WHAT ARE DATA DASHBOARDS
Data is one of the most important assets of any business and it is considered a wealth to be banked upon. How important then does it become to manage and use data in the most efficient ways in order to enable data-driven decisions and business strategies? In modern-day, businesses are open to data sources. But data does not mean much if it is not organized and structured. This is where Data Dashboards come into the picture. Data Dashboards are data management systems that provide centralized information about the business and are a tool to monitor and analyze data, providing insights and metrics that are most relevant and required for improving business performance. They display crucial data values and key performance indicators (KPI) that represent the health of a business. Just like the dashboards in cars display real-time information about the oil, battery, and fuel to let you know the working condition of a car, business dashboards help in providing business-specific information that contributes to the overall performance and success of a company.
TYPES OF DATA DASHBOARDS
Data Dashboards are also called business intelligence dashboards because they intelligently process data, analyze it, and give a visual representation of the analyzed data so that the real-time status of the business and its operations can be assessed. This leads to a better understanding of the business’s current efficiency and helps in identifying the aspects needing attention and changes. Here is an example of what a data dashboard can look like:
This is an example of a strategic dashboard that provides insights to monitor the KPIs of an organization. There are two other kinds of dashboards, operational and analytical.
- Operational dashboards are a tool that helps in monitoring processes that tend to frequently change. Operational dashboards are used to closely monitor the progress towards a specific target or objective and are used multiple times a day for tracking the same.
- Analytical dashboards are used to analyze a large amount of data to help businesses understand trends, discover insights, and forecast possible outcomes. Google analytics or Google search console are analytical dashboards that process, analyze and present data from various internal and external sources and help businesses form their short-term and long-term strategies based on large real-time data.
SIX REASONS TO IMPLEMENT DATA DASHBOARDS IN YOUR BUSINESS
CLOUD – ACCESSIBLE
Most modern data dashboards are accessible through the cloud that makes data accessible to multiple users at the same time, irrespective of their location and device. It also enables real-time updates, coordination, and collaborations between multiple teams across the organization.
MONITOR MULTIPLE METRICS AT A SINGLE TIME
The key factor of data dashboards is that they can highlight multiple KPIs and metrics at the same time in a centralized environment. This reduces and, in some cases, totally eliminates the need to use multiple tools to track performance and progress. Be it sales KPI or financial KPI, manufacturing metrics, or product performance metrics, the user can monitor it all in one centralized environment and this eases and paces the decision-making process.
USER FRIENDLY
Data dashboards give users direct access to data from various sources, thus reducing the need to browse and lookup the required information in various files and sources. Further, the data is represented using visuals like graphs and pie charts, making it quite easy to understand, reducing unnecessary manual work, and eliminating tedious clerical tasks. Using professional data dashboard services is therefore especially important to focus on the key performance areas and increase the ROI of your business.
REAL-TIME REPORTING
Data dashboards provide an option to set goals and track progress towards the goals. The useful feedback and real-time tracking help in using resources, adapting to the required changes, and reformulating strategies to achieve the set goals. Quick decision-making based on real-time reports generated by the dashboards helps in preventing fallouts, thus optimizing businesses and resources. Real-time notifications sent to users on day-to-day metrics help ensure every member of the team is informed and up to date on the status of the goals and impending actions.
FORECASTING
Data Dashboards are not just about presenting the current status of the business KPIs, operations, and goals. The main objective of all the data analysis is to be able to forecast the developments and progress of the organization, based on the current metrics. The data so monitored, processed, and analyzed by data dashboards give a clear indication of the possibilities, opportunities, challenges, and threats that an organization can face, thus helping it formulate strategies that work towards the optimization of business.
STIMULATES GROWTH
Data dashboards are considered growth stimulators because they optimize the internal processes of a business, making them more efficient and agile. When strategies are formulated based on data, decisions are based more on reality and less on anticipations. This accelerates growth and ensures the greater success of any business. In an ever-changing environment, in order to improve the sustainability of any business, it is important to use the widely available real-time data about business trends and markets, consumer behavior, along with the organization’s internal data on its processes, operations, resources, and KPIs. In today’s scenario, data dashboards are indispensable for the sustainability and growth of any business.
WHAT KPIs AND METRICS CAN BE MONITORED USING DATA DASHBOARDS
Dashboards can track almost everything that an organization does, be it sales, marketing, manufacturing, consumer behavior, employee performance, finance, revenue, logistics, stock, vendor performance, or any other process that is important for the business. It is therefore important to divide KPIs and metrics into separate areas and then formulate the business intelligence strategy and create a dashboard that directly benefits each KPI and the needs of the team responsible for the same. Generally, dashboards are used for monitoring and analyzing the following processes:
- Marketing Dashboards
- Sales Dashboards
- Lead Generation Dashboards
- CRM Dashboards
- Executive Dashboards
- Financial Dashboard
- Manufacturing / Production Dashboard
- Logistics and Transportation Dashboard
- Operational Dashboard
NEED A DATA DASHBOARD?
Having a professional data dashboard service is important if you want your business to take advantage of this technology and use it to grow and optimize your business. At PBI Analytics, we provide end-to-end data consulting, after a thorough assessment of your business needs. We deploy the right technology and create real-time interactive dashboards that generate easy-to-read but efficient business reports that help you soar your business to greater heights.