Everything you need to know about RMM reporting in IT

When it comes to the success of your organization, IT providers play a critical role. Whether you work in-house as part of an IT department or provide services for a range of clients as a Managed Service Provider (MSP), your efforts are crucial in ensuring that the day-to-day operations of companies run smoothly and securely. At the heart of this success lies an effective IT reporting strategy.

With the importance of IT pros, comes the importance of their tools, such as remote monitoring and management (RMM) software, which many use to get the most accurate and advanced reports. 

In this article, we’ll dive into all things IT and RMM reporting to paint a comprehensive picture of use cases, benefits, and advancements. 

Fundamental use cases for IT reporting

IT reporting is an essential aspect of effective IT management, providing critical insights and data-driven decisions to enhance organizational performance. Fundamental use cases for IT reporting include monitoring system performance, where detailed reports help identify bottlenecks and optimize resource allocation. 

Security reporting is another crucial use, offering insights into potential vulnerabilities and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. IT reporting also aids in asset management by tracking the lifecycle of hardware and software, enabling better budgeting and procurement decisions. 

Additionally, reporting on helpdesk performance can highlight areas for improvement in customer support, ensuring higher satisfaction rates. These use cases collectively empower IT departments to operate more efficiently, proactively address issues, and align IT strategy with business objectives.

RMM reporting and analytics

RMM reporting and analytics like Atera’s are pivotal for maintaining a robust IT infrastructure. These tools provide real-time insights into the health and performance of IT environments, allowing for proactive maintenance and swift issue resolution. 

RMM reporting enables IT teams to monitor key metrics such as system uptime, hardware performance, and network stability, ensuring optimal operation and minimizing downtime. Through detailed analytics, IT managers can identify trends and patterns that may indicate potential problems, allowing for preemptive action before issues escalate. 

Additionally, RMM analytics facilitate informed decision-making by offering data-driven insights into resource utilization and capacity planning. By leveraging RMM reporting and analytics, organizations can enhance operational efficiency, improve service delivery, and ultimately drive higher levels of client satisfaction.

Understanding IT reports and analytics

There are a few different types of IT reports, and it is important to understand when to use each type and how to best interpret the data that you find. Remember, data without analysis does not tell you much! Let’s take a look at a few common types of IT reports: 

Downtime and outages reports: No matter how downtime or outages were caused, cybersecurity can be a risk here. It is important to understand all of the times an outage got in the way of business activity, the effects that it had, and more. When you analyze this report, you can determine if your downtime prevention solution is working or if you need to look elsewhere.

Value reports: Sometimes, IT reports are used to demonstrate value to stakeholders in your company. For instance, IT reporting to finance professionals, like a company’s CFO or accounting team, is a common practice. IT reporting helps cement your department’s place in the company’s toolbox and showcase how the IT team helps overall productivity for the business. 

Service costs and utilization: These are somewhat similar to value reports in that they help categorize how an IT department uses its resources. That way, you can ensure the best value by paring down your tool kit to only the resources you need and ensuring that you use those resources effectively and efficiently. 

User-centric reporting: While some reporting helps illustrate the IT department’s value and focuses on making the department more efficient, others examine the effect the department has on users. User-centric reports look at IT reporting metrics like assets, inventory, ticketing, ticket resolution time, and more. 

User-centric reports are one of the most important features of strong analytics and IT reporting software. That’s because these reports can help your team improve IT service delivery and provide the best (and most efficient) experiences to clients. 

Benefits of automated reporting

There are numerous benefits of making your IT reporting system more streamlined. You can quantify – and qualify – the success of your department through strong reporting tools. IT reporting gives you the chance to demonstrate value, increase efficiency, troubleshoot issues before they occur, maintain a strong grasp of assets and inventory, and so much more. 

But if you are relying on manual reporting, there is a higher chance of error – not to mention, it can be very time-consuming. Instead, it is best to invest in a top-tier RMM (like Atera) that offers automated report creation and sharing tools. With automated reporting, you can…

• Increase IT efficiency, allowing your team to focus on more strategic projects.
• Boost accuracy with consistent data collection and analysis, which in turn can lead to better and more informed decision-making. 
• Save money by reducing the time and effort spent on manual tasks. 
• Increase security by running regular reports and addressing potential vulnerabilities before they can be exploited. 
• And more!

Asset and inventory tracking in IT reporting

Asset and inventory tracking is an important component of an IT reporting structure. With automated asset and inventory tracking, you can easily learn more about hardware distribution, software inventory, Microsoft Office and other operating systems distribution, types of antivirus software and their license and update statuses, hardware types and sizes, and detailed server and workstation configuration and status. 

All of this information can in turn help you get a better sense of your IT department inventory – you will know what needs to be replaced and when and you can better respond to any problems that come up. Plus, you will be able to make more informed budgeting decisions when you know what may need to be fixed and replaced soon. 

Advanced reporting in IT management

Advanced reporting in IT management is a game-changer for organizations seeking to optimize their IT operations and drive strategic initiatives. Unlike basic reporting, advanced reporting leverages sophisticated analytics and visualization tools to deliver in-depth insights into complex IT environments. 

It enables IT managers to generate comprehensive reports that cover a wide range of metrics, from system performance and security compliance to user activity and incident response times. With advanced reporting, organizations can track and analyze historical data to identify trends, forecast potential issues, and make data-driven decisions. This level of detailed reporting supports proactive IT management, allowing for timely interventions and strategic planning. 

Furthermore, advanced reporting tools often integrate with other IT management systems, providing a unified view of the entire IT landscape and enhancing overall efficiency and accountability. 

By harnessing the power of advanced reporting, organizations can not only streamline their IT operations but also align their IT strategy with business goals, ensuring sustained growth and success. When you create reports that better match your business needs, you will have more relevant insights, a chance to be more productive, and the ability to make informed choices.

Atera’s approach to robust reporting

If you are looking for an example of advanced IT reporting software, take a peek at what Atera has to offer. While our product comes equipped with many automatically generated reports that are pre-set when you onboard the system, you also have the option to create your own advanced reports to examine more complex queries and discover more about your operations – either for the company as a whole or for your  IT department specifically.

Atera has many reporting features, including customer satisfaction reports, inventory reports, technician performance reports, auditor reports, patch management and automation feedback, and more. Plus, you can even set up scheduled reports to conduct regular reporting you would like to see on a consistent basis. But with our advanced reporting tools, all of this just got even better. 

Let’s take a closer look at how Atera’s advanced reports are set up…

Real-world applications: Atera’s advanced reports in action

You might already know that Atera has an intuitive user interface, considering our industry-leading user interface reviews. If you are an existing Atera user, you’re also probably familiar with the various tiles and reports initially pre-set withing our platform. Adding more advanced reports is a quick and simple task, and our product is ideally set up to make these changes intuitive. 

For instance, let’s say we want to run a report to see our devices based on when they were last rebooted. To do so, you’d use the custom report generator within the “Advanced Reports” section of our reporting pane. With our easy-to-use search function, you can just type in the general term “reboot,” and then select the relevant data set from the options that appear. 

Then, you can get into granular detail with the type of data and features you want to see in your report. We even have this YouTube video where Ari will take you through these features visually. 

This is just one of many possibilities when you are using the advanced reporting tools that come with Atera’s RMM software. 

Customizing reports for strategic insights

Customizing IT reports for strategic insights is essential for transforming raw data into actionable intelligence that drives business growth. By tailoring reports to meet the specific needs and goals of an organization, IT managers can highlight the most relevant metrics and trends. 

Custom reports enable the identification of key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with business objectives, such as system uptime, response times, and security compliance. This customization allows for deeper analysis of operational efficiency, resource allocation, and potential risk areas. 

Moreover, personalized reports can cater to different stakeholders within the organization, providing executives with high-level summaries while offering detailed technical insights to IT teams. With customized IT reports, organizations can make informed decisions, optimize IT infrastructure, and strategically plan for future growth, ensuring that IT initiatives are closely aligned with business strategies and objectives.

Atera’s reports: Enhancing operations and customer service

Atera’s suite of reporting options will help your IT department better and more efficiently manage in-house operations. For instance, run reports like System Health of Patch and Automation Feedback to gain detailed insights into how your entire network is operating. Our RMM reporting can give you a birds-eye view of the entire system as well as granular feedback on microcosms within it. 

In addition to internal system health, you can also use our reporting tools to improve customer service and IT team efficiency. We have reports to analyze customer satisfaction (and dissatisfaction), which you can examine to find areas for improvement. Additionally, when you schedule reporting and evaluate team member performance, you may discover areas where your team can work faster, smarter, or harder. 

Making data-driven decisions with Atera’s reporting tools

Data-driven decision-making is crucial in the IT world. If you are looking for the best IT reporting tool, then Atera is your choice. You will be equipped to make smart decisions every step of the way. Any details you want to investigate are now accessible at the click of a button with Atera’s advanced reporting capabilities. So what are you waiting for? 
If you would like to take your company’s IT reporting up a notch, reach out to our sales team today, or get started with a 30-day free trial!