Reporting software plays an important role in business operations. It helps analytical teams in generating continuously updated information of the key areas of operations. This data is then sent to other team members who monitor and make adjustments to check business performance. Reporting is majorly an initial stage while processing information to achieve goals that deliver interactive and actionable data. This software is mainly used to transform the raw data into actionable data. The reporting helps the planned company goals in becoming more useful.
360Quadrants shortlisted and categorized the top vendors offering the best reporting software. This analysis helps buyers looking for reporting software to learn about and select the most appropriate software as per their requirements. These quadrants are released after a detailed analysis of vendors along with their products and business strategies and are placed on a quadrant, which is updated quarterly.
360Quadrants conducts SWOT analysis and helps software vendors to learn more about new opportunities and scope for improvements. 360Quadrants offers a comprehensive list of top vendors in the reporting software space and narrows down the vendor selection process.
Reporting tools
Reporting tools are used to collate and compile information in an easy-to-understand format from a central database, spreadsheets, or from multiple sources. The software represents complex data in multiple and insightful formats for several purposes. The tools help reduce the manual effort in the synthesis of the report that makes the analysis process much faster and accurate.
Reporting tools play an important role in business operations. The analytics team generates constantly updated information on crucial areas of the business, which can then be passed to the monitoring team for making adjustments or just generating reports. The user can check and compare the line of tools that can be used to get detailed and faster reports. Reporting tools, analytics tools, and business intelligence tools can be used by business professionals to analyze and reveal patterns and insights about company data.
Reporting tools are used to create reports regarding company operations, financials, sales, marketing, human resource management, and for various other areas. These provide detailed information to help make tough decisions regarding underperforming personnel or departments.
Effective reporting and analytics tools use a wider scope of reporting techniques to offer valuable information to make insightful business decisions. Reports based on inventory, production, sales, and marketing should be examined on a consistent basis to reveal the latest trends and business opportunities.
Benefits of reporting software
Reporting software is gaining due importance in small and large businesses, and if the software is used appropriately, enterprises can derive the following benefits:
- Reporting software provides users intuitive tools to easily organize their own reports from a multiple and growing number of data sources. Reporting tools offer a reporting structure that supports all information delivery methods and formats.
- The software connects with information sources, collects data, and deliver insights in the detailed form of appealing data, graphs, and charts so that anybody can find useful and meaningful information that provides greater visibility for your data.
- It delivers the data in an attractive form, which can make the data more meaningful,useful, readable, and presentable.
- The software allows developers to create customized reports based on an intuitive visual design environment, reusable and reprocessing report components and several ready-to-use objects, charts, and tables.
- Reporting software can create interactive reports on cash flows, employee attendance and performance, income statements, human resource and benefits administration, application performance, the status of lead generation, sales figures, provide insights about key product indicators, profit and revenue by salespersons, etc.
- As you generate reports based on business data, finding the right time to review the collected data and derive conclusions regarding crucial business decisions is a vital function for businesses that are moving forward.
Top 10 Free Reporting Software
JasperReports
Jaspersoft reporting software is one of the most prevalent data analytics service providers in the industry. This service is generally written in Java and is registered under GPLv2. It supports many exporting formats, like HTML, PDF, XML, and CSV. JasperReports is well-suited with numerous databases.JasperReports offers the following features:
- JasperReports Studio – The studio is based on Eclipse and helps businesses with designing reports. Businesses can use it to create complex reports such as pictures, crossovers, or subreports
- JasperReports Library –This is an open-source data reporting database
- JasperReports Server – It’s an autonomous, embeddable reporting server. It’s proficient enough to assess data, and it also provides planned task solutions
- Jaspersoft ETL – It’s an ETL framework that users can effortlessly deploy and implement: this way, they can create a complete data store and data set.
FineReport
One of the main advantages of FineReport reporting software is the ability to use it without the restrictions of time and function. The tool allows users to instantly produce and export data or print uneven, complex reports. FineReport also has comparable features to Microsoft Excel reporting solutions: importing data in clusters or guaranteeing suitability while creating reports. FineReport software stands out from the mass owing to its data entry capabilities. It also allows the user to write data back to the foundation through the web reports introduced by FineReport. And lastly, dissimilar open APIs make this tool simple to use. In the meantime, other tools naturally need integration with numerous other systems.
JFreeChart
JFreeChart is a reporting solution that is based on Java. Businesses can use this software to produce pie, bar, Gantt, and area charts, create mixed graphs or dashboards. The tool also allows users to export these files in JPEG or PNG formats. JFreeChart is one of the most steady and frivolous reporting tools. It also supports various chart formats.
iReport
iReport is a design service that has been created for JasperReports Server and JasperReports Library. With the help of this system, businesses can generate complex documents, such as sub-reports, imageries, charts, or cross-tables, and they can translate the document to numerous file formats.
Pentaho
Pentaho is a free reporting software that has numerous functionalities accessible, such as the reporting engine, reporting designer, and reporting SDK. The Pentaho Community Version is registered under ASL or Apache Software License. With the help of this software, users can convert the prepared files to the following formats: PDF, Excel, HTML, CSV, and XML. The obtained files can change dissimilar sources to clear data.
BIRT
BIRT is a data reporting software that is based on Eclipse. It allows users to create reports and embed them later on in web applications or clients. There are two segments of BIRT capabilities: a graphic designer and the runtime features. The first one allows users to build any BORT design, while the second can be used in any JAVA background. BIRT provides an extra diagram engine capability that allows users to sync it to any BIRT diagrams. Lastly, the design patterns are stored as XML files. Users can also access numerous databases such as SQL databases and jfire script objects.
Seal Report
Seal Reporting Software is the best reporting software meant for Microsoft .NET framework written completely in C# language. It offers anall-inclusive framework, allowing users to create dashboards and report data from any database daily. The main function of this tool is streamlining the setting up process and dashboard design.
Open Reports
Open Reports is a web-based data reporting software that allows users to generate animatedly generated files in HTML, PDF or XLS format through a web browser. This software was created using Java. Open Reports software supports several kinds of data reporting engines, such as JFreeReport, Eclipse BIRT, and JasperReports.
Easy Report
EasyReport reporting software is actually a Microsoft Excel plug-in that is written in C#. One of its top capabilities is the instinctive, easy to use design – the system is certainly easy to use. This software’s main competencies are translating a row, and column structures in SL statement to HTML tables. An Easy Report is compatible with Colspan and RowSpan attributes.
SpagoBI
SpagoBi is a totally open-source collection that has been created and managed by SpagoBI lab’s Engineering Group. This reporting software offers data analytics capabilities, along with old-style reporting, charting competencies, and modified solutions like geo-location analytics, social network analytics, self-service analytics, and what-if analytics. This reporting software also has the timing of task functions. It supports query engines such as Hive for the big data solution.
360Quadrants Evaluation Approach
360Quadrants selected and assessed the top reporting software vendors. These vendors were evaluated based on more than 90 carefully selected data pointers gathered from product and business strategy assessments of companies, and inputs received from buyers and industry experts. All these parameters were allocated weightages, post which, inputs were assessed. This helped analysts in computing the absolute score based on which, the reporting software providers were ranked and placed on the 360Quadrants.
About 360Quadrants
360Quadrants is the largest marketplace looking to disrupt USD 3.7 trillion of technology spend and is the only rating platform for vendors in the technology space. The platform provides users access to unbiased information that helps them make qualified business decisions. The platform facilitates deeper insights using direct engagement with 650+ industry experts and analysts and allows buyers to discuss their requirements with 7,500 vendors. Companies get to win ideal new customers, customize their quadrants, decide key parameters, and position themselves strategically in niche spaces, to be consumed by giants and startups alike. Experts get to grow their brand and increase their thought leadership. The platform targets the building of a social network that links industry experts with companies worldwide.
360Quadrants will also be launching quadrants in fields such as HR Software, Employee Monitoring Software, and Employee Scheduling Software.
