the number of closed incidents in the report, but also the duration of incidents. However, this is not ideal, because although the duration indicates how long the incident has been open for, it does not show how long an operator has actually been working on it. To resolve this problem, you could choose to register the time taken. You can then see how long the

Reporting workshops
Get more out of your reports with a course in reporting. You will learn how to work with report wizards, selection systems and the numerous other options that TOPdesk offers in the area of reporting. Consequently, you will be in a better position to interpret information, steer your processes and plan for the future. You will also learn to make trend analyses and generate cost overviews. For more information on courses in reporting, email info@topdesk.co.uk or call +44 (0) 207 8034210.

operator has spent working on each call and then combine this information with the number of closed incidents, giving you a more accurate picture of the workload. However, you also need to take a critical approach when examingin this information, because each operator enters the time he or she has spent working on an incident differently. Some are very meticulous when entering the time they have taken to work on an incident, while others round it up or down. Inevitably, this affects the accuracy of the report, which is important to keep in the back of your mind when making conclusions about the results.

THE INTENTION OF REPORTING IS NOT TO MONITOR THE OPERATORS ACTIVITIES AND TASKS
report. With the objective of the report in mind, you can examine the results. You could use a report of open incidents (an operational level report) to divide incidents among employees; however, interpreting reports on a tactical level is often a little more complex. If fewer incidents were closed this month than in the previous one, for example, does this mean that employees have not been working as hard? Perhaps fewer operators were working at the service desk during this time or they have spent more time on each individual incident. Perhaps fewer incidents altogether were logged this month.

Gathering and interpreting information

Once you have an idea of the data that you want to see in your report, it is time to generate it. To ensure that this information is as clear as possible, you are advised not to include too many fields at the same time. The more data a report contains, the more difficult it is to compare with other reports. You can find out more about building reports in TOPdesk in the article The Magic of Reporting with TOPdesk. Once you have generated your report, you still need to take one important step interpreting the

not rigid enough, for example, then you will need to fine-tune them. Perhaps you will need to adjust the process itself. If, for example, you conclude that not enough people use the Self Service Desk, then you could consider additional ways or campaigns to attain this goal. You might also decide that you need to register more or different types of data in the future in order to run the desired reports; but do ensure that this does not lead to an increase in the workload. Registering more data, more often can be beneficial; however, when doing so, you should have a clear aim in mind, such as being prepared to divide the workload. The end does not always justify the means and one of the biggest traps you can fall into is to report about reporting. Once you have interpreted the report and taken the necessary steps based on the outcomes, run a second one at a later stage to check whether the decisions you made have had the desired effects. The entire process of reporting will then start anew. Finally, use reports to monitor and steer your processes on a regular basis reporting should remain an ongoing process. Jolanda Simonis is a consultant at TOPdesk

The final step

You have interpreted your report use this information to steer the company processes and procedures. If it emerges that the targets were