Lately, it seems that everybody wants a dashboard, and it`s not surprising. There is no doubt that dashboards are visually appealing. Any user looking at the thermometers, gauges, smiley faces, stars and needles is bound to think they are really "cool". And they are.
The argument goes that all executives and senior management want and have time for (and, in some cases, understand) is pretty pictures. The business at a glance, the single view, the "war room" - call it what you will, this has long been touted as the way forward. Now the tools are available, but business and IT alike have yet to determine whether dashboarding will have real commercial value and whether it will actually be used.
As I see it, the issues are how to best present data to business users in a way that it is consumable, can actually assist in the decision-making process, and drive understanding of the business.
This last point segregates dashboard offerings into the genuine dashboarding tools that assist in data discovery and those that are pretty reporting tools. There is space in the market for both, no doubt, but organisations should be well aware of which path they wish to go down. The first offering allows click-through to just about anywhere - in a process that caters for data explorers and regular users who require a bit of guidance. The second provides only prescribed click-throughs and all links have to be set up manually.
Absurd assumption
A true dashboarding solution should allow the user to represent any data, and to drill through any data. The assumption that all the data a business needs to make decisions resides in one format or solution set from a single vendor, is absurd. Yet the fact that MS Excel remains the largest decision tool globally bears testimony to this. IT will often argue that the business is not ready for a true dashboarding solution and won`t use it. This, unfortunately, is usually true. But if data is never made available at such a level, the business will never be ready for it; and if IT and business succumb to this kind of thinking they will remain on the reporting treadmill.
IT will often argue that the business is not ready for a true dashboarding solution and won`t use it. This, unfortunately, is usually true.
Keith Jones, founding director of Harvey Jones Systems.
It`s this type of attitude that drives the choice of a simple dashboarding tool, with pre-coded drill-throughs and links. It may suit some businesses and some user communities, but if the business is evolving or competitive, these offerings will fail sooner rather than later. They will also contribute to a bad reputation for dashboards as a whole, and spreadsheet anarchy will continue to prevail.
The visual appeal of dashboards will ensure increased interest from the business and higher adoption rates. Businesses are always interested if they feel the data is easy to understand and accessible. If the solutions are deployed correctly, with not only proper planning and analysis of where the business is now, but also where it will be in a few months` or years` time, then they are likely to succeed. The quick fix, as always, may be appealing, but will ultimately lead to more stress and cost in the long run.
The advent of dashboards has the potential to change the face of business intelligence (BI). Implemented correctly, the dashboard has the ability to underscore the business value of the whole BI solution, making it become immediately apparent and visual. Done incorrectly, it will result in users muttering about yet another BI hype cycle, and the unabated proliferation of Excel as a data source.
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