At some point, even the most successful business executives have learned this key lesson: if you don't give top priority to the things that matter most, your organization will likely flounder due to a lack of clear direction. It’s a bit like trying to fly a plane without functional instruments. It might work in certain cases, but it'll almost certainly lead you into problems sooner rather than later.
Gino Wickman, an entrepreneur and author, advises business leaders to think in terms of the big strategic goals and activities that drive their company's success. He refers to these as the "big rocks," or the handful of critical goals that must be accomplished over the next quarter or year for the company's strategic vision to be achieved. Wickman's "rocks" terminology is based on a well-known metaphor in which the most significant goals (rocks) are placed first, and then the smaller, less important activities (gravel and sand) are added later. This only works if the huge rocks are addressed first.
Executive dashboards assist key business decision-makers in maintaining their focus on the "big rocks." Executive dashboards have grown in popularity in recent years as technology has made it easier to collect more data, analyze it, and present it in ways that graphically express what's going on in the organization in real-time.
What is an Executive Dashboard?
An executive dashboard, as previously stated, is a visual representation of selected key performance indicators (KPIs) that a business leader or group determines to be the most significant to overall corporate goals. Dashboards typically incorporate a lot of quantitative data represented by charts, graphs, interactive maps, and color-coded features that help to bring the data to life, making it quick and easy to get a feel on the business's health and performance against KPIs.
Executive dashboards are beneficial because they provide a condensed picture of the most important numbers. Although we refer to dashboard reporting directed at a broad audience of key decision-makers as "executive dashboard," there are often differences in the information that is most valuable to different audiences.
For instance, a CIO dashboard might track things like mean time to resolution for IT service tickets, overall network health and performance, or progress against milestones for selected projects of strategic importance. A dashboard for the CFO and the finance team may include critical financial data including topline revenue and gross margin, cash management statistics like days sales outstanding (DSO), and return on working capital.
Although "executive" dashboards are commonly mentioned, the fundamental notion of visual dashboard reports can be implemented at any level of the organization. Department heads, for example, may utilize operational dashboards to analyze performance against the key metrics that are most important to them. A human resources manager may want a centralized view of open requisitions, incoming applications, and applicant progress throughout the hiring process. They may also request information on the number of employees who have completed a mandatory training program, as well as the percentage of employees that leave each department or division.
6 Features That Make A Good Executive Dashboard
Although many standalone programs include dashboard-like features, they don't always provide the comprehensive, multifaceted perspective that a purpose-built reporting and dashboard tool does. Many enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages, for example, include a few visual reports that appear impressive at first sight but lack the functionality required to rapidly and effectively create genuinely strong executive dashboards tailored to your needs. Others are more durable, but they necessitate considerable technical knowledge and have a high total cost of ownership. To select the right tool for your organization, look for these features.
Easy Integration with Existing Systems
Dashboards for the CEO and others in the C-suite must frequently include data from many systems, such as ERP, CRM, web analytics, project management tools, IT service management software, and even social media feeds. Dashboard solutions that don't connect to all of these systems will put your users at a disadvantage, forcing them to consult several tools to receive the information they need. Some solutions are a little more advanced, allowing users to connect to many systems, but not from inside a single report. Finally, this falls short of meeting the single most critical requirement: obtaining a holistic perspective of the organization with all of the information you require in one location.
Personalization
Dashboard reporting tools should allow users to easily tailor their view to meet their individual needs and preferences, while also being able to access numerous data sources. If the CFO expects cash flow management to be a major concern in the next six months, he or she might decide to include some metrics such as days sales outstanding (DSO), days payable outstanding (DPO), and the quick ratio. When cash flow isn't as important, the CFO may choose to suppress those data and instead focus on topline revenue.
Business executives must be able to fine-tune the information they get through their executive dashboards as the company's strategic and tactical priorities change from quarter to quarter and year to year.
Real-Time or Near-Real-Time Information
It's also critical that the data presented via executive dashboards is always current. Although it's standard for finance teams and many companies to begin by combining data from many systems and presenting it in a visually appealing manner using Excel spreadsheets, this manual method is incredibly labor-intensive. It can also bring inaccuracies into the data, and, perhaps most crucially, it can result in out-of-date reports being provided to executive management before they are even completed.
Business executives in today's world require quick access to accurate data. They must comprehend what is happening on the ground and how it influences the key performance indicators (KPIs) that will eventually determine their company's success. Delay in receiving information typically results in slower decision-making. Delays can easily convert into missed opportunities in today's global market, given how quickly things can change. Executives are better able to respond quickly and effectively with up-to-date information offered by dashboards that automatically pull data from ERP, CRM, and other systems.
Drill-Down Capabilities
The purpose of a good dashboard is to provide clarity and insight. Unfortunately, dashboards can often have the opposite impact, especially if the statistics appear exceptionally high or low, prompting a member of the C-suite team to inquire further about the fundamental reason. Robust dashboard reporting tools with built-in drill-down features allow users to delve deeper into the intricacies of their high-level KPIs. Rather than eliciting a barrage of emails and urgent research requests, reporting tools with drill-down features enable users to find the answers they need quickly and without the need for outside assistance.
Collaboration
Users often have queries or remarks to share with their colleagues when they see something interesting happening in the business. Users can share vital information, add comments, and create slideshows to present to coworkers using the best dashboard reporting tools.
Distribution and Access Control
Executive dashboards can be built with the goal of being accessed at any time and reflecting real-time data from the many source systems that feed them. However, in some situations, a company may choose to schedule the distribution of dashboard reports to a specific audience, such as a weekly performance report to department managers that highlights achievement against their department's key performance metrics. These kinds of customizable scheduling and distribution features are available in the top dashboard reporting tools.
While dashboards can be a great tool to summarize and communicate essential data with key members of your team, it's equally critical to keep that data out of the wrong hands. Dashboard security is essential on several levels. To begin, make sure that predefined dashboards are only accessible to people with the appropriate security credentials. Most businesses, for example, would not want every one of their frontline employees to have access to the sales pipeline data displayed on their Sales Dashboard.
You must limit access to the various data throughout your IT landscape for users who have access to the report writing tools required to generate dashboards from scratch. This should ideally be feasible without the need to manage user permissions in several software systems at the same time. The ideal situation is for each user's access to be automatically inherited from the systems they are accessing. A user who doesn't have access to see customer data in the ERP system, for example, won't be able to retrieve that data from a dashboard report.
With hundreds of solutions and dashboard tools available in the market, it can be difficult to choose the right one for your organization. So when looking for the right tool that will achieve executive and company objectives make sure it incorporates the six golden features listed above.
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