In very simple terms, an enterprise dashboard is software that shows you graphic representation of the current status of metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) of your enterprise; sometimes on a single screen. Often, it is customized to deliver specific information according to the requirement of a department or designation.
Clearly, dashboards play a crucial role in decision making: just like you would glean a student’s performance by looking at their report card (which is filled with the results of several analysis – exams – that have been conducted at various levels) and make a decision whether he or she is a genius, a mediocre, or a low performer, a dashboard contains data (real-time) from various sources on the basis of which business decisions are made.
The basic features a dashboard should have include customizable screens and the ability to source real-time data from multiple sources. However, building a great dashboard requires more. Take a look:
- Inclusion of useful metrics: Technology from in-dashboard analytics and predictive analytics is used to include easy-to-estimate metrics in dashboards. For sophisticated predictions, such as measuring the impact of ‘likes’ or ‘shares’ or e-mail marketing campaigns, out-of-dashboard statistical modeling can be used.
- User Feedback: There’s no improvement without feedback, and it is true for everything including dashboards. For example, there’s no known process (if it is, then it is an obscure one) where a company can post its most popular tweets on its advertising handle on Twitter automatically. A successful dashboard offers its users a way to give feedback and READS that feedback.
- Allows Direct Mail: There has to be a mechanism where reports procured by a dashboard are delivered to a client as per the set frequency (daily, weekly, etc.). A prioritizable email alert system according to recipients will enable them to receive reports as per urgency. You never know when a data fluctuation might be just the opportunity you were looking for.
- Holistic Report Generation: What if Google AdWords, AdSense and Google Analytics could communicate among each other and create a centralized dashboard that presented data from internal as well as external sources? Of course, your life would be much simpler.
- Customizable Reports: A great dashboard will give you the freedom to design reports. It will also highlight or separate the wheat from the chaff: data related to top KPIs, which should get the most attention, should have a separate, detailed report so that the most important revenue generator is taken care of well.
- Identify Hidden Reports: It is true that all that a dashboard does is presents reports and data. However, it often happens that a neglected data may have huge potential. For example, if a dashboard automatically generates reports of the IP addresses of new followers of a website, the website will have it easy detecting bots and scammers and will avoid wasting time and money on those contacts.
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