Online Client Reporting Tools
Effective online client reporting is essential for an organization's progress and should be implemented at all levels ranging from employees to owners and executives. The right online client reporting software will make it easy to keep all of an organization's activities in check.
Account managers foremost need project progress and coordination information such as dashboards displaying Gantt charts (see dashboard example).
However, the dashboards and reports must be able to go beyond core account management data to give a holistic view of all factors that can impact on-time, on-budget delivery.
Benefits of Online Client Reporting with InetSoft
Online client reporting represents the critical reporting relationship between consultants and clients. Using an online client reporting tool such as InetSoft's StyleBI provides users an efficient platform to create reports and keep clients updated on progress.
Consultants interact, share and collaborate with many parties. Visualization dashboards works excellently in most cases. Offline distributable reports become essential for many occasions where parties must share a large amount of information. InetSoft's pixel perfect, paginated document report engine is specifically designed for these cases.
More About InetSoft Online Client Reporting Tools
Visualization dashboards are the most intutive ways to understand client information. However, not all dashboards are created equal. InetSoft's web app can easily connect to client data to create self-service dashboards with rich built-in interactivity and customization.
For successfull delivery of projects, consultants must utilize all project related data, for example, supply chain and issue tracking system data. These systems are normally scattered. Some third party data may even be in Excel files. InetSoft's data mashup makes data processing a light-weight, business user self-serviceable process with great efficiency.
A Postcard Mailing Company’s Transition from Datapine to InetSoft for Online Client Reporting
In the world of direct marketing, postcard mailing companies occupy a surprisingly important niche. While many marketers chase digital-only strategies, physical postcards remain a highly effective medium, particularly for reaching local customers or reinforcing brand recognition through tangible touchpoints. A mid-sized postcard mailing company, accustomed to juggling multiple campaigns for retail, healthcare, and service-based clients, recently found itself constrained by the limitations of its existing business intelligence tool, Datapine. Though Datapine had given them a starting point for visualizing campaign performance, the platform proved insufficient when their reporting needs grew more complex, particularly as their clients demanded real-time, web-accessible insights into mailing outcomes. This challenge sparked their eventual move to InetSoft, which transformed not only their online client reporting but also the way they collaborated and delivered value in an increasingly competitive market.
Datapine initially offered the company an attractive promise of easy dashboard creation and drag-and-drop analytics. For internal use, the company could view metrics like cost per piece, overall campaign spend, and delivery confirmations in a reasonably functional environment. Yet, as the business scaled, shortcomings became clear. Datapine’s dashboards were not as easily embedded into client-facing portals as advertised, and the customization options for presenting white-labeled, branded reporting interfaces were limited. Clients, who had come to expect self-service analytics similar to what digital campaign platforms like Google Ads offered, grew frustrated by static reports and occasional delays in data refresh. Instead of empowering clients, Datapine left the mailing company spending more time fielding routine report requests and exporting spreadsheets than engaging in strategic campaign analysis.
The decision to transition to InetSoft arose from both necessity and opportunity. The postcard mailing company realized that client retention hinged on its ability to present campaign results in a clear, interactive, and professional online format. InetSoft’s platform offered exactly what was missing: a robust, web-native reporting system that could be embedded seamlessly within the company’s client portal. Unlike Datapine, which leaned more toward internal business intelligence use cases, InetSoft emphasized external reporting scenarios, supporting custom branding and user-specific access permissions. This difference meant that clients could log in securely, view their campaign dashboards in real time, and interact with their data without requiring the mailing company to generate and distribute custom reports manually.
One of the most significant gains came from InetSoft’s data mashup capabilities. Postcard campaigns involve more than just mailing lists and printing orders—they require tracking across postal service confirmations, geographic targeting, and client-supplied sales data to evaluate return on investment. With Datapine, integrating these diverse data sources required cumbersome workarounds, often involving manual preparation before upload. InetSoft streamlined this process by connecting directly to multiple sources, including the company’s CRM, postal APIs, and client-uploaded sales records. As a result, dashboards could display end-to-end campaign performance: how many postcards were mailed, how many were confirmed delivered, response rates by geography, and estimated revenue impact. This level of transparency not only elevated reporting quality but also reassured clients that their marketing spend was being monitored with precision.
Another notable benefit was the adaptability of InetSoft’s dashboards for different types of clients. Small businesses running a single mailing per quarter did not need the same level of granularity as national retail chains conducting weekly campaigns in multiple regions. With InetSoft, the mailing company could design tiered reporting templates: simplified, high-level overviews for small clients, and advanced, drill-down dashboards for enterprise accounts. This flexibility helped them align reporting with client expectations and avoid overwhelming less sophisticated users while satisfying the data-heavy demands of larger, data-driven organizations. The transition also reduced the workload of their account managers, who could now focus on campaign strategy rather than answering basic questions about response rates or delivery timelines.
InetSoft’s emphasis on interactivity proved to be a game-changer. Clients accustomed to static PDF exports from Datapine could now log in and slice their campaign data themselves—by region, time frame, or customer demographic. They could filter for campaigns targeting a specific ZIP code, compare response rates across different postcard designs, or view delivery performance trends over time. This empowerment shifted the relationship between the postcard mailing company and its clients. Instead of being seen as a mere service provider handling logistics, the company now played the role of a strategic partner, equipping clients with tools that informed their marketing decisions in real time. Such a shift enhanced trust and deepened client relationships, strengthening retention rates in an industry where repeat business is crucial.
The financial implications of the switch also deserve attention. While Datapine’s licensing structure was initially affordable, its scalability became costly as the company expanded reporting access to more clients. InetSoft’s model, which supported embedding and multi-tenant architectures, proved more economical in the long run. The ability to create secure, role-based dashboards for dozens of clients without ballooning costs meant the company could standardize reporting as a value-added service rather than treating it as a premium upsell. This efficiency not only reduced overhead but also allowed the postcard mailing company to differentiate itself from competitors still reliant on emailed spreadsheets or outsourced reporting solutions.
Internally, the transition to InetSoft also boosted morale among the operations and analytics teams. Employees had been frustrated by the bottlenecks and manual interventions required under the old system. InetSoft’s intuitive interface and automation options enabled analysts to spend more time exploring data for patterns and less time cleaning and reformatting it for export. Account managers gained confidence in client meetings, knowing they could demonstrate live dashboards rather than rely on outdated screenshots. Even the IT department, which previously had to mediate frequent requests for custom integrations, appreciated InetSoft’s compatibility with diverse data sources and straightforward deployment.
Looking back, the postcard mailing company’s decision to move from Datapine to InetSoft illustrates a broader truth about analytics in client-facing industries: the reporting tool must not only support internal decision-making but also deliver value directly to customers. For this business, reporting was more than a back-office function—it was an extension of the service itself, influencing client perceptions of effectiveness and accountability. InetSoft’s platform allowed them to elevate that service, providing interactive, web-based, branded reporting that aligned with modern expectations for transparency and self-service analytics. The result was not just smoother operations but a stronger market position, one where the company could confidently claim to be both a postcard mailing specialist and a provider of actionable marketing intelligence.