A key component of their success is their ability to track and report on program metrics. Prior to engaging Ironworks, our client had been running their entire internal reporting solution on a home-grown web based system. Every report was hand coded via Active Server Pages and delivered to the user as static HTML. These reports were inflexible, cumbersome to develop, and not capable of providing the professional output required to deliver these reports to external constituents.
The primary business objective of this project was to deliver an easy to use, web based, and professional level reporting solution quickly. The solution had to encompass the overall look and feel of the existing intranet and while allowing users to easily navigate and execute reports. The reports needed to be flexible enough to allow for dynamic parameters and be able to be distributed in various formats. .
Additionally, the report solution needed to include the ability to build “report packs” for external distribution. This would involve allowing a user to select from a list of individual reports, provide parameters, and generate those reports as a consolidated PDF document with appropriate page breaks, table of contents, and hyperlinks.
Finally, the report solution needed to leverage Active Directory security and provide a number of administrative functions including sophisticated auditing capabilities.
Ironworks designed and implemented a custom, web based reporting solution for the Agency within eight weeks.
The solution was built using Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services as the report execution and delivery engine with a custom .NET web application as the user interface layer. The user interface was built utilizing an SOA/web services based architecture which allowed us to build upon the existing intranet architecture and create a consistent user experience.