HOW TO

How Organizations Use BI Dashboards and Take Benefit from It?

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
November 24, 2020
HOW TO
How Organizations Use BI Dashboards and Take Benefit from It?
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
November 24, 2020
HOW TO
How Organizations Use BI Dashboards and Take Benefit from It?
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
November 24, 2020
CEO at Aspirity
Written by
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Information is the most important part of the decision-making process. A lack of it can lead to misinformed conclusions and poor decisions that lead to economic losses. Business success tends to go to people who base their actions on facts and metrics instead of those who use hunches and assumptions.

Today, you no longer need to be an IT expert to collect business-relevant data and apply it to advance your success. Especially with business intelligence (BI) dashboards, even executives and managers with no technical expertise can analyze the data and make better decisions for their departments and the organization. BI dashboards in business analytics let you collect important information and display it in the form of graphs, maps, diagrams, charts, and so on. By comparing this data to other departments, periods, and competitors as well as analyzing it and building forecasts, you will be able to make the most informed and well-calculated decision.

What is a Business Intelligence Dashboard?

As we mentioned, the role of dashboards in business intelligence is to showcase vital KPIs that influence your company's results. Based on these metrics, an executive can make a cognizant decision to increase productivity, attract new clients, and cut unnecessary expenses. The graphic representation tool will also help you to pinpoint problematic areas and identify potential issues. Knowledge is everything, so by detecting the problems as soon as possible, you mitigate the potential risks and minimize the harm.

Types of Business Intelligence Dashboards

Strategic dashboard

As the name suggests, strategic dashboards track the progress towards the company's strategic goals. For example, doubling the revenue — the dashboard will display both actual and target revenue to compare them. Strategic dashboards are a must-have for business owners as they offer a broad overview of the company's performance.

Operational dashboard

Operational dashboards deal with information on a slightly smaller scale. They serve to organize data within one department. Every manager requires a clear overview of the budget, revenue, project duration, and deadlines, as well as faster data tracking. By analyzing operational dashboards, managers can single out important KPIs to follow a particular business area's performance and take immediate action.

Tactical dashboard

The tactical dashboard allows you to have an in-depth analysis and perceive data in more detail. This BI tool is perfect for middle management that needs to have an in-depth understanding of business processes. Being able to offer a lot of different data, tactical dashboards let you filter out the most important figures, receive weekly reports, and get ahead of the competition by analyzing trends.
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How to Use Business Dashboards Most Effectively

A dashboard for business intelligence provides an incredible opportunity to boost your company's analytic capabilities. But which numbers should you track, and which KPIs can you monitor with them?

Track sales

BI sales dashboard can do wonders for your sales analysis by processing the following information:
  • Sales pipeline
    Sales pipeline dashboards are business intelligence dashboards that encompass large amounts of data in detail. These dashboards allow you to compare current numbers to target performance and detect the most advanced opportunities;
  • Sales quota
    Sales quota monitors the results of each sales manager's performance individually. You can look at the global indicators as well as filter down to one office in a certain area;
  • Sales trends
    Business intelligence dashboard tools for sales trends allow you to compare performances between different periods and determine the cause of these fluctuations;
  • Sales performance
    Finally, you can analyze profit margins and compare the actual data with the target data to increase your chance of reaching strategic goals.

Demand forecasting

Demand forecasting serves as a tool to understand consumer behavior and their inclination to purchase your product. To be prepared for the next period and match the demand, managers analyze previous data along with current market trends and conditions to estimate the possible demand for the upcoming period.
  • Data preparation.
    Business intelligence dashboard software helps you collect and structure your data in one package;
  • Data analysis.
    Using dashboards, you can create accurate reports by including every piece of essential data from various sources as well as periods;
  • Reporting
    Such dashboards also help you plan for the future by providing real-time information and generating reports on demand.

Customer analysis

What is a BI dashboard for customer analysis? It is a tool that entails and presents information about sales and acquired profit. The data is usually broken down by region and other demographics.

Marketing insights

Like other managers, marketing executives rely on data to determine what impacts their unit's performance and what doesn't. How successful was the latest marketing campaign, and how does it compare to the previous one? These important metrics will help marketers make informed decisions and get a priceless insight into best practices.

Financial reports

What is a business intelligence dashboard for financial data processing reporting? It is a tool that helps managers monitor every important KPI that is relevant for their business unit. Using dashboards, you can enhance your cost management strategy, track expenses and revenue goals, calculate liquidity status, and monitor accounting information.
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The Six Benefits of a Personalized Business Dashboard

What is the importance of BI dashboards, and what benefits should you expect? We've collected a list for you to consider:
  • 1
    Accessibility
    Dashboards can be accessed from any device — from stationary computer and laptop to tablet and smartphone.
  • 2
    Safety and security
    The authorization process guarantees the security of your data.
  • 3
    Collaboration
    Your employees can create and share metrics with their colleagues and make better decisions about the company's future.
  • 4
    Data sources
    The variety of data sources available to the tools enables them to create an accurate representation of current affairs.
  • 5
    Filters.
    What is the point of a data representation where you cannot filter out irrelevant information? With dashboards, you can discover only the data you require — filter sources, regions, departments, etc.
  • 6
    Decision-making
    The main advantage and the goal of business analytics dashboards is to help make data-driven decisions. Dashboards enable their users to perceive information in the most approachable way as well as analyze it easier and quicker.
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Business Intelligence Dashboard Best Practices

When you are new to something, implementing best practices is the way to go about it. They have been collected and established by experts who have gained enough experience in the area and are ready to share their knowledge.

Identify requirements

First, ask yourself the following questions to establish the requirements for your reporting tools:
  • Why do you need an IoT dashboard?
  • Which issue are you trying to solve?
  • What kind of information is required to achieve this goal?
  • Which KPIs and metrics are the most crucial?
Once you have figured out these questions, discuss your results with stakeholders to determine their interests and requirements. Working together, you will analyze all data and decide which BI dashboard software covers your needs and helps you achieve your strategic goals the best.

Target your audience

Customer experience is a vital indicator of nearly everything. What do your users need from this tool to make the best decisions? It also depends on the potential user since your company will have various customers with their specific needs. For example, an executive needs a summary of KPIs to make informed business decisions. Your marketers require data about marketing campaigns and their outcomes. Finally, the sales department wants metrics that cover sales-related data. Hence, you need your BI tool to be customizable to fit everyone's needs and generate data that suits each department.

Use visualizations

People perceive information through visual representation better. This is why use graphs, pie charts and make sure to use different colors to separate data. Here are the three most important BI dashboard best practices for visualization:
  • Locate the most crucial information in the top left corner of the page. And make sure to consistently align the metrics for a clearer overview;
  • In order to create a balanced design and enable readability, add white spaces to your design. When your layout is too colorful and data-dense, your customers will not be able to work out the most important figures and focus on them;
  • In addition to white space, use contrasting colors to point out the valuable data. Combining both practices will help you achieve an efficient and comfortable experience.
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Provide context

To master your business intelligence dashboard design, always keep the context in mind. A single number won't convey whether you have had a successful month or not. The relation to the previous month will. Include historical data to point out the trend and keep the users truly informed.

Add interactivity

Interactive dashboards are the way to engage users in data instead of keeping them as a silent audience. Additionally, customizability adds extra value for the user by enabling them to display only the essential information: customers can hide some charts, request additional details, and enjoy real-time metrics.

Improve continuously

Once you have chosen and customized the dashboards, do not stop. Always ask for feedback and make sure these tools are still relevant for the customers.

Final Thoughts

Dashboards are created to present complex data in an easy form and boost the efficiency of decisions. Hopefully, best practices will help you design the ultimate dashboard for your needs. If not, refer to Aspirity — a team of professionals with years-long experience in UI/UX design as well as data representation techniques. Our extended knowledge and expertise will help you achieve your goals and provide the best user experience.
CEO AT ASPIRITY
For more than 2,5 years, I've been working as CEO at Aspirity. I help professionals launch digital products by providing dedicated development teams.
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