A Comprehensive Guide To Ad Hoc Reporting For SaaS

“Why should I give my users ad hoc reporting? They don’t want to create reports. Half of them barely use Excel.”

We get variations on this question from software vendors all the time. They know their product needs some kind of analytics engine to stay competitive in the market, but they’re reticent to make user-generated reports a priority because they’re concerned introducing a new, complex tool will alienate users and hurt adoption.

And then there are the companies who know they want ad hoc reporting to be part of their BI offering but don’t know what to look for when comparing solutions.

This guide addresses these and other concerns around ad hoc reporting by defining terms, relaying case studies, and illustrating how self-service analytics benefits both software-as-service (SaaS) providers and their clients. We explain how casual users fit into the ad hoc picture and describe essential reporting features to select for in the market, concluding with advice on the BI evaluation process from ten software professionals who experienced it first hand.

We hope this resource will help you and your team find the analytics solution that best meets your business requirements.