For project-driven companies, the most visible representation of your work is that final deliverable: the technical report. It embodies all the expertise, knowledge, and hard work of your talented staff. And it speaks volumes about the level of quality your clients can expect from your organization.
In industries like environmental consulting, engineering services, architecture and construction, companies routinely grapple with how to develop technical reports efficiently and profitably, deliver them on time, and meet the most demanding quality expectations. Traditional report development processes make it exceedingly difficult to keep quality high and still run a profitable operation, especially when labor is in short supply. That’s why leading companies are moving away from outdated report creation processes and adopting a more strategic approach.
The Problem: Traditional Report Writing Hampers Quality
The traditional approach to developing technical reports suffers from a host of problems that jeopardize deliverable quality and client satisfaction.
- Using multiple, disconnected systems for report generation requires your staff to enter the same data over and over, increasing the odds of errors and inconsistencies. If your reviewers catch those problems before the report goes out the door, your team will need to do rework (an inefficient and unprofitable proposition). If your reviewers don’t catch those mistakes in time, your client will be unhappy with the final product.
- A lack of standardization is another common outcome when companies rely on tools that were never intended for technical report writing. When you handle repeat projects for the same company, or a project involves creating reports for an entire portfolio, the client expects certain elements to be standardized. But when report writers use tools like Microsoft Word, there’s no easy way to keep track of and apply approved verbiage for consistency.
- The look-and-feel of the deliverable also suffers when companies use a traditional report development process. Most clients expect their reports to reflect their own branding and formatting guidelines. But when report writers start every document from scratch, using tools that weren’t built for technical report writing, it becomes near-impossible to create a visually attractive document that complies with the client’s requirements.
The Solution: Technical Report Management
Technical report management eliminates quality concerns by creating an optimized process from end-to-end—replacing manual, error-prone, siloed processes with a streamlined, automated approach. This innovative concept ensures report writers and reviewers have the tools to produce high-quality deliverables the first time, even when they’re dealing with multiple data sources, people, and systems. In turn, the organization avoids costly rework, delivers on time, and improves client satisfaction.
Technical report management requires the right platform—ideally one that’s cloud-based for ease of administration, intuitive for everyone to use, and fully integrated with all the third-party systems where the necessary data resides. Modern technical report platforms combine features ideally suited to report writers, reviewers, project managers, and service line leaders, equipping each role with the functionality to get their work done with the highest quality and efficiency.
Must-Have Features for Improving Report Quality
A platform that’s specifically designed for technical report management will include a variety of features designed to enhance the quality of the final deliverable. These are the most important quality-boosting features to look for in a TRM:
- Templates. The ability to create custom templates or re-use pre-defined templates for each report type ensures everyone (whether FTE or contractor, new hire or tenured employee) produces deliverables that are consistent and standardized, reducing time considerably.
- WordBank. With access to a custom, central library of verbiage, report writers can leverage precise, previously approved, client-specific language for uniformity.
- Report Tags. This feature allows a report writer to input recurring data just once and see it automatically populate within a single report or in bulk across an entire portfolio of reports, ensuring data accuracy and consistency.
- Automated Editing. A robust technical report management platform improves accuracy by taking changes made on one screen and automatically applying them where needed throughout a report or across a portfolio.
- Automated Workflows. Automating the handoff from one person to the next reduces the chance for error while keeping the process moving logically and efficiently. The right workflow features empower users to define workflow milestones, set automated alerts, track revision history, and monitor completion status.
- Structured Approval Process. When the technical report management platform automatically guides reviewers through a methodical approval process, the team is much less likely to miss important details or make mistakes.
- Automatic Formatting. A technical report management platform can automatically apply a company’s branding and formatting requirements to improve consistency across every report type and reduce time spent on manual QC.
- Integrated Mapping. Maps are a critical element of many technical reports, but they’re difficult to manipulate and manage in Word. A robust technical report management platform will include an integrated GIS mapping tool that creates visually appealing maps and figures with little work.
- Quality Control Features. A platform purpose-built for report writing will include the ability to lock down certain fields and set different permissions for different users. Both features prevent unauthorized changes and ensure compliance with each company’s requirements and standards.
When project-driven organizations look for a better way to meet the most demanding quality expectations, they choose Quire Technical Report Management® (TRM). It’s the only platform that streamlines, automates, and accelerates the technical report development-to-delivery process end-to-end, with analytics that enable you to make data-driven decisions that improve the bottom line.
Quire TRM revolutionizes how you create and deliver your most important deliverables at scale, with a workflow that’s automated, streamlined, and efficient from start to finish. There’s no better way to improve your technical report quality while boosting throughput and driving down costs.
Schedule a live demo of the Quire TRM platform and learn how we can improve your technical report quality.
