The Grid: a unique ad-hoc analysis layer

Ad-hoc reporting and analysis are critical components of modern business intelligence (BI) solutions, allowing business users to create their own reports, graphs, and dashboards on an as-needed basis.

This self-service reporting approach empowers end-users to access specific data sets from various data sources, offering real-time insights for data-driven decisions. With ad-hoc reporting tools, such as drag-and-drop visualization and SQL capabilities, stakeholders can easily explore metrics, KPIs, and answer specific business questions without relying on IT departments.

The benefits of ad-hoc reporting include optimizing decision-making, saving time, and tailoring reports to meet specific business needs, all in a user-friendly and on-demand manner. Unlike traditional canned reports or static templates, ad-hoc reporting enables everyone to drill-down into specific data, helping businesses improve profitability and data governance.

Report-ready data: A self-serve BI solution will consolidate your ERP and other business data into one one source of truth. The data should already be cleaned, transformed and structured ready for report building.

Create a new report: BI software that is genuinely self-serve will provide pre-built assets or templates that enable you to quickly create a new report, worksheet or project rather than starting with a blank canvas.

Select data elements: Choose the specific data elements you want to include in your ad hoc report. This could involve selecting tables, fields, and dimensions to build your report.

Apply Filters and Parameters: You can add filters and parameters to allow for interactivity. This lets users customize the data they see in real-time, making the report truly ad hoc.

Define Calculations and Aggregations: Depending on your reporting needs, you might need to perform calculations or aggregations on the data. Self-serve BI tools usually provide features for creating custom calculations.

Add Visualizations: Incorporate dashboards, charts, graphs, and other visual tools to present the data in an at-a-glance format that is easy for everyone to understand.

Save and Share: Once you've created the ad hoc report, save it or add it to your favorites. Most self-serve tools allow you to share your reports with colleagues or stakeholders through various means, such as exporting to PDF, sharing a link, or embedding in a webpage.

Collaboration and accountability: End-users can interact with the report, applying filters, selecting different dimensions, and customizing the view to suit their specific needs. You may also have the ability to assign users to tasks which are logged and tracked. The end user can then respond and explain the rationale behind specific data, providing you with a complete audit trail.

Scheduled Refreshes: To keep your ad hoc report up to date, ongoing data refreshes should be set up (often customized to your business needs) to ensure that all data remains current.

Security and Access Control: Self-serve BI tools usually provide user-based access control and authentication mechanisms. This type of layered permission control ensures end-users can only access and edit what they are permitted to.