Use an HTML homepage component with links to public reports

Over time, the Reports tab can be cumbersome to navigate through. You can only create 1 level of report folders and the reports are simply listed alphabetically. Try using an HTML component on the homepage with links directly to reports to help your users get right to the reports they need.

  1. First, determine the public reports being used most often in the organization. This can be done by surveying users. Also ask your users the type of reports that they are creating for personal use. Perhaps everyone is creating reports that are very similar, but not identical. You could create a public report that gets them 90% of the way there.
  2. Next, make sure all of the public reports are created properly and accessible in the Reports tab.
  3. Create the HTML component. The HTML component will allow you to use the flexibility of HTML to create a user-friendly look and feel with links pointing directly to your reports. Since every report (and every record, for that matter) has its own unique URL, you can link directly to those public reports. If desired, you could also create links to pages in the setup area such as Change Password, My Templates, My Personal Information, etc. Another useful thing would be to create links directly to any documents you have in the Documents tab that users reference regularly.
  4. Communicate and obtain feedback from your users. Then build this out over time. You will likely receive varying requests from different groups. Using separate homepage layouts, you could display differing HTML components on each, giving each profile its own component.

I have received a positive response from users when they see this functionality. Give it a try. Let me know what you think too.

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