Crystal Reports Administration: Handling Report Requests

It starts out simply enough. Roger in Accounting wants a custom report. But then, so does everybody else. Things mushroom. Before you know it, you are spending huge amounts of time--which you don't have--just producing reports.

And you are getting nothing done, outside this role of being a report vending machine. You now have no hope of being a respected member of the team, unless you can break out of this role.

How can you avoid such a situation? How can you remedy such a situation, if you are already in it?

Since many Crystal Reports administrators are already in this situation, let's start with how to get out of the whole you inadvertently dug for yourself. Then, we'll look at how to prevent this.

Correcting the situation

You can't just tell people, "I'm too busy," and you can't just keep working in a non-value added function of being a report vending machine. So, what can you do? In short, you will have to make your case for setting a new policy. Here are the steps:

1. Discuss the situation with your manager or primary client contact. Explain that you have handled the report requests incorrectly, and are now much like a swimmer trying to carry "just one more item" as a favor across the English Channel. You are sinking, and you can provide adequate service to end-users only if some changes are made.
   
2. Propose a report request policy (see below), and state this is a best practice, industry standard, lean thinking model, or whatever. Frame it as being in the best interests of the company.
   
3. Talk personally with some of the end-users (those who are most influential and those who take the most of your time). Let them know an announcement is coming out and you wanted to give them a "heads up." This personal touch really helps reduce the political whiplash. When talking with these folks, keep things brief and to the point. Let them know the whole reporting system will function more smoothly with the new procedure. Tell them you would like their feedback on the procedure after they've used it for a bit, so you can "recommend any needed corrections." Take the position that you are someone who implements policy, but doesn't make it. Now that these folks feel they've been informed and consulted, their initial response to the change is much more likely to be positive.
   
4. Do not accept any more custom requests outside the new procedure (see "Preventing the situation," below). If you do this even once, you will be back where you started with little chance of ever getting out.

Preventing the situation

To prevent the report vending machine situation, you must establish a procedure for report requests. But, you must also establish the correct mindset in end-users. They need to understand there is a big difference between a request (or suggestion) and a directive. If someone says, "I need a report that does X and Y," that doesn't mean you are going to give that person such a report. If you do, you will find yourself devoting excessive time to simply fulfilling a myriad of requests for different formats and other minor changes that end-users should handle themselves.

Here are the steps for keeping report requests in the realm of sanity.

1. Use a tool like cView to provide end-users with the power to customize their own reports. This alone will take care of 90% of the issues that lead to custom report requests. Most report requests don't involve new information--they involve a new way of presenting the same information.
   
2. Establish a Report Committee. This group (of 3 or 4 people) might meet (physically or via some electronic means) once a month to establish and review report standards and policies. End-users often want a custom report because the system doesn't provide what they want due to an administrative weakness. For example, the sales VP never gets timely cost reports and therefore can't establish the right amount of "headroom" for the sales reps. The issue here should be handled at the system level, not at the individual report level. This committee will serve as an advisory panel to help you decide how best to tackle these issues within the limitations of the company. So, be sure you get at least one senior person on your committee. Don't staff it with techies. You want folks who can help you avoid landmines and also help you get things done.
    
3. Establish a central contact for all report issues. End-users should address their concerns to a central person, who should then determine whether the issue should require a one-time custom report (urgency is the over-riding factor, here). This person would also inform the Report Committee of the pertinent information, so they can decide if a new regular report is required. You may well be that person. If so, make it clear that your power is limited by policy, but you will "work on your behalf." If you've heard politicians proclaim how they have "fought for you" on this or that issue, you have a pretty good idea of how this approach should work. You want to remove yourself from having to negotiate based on relative power or how obnoxious someone can be. You want to replace that with a "needs-based" system that relies on policy rather than personal persuasion.
    
4. Create a Report Request form. This should be electronic, rather than paper. Otherwise, you will be encouraging the troglodytes to inundate you with paper regarding electronic reports they aren't going to read. The form needs to be simple, yet address the key report requirements. You can look at any of the reports now being used to determine what these requirements should be. Try to limit the information to choices you provide in the form. The less open-ended this is, the easier it will be for you to handle the requests. However, you do need to leave an area for "Other." This way, your form doesn't frustrate the end-user. After you design the form, sit down with an end-user to see if the form needs changes. The goal of the form should be to allow users to articulate what they need in the way of reports, without giving them the impression they can have anything they want.
    
5. Stop doing repetitive report runs. It's a big time-waster and cost-raiser for a CR administrator to manually run reports as a matter of course. Why spend your entire morning running routine reports? You know the drill. You get to work three hours early, because you have to run 55 different routine reports for end-users who need them in time for the 0800 strategy meeting and for end-users who need them in time for meeting X at 0900, and so on. You eventually establish a midnight shift to come in and run those reports--very expensive! A far better way is to use cViewMANAGER to run those reports automatically.
    
6. Evaluate the report request process, personally. Yes, you have a committee established for doing this. But, it is a committee and not a group that draws a salary just to watch over the report process. That means they will leave some proverbial stones unturned. Maybe some really big stones. Now that you've saved all this time via the steps above, invest some of it to ensure that end-users aren't frustrated by their Crystal Reports. Walk through the whole report process with them, and listen carefully to what they have to say. Don't defend anything or make any excuses. Instead, make sure you understand what it is they don't like and what they would like. Then, work on ways to provide them with what they want. Word will get out that you are a real asset to the company. That bodes well for you in this age of disposable workers.