Evaluating the impact of operational reports

Abstract

New technological developments allow for an increase in data generation. There is a parallel increase in business intelligence systems. As a result, numerous operational reports are continuously developed to measure operational performance. Many studies state that data-driven reporting aids valuable decision-making. However, reports need to be evaluated to identify the extent of their impact on operations. This paper provides a review of current evaluation methods, which shows that user surveys are most commonly used. These surveys are limited, as they only indicate reporting quality. Little has been done to quantify the impact of reporting. In this paper, an evaluation method is developed that assesses both the qualitative and quantitative impacts of operational reports. This method is then applied to water management and energy management reporting case studies in the mining industry. The quantitative impact ranged from R0.5-million to R7.3-million and from R0.3-million to R65.0-million for the two case studies respectively.