Business dashboards

In business computer information systems, a dashboard is a type of graphical user interface which often provides at-a-glance views of key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to a particular objective or business process. In other usage, "dashboard" is another name for "progress report" or "report" and considered a form of data visualization. In providing this overview, business owners can save time and improve their decision making by utilizing dashboards.

The “dashboard” is often accessible by a web browser and is usually linked to regularly updating data sources.

Well known dashboards include Google Analytics dashboards, used on 55% of all websites,^[1] which show activity on a website; such as visits, entry pages, bounce rate and traffic sources.

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 brought other dashboards to the fore, with the Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker^[2] and the UK government coronavirus tracker^[3] being good examples.

The term dashboard originates from the automobile dashboard where drivers monitor the major functions at a glance via the instrument panel.

History

The idea of digital dashboards followed the study of decision support systems in the 1970s. Early predecessors of the modern business dashboard were first developed in the 1980s in the form of Executive Information Systems (EISs). Due to problems primarily with data refreshing and handling, it was soon realized that the approach wasn't practical as information was often incomplete, unreliable, and spread across too many disparate sources.^[4] Thus, EISs hibernated until the 1990s when the information age quickened pace and data warehousing, and online analytical processing (OLAP) allowed dashboards to function adequately.^[4] Despite the availability of enabling technologies, the dashboard use didn't become popular until later in that decade, with the rise of key performance indicators (KPIs), and the introduction of Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton's balanced scorecard.^[5] In the late 1990s, Microsoft promoted a concept known as the Digital Nervous System and "digital dashboards" were described as being one leg of that concept.^[6] Today, the use of dashboards forms an important part of Business Performance Management (BPM). Initially dashboards were used for monitoring purposes, now with the advancement of technology, dashboards are being used for more analytical purposes. The use of dashboards has now been incorporating; scenario analysis, drill down capabilities, and presentation format flexibility.^[7]

Benefits

Digital dashboards allow managers to monitor the contribution of the various departments in their organization. In addition, they enable “rolling up” of information to present a consolidated view across an organization. To gauge exactly how well an organization is performing overall, digital dashboards allow you to capture and report specific data points from each department within the organization, thus providing a "snapshot" of performance.

Benefits of using digital dashboards include:^[8]

• Visual presentation of performance measures
• Ability to identify and correct negative trends
• Measure efficiencies/inefficiencies
• Ability to generate detailed reports showing new trends

Ability to make more informed decisions based on collected business intelligence

Dashboards offers a holistic view of the entire business as it gives the manager a bird's eye view into the performance of sales, data inventory, web traffic, social media analytics and other associated data that is visually presented on a single dashboard. Dashboards lead to better management of marketing/financial strategies as a dashboard for the display of marketing data makes the process of marketing easier and more reliable as compared to doing it manually. Web analytics play a crucial role in shaping the marketing strategy of many businesses. Dashboards also facilitate for better tracking of sales and financial reporting as the data is more precise and in one area. Lastly, dashboards offer for better customer service through monitoring because they keep both the managers and the clients updated on the project progress through automated emails and notifications.

Align strategies and organizational goals

• Saves time compared to running multiple reports
• Gain total visibility of all systems instantly
• Quick identification of data outliers and correlations
• Consolidated reporting into one location
• Available on mobile devices to quickly access metrics

Classification

Dashboards can be broken down according to role and are either strategic, analytical, operational, or informational.^[4] Dashboards are the 3rd step on the information ladder, demonstrating the conversion of data to increasingly valuable insights.^[9]

Strategic dashboards support managers at any level in an organization and provide the quick overview that decision-makers need to monitor the health and opportunities of the business. Dashboards of this type focus on high-level measures of performance and forecasts. Strategic dashboards benefit from static snapshots of data (daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly) that are not constantly changing from one moment to the next.

Dashboards for analytical purposes often include more context, comparisons, and history, along with subtler performance evaluators. In addition, analytical dashboards typically support interactions with the data, such as drilling down into the underlying details. Dashboards for monitoring operations are often designed differently from those that support strategic decision making or data analysis and often require monitoring of activities and events that are constantly changing and might require attention and response at a moment's notice.

Types of dashboards

Digital dashboards may be laid out to track the flows inherent in the business processes that they monitor. Graphically, users may see the high-level processes and then drill down into low-level data. This level of detail is often buried deep within the corporate enterprise and otherwise unavailable to the senior executives.

Three main types of digital dashboards dominate the market today: desktop software applications, web-browser-based applications, and desktop applications are also known as desktop widgets. The last are driven by a widget engine.

Both Desktop and Browser-based providers enable the distribution of dashboards via a web browser. An example of the latter is web-based-browser Asana, which helps teams orchestrate their work, from daily tasks to strategic cross-functional initiatives. With it, teams can manage everything from company objectives to digital transformation to product launches and marketing campaigns.

Specialized dashboards may track all corporate functions. Examples include human resources, recruiting, sales, operations, security, information technology, project management, customer relationship management, digital marketing and many more departmental dashboards. For a smaller organization like a startup a compact startup scorecard dashboard tracks important activities across lot of domains ranging from social media to sales.

Digital dashboard projects involve business units as the driver and the information technology department as the enabler. Therefore, the success of dashboard projects depends on the relevancy/importance of information provided within the dashboard. This includes the metrics chosen to monitor and the timeliness of the data forming those metrics; data must be up to date and accurate.

Key performance indicators, balanced scorecards, and sales performance figures are some of the content appropriate on business dashboards.^[10]

Dashboards and scorecards

Balanced scorecards and dashboards have been linked together as if they were interchangeable. However, although both visually display critical information, the difference is in the format: Scorecards can open the quality of an operation while dashboards provide calculated direction. A balanced scorecard has what they called a "prescriptive" format. It should always contain these components:

• Perspectives – group
• Objectives – verb-noun phrases pulled from a strategy plan
• Measures – also called metric or key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Spotlight indicators – red, yellow, or green symbols that provide an at-a-glance view of a measure's performance.

Each of these sections ensures that a Balanced Scorecard is essentially connected to the businesses critical strategic needs.

The design of a dashboard is more loosely defined. Dashboards are usually a series of graphics, charts, gauges and other visual indicators that can be monitored and interpreted. Even when there is a strategic link, on a dashboard, it may not be noticed as such since objectives are not normally present on dashboards. However, dashboards can be customized to link their graphs and charts to strategic objectives.^[11]

Design

Digital dashboard technology is available "out-of-the-box" from many software providers. Some companies, however, continue to do in-house development and maintenance of dashboard applications. For example, GE Aviation has developed a proprietary software/portal called "Digital Cockpit" to monitor the trends in the aircraft spare parts business.

Good dashboard design practices take into account and address the following:

• the medium it is designed for (desktop, laptop, mobile, tablet)
• use of visuals over the tabular presentation of data
• bar charts: to visualize one or more series of data
• line charts: to track changes in several dependent data sets over a period of time
• sparklines: to show the trend in a single data set
• scorecards: to monitor KPIs and trends
• use of legends anytime more than one color or shape is present on a graph
• spatial arrangement: place your most important view on the top left (if the language is written left to right) then arrange the following views in a Z pattern with the most important information following the top-to-bottom, left-to-right pattern^[12]
• use colorblind friendly palettes with color used consistently and only where necessary^[13]

A good information design will clearly communicate key information to users and makes supporting information easily accessible.^[14]

Dashboard software

This is an example of a dashboard that can be created using one of the programs presented.

Dashboards serve as a visual representation for a company to monitor progress and trends, not only among themselves but against other companies as well. Dashboards and visualizations contain data that is updated in real time. For example, if the underlying data in an Excel spreadsheet were to change, so would the visualization.

Guidelines for dashboard design

There are certain guidelines that can be useful when creating dashboards and other visualizations. The guidelines have a structure that can be followed and that is beginning with reading direction. When it comes to how you are arranging your information on your dashboard or a visualization it can be helpful to think about reading direction. General reading direction is from left to right and from top to bottom. Having information flow in this structure will allow others to read and understand your visuals in a more natural structure. Local proximity is another idea to keep in mind when creating a visual or a dashboard. Having information in a close proximity can be compared with a better effectiveness and allow users to draw conclusions. Being able to make sure the user is not being overloaded with information when creating your visual. Having a few key figures with significant importance can be more helpful compared to having too much information. When you have too much information and not a structure to what you are presenting then that is known as a “data graveyard”. Another aspect to keep in mind while creating visuals that goes along with information overload is the idea of interaction within your visual. Interacting with the dashboard would allow for further detail to be obtained from the user and allow them to better understand the information on your dashboard.

Chart visualization is an important aspect when creating dashboards, diagrams in particular. When you have complex data it can be difficult to come to conclusions from that material and being able to have different visual elements within the dashboard can be helpful in giving a larger overview of the material. Being able to have a visual reporting system allows multiple processing operations to be carried out and that could increase the effectiveness of decisions. There are different types of visualizations that can be seen as more effective depending on the data type and the recipient. Looking at traditional business graphics in an interactive form is another aspect to keep in mind when creating a dashboard. Business charts are used mainly in the form of interactive dashboards. A major advantage of business charts is that the majority of users have an understanding of them.

There are many connections between dashboards and accounting. Dashboards aid with budgeting, management control, and wage control. Dashboards are used to present data in a quick and easy to read way. The ability to present data in a quick way with a visual allows for more data to be processed and understood. Dashboards are used for performance reports, sales analysis on sectors, and inventory rotation. Dashboards should be quick visualizations that allow decisions to be made quicker than they usually would without the access to dashboard technology.

Dashboards are also used in accounting decision making settings. The data can help prove a change is efficient or inefficient and therefore help with improving systems throughout an organization.

In order for a dashboard to be efficient, the individual creating the dashboard needs to make sure that the information is simple and easy to read and be interpreted.^[24]

See also

• Business activity monitoring
• Complex event processing
• Corporate performance management
• Data presentation architecture
• Enterprise manufacturing intelligence
• Event stream processing
• Information graphics
• Information design
• Scientific visualization
• Control panel (software)

References

Further reading

• Stephen Few (2006). Information Dashboard Design. O'Reilly. ISBN 978-0-596-10016-2.
• Wayne Eckerson (2006). Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing Your Business. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-471-77863-9.