For many of us getting started on something is often the hardest part.  As Apptio professionals we often get asked to create custom reports.  Putting that first proverbial pen to paper?  Nightmare!  So how can we make that easier on ourselves?  Use a template! 

Let’s put ourselves in a scenario where we’ve been asked for a State of the Union report for our C-Suite.  We’ve been told that the report is needed, but we’ve only gotten a bare minimum of information.  We know that they don’t want a deep dive into any specific item, but they want a general overview of multiple topics.   So now that we know the report is needed let’s ask ourselves a few questions:

·         Why are we making this report?

In this case we know that the reason for the report is that our C-Suite are looking for a State of the Union overview.  This leads me to believe that they’ll want to be able to see a higher level overview of multiple expense types. 

·         Who’s my target audience?

We know our audience is our C-Suite in this example.  This may affect how we layout or how we show data.  For instance we know they will probably be most interested in Months, Quarters, or Fiscal Years.  This can help us decide how we’re going to display our data.

·         What’s the most important data points I need to show in my report?

C-Suite State of the Union reports often start with KPI’s that can give insight into overall spend or spend by a higher-level subject such as labor, application costs, vendors or others.  Lower in the reports are often the supplemental data for those subjects.   We’re going to use this standard for our report template.

Give yourself time to play

So now we know the Why/Who/What for our report creation how can we templatize our reports instead of having to create them by scratch? 

First … Have fun!!  When you’re first creating your report, you have a fantastic opportunity to simply play with differing layouts.  Give yourself time to try different options and just play with your data.  What looks best?  What layouts seems to let the data flow the easiest?  Remember that people, in Western countries at least, normally read from left to right.  This means their eyes follow a kind of Z-pattern.  Use this natural eye flow to your advantage as you play with different layouts. 

Next begin placing components generally where you think they should go.  Attached you’ll find a PPT template I created for my own C-Suite State of the Union Report.  When I created this at first, I simply laid out my report in general terms.  Once I found a simple layout strategy I liked I used the Position and Size commands to finalize my report. 

Using Position and Size

Now that you’ve gotten your report laid out in a basic fashion let’s put the finishing touches on it.  Right click on your components and in the pop up menu choose “Position and Size”.  First confirm that you are placing your component exactly where you want it.  Once you’re sure of the position record the position and size of the component.  If you’re making multiple components in a row, such as creating multiple KPI that would be laid side by side, you can use the Size values for each, only changing the Position values.  By the time you’re done now it’s time to create our layout template. 

Creating your Template

We’ve just created our first report layout we’re going to templatize so now we’re going to record our template.  For my example I created a ppt slide that has a visual representation of my report.  It was easier for me since It gave me a visual reflection of my report template.  This isn’t strictly needed, you could simply use a word document.  The key thing is to clearly provide the type of component you’re going to place in your report and where it’s going to go.  

Example:

·         KPI 1 – Pos:  13 x 175, Size 212 x 121

·         KPI 2 - Pos:  383 x 174 Size 212 x 121

·         KPI 3 - Pos: 753 x 174, Size 212 x 121

Once you’re done test out your template.  In my case I simply created a brand new report, selected the type of component, and then used Position and Size to put it where I needed it.  It took me almost no time at all to get a basic State of the Union report laid out.  I didn’t need to worry about where things would go or what I’d put where.  Using the template was much faster!   Once I was done here was my final layout;

This is a pretty simple template, but it should give you a good starting point in creating your own.  More than anything though it should get your creative juices flowing!  Now you don’t have to worry about having a good starting point.  Instead you’ll already have half the work of report creation done.  Now you can concentrate on adding appropriate data into your report as needed without worrying where it will all go.