Microsoft Word connectivity to create reporting including refreshable charts, tables, and verbiage

Description

This capability allows users to use a plug-in for Microsoft Word to access real-time, updated data from the CPM database to produce highly formatted reports. This is used for investors, banks, and the public. It includes functionality that will change words based on results, such as words “increased by” and “decreased by”.

Example Use Case

Scenario: A mid-sized enterprise uses CPM software to track its performance and wants to generate quarterly reports comprising data visualizations, tables, and descriptive wording. They have very specific formatting requirements and must print to PDF when done.

Solution: Using a plugin for Microsoft Word connected to the CPM database allows them to create, customize, and update these reports directly in Word. Furthermore, whenever they reopen the document, the data refreshes automatically, ensuring they always present the most accurate, updated information.

Considerations

This functionality isn't terribly common, as most vendors provide connectivity to Excel and expect the user to either copy/paste into Word or create Excel objects in Word. This misses the point of Word connectivity as users are looking for Word to be independent of Excel and have its own formatting. If this matters to you, dig in to how the Word functionality works. Is it simply taking in Excel objects? Or can it generate and update reports itself?

The challenge with inserting Excel objects is the synchronization. Excel must be updated first. After that, Word can be opened and refreshed. It is a finicky process that does not always work as expected. What if there is a new row or column due to new accounts or dimensions? That won't come over. The user will have to re-insert the object into Word.

Lastly, consider file size. Inserting objects from Excel to Word can substantially increase the file size of Word which leads to slowness and crashes on some systems.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• Plug-In or Object: Does your product offer a purpose-built plug-in for Word, or do we need to insert Excel objects into Word?
• Data Refresh: How does your system handle data refreshing?
• New Data Elements: What happens when new dimensions or accounts have been loaded into the CPM system? Will Word bring those in and refresh our reports?
• Format Maintenance: Do updates in the CPM software impact the formatting in the Word document? If so, how to prevent such disruption?
• Google Workspace: We don't use Microsoft. Do you offer similar functionality for Google Docs?