Reporting Strategy draws to a close
2018 has been a significant year in the ongoing development of ESR Business Intelligence (ESR BI). ESR Release 41 (at the end of December 2018) will see the conclusion of the ESR reporting strategy with the final decommissioning of the Discoverer reporting tool (subject to final testing). The strategy has seen significant enhancements and changes to ESR BI, with many new reports to support users in their business processes and in their move to the BI reporting platform. This key and final stage of the strategy ensures that ESR reporting is based on a future-proofed/fully supported solution that we can continue to drive forward.
Key developments this year have included:
- Gender Pay Gap Reporting
- Certification Reporting
- Working Time Regulation Reporting
- Apprenticeship Reporting
- Index Tabs to support navigation
- Updated BI Syllabus and Course
- Further replication of Disco reports (Travel and Subsistence, Vehicle Management, Recruitment, Emergency Contacts)
The NHS ESR BI Team continues to develop and enhance the range of standard BI dashboards. Over 250 change requests have been raised and implemented this year, including the 1000th change in total, in order to provide the reports that organisations have requested and require to support their business processes.
Nottingham CityCare Partnership was one of the organisations that made the transition to reporting from BI early as Tom Tomlinson explains:
'Moving from DISCO to BI was an interesting process. Our organisation relied on the ‘Organisation Profile’ report that was reported from Disco, so this was one of the main reports for us to re-create in BI. This was a challenge, but not impossible, finding the right criteria and elements when creating an analysis in BI was the longest part, but with ESR Support it was made significantly easier. BI is really very user-friendly once you spend a bit of time digging around the national dashboards and learning what does what, the fact that you can copy filters from an existing analysis to a custom-made analysis definitely helps. Some of the other reports we heavily relied upon included staff requirements like Professional Registration, DBS and Appraisal reports. By ensuring we had consistent data between the two reports in Disco and BI we were able to ensure data accuracy before Disco was withdrawn, and we have actually completed our process of moving to BI well ahead of time. With the second and third phases of Disco reports being having recently been withdrawn, I would encourage everyone to start creating their dashboards, two clicks and you can have a suite of information at your fingertips. If you need a set of data regularly, no matter what it is, creating your own dashboards is a must and saves a significant amount of time.'
Tom Tomlinson, HR Management Information Officer, Nottingham CityCare Partnership
As Discoverer will be completely withdrawn from ESR on 28th December 2018, it is imperative that any remaining local Discoverer reports still being used are replicated in ESR BI as soon as possible (and before this date).
To support the transition to ESR BI, the centrally provided BI education course was redeveloped and has been well attended during the year - with 443 reporting users attending in order to improve their skills on creating and modifying analyses in ESR BI.
There is a Reporting section on our website where you can find out more information about ESR BI, including helpful documents and a report writer's guide that you can download.
If you need guidance about how to get started with ESR BI, have specific questions about the functionality, or need support in relation to the withdrawal of Discoverer, please contact your NHS ESR Functional Advisor.