How Automating Reports Reduced Time by Over 80% and Boosted Productivity, Accuracy, and Employee Satisfaction

Klimaatroute helps businesses and individuals reduce their carbon footprint through energy audits and sustainability measures. To improve efficiency in their reporting process, they sought a solution to streamline and automate report generation, allowing advisors to focus more on client interactions and less on manual tasks.

The Challenge

Klimaatroute's reporting process was labour-intensive and time-consuming. Advisors conducted onsite assessments, collected data, and then spent considerable time compiling detailed reports at the office. They often copied and pasted text from quality control files, leading to frequent errors and inconsistencies. This manual process delayed report delivery and reduced the number of assessments an advisor could complete in a given timeframe. Specifically, the process involved:

Advisors manually configuring and calculating measures, consuming 20 minutes.
Advisors writing the main text of the report, which took an average of 45 minutes per report..
Quality control officers spent an average of 55 minutes providing feedback on the written report text.
Advisors processed feedback from quality control, which took an additional 20 minutes.

Together with Klimaatroute, we aimed to address these challenges by enhancing efficiency, reducing errors, and improving overall productivity in their reporting process.

The Solution

Recognizing the need for improvement, Django Web Studio and Klimaatroute collaborated to develop the Klimaatroute Report Builder, focusing on automating key aspects of the reporting process. The project included four main components:

Automate Report Main Text and Frontend Editing

We implemented an intelligent system to automatically pre-fill report sections with approved, context-sensitive paragraphs. This allowed advisors to quickly create and customise reports based on predefined templates and variables set by quality control. We also developed a new frontend application in React, enabling advisors and quality control to collaborate more efficiently within a streamlined interface.

Enable Quality Control and Advisor to Add Comments:

We created tools that allowed quality control officers to leave comments directly on reports. This streamlined the feedback process, reduced back-and-forth communication, and significantly cut down the time quality control spent on each report.

Insert Snippets and Variables:

We introduced a user-friendly feature allowing advisors to insert text variables and predefined text templates effortlessly. This approach made it easier for advisors to customise reports without needing to copy content from different sources. Any changes made to values were automatically updated throughout the entire report, maintaining consistency and accuracy.

Edit Measures Table and Measure Description in Frontend:

We enabled advisors to directly edit and add measures within the report interface, with automatic recalculations and updates. This simplified the process of updating measure descriptions, making the reporting process more dynamic, efficient, and less prone to errors.

The Impact

The implementation of the Klimaatroute Report Builder led to significant improvements in operational efficiency and employee satisfaction:

Increased Efficiency

Manual Configuration and Calculation: Reduced from 20 minutes to almost zero due to automated measure calculations.
Writing Main Text: Cut down from 45 minutes to just 10 minutes with the pre-filled, context-sensitive paragraphs.
Quality Control Feedback: Reduced from 55 minutes to approximately 15 minutes due to the use of pre-approved text and streamlined comment tools.
Processing Feedback: Reduced from 20 minutes to a minimal amount due to the improved system.

Improved Employee Satisfaction

Automating repetitive tasks allowed employees to concentrate on more value-added activities, increasing job satisfaction and productivity.

Scalability

The scalable solution ensured that Klimaatroute could handle increased workloads without compromising the quality of their reports.

By leveraging advanced automation and user-friendly design, Django Web Studio helped Klimaatroute transform their reporting process, demonstrating what can be achieved when creativity and technical expertise come together.

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