Here in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, people are either “fair weather” campers or “all weather” campers. When I was a young Boy Scout, my Scoutmaster (a former Marine) could politely be described as an “all weather” camper. He had no regard for cold blowing horizontal rain or snow….we went camping anyway.
Turns out many EPM reports are designed the same way. At the start of an implementation a few reports are designed by key people and have the same look and feel. Over time as other report writers become involved and turnover occurs, the basic design look and feel starts to
What is a Starter Kit?
It is simply an Excel workbook which provides the report writer the standard tools and instructions to start from. Standard Starter Kit tools can include checkboxes, dropdowns, Macro buttons and other items. The instruction sheet provides the user with parameters to set up their report or input template. To prevent the “Campfire” phenomenon, the Starter Kit is “owned” by one or two individuals who are responsible for its design and content. Further the same individuals serve as the initial reviewers for new reports or templates, to ensure consistent design.
What a Starter Kit is not.
Why use a Starter Kit?
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A well thought out Starter Kit should help the report writer create a reporting or input tool that leads the user through convenient choices. Let’s look at an example.
In the Starter Kit Example above (partial view), the report writer is provided with a standard format containing several tools to work with. The tools included will depend on what choices are made by the starter kit designer, but some of the ones included with the example are:
The Instruction Sheet is one of the most important features of the Starter Kit. This provides the report writer with information on how to begin, what to use, standard colors, formatting standards, etc.
Now that we’ve seen an example of how a blank Starter Kit might look, let’s look at an input template using the above Starter Kit and one without.
Imagine yourself a new EPM end user. Which Input Template gives you a faster start? The Starter Kit based template guides you through dimensional choices, convenient send and/or refresh selections, as well as operational information. Also it probably looks and feels like the last template you used!
This is only one example of a Starter Kit. Depending on the organization, they can vary widely in complexity and degree of standardization. The best starter kits have been designed with general consensus of the user base as to what features are most important. As a general rule I have found that that the best report/template user experience is a result of 1) clearly communicated design which leads the user though report operation, and 2) minimum number of clicks to achieve the desired results.
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So avoid Campfire Report design and develop your own Starter Kit to improve the EPM user experience. And by all means……camp in fair weather!
For more tips like these that will increase your user satisfaction while lowering your cost of ownership, contact Column5 for a free consultation today!
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Steve Way has been a valued consultant at Column5 for over 3 years and is a debut author with this post. With decades of experience with EPM and its role in the financial processes, his abilities speak for themselves. In addition to EPM experience, Steve is an experienced entrepreneur and fisherman.
Steve Way, Consultant, US Team