Improved Reporting Functionality
Don't get me wrong, I love aXcelerate. I think it's a great SMS, but one area I find it sorely lacking behind competitors is in it's reporting functionality.
Compare to JobReady or Vettrak which give you tools on level with BI Reporting functionality. Using database keys you're basically able to pull together any combination of data in a single report, with and database field being used as a filter or display field.
Yes we're able to get a lot done with the aXcelerate standard reports, but it is significantly limited.
Not sure how realistic this is to introduce this into such an evolved package, but thought I'd put it out there to gauge interest/support.
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Hi Tom – thanks for this feedback. We're starting to look into improvements to our reporting system.
Can you give some examples of report data combinations that are either difficult or impossible to retrieve? I understand that flexibility is the ultimate goal; we're looking to build something that gives users both flexibility and performance.
Others feel free to contribute as well!
Brendan
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Hi Brendan. We have struggled in the past to understand when a particular assessment is next scheduled for use.... we can run a report indicating when an EVENT is next scheduled, and we can also identify which assessments are part of a MODULE/LEARNING PLAN, but we can't tie to two data sets together to tell us how long we have to work on an item before it's due to be used again. We tend to use a single assessment/topic in multiple programs that could be running through the year, so this visibility would help us manage our resource development timelines more effectively. Just one example I can think of.... thank you!
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Hi Brendan, I was excited to hear that aX is looking into improvements for the reporting system. I find that aX is currently very segregated with its data. You get info from a section of the system. It's only if aX has created allowances for us to extract cross information. For example "Linked Workshops" has been tacked onto the UoC Enrolments report, but this doesn't include booking status as "Booking Details" is another pigeonhole. I'd love to run a report that shows what workshops are booked for a class enrolment and the status of those workshops. I can't see how to do this in the system currently.
I love Tomos' idea of being able to freely choose which tables in the database you want to query. It would be great for us to choose our own combination of reporting instead of being restricted to the cross combinations aX has currently allowed.
I look forward to seeing what aX does with reporting in the future :)
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