Utilization Report

Term Definition
A utilization report is a report that shows the extent to which something was used. This could be a statement of fiscal, corporate or project cost data. Utilization reports give information organizations on how, where and how much of their resources are being used. The report shows utilization rates and capacity utilization, enabling organizations to accurately engage in resource and budget planning.

All organizations have a business need to understand how their resources are being used in order to evaluate operational efficiency. A utilization report provides data on where and how resources are being used. Those resources could be time, material, or labor. Many organizations use professional services automation software tools to make resource management tasks more efficient and effective. The automated tools may include timesheet software and employee time tracking software, which calculate skill sets, experience and workload in selecting the most skilled employee in an organization to handle any specific project. This enables the organization to forecast future staffing requirements prior to project implementation.

Numerous executives across various industries report that one of their greatest concerns is having enough information about resource utilization and costs to base decisions on what is readily available, accurate, concise and useful. Global competition, increasing market share, reducing cost, and improving profits, all in the pursuit of producing better products and services faster through the use of high technology solutions, are just a few of the driving forces that are causing organizations to seek better ways to improve time-to-market, cost-to-market, and quality-to-market. 

A utilization report must not only provide information but timely, useful, concise information, which executives can use in making business decisions. Having the ability to effectively gather, store, integrate, and retrieve information that is easily analyzed and displayed in concise graphical formats is critical for executives who need to make strategic business decisions.

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