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How to Ensure Single Source of Truth Reporting for PeopleSoft

insightsoftware -
October 21, 2019

insightsoftware is a global provider of reporting, analytics, and performance management solutions, empowering organizations to unlock business data and transform the way finance and data teams operate.

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Single-source-of-truth reporting is exactly what it sounds like: reporting based on a shared repository of facts that includes all information relevant to every user. It’s the ideal approach to reporting, but it’s rarer than people realize.

This is certainly true for PeopleSoft users. Even though massive amounts of information live inside this solution, PeopleSoft reporting is a cumbersome process, often because the data are poorly integrated.

The native PS/nVision reporting tool is complex and requires detailed technical knowledge to create new reports or modify existing ones. Often only one or two people in an organization have this knowledge. Because PeopleSoft is now such an old technology, should one of these technical experts leave, replacing their skills can be close to impossible.

Against this backdrop, it’s no surprise that the default reporting option for many PeopleSoft customers is to dump data into Excel and manipulate and format them there. When you need data from multiple modules, this will often require multiple data dumps and joining together by hand through a series of complex VLOOKUPS. Because so much of the process is manual, there is a high risk of human error. Just as troubling, every user can end up working with different figures and coming away with a different understanding of enterprise performance as a result.

Single-source-of-truth reporting is designed to get everyone on the same page. Instead of drawing from disparate sources and letting accidents and biases distort the facts, all users work from the same database. This approach to reporting eliminates a lot of unnecessary confusion and conflict while also streamlining how companies create and capitalize on their reports.

The built-in PS/nVision reporting features make it impractical to construct a single source of truth, which is why savvy users look outside the system. The team at insightsoftware has created solutions that interface directly with PeopleSoft (and over a hundred other ERPs) to establish a single source of truth in an instant and revolutionize reporting in the process. Here’s how.

Automated Data Collection

Trying to create a single source of truth by hand is a losing battle. Humans don’t have the time or focus to deal with the endless updates and revisions it would take, but automation is perfect for the task. When data are automatically pulled out of PeopleSoft and integrated into a reporting tool, that tool becomes the most important informational asset within the company. It holds the most complete, accurate, and up-to-date insights available in a format that is intuitive and accessible to all.

Incorporation of All Data

PeopleSoft reporting suffers in part because it can’t easily integrate with data from outside the system, meaning it’s unavoidable that the resulting reports are incomplete. Reporting tools from insightsoftware integrate with PeopleSoft as well as more than 140 other ERP systems, linking every source of data within a company. Information from many teams, departments, and administrative levels coexists, creating a single resource that all users can rely on for all the information they need.

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Minimizing IT Input

One reason data sets become incomplete is that users rely on IT to make the connections. IT already has plenty to do before getting enlisted to help with reporting. Therefore, the IT team has an (understandable) tendency to incorporate the least amount of data possible to complete a reporting request. With a single source of truth, you can remove IT from the equation because, with everything integrated into one place, it doesn’t take a tech expert to fill in the missing pieces. Individuals can find everything they need with ease and bypass IT in the process. Single-source-of-truth reporting sounds like it would be more complicated and high-tech; in reality, it’s the opposite.

Addition of Detail and Context

Single-source-of-truth reporting is more valuable because nothing is omitted, but it’s also more actionable. Once you’ve established an information repository, reporting tools from insightsoftware give users new ways to explore and analyze that information. Users can drill down into the facts and figures that make up key metrics to understand the forces having the biggest impact on enterprise performance. Alternately, they can condense data into sophisticated visualizations that give important context and expose truth from different angles. Even though the information is the same for all users, they have the freedom and flexibility to explore it according to their own needs.

Self-Service Reporting Process

Remember that the biggest obstacle to traditional PeopleSoft reporting is the fact that relevant data exist in so many disconnected places. The reason individual users aren’t building their own reports already isn’t that reporting is a particularly difficult process; it’s because unnecessary tech obstacles have made it difficult. With those obstacles out of the way thanks to the comprehensive pool of data at the core of single source-of-truth reporting, the reporting process becomes simpler than ever before. It’s so simple, anyone can do it—accountants, managers, and executives alike—all without needing specialized tech or financial training.

Data-Driven Culture

The best way to ensure single-source-of-truth reporting for PeopleSoft over the long run is to build a data-driven culture. Having the right reporting tools in place is a central part of that effort, but it’s not the entirety. Companies that efficiently produce reports and consistently use the insights within to advance their agenda have a fundamental belief in the value of data. They’ve invested in the necessary tech, committed to training and education, and put policies in place that encourage data-driven decision-making.

A culture committed to data is important for sustaining a single source of truth because that culture will strive to incorporate more information, link more of the information, and extend access wider into an organization. In other words, the people involved with the reporting process are as important as the process itself.

What does your PeopleSoft reporting process currently look like? Does it involve more work than you’d like and create more uncertainty than you can accept? If so, single-source-of-truth reporting is the missing asset, and it’s a lot more accessible than you expect. How accessible? Contact us to find out.