Operational Reporting Versus Informational Reporting

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The majority of organizations face the same problem when it comes to accessing corporate information. It is a somewhat old problem and the organizations are long aware of it. The most suitable solution for this problem is represented by a new software technology, known as data warehouses. This new solution was met with a lot of enthusiasm mostly because it was thought that reporting was going to be handled by those data warehouses. However, this is not always possible because some types of reports need to be provided by an unique type of data warehouse.

Basically, operational reporting can be defined as a way of providing updated information and detail reporting on a constant basis. Both front-line operations and the reporting system are being handled by responsible personnel. Detailed decisions can be made easier with the help of operational reports. Opposite to these reports there are informational reports. This type of reports is used by different organizations. Because it serves the analytical community, informational reporting is seen by most as a more strategic option. Based on informational reports and the summarized data presented within them, the organizations are capable of making suitable long-time decisions. There are several differences between informational and operational reporting, the most important one being the fact that any data warehouse should be capable of handling informational reporting even if it can not handle the operational one.

For a clearer picture, operational reporting is used mostly at the transaction level. In other words, through operational reporting all daily activities are being supported. In order to achieve this, operational data reporting is based on details rather than summaries. Here is a list of some of the most relevant examples of operational reporting: production records, bank records, flight logs, transaction reports, various daily adjustments etc. The common factor of these reports, and also their most important aspect is the amount of comprised essential details. These details have a great deal of influence when it comes to important manager decisions.

Operational applications treat individual transaction data using a granular type of level storage. Because of this, it is important that any operational system has built-in report generation, in order to undertake a directly approach towards the operational reporting.

On the other hand, informational reports are being used as a mean to summarize strategical information. This way, the organizations are capable of making long-term decisions based on well documented and thorough reports. Here is a list of informational reporting examples: shipping costs, sales, revenue, employees etc.

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Source by Tudor V Bran

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