Business intelligence & reporting From scattered figures to
reporting the business trusts.

GEMIS builds reporting that draws from the systems where the figures originate — including Power BI dashboards — so management sees consistent numbers without assembling them by hand.

FinanceOperationsPeopleAgreeddefinitionsReportDecision

The situation

When reporting is a manual job

When the figures a decision needs come from several systems, someone exports, copies and reconciles them before every meeting. The report arrives late, versions disagree, and the people preparing it are not doing the work they were hired for.

Signs you may recognise

  • A monthly report takes days to compile.
  • Two reports give different answers to the same question.
  • Nobody can say where a particular figure came from.
  • Managers keep their own spreadsheets rather than trust the official one.

How the engagement works

Questions first, data second

A dashboard is only as useful as the questions it was built to answer.

  1. Start with questions

    Which decisions the reporting has to support, and for whom.

  2. Find the sources

    Which systems hold each figure, and how they can be reached.

  3. Agree the definitions

    What each measure means and who owns it, before it is drawn.

  4. Design for each audience

    Executives, managers and teams each see what they act on.

  5. Keep it traceable

    Every figure linked to its source, and the reporting maintained.

What GEMIS delivers

Reporting for each level of the business

The reporting GEMIS designs and builds, in Power BI or within the system itself.

  1. Executive reporting

    The few measures leadership steers by, on one page.

  2. Operational KPIs

    Daily and weekly indicators for the teams doing the work.

  3. Sales analytics

    Pipeline, conversion and revenue drawn from the sales records.

  4. Financial reporting

    Budget against actual for the month and the year to date.

  5. Performance tracking

    Progress against targets by site, region, programme or team.

  6. Monitoring

    Figures refreshed on a schedule suited to each source, so the current position is visible.

Evidence from real projects

Where this has been done

Projects whose recorded scope shows this work. All case studies

Neither case study records which reporting tool was used, so neither is presented as a Power BI project.

Still from the Trans Hex Group case study video: the integrated management report, budget against actual.
From the case study video

Mining — diamonds

Trans Hex Group

An integrated management report across plant, mining, finance, security and HR — budget against actual, filtered by mine and period, exported to Excel and PDF. A report that took weeks became available on demand; version two added forecasts and variances.

GEMIS’s role
Stabilised the in-house system, automated the SAP feed, built the reporting into it
Status
Delivered 2017; a second version followed
Read the case study
Still from the Sonke Gender Justice case study video: records checked and approved before they reach reporting.
From the case study video

Non-profit — gender-based violence and HIV prevention

Sonke Gender Justice

Progress against targets by country and programme, and donor reports that assemble from records already checked and approved — so every number traces to a real activity.

GEMIS’s role
Designer and builder of the monitoring and evaluation system
Status
Delivered 2018
Read the case study

Questions

Common questions

The questions that come up first about Business intelligence & reporting. Anything not answered here is worth raising in a discovery conversation.

We already have reports. What would change?

Usually the work behind them. When reports are compiled by hand, the effort repeats every cycle and the result is only as current as the last export. Reporting drawn from the source systems removes most of that preparation and gives everyone the same figures.

Do all our systems need to be connected first?

No. Power BI can draw from several sources at once. What does need settling first is what each figure means and which system is its source, so the same number means the same thing everywhere.

Can we see dashboards on a phone?

Yes. Power BI has mobile apps, and dashboards can be laid out for small screens where that is how they will be read.

How current will the figures be?

That depends on the sources and how often they can be refreshed — some several times a day, some daily or monthly. We agree the refresh schedule with you rather than promise real-time reporting.

Can we trace a figure back to its source?

That is a design requirement. Each figure is defined and linked to the system it is drawn from, which is what lets people trust the dashboard instead of keeping their own spreadsheets.

Business intelligence & reporting

Which report takes too long to produce?

Tell us what it shows, who reads it and where the figures come from. We come back within two working days with a short written view and a time to talk.