dashboards : back to the BI BASICS

Dashboards, what are they and are they still
relevant today?
A dashboard is a tool vital for monitoring the daily
health of your organisation. From a single interface,
decision-makers have access to [summarized] key
performance indicators. Dashboards are oftentimes
the focal point of mechanisms that produce a visual
composition to end-users. The previous reporting era
generated overwhelming reports and spreadsheets
that were difficult to read, and cumbersome to
interpret.
When colours, shapes and spaces are used to
represent information, efficiency and
comprehension dramatically increases- this is because
of the way the human mind can translate height, shape
and colour much faster than it can process a series of
numbers on a spreadsheet.
Today, we are faced with a unique set of circumstances,
more than ever a great deal of work being done
remotely. Numerous decisions are being taken each
day by managers, with data and information that
cannot be packaged and disseminated in traditional
‘meetings’ as has previously been the case in most
organisations.
More than ever, it’s important to migrate to a form of
information dissemination that is accessible and as
close to real time as possible. Displaying real-time
information increases motivation as users can visualize
how every effort directly impacts at least one metric or
KPI.
Dashboards, although they are at the very beginning of
the Data Analytics Spectrum in terms of sophistication,
they are able to offer this and more. Every organisation
that wishes to achieve the farther ends of Big Data
capabilities should consider bringing up to speed the
organization’s Dashboard adoption and uptake.