The article presents an implies hierarchy for analytics that lumps analytics (and a wide range of those) with reporting, leading the reader to believe that there is some kind or hierarchy or continuum in these.
Aside from Ron's remarks, here's a stab at straightening these ideas. Reporting is more conveniently divided into the following main groups:
- Pre-defined reports - this corresponds to "canned reporting" that is issued on a periodic basis and in which the reports and their content have been pre-defined. The user has little to no freedom in changing them (an exception is if the reports are issued as a spreadsheet - a bad practice that should be discouraged unless the client explicitly asks for it). These reports seldom have interpretative comments
- Campaign or activity reports - issued at the end of each campaign (again, interim reporting sometime during the campaign is also to be discouraged) and that summarize the results, present the conclusions from whatever tests took place. These reports are issued in a pre-defined format and only the content changes
- Summary reports - quarterly, semi-annual or yearly reports that summarize the results for the time period that they cover. These are an extension of the pre-defined reports with the main difference that they tend to be heavier on interpretation and tend to refer to trends and also track results to targets
- Ad-hoc reports - as the name implies, these reports are single instances or very infrequent instances at best. Their content and design is custom for each.
- Self-serve reports - generally OLAP or some similar variant, these reports are generated by the end user, at will and according to a pre-defined set of measures, attributes, dimensions and levels. There is little to no commentary from the analyst in these reports.





Forget ROI When Selecting a DM Agency
When selecting a DM Agency be less concerned about ROI, response rate and other hard measures than about the quality of execution of the Agency. After all, the market is now so commodified that any company can claim jaw dropping results from their efforts, these top line results are un-differentiated across the segment. What differentiates DM companies these days is no longer top-line results but risk management: low error rates, fast turnaround times, the ability to begin generate reports even before the database is up and running, etc. The ability to execute flawlessly is the true differentiator in this market.
11:46 AM in Business Commentary | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)