Developing technical report deliverables is a key part of the work for any project-driven company. Whether the technical report is one element of a comprehensive project or a stand-alone revenue generator, you need confidence you can create these deliverables at a lower per-unit cost and higher efficiency.
But achieving those goals isn’t always easy. Traditional report development processes don’t equip organizations to handle more technical report volume with the same staff, which is critical at a time when labor shortages and escalating wages are driving up the cost of qualified talent. These processes are also labor-intensive and prone to mistakes, which further increases the cost of producing each deliverable.
Leading project-driven companies are replacing outdated, manual report development processes with a strategic technical report management approach that reduces per-unit deliverable costs and allows them to generate more revenue without adding staff. That’s a powerful competitive advantage!
Why Traditional Report Processes Are Costly and Inefficient
Many organizations still create and deliver technical reports using tools that aren’t intended to be used for report writing. For example, while word processing software and spreadsheets handle many tasks well, they’re not suited to a complex process that relies on data from multiple, disparate sources and requires involvement from many different people at various points.
These tools invariably require report writers, editors, and reviewers to do a significant amount of manual work, including time-consuming and error-prone duplicate data entry. The more time wasted on unnecessary steps, and the more accuracy problems that need to be corrected along the way, the higher your cost per-deliverable and the lower your efficiency. Worse, these disconnected tools don’t provide visibility into your technical report costs or what’s driving them, so you have no idea how or where to make improvements that reduce report development expenses.
How Technical Report Management Drives Costs Out of the Process
Technical report management reduces the cost of generating these deliverables by replacing disconnected tools and labor-intensive manual work with an automated, integrated, and streamlined process from end to end. The process is guided by a modern technical report management platform that is cloud-based for easy administration, intuitive for every end user, and integrated with the third-party systems and applications that provide crucial report data.
Here are just a few ways that an automated technical report management platform can drive costs out of the report development and delivery process and boost the efficiency of this important function.
- Less total time spent on deliverables. Businesses that use a modern technical report management platform like Quire spend up to 70% less time developing these mission-critical deliverables. For companies that develop a high volume of reports, the labor savings add up quickly and the opportunity to improve margin grows exponentially.
- Higher efficiency through less editing time. A technical report management platform can greatly streamline the traditionally labor-intensive process of report editing, reducing editing time while boosting efficiency and profitability. In the first half of the year, report editing time averaged just 2.45 hours for Quire TRM clients, down from 2.88 hours in 2023. That’s a 15% reduction in editing time and a 17.6% improvement in efficiency. Features like automatic application of changes across a single report or entire portfolio ensure report writers and reviewers spend less time on mundane tasks, reducing the associated labor costs.
- Improved accuracy. The more automated the process, the less chance for error. And since errors create costly rework and waste, the ability to improve technical report accuracy directly impacts the cost to create these deliverables.
- Higher productivity. A modern technical report management platform enables new hires to become productive with the report writing function faster, reducing the learning curve and equipping the team to handle more volume more efficiently.
- Better consistency. By ensuring a consistent, repeatable process, a technical report management platform ensures each report adheres to applicable standards and other requirements, reducing the need for costly rework later.
- Improved data integration. Unlike stand-alone word processing and spreadsheet applications, a modern technical report platform integrates with the many third-party systems and applications required to develop accurate reports. When report writers spend less time keying in data, the per-unit deliverable cost drops substantially.
- Robust data analytics. Many project-driven companies don’t have a good handle on how much it costs to develop and deliver a technical report. A platform with built-in analytics capabilities provides the data-driven insights to determine how much you’re spending on reports and where to focus to achieve cost reductions and efficiency improvements.
Leading project-driven organizations are driving costs out of their report development and delivery process and gaining a significant competitive advantage by leveraging the power of Quire Technical Report Management® (TRM). The Quire TRM platform streamlines, automates, and accelerates technical report development and delivery end-to-end, with analytics that equip you to make data-driven decisions that reduce costs and improve profitability.
Companies that use Quire reduce their report development time by as much as 70%. As our 1H 2024 MarketWatch revealed, these organizations are also simultaneously driving down total editing time while they grow their report volume, achieving substantial efficiency gains. Sixty percent of our largest clients accomplished these dual objectives in the first half of 2024, along with nearly 67% of mid-sized firms and almost 37% of the smallest firms that use Quire TRM.
Schedule a live demo of the Quire TRM platform and learn how we can help reduce the cost of creating and delivering technical reports.
