Love Your Reports: Recent Episodes
Paul B. Felix
My name is Paul Felix. Over the past two plus decades I’ve been building reporting solutions for companies of all sizes in every industry, and I’m going to share this hard-earned experience with you. We will overcome all barrier between non-existent or poor reporting solutions and the utopia of reporting, which I call reportopia. When done right, your reporting solution will be a key ingredient to overall business success.
Your data, your choice—where you store it is up to you.
While cloud vendors often make compelling pitches, their services come at a cost, and the truth is, it can add up quickly.
For mid-market businesses, every dollar counts, and decisions about using the cloud for data storage, infrastructure, computing, integration, and analytics can have a major impact. There is a lot to consider, including cybersecurity.
In this episode, join Paul and Alex as they delve into the key factors to consider when evaluating solutions and making smart spending decisions for your business's data needs.
Interested in being a guest or have a suggested topic?
Email me at Paul@leapfrogbi.com
Connect with Paul (Founder and Managing Partner, LeapFrogBI): LinkedIn
Watch on YouTube: LeapFrogBI - YouTube
Subscribe on:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Amazon
Think data solutions are only for big enterprises?
Think again.
This episode explores how small and mid-sized businesses can build effective data systems without breaking the bank.
While technology prices are dropping, overall spending continues to rise—especially in the world of data. Increased data volumes play a role, but there’s more to the story.
Join us to discover why you might be overpaying to store and process your data, and how cloud technology, while convenient, can be more expensive than you might expect.
Tune in to learn how to get the most value from your data investments.
Interested in being a guest or have a suggested topic?
Email me at Paul@leapfrogbi.com
Connect with Paul (Founder and Managing Partner, LeapFrogBI): LinkedIn
Watch on YouTube: LeapFrogBI - YouTube
Subscribe on:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Amazon
How do you measure the value of a data solution?
How much is a dashboard really worth to your business?
ROI, or return on investment, is the go-to metric for evaluating the viability of capital projects. But how does it apply to data projects?
While data pipelines and dashboards may not directly generate revenue, they’re crucial for organizing your team to drive growth and improve performance.
Does the organization have the metrics or KPIs to make good decisions?
In this episode, Paul and Alex examine the challenges of justifying investments in data technology and how to measure their true value.
Interested in being a guest or have a suggested topic?
Email me at Paul@leapfrogbi.com
Connect with Paul (Founder and Managing Partner, LeapFrogBI): LinkedIn
Watch on YouTube: LeapFrogBI - YouTube
Subscribe on:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Amazon
What are the roles in a successful data team? In this episode, Paul meets with Alex again to discuss data teams.
If all decision-making depends on good information, what's the best way to organize people to manage it?
We also reflect on the evolving role of technology. The abundance of technology at our disposal today is not making the role of people less important.
Interested in being a guest or have a suggested topic?
Email me at Paul@leapfrogbi.com
Connect with Paul (Founder and Managing Partner, LeapFrogBI): LinkedIn
Watch on YouTube: LeapFrogBI - YouTube
Subscribe on:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Amazon
All businesses depend on information systems to function. Are transactional systems sufficient?
What about spreadsheets?
Are they enough when it comes to producing reports?
With so many systems around, should growing companies invest on reporting systems? How far can you get without one?
In this episode Paul Felix (founder of LeapFrogBI) explores the whys and why-nots of using specialized reporting solutions.
With Alex Almeida he describes some of the hard questions managers and owners must confront when deciding whether or not to put resources on improving management reporting.
Interested in being a guest or have a suggested topic?
Email me at Paul@LeapFrogBI.com
Connect with Paul (Founder and Managing Partner, LeapFrogBI): LinkedIn
Watch on YouTube: LeapFrogBI - YouTube
Subscribe on:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Amazon
Welcome to More Than Reports, a podcast for business leaders looking for that edge that will allow their vision to turn into reality.
This podcast is a continuation of an audio podcast series I started years ago, Love Your Reports. I have graduated to video now and decided on a name change.
On More Than Reports, I will be sharing insights on how data solutions can help businesses grow.
Topics like Big Data, AI, and data warehousing will be demystified. I will focus on real-world applications and the value of accurate reports.
The goal is to bridge the gap between data technology investments and actual business value, helping business leaders make informed decisions.
It's not just about data, but what you do with it.
Interested in being a guest or have a suggested topic?
Email me at Paul@LeapFrogBI.com
Connect with Paul (Founder and Managing Partner, LeapFrogBI): LinkedIn
Watch on YouTube: LeapFrogBI - YouTube
Subscribe on:
Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Amazon
Send us a Text Message.
Do you feel overwhelmed by reports that lack actionable value? Join us on "More Than Reports," where we offer practical solutions and data-driven results for business leaders. I'm Paul Felix, founder of LeapFrogBI, and with 20 years of experience, I've helped businesses achieve breakthrough moments through customized reporting. Each week, we tackle real-world data challenges, answer questions about data technology, and share best practices for managing complex data environments. On our show, we go beyond the buzz to help you make the most of your data. It's not just about data; it's what you do with the data that makes the difference
A trend that we should all consider is the growing number of nomads. People are increasingly choosing to live a non-traditional mobile lifestyle. What is driving this change? How does this impact our business intelligence solutions? I'll address these questions and more in today's episode.
It is helpful to segment reports into categories. Doing so helps in describing the value each report delivers. In today's episode I'll describe the 4 categories of reports and provide examples of each.
Business Intelligence is often thought to be limited to only large organizations that can afford a team of experts to build elaborate technical solutions. In fact, nearly every company already uses business intelligence no matter how small. There are vast differences in architecture and level of automation, but BI is not optional. Business builders and operators will do what needs to be done to capture value opportunities even if this requires 100% manual data wrangling.
How long will it take to build a specific feature into your reporting solution? This is a common question that unfortunately does not have a simple answer. Today we will dive into estimates. The goal is to provide an understanding of the type of work required to complete certain types of requests. This should also explain why certain requests are estimated to consume much more time than others.
The term "business intelligence" (BI) has been around for quite a while. Unfortunately, there is often confusion as to what exactly BI means. Today I'm going explore some top vendor definitions of BI and provide my own perspective.
This week I'm revisiting a prior topic; Trust. Everything we are doing to build reportopia hinges on business users trusting the reports being provided. In this episode I'll break down one critical component of building trust; testing. With a focus on business users' role, I'll cover the testing process and discuss some of the challenges we must overcome.
Exception reports identify situations that are out of range or unexpected. Today I'll cover a few types of exception reports and discuss how they can be useful.
As organizations grow it is increasingly important for everyone to understand goals, know how to measure progress, and monitor performance. Reporting which includes the ability to drill down from company level to all lower levels can aid greatly. Today we will step through a typical scenario, forecasted sales, but the same concept can be applied broadly.
Data warehouses can be extremely valuable. Before taking the plunge, it is important to determine whether a data warehouse is a good fit for your organization. Do you have a data driven culture? Do you consider your reporting solution to be a project or a business function? Today we will cover these important questions and others in hopes of helping you determine whether a data warehouse is a good fit for your organization.
Insurance carriers, MGA/MGU, and agencies have a wide array of reporting needs. Today we will cover some of the most common types of reporting our insurance client have found valuable.
As business managers and process owners, you will likely be interviewed in an effort to understand the requirements for capturing value opportunities. Today we will step through some of the questions you may encounter during this interview.
This episode takes a bit of a detour. I'll cover company announcements then provide an overview of what a day looks like at LeapFrogBI. This may be interesting for those of you considering taking on the challenge of building your own Reportopia.
Many companies start their journey to Reportopia thinking they will use Power BI to build their entire solution. Meaning - Power BI will connect to one or more data sources, consume data, apply business rules, and present data visualizations. We call this type of solution Direct System of Record Reporting. No additional data solution is in use making this type of architecture very attractive. Today we will explore the pros and cons of this approach and identify the scenarios where Direct System of Record Reporting can be successful.
Exactly what is Reportopia? We spent some time writing down the definition that we believe best describes the utopia of reporting. While we never reach Reportopia, it is important to know what we are trying to accomplish.
Building your Reportopia can be done by one person or an entire team. In both cases, it is important to understand the roles that need to be filled. This week I'll break down the key roles into business, implementation, and support.
Dirty data is an issue that we all need to deal with. How do we ensure less than perfectly clean data doesn't prevent us from capturing value opportunities? What exactly is dirty data? We will dive into these important topics and offer a few solution approaches.
Building Reportopia is hard work. After making valuable reporting available, it is critical that reports are actually utilized. Trust is a big part of user adoption. Today we will dive into trust related the pitfalls and solutions.
Nobody said building your own reportopia would be easy! In this episode I'll discuss some of the common areas of complexity. Hard work is not avoidable, but I'll propose a few tips for keeping your solution on track to deliver on value opportunities.
How much demand do we have right now? Have we allocated resources to meet that demand? These are basic questions that nearly all businesses need to answer and monitor regularly. This episode focuses on demand and capacity reporting.
It is all too easy to get distracted by new exciting technologies. Today I’ll lay out the case for using proven technologies and staying focused on solving business problems.
Happy New Year! Another year has flown by. This episode focuses on a couple clients that built their own reportopia and as a result realized great success in 2021. These companies are examples that we can all follow and learn from. I wish you all great things in 2022.
Healthcare providers must deal with a complex payment collections process. Today we will identify a few areas within this process that can be optimized through focused reporting.
You found value opportunities. Now we need to do the required work to capture the value. I’ll outline the steps required and highlight some common pitfalls to avoid in the week’s episode. This is where the magic happens!
How exactly do you find value add opportunities that we can capture through reporting? I'll share the three questions you must ask process owners to uncover value opportunities. It is critical to focus our effort only on opportunities that we expect a positive ROI which makes quantifying the opportunity a critical first step.
Prior to building or extending a reporting solution it is critical that we identify and quantify the value that we are trying to capture. Risk reduction, expense reduction, and revenue increase are all forms of value. In this episode we review the triple constraint and review each value category.
You need better reporting, you’ve identified opportunities, and now you need to know what it is going to cost to build your solution. I’ll breakdown the method I use to determine the solution type required and the resulting costs.
The journey begins! In this fist episode we set the stage for all podcasts to follow. What is the goal of a well designed reporting solution? Who can benefit and why should you care? I’ll also introduce the podcast and provide a little of my personal background. Send your feedback to paul@loveyourreports.com.
Welcome to Love Your Reports. My name is Paul Felix. I am your host, and this podcast is dedicated to all business builders and operators out there that believe being informed leads to better decisions.
If you get excited about making a business process run like a well-tuned machine, or if you are just plain tired of dealing with reports that are late, inaccurate, confusing, too expensive to produce, or outright absent, then this podcast is for you.
Over the past 2 plus decades I’ve been building reporting solutions for companies of all sizes - in every industry, and I’m going to share this hard-earned experience with you. We are going to overcome all barrier that exist between poor or non-existent reporting solutions and the utopia of reporting, which I call reportopia.
I want you to have the information you need at your fingertips so you can make sound decisions and eliminate inefficiency from your business. When done right, your reporting solution will be a key ingredient to overall business success.
So, I invite you to subscribe. New episodes will be published every Tuesday and each show should be about 30 minutes long.
Also, send your feedback. paul@loveyourreports.com is my address. Or, if twitter is your thing, then you’ll find me @paulbfelix.
Thank you so much for listening and I hope to meet you again each and every Tuesday.