Anterra’s growth is built on our customers’ success using our software. As we prepare a for a big marketing campaign we are interviewing our clients to see how we have helped them and what impact Business Intelligence has had on their organization. We’re seeing clients bring up a benefit we never anticipated – closer teamwork between the finance/accounting and project management groups.
Good Reporting Breaks Down Walls Between Finance and Project Management Teams
Microsoft Surface Tablet Pricing Out – iPad competitor for Construction and Real Estate
Microsoft released pricing yesterday on the Microsoft store – click here for the Microsoft Store. The release date is listed as Oct 26. The really cool looking soft cover / keyboard is $129.
This price is comparable to iPads with full functioning Windows 8 tablet software that unlike iPads will let you save files to folders and use full versions of Microsoft Excel, Word and Outlook. I wouldn’t recommend you order for construction and real estate yet as
a) they haven’t been available for reviews yet – no one can say how well they will work
b) they don’t have cellular cards – you can only use it if you have wifi at your job site or property. Alternatively you can use your phone as a hotspot.
Microsoft plans on selling a lot of these tablets – according to the Wall Street Journal they are producing 3 to 5 million of them – you can read the article here.
Top 5 Construction and Real Estate Report Design Best Practices
We wrote a blog article a few weeks ago about reporting worst practices to help you evaluate current reports, the purpose of this post is to provide guidance when you are starting a new report.
1. Report purpose is immediately obvious, important information leaps off the page
When we work with clients on business intelligence we review reports currently in use. In many cases reports are “dumps” of information and the reader then has to wade through hundreds of numbers per page to find important information. One of the key performance indicators of a report is how many numbers you are putting on a page – simply multiply the number of columns by the average number of rows per page. For example a 8.5 x 14 report with 15 columns and 30 rows has 450 numbers per page. Consider reducing the number of columns to make the report easier to read. Also consider the purpose of the report and use red / yellow / green indicators or a bold font on the key column to make the most information leap off the page.
2. Intuitive sorting, possible multiple sorts
When you design a report think about how the reader will look for information. Would they know job numbers if there are hundreds of active jobs or would they know unit numbers if there are hundreds of tenants in a property? If readers have to flip through multiple pages of a report to find a particular job or tenant you are reducing the effectiveness of the report and the productivity of the reader. Consider what field the report should sort by and if it makes sense add a sort option to the report parameters to empower the reader to choose how the report appears.
3. Clear report title
A full title immediately tells the user what the report is for. Without a useful title, you are asking the reader to spend time reviewing the columns to interpret the report’s purpose. A report that is sorted by AR balance over 60 days titled “Delinquent Tenants” or “Delinquent Customers” tells the reader exactly what the report is designed for, “AR Report” does not.
4. Beautiful Design
Most of the time spent building reports is spent in formula creation and testing to ensure the numbers are right. As people are generally pressed for time they often publish the report as soon as it is working. Add a step to your report construction process before you start building the report – formatting. It only takes a few minutes to put sections in a report, bold totals and section headers, put page breaks in, add your logo and use a nice font. Readers appreciate a nicely formatted report and you can take pride in a beautiful report.
5. Add Date / Time Stamp
Ensure all of your reports have a date / time stamp – otherwise people rerun reports many times not knowing if the information is current enough for a decision. For example a commitment status report run yesterday afternoon is often okay to review today but an AR listing run 2 days ago isn’t current enough to review.
We’ll be writing more posts about report design, as always we appreciate any feedback or ideas you can share.
Anterra starts Blogging
We want to share our knowledge and experience with other real estate and construction professionals. Our main goals include:
Business Intelligence Technology for Construction and Real Estate
We’ll help you understand business intelligence technology and discuss how technology can help your business.
Business Intelligence Best Practices for Construction and Real Estate
We’ll show how to keep your fingers on the pulse of your business with topics such as job margin analysis, work backlog monitoring, projecting available cash and designing meaningful reports.
If you have any ideas for topics or want to see something specific covered please drop us an email at moc.h1534910075cetar1534910075retna1534910075@ofni1534910075.
iPad Losing Market Share to Lower Priced Tablets – Does this affect construction and real estate?
The Pew Research Center has released a study with some interesting results. Tablet ownership has increased from 11% of adults in July 2011 to 22% now. While Apple had a huge head start their share of the growing market is dropping rapidly from 81% of the market to 52%.
This trend will affect construction iPad and real estate iPad usage. It will be more cost effective to issue Android tablets to employees than iPads. This reduces the cost of replacement as well if they get lost or damaged. While the iPad is still dominant you should keep an eye on alternatives as their quality is improving rapidly.