Published on September 25 2006

Plenty of data but no information…

Most organisations are good at producing the operational reporting required to run their business from day to day. Many have enterprise-wide data warehouses that bring all their information together to produce detailed reports at period end. Some go further and use data summary and data mining techniques that support the analysis of key performance indicators and help to identify trends in data.

Regrettably, this information is seldom presented to top-level management in a straightforward way that conveys its true meaning and context. A condensed solution, on which executives can depend to steer the direction of the company, is rarely available.

Ultimately, you just want to know how the business is really doing; whether the numbers in front of you are good or bad, and how they compare with those of the last month, and the month before that. Using a dashboard means that the information you want can be presented to you without the need to trawl through dozens of reports to get hold of the facts.
What are dashboards?

Designed well, a dashboard is an effective visual communication of business data that brings together relevant information on one screen for quick digestion. Those who build dashboards intelligently do so through skills in information architecture and the psychology of visual perception, rather than through technical expertise and data manipulation as you might expect.

The essence of dashboard design is in representing large amounts of information on one screen. Summaries — typically totals, percentages and averages — are almost always more meaningful than their underlying data, particularly for trends like month-on-month. Similarly, certain matters are only worth communicating if they highlight something out of the ordinary. The principles of summarisation and exception are vital in giving an instant focus to business priorities.

Poorly developed dashboards present information with too much detail. They're badly arranged, look over-decorated and out of context, and use confusing visual devices and colour schemes. Visual design principles (proximity, closure, similarity, continuity, enclosure, connection) are crucial to ensuring that information is organised in a way that makes sense and that the most significant data stands out as it should.

Another aspect critical to usability is, of course, the relevance of the information displayed to the user. Ideally, your enterprise maintains a suite of dashboards, each of which focuses on a particular business concern and is intended for the manager of that area (new business, finance, collections, process performance and so on). The CEO's dashboard might comprise a balanced scorecard for the whole business as well as a capability to drill down to other dashboards dedicated to key functions.
Where can I get one?

There are a number of vendor solutions available for dashboard production, though some organisations prefer to develop their own. Whichever approach you take, make sure that the solution is implemented with plenty of foresight, putting emphasis on visual communication and taking a highly selective attitude to its content. If you simply buy a dashboard and install it, it's a sure way to see it fall rapidly into disuse.

Get it right and you can dispense with paper-based reports, instead enjoying a window into your business that will help guide it to greater profit.