As data becomes abundant in today’s world, it is too difficult to track every single metric on a daily or weekly basis. Therefore, the best approach to provide insights and locate certain pertinent bits of data is to use a dashboard. The dashboard serves to show all of the key metrics you would like to track and their changes since the last review all in one place. Dashboards should be simple and easy to read in seconds. Dashboards that display the best metrics and key performance indicators in the best manner should serve to drive actions and decisions. (Kaushik 2010.)
However, dashboards can often be created ineffectively for a number of reasons. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to creating the dashboard as the metrics to track vary by industry, company, and even division within companies. Kaushik in his first book on analytics provides a number of guidelines to follow in order to create a dashboard that is effective and easily understood. (Kaushik 2010.)
The first guideline is to always to use benchmarks to compare against your reported numbers. A number without context is just a number. It doesn’t provide the analyst with any insight because they do not know if this is high, low, average, typical of the industry, a new high, etc. Benchmarks can be used to provide context to these numbers, whether created to demonstrate the number against the company’s previous numbers or against the industries numbers or even both. (Kaushik 2010.)
The second guideline
Whenever new metric are introduced, it is very important that everyone is communicated the updates quickly. The first line of communication should start with management. When training management on new metric, a reference guide or a point of contact should be given for additional support. The objectives of management should consist of grasping the concepts of new metrics, ability to explain the concept of new metrics, and ability to evaluate employees with new metrics.
Dashboard is a data visualization tool that displays the current status of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for an enterprise. Also, dashboard consolidates and arranges numbers, metrics and sometimes performance scorecards on a single screen. They may be tailored for a specific role and display metrics targeted for a single point of view or department. The essential features of a dashboard product include a customizable interface and the ability to pull real-time data from multiple sources. An Executive Dashboard gives a clear picture of the data and the insights visually to the corporate executives.
Strategic / Executive Dashboards Strategic dashboards will typically provide the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that a companies executive team track on a periodic (daily, weekly or monthly basis). A strategic dashboard should provide the executive team with a high-level overview of the state of the business together with the opportunities the business faces.
The validity and effectiveness of the patient advocacy program can be measured using key performance indicators or KPIs. KPIs are defined as a “set of quantifiable measures that a company or industry uses to gauge or compare performance in terms of meeting their strategic and operational goals” (Investopedia, 2015). The KPIs chosen for JPS should reflect its goals. As shown in the Fishbone diagram, healthcare providers are tasked with multiple moving parts such as patient care, facility management (environment) and emergency room conditions. Therefore, the three KPIs that will support this process change and continuously measured to success are time to healthcare, lab turnaround time, and ER waiting times.
Currently, the dashboards I’ve created have not been successful in their goal because instead of providing actionable insight, they have simply been regurgitation and filtered views of the data. Due to my lack of a full understanding of the data and the business they have not provided the actionable insight, have left the interpretation to the Executives and are siloed to only
b) Isolating critical few metrics: A dashboard should not have overwhelming metrics as it gets complicated to segment or highlight the performance. Having too many metrics is difficult for audience to ascertain what the key take away from all such metrics are. As it can be misleading it is recommended to have 5 key metrics. If there are more than 5 its best to make it more concise and shortlist the critical few which are impactful. Within the dashboard it is vital to understand what key metrics mean and set goals for each metric to drive the bottom line of the business. Dashboard must articulate the decision making process.
This study also made a comparative analysis of the use of different functionalities offered by a dashboard in three functional areas of the organization. Different departments in an organization use dashboards differently to serve their unique
Doing this will bring users to the most important pieces of information located on the dashboard. When doing this it is key to avoid clutter, such as visibly unnecessary chart types. With any unnecessary information or visuals it can distract and turn the users away from the data being shown. A practice that goes along with this is using “color appropriately and sparingly to achieve maximum contrast” (Lach, 2012). When designing a dashboard of reports the color selection should be thought out to enhance readability of charts. The precise selection and use of color will help bring the users’ attention to the significant trends, developments, and actions. Making data points different from one another and from the charts and backgrounds will help the important information be seen. On the other hand, if there are too many colors being used it can be hard to find and grasp the information. A cool trick is to relate colors to their symbolic or metaphoric meaning, such as red equals bad. Another practice is to select the best visualizations, not the best looking visualizations. Imagery should be kept simple and the focus should be on the data not the dashboard. Too flashy visuals and chart types should not be used when there are simpler alternatives for users to understand the same message. When designing, the dashboard context should always be provided. If there is no context, then the data visuals presented are basically useless. Finally, dashboards should have support and prompt action. “After drilling to detail to ascertain the root cause of a notable change or event, users must be enabled with a range of options to share the new information and their associated thoughts with others, in order to drive appropriate resultant action” (Lach, 2012). BI dashboards should be effective and efficient for businesses to view their data. These are the best BI dashboard practices I have researched that will
The account dashboard tab also features a line graph which can show two account performance metrics for the date range selected. You can move a dotted line along the graph to view the metrics at that particular time. The graph can be expanded to a full screen view using the small expand button in the right hand corner of the graph.
This artifact was completed as a team assignment for the PMGT 614 course. The dashboard report serves as evidence of work performance report during the monitor and control process
The executive and the top management in organizations seek comprehensive reports and dashboards to enable them to understand on going processes and facilitate the decision- making that improves their business. However, the decision-making process may be influenced by various factors. Data quality is a critical factor because when the quality of the data is inferior, poor decisions could be made [39]. In addition, data
The executive dashboard focuses on the key performance indicators of the business and target audience is the top management of the company. At a glance, it should provide the business performance information to the management board of the company. The main difference between executive dashboard and other dashboards lies in the simplicity in the presentation and organization of the data. It should be very easy to read, flexible and be insightful to the management to take decision.
In this text, I will use Apple's latest financial statements to compute its operating leverage, return on investment (ROI), economic value added (EVA), as well as return on invested capital (ROIC). Further, in addition to highlighting the advantages as well as disadvantages of the performance measures selected, I will also identify my preferred performance measure.
“An Executive dashboard is a computer interface that displays the key performance indicators (KPIs) that corporate officers need to effectively run an enterprise”.
The Business Intelligence dashboard is a streamlined, easily accessible, and a more accurate and significant reporting process. It presents the ability to gauge performances, understand the impact of perpetually changing conditions; it assists in making quick and well-informed decisions for performance scenario planning, as well as what-if-analysis, at all various levels of comprehensive and real-time information. In short, the dashboards provide a succinct and yet visually appealing snapshot of an organization’s performance, as a result, leadership create accountability and are better able to focus on more value added activities for proactive guidance for employees to work consistently together as a whole.