What is White-Label Reporting?

White-label reporting is when a detailed report by an organization is completed and then saved as a basic template, which is intended to be rebranded and used by other companies. For example, if a company consults with multiple clients, they will need to turn in regular reports on their work progress and other details. Creating such reports manually may be possible for one or two clients, but it becomes very time consuming when there are multiple reports required. This is when the process can be automated by a service agency/provider of white-label reporting.

White-label reporting draws a parallel with the branding concept of white labeling. In the latter, organizations apply their company’s branding to another’s product to make it their own. When the same idea is applied to a reporting tool, it becomes white-label reporting.

Marketing agencies today utilize a large number of software-based tools to enhance their capabilities. To establish a unified front for their customers, companies prefer not to have any other branding displayed on their reports or communications with clients, vendors, and others – even if they are using multiple services. Companies also feel the need to protect the ‘tools of the trade’ that they use to prevent others from getting the same competitive edge they have. This is where white-label reporting comes in.

White-label reporting has now become essential to an organization’s branding processes. The recall factor for a brand increases when it is included in branding on reports that clients regularly view. Adding an organization’s branding to the dashboard that is being offered to clients will go a long way toward improving the recall factor. There may also be instances where clients may require their branding to be added along with the organization’s own. White-label reporting enables such combinations.

Six Key Features of White-Label Reporting

Several features of white-label reporting are needed for reports and dashboards. Here is a look at six key features of white-label reporting that are essential to supporting a company’s requirements.

A Logo and its Placement

A logo is the biggest brand ambassador of a company. A key feature of white-label reporting is to have this logo placed on the top-right or left-hand corner of the report. In dashboards, logos should always be placed at the top. Wordmarks can be used in place of logos, as can taglines and slogans. However, organizations have to make sure that this does not affect the readability of their page.

Adding in a client’s logo can bring in a personalization factor to the report and reduce confusion about which report is being read (which often happens when there are several reports). On a dashboard, the client’s logo is best placed on the top-left corner for the client to easily identify the dashboard they are viewing.

Cover Pages for Brand Reinforcement

Cover pages are the ideal way to reiterate the messaging of the brand and create a smart presentation. Cover pages should cover report titles, the time frame of the report, and the delivery date. They should also include the organization’s brand elements, particularly logos and brand colors. If the report is a blend of the client’s and the organization’s logos, then they may consider mixing brand colors in a complementary manner. Saving the cover page as a template makes things easier for future collaborations with the client.

Headers and Footers

A white-label reporting protocol must include the ability to support customized headers and footers. These are ideal ways to include branding on every page of the report, if needed. This can be a place for contact details, website URLs, physical addresses, and other such elements. A logo or a wordmark can also be added here. The important thing is not to overdo what is placed in the header or footer, or the organization may risk the report looking crowded.

Some tips to remember are never to use images in the header or footer space. An alternative to simply placing contact text is to use a font associated with the business site in the color palette of the branding.

Flexibility in Incorporating Brand Colors

Branding is inclusive of a color scheme, and in reports it’s important to use these colors. For example, if dark blue with a Cambria font is part of the organization’s branding, they will want to use this in the main body text of the report. The color of the headings and subheading can be chosen from the same branding palette. A white-label reporting solution should also have a way for the color scheme to be altered in different elements such as:

• The background of tabular columns
• Charts backgrounds, element colors, and headers
• Page backgrounds

An important thing to note when using branding colors is never to change the colors of an organization, a client’s or any other brands that may be incorporated into the report.

Email Domain

Considering how digital work processes have become, a white-label reporting service provider should be sending reports via email. These may be in the form of PDF files or links to reports online or even dashboard-based links. No matter which automated choice an organization opts for, they need to ensure that the feature to send a report from the company’s email domain is available and that it is not from the service provider’s account. This can mean the difference between sending a report from a report@yourcompanyname..com and a no-reply@yourserviceprovider..com. Even the email domain serves as a brand ambassador, and clients will feel more comfortable receiving reports directly from their provider organization. Clients need to know the exact email ID to expect reports from so they can adjust their email filters accordingly.

Large white-label reporting agencies often assign account managers for each client. In such cases, the service must come with the feature, where the report is delivered from the manager’s agency email account to the client. This way, it is assured that if the client replies, it goes right to the correct account manager.

Dashboard Domain

A feature the service provider must ensure is that if they provide logins to view white-label reports online or through a dashboard, the organization company should be able to brand this, too. The ideal white-label reporting solution includes a dashboard that lets the organization host all their clients' white-label reports. By doing this, their clients will be able to access sub-domains related to them to gain access to their reports. The organization will also be able to retain full creative control of the dashboard and how it is viewed.

How to Choose the Right Reporting Tools to Implement White-Label Features

If the white-label reporting service provider offers reports through automated options such as a specific software or a browser-enabled program, then the organization will need the appropriate reporting tool to help customize their reports. This is inclusive of branding everything from PDFs to reports sent online to dashboards that companies may be creating for their clients.

When using a white-label platform, the pages an organization builds will have to reflect the company’s branding right down to the last element—from the appropriate logos to color palette to fonts used and more. Everything should be customized to meet the organization’s requirements. Some additional reporting tool features a business will need are:

• A single, centralized configuration for choosing the logos, color schemes, and text style that is required
• A simple user interface (UI) to create and edit reports
• Flexibility with the interface used to design dashboards and related widgets
• The ability to generate reports in multiple formats
• Interfaces that can be completely rebranded including dashboards and email reports

Adding white-label reporting to an organization’s products and services to clients can help elevate their data to the next level of analytics. This is important when choosing the platform to bring in analytics. White-label dashboards are basic user interfaces that work on coalescing user interaction with the result of analytics on data collected. White-label reports are the means here. The dashboard is how the client will have all controls and settings needed, based on their preferences to extract insights from the data collected. Incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning abilities can take this analysis a step further, providing insights in seconds.

When the base is set to bring in analytics to the organization’s white-label reports, a user should create a sample of how they would like their reports to look. Compare this with options available on the platform of choice. A service that offers numerous models is one to consider. Once an organization has chosen how they want their report to look, the next step is simply to define sources of data and connect them. With data flowing into the analytics engines, the reports will begin to emerge. At this point, minor tweaks can be performed to improve the presentation and iron out any tweaks.

Advantages of White-Label Reporting

There are a range of advantages of white-label reporting.

Ensures Higher Values at Lowered Costs

The goal of companies is to increase their client base. But every new client can mean additional expenses to service them. A good white-label reporting software will offer the benefits of white-label marketing without increasing costs prohibitively simply because they are scalable models.

Enhanced Scalability

Businesses require all of their tools to be easily scalable no matter whether they have ten clients or 10,000. With good white-label reporting services, an organization is assured of a reasonable expense to value ratio and will have the power of inbuilt scalability.

Specifics for Quality Analytics

When an organization delves into each report that is generated, they will see just how much data is needed for analysis. A good white-label reporting software ensures that users have all the specifics needed for quality analytics.

Easy Integration of Third-Party Tools

Data that is being generated and drawn in for analytics is dynamic, often in flux. Using as many analytical tools as possible, in a simple-yet-synchronized manner, is ideal for the generation of quality reports. White-label reporting software makes room for the seamless integration of third-party tools that increase the efficiency of analytics and reporting.

Tools to Drill Down

While some clients are satisfied with basic reports, others may want the ability to dig deeper into a particular aspect of the data in the report. With the right kind of white-label reporting software, organizations should be able to provide their clients with the tools that will help them dig deeper into the report.

Provides Benefits of White-Label Features to Clients

An organization may be using white-label reports to present data to their clients. Such reports carry the business logo. However, there may be instances when clients would like to work in collaboration and would like to have their own set of logos on the report. White-label software provides an organization with features that allow such flexible collaborations with clients.

Easily Accessible Support

When organizations are working with dynamic data and have a client base that is globally distributed, they will also need support from white-label report services around-the-clock. This type of support is assured by a quality service provider.

White-label reports offer several benefits, particularly to small and medium-sized organizations that are looking to provide an edge to their clients. As a mid-sized or smaller business, resources to provide reports can be an expensive proposition, which white-label reports can help address. It may be just what a business needs to take things to the next level.

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