Organizational reporting clutter

To often an organization's reporting initiative consists of an analyst who prepares countless number of reports that nobody uses.  This happens when ad hoc report requests turns into a regularly scheduled report that the end user does not need but that the analyst sends regardless.  Or the report is scheduled to run automatically.  Over time the excessive amount of reports accumulates to a point where nobody knows what reports are for or if they are needed.  If these reports are scheduled to run automatically a good strategy is to stop the automatic job and see what happens.  If nobody asks for the report then it is a safe bet that the report is not needed at all.  Another good strategy is to consult directly with the end user to see if they need to report or not.  This strategy can have multiple benefits.  Regularly consulting the end user can improve the quality of the report and open up discussion for further data needs within the organization.  It could be a missing metric, calculation or missing field that could add value to the business need. Reporting and data needs are not improved by increasing the volume of reports but by simplifying, eliminating or improving existing reports.  Report clutter is very common but with simple house keeping and communication this can be eliminated.