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KPI-dashboard to achieve business goals

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are measures of a company’s performance that help achieve its strategic and operational business goals. Using these indicators it is possible to assess the current state of the business and the success of the strategy implementation, monitor employees activity, departments and the business as a whole, make effective decisions and move forward at a strategic level.

The KPI dashboard displays key performance indicators using interactive charts and graphs. This provides a fast and easy data workflow. Modern dashboards allow users to efficiently explore and analyze data, find the information they need, and get answers to business questions. Dashboards, by transforming large sets of business data into accessible and understandable information, help to improve business operations as a whole.

Each dashboard is unique and can be customized to users’ needs to detail the necessary information. However, there are 4 main categories of KPI dashboards:

Executive – a reporting tool used by senior managers to monitor the long-term strategy by evaluating critical success factors, as well as evaluating performance against set goals;
Operational – the most common type of dashboards, that is used to monitor the current state of the business, assess progress in achieving goals;
Tactical – this type of KPI-dashboard is used to monitor progress towards achieving goals within the entire company, as well as within a separate team. With this view of the panel user can easily determine what works and what does not work and make the necessary adjustments;
Analytical – designed for analysts and displays a large amount of analytical data. Such a dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of the data that plays a key role in the decision-making process.

Benefits of KPI dashboards:

Getting the most out of the data the company owns;
Conducting effective activities (making effective decisions, identifying problem areas, determining directions for business development and scaling, etc.);
Creation of a corporate culture based on data;
Obtaining a competitive advantage;
Achievement of set tactical and strategic goals.

To create a KPI dashboard it is necessary to:

Know and understand the audience;
Know ways to use the dashboard;
Understand business goals

Key principles for creating a KPI dashboard:

Ease of use and availability;
Highlighting;
Information hierarchy (presentation of information according to its importance);

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Dashboards in Executives' work

Executive dashboards are designed for company’s top management and display data on all key performance indicators (KPIs). Modern dashboards collect data from all departments of the company for detailed research and analysis. So, leaders can make decisions based on data, and thereby increase productivity, revenue and reduce risks.

CEO dashboard

To be successful, it is important for the CEO to have quick access to all data. This can be done using BI tools such as dashboards. With this tool, the CEO has the ability to view, explore and analyze relationships and real-time data collected from all data sources. Thus, the manager gets a complete picture of the current situation.

COO dashboard

It is important for the COO to organize effective revenue and profit management as well as reduce risks. The dashboard is one of the main tools for visualizing and exploring the relationships between data sources, that contributes to effective management. The dashboard also helps to manage end-to-end processes, explore them and determine where operational intervention is required for improvement.

CMO dashboard

The task of the marketing manager is to optimize the work at each stage of the customer’s life cycle. With the help of the dashboard the manager has the ability to effectively measure the return on investment in marketing, implement changes, and respond to market conditions and their changes. A dashboard displays KPIs across the entire marketing funnel in real time, the effectiveness of marketing initiatives, that allows to identify the opportunity, existing and potential problems.

CFO dashboard

CFOs work with vast amounts of transactional data from disparate systems. To analyze them, they need an effective tool. The dashboard provides summaries of exceptional data and information across all finance departments. With the help of financial analytics, managers can detail and explore data on expenses, cost centers, and purchases. This allows to know the true cost of running a business, compare costs across departments, evaluate costs, and find new ways to increase profits.

CII/CTO dashboard

The dashboard helps executives optimize budget and forecast to better manage technology asset lifecycle costs, detail development costs, efficiency, employee engagement, discover underutilized systems and applications, improve scalability, identify technology needs, and more.

Dashboard for HR team workflow

Dashboards are a universal tool that can be used in any area and any department of the company. HR professionals are active users of dashboards.

HR Dashboard is a business intelligence tool that allows the HR team to track, analyze and report on key metrics. Interactive dashboards provide the ability to combine data from different systems and explore the data. This allows the HR team to quickly find the information they need to improve recruitment, optimize workplace management, and increase employee productivity.

Examples of HR dashboards:

Management dashboard – a tool for department heads to quickly view and analyze critical indicators in one place;
Staff performance dashboard displays employee performance indicators to understand and analyze staff performance, satisfaction and progress;
Employee development panel displays indicators of the personnel training process (percentage of training completion, number of hours, costs, etc.);
Demographic dashboard helps to understand the demographic characteristics of employees, analyze their age, gender, location, ethnicity, and maintain a diverse and balanced workforce;
Salary comparison panel allows to explore and conduct a deep analysis of personnel compensation data, taking into account gender, position in the company, tenure, etc.

Key benefits of the HR dashboard:

Full interactivity;
Data combination from all HR analytics sources;
Advanced analytics;
Automatic notifications and reports (setting up automatic sending of notifications and reports to all concerned parties);
Access to the information panel from any device;
Easy data preparation.

The right set of key performance indicators contributes to a faster and more informative analysis of staff work. The following indicators should be taken into account:

Personnel management (absence rate, outsourcing ROI, open/closed complaints, highest productivity time, internal mobility, employee composition by gender, experience and tenure, manager quality index, employee satisfaction level, return on investment in training, etc.);
Remuneration (rate of operating expenses for personnel; labor cost, percentage of income from labor costs, percentage of labor costs, payback of human capital, etc.);
Recruitment (recruitment quality, vacancy rate, staff churn rate, retirement rate, external recruitment rate, recruiting funnel metrics, recruitment costs, employee retention rate, etc.).

Dashboard to Provide Effective Workflow

A dashboard is an indispensable business tool for working with data. It is a visual report with all the data. The main such report goal is to help the user to make effective business decisions by visualizing KPIs (charts, graphs, maps, etc.), monitoring performance, interacting with data to analyze trends and obtain the necessary information. Clear visualization in the form of charts or graphs provides an easy workflow and data understanding. Modern reports also extract data from several sources and allow to explore, analyze data and get a complete understanding of the current situation. Some dashboards include AI-driven recommendations, big data scalability, built-in visualizations, and a managed self-service.

There is a fundamental difference between regular reports and a dashboard. A modern interactive dashboard is a data visualization that allows to interact with data, explore it, understand what changes are happening or have happened and determine causes. A static report is a visualization of historical data. Such reports can only tell what happened in the past. They are used on a regular basis (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.).

Dashboard types:

Managerial
Operating room
Tactical
Analytical

You can read more about the types of dashboards here

Dashboards can be useful for companies from any industry, as well as for any profession.

Dashboard usage depending on the business industry:

Retail – analysis of purchasing power, customer engagement and other indicators to increase sales and maximize profits;
Financial Services – revenue and margin analysis, identifying profitable customers to increase productivity and reduce costs;
Technology – detailed high-tech reports help to innovate, manage the supply chain, increase flexibility and profitability;
Healthcare – a dashboard that allows to detail the key performance indicators of patient care, optimize the work of staff, improve patient outcomes;
Production – KPI analysis to improve efficiency and ensure the smooth operation of the enterprise, as well as the supply chain.

Dashboard usage depending on professional duties and company departments:

Marketing – a combination of data from CRM, advertising tools, web analytics tools to better understand customer behavior and increase the return on investment in marketing;
IT – a clear view of the applications and systems to increase the level of security and meet technology needs;
Finance – detailed analysis of data on purchases, contracts, expenses to reduce costs and risks, as well as increase profitability;
Sales – trends visualization, KPI monitoring, forecasts creation using sales reports to increase revenue;
HR – remuneration analysis, employee churn and other indicators to improve the efficiency of employee management.

The main dashboard advantages:

Maximizing the return on data owned by the company – transforming data into a valuable asset;
Information literacy (creating a culture based on data);
Approval from the management (obtaining the support of key stakeholders by providing key performance indicators in an understandable form.

Recommendations for creating a dashboard:

Data analysis – data type and access determining, as well as the purpose of its usage;
Working with a team – team priority goals defining;
Ability to explore – providing the necessary tools to users to obtain complete information about the data, as well as its research;
Visual effects – simple and clear effects and actions provide an easy and understandable workflow;
Access – users should have quick access to needed data;
Integration of reports into the daily work tools of users (websites, applications, portals, processes, etc.).

BI-dashboard Creation Best Practice

Dashboards are an essential tool for transforming data into business value. A smart dashboard uses data to show the real situation to specific groups of users. However, there is no single approach. Every business is an individual with its own goals, objectives and audience. To solve problems and achieve particular business goals, an individual approach to the dashboard development is required.

Practical Guidelines for Dashboard Development

Understanding the audience

The first step in dashboard creating is defining the audience: users portrait creating, what information they need and how they will use it. More often, dashboards are designed for specific people and roles. Different business users have different data expectations and needs. Leader’s needs will differ from the manager’s needs, and manager’s needs from the analyst’s needs. The analyst needs multiple data views to get deeper insights into the data, and the operations manager needs to quickly understand whether there are deviations that require immediate action.

Determining the type of dashboard

Having determined the target audience it’s necessary to choose the most appropriate dashboard type.

4 main types of BI dashboards:

Executive dashboard – allows managers to track key performance indicators, analyze general trends for a longer period, get an idea of critical success factors, make forecasts;
Operational dashboard – allows users to receive up-to-date information, identify the place and moment of deviations in the data occurrence;
Tactical dashboard – allows users to track progress towards specific goals and make better decisions;
Analytical dashboard – an interactive tool used by analysts for deep and detailed analysis and problem identification.

KPI definition

It may seem that the panel should display absolutely all indicators. However, specific goals and objectives require specific indicators. At this stage the main task is to determine the main indicators that most accurately measure success.

KPI display

The dashboard should display key metrics in a way that is understandable to the audience and the focus is directed there. For example, if the key metric is customer acquisition cost, the dashboard design should emphasize that.

Chart type

By understanding what information users need to see it is possible to determine the appropriate type of charts.

Main chart types:

Comparison charts (simple and clear visualization for comparing values, identifying trends, determining maximum and minimum values);
Composition charts (provides users with the ability to see parts of a whole over time or over a static period);
Distribution charts (helps users to easily see the status and trend of the data);
Relationship charts (helps users identify correlations and relationships in data).

UI Design Principles usage

Well-designed dashboards follow user interface design principles to guide users to the right information.

Basic principles:

Data organization. Using classic design and information hierarchy principles for clarity. Critical information should be placed at the top left because users usually scan horizontally across the page and then down;
Limited number of charts and data points in the dashboard to avoid chaos, highlighting key indicators for easier information understanding;
Visual cues. Using icons, buttons, text to display an element’s link to another page, adding clear calls to action;
Correct color. Compliance of the dashboard design with the corporate style (colors, fonts, graphics), balanced color usage.

Iteration and improvement

Before presenting a dashboard to a wide audience it is worth sharing with a few of its representatives, getting their feedback and making changes. After presenting the dashboard to the entire audience, it makes sense to observe a process of dashboard using and analyze user feedback.

Dasboard as an effective business tool

There are many BI tools that provide the transformation of business information into a form ready for business analysis. One such tool is the dashboard.

Dashboard is a BI tool that allows to track, analyze and report on all business performance metrics. Such a panel usually provides data visualization in the form of charts, graphs and maps. The simple and clear information presentation helps users understand it, share with other users, and work together on it. Dashboards also make it easy to connect data from many different sources. This allows users to explore and analyze data in one place.

BI-dashboard benefits:

obtaining comprehensive answers to business questions;
the ability to draw conclusions to make more effective decisions;
raw data transformation from several sources into useful information;
improving information literacy level and the quality of user interaction with data;
improving the quality of employees’ work due to clear and convenient data visualization.

The main stages of dashboard creation:

Data integration. The first step is to collect the raw data and transform it into analytics-ready information. The process of data transformation involves the connection of data from various sources and replication, various data types transformation into standardized formats.
Goal definition. For the correct dashboard creation, it is necessary to clearly define the business goal, to define what exactly needs to be analyzed, researched and optimized. The goal may be to enter new markets, optimize some business processes, determine the priority stage of the marketing funnel etc.
Simple and clear visualization. The data history should be transparent and understandable. It is important to identify key performance indicators and dependency, and choose graphs, charts, and maps that most accurately visualize this.
Research and collaboration. Self-service provides business users with possibility to organize their own information investigation, draw conclusions and find new solutions. Modern BI tools that offer an associative engine allow to define all dependencies and not be limited to linear queries.
AI usage. Modern dashboards offer advanced analytics capabilities, that uses AI and machine learning. The tools enhance users’ intuition and suggest new ideas.

More possibilities with Qlik Mobile

One of the main conditions for a successful business is mobility. Business executives and other professionals rely almost entirely on mobile devices to get information here and now. Mobile applications usage in operational activities allows to receive the necessary information immediately and make decisions. In turn, this allows to gain and maintain a competitive advantage in the information economy.

Qlik Sense is mobile-friendly and provides a complete mobile experience with a responsive design. SaaS users can also use the app for iOS and Android. This application further expands the customer experience and user capabilities. The application provides an improved user interface, fully interactive online and offline analysis. Qlik Sense Mobile for SaaS also has push notifications. With these notifications, users are aware of important changes to their data and can respond to them in real time. Qlik pays special attention to security issues. The application provides best-in-class security and data, application and user management.

Qlik Sense mobile app is available for download on your device from the Apple App Store and Google Play. With this application, users can manage the actions at the moment of making a decision.

Qlik Enterprise Manager

Today every company has certain requirements for data processing. One of these requirements: the rapid data and metadata integration in heterogeneous environments for analytics. Managing individual data streams across multiple endpoints can be quite inconvenient, inefficient, and time consuming. Qlik tools allow to centrally manage data pipelines at scale.

Qlik Enterprise Manager provides a control center for the tasks of setting up, running and monitoring replication and transformation throughout the enterprise. The tool provides an intuitive management interface for Qlik Data Integration. The graphical user interface simplifies the process of designing, executing and controlling Qlik Replicate and Qlik Compose tasks.

Advantages:

development and execution of batch loading and continuous data change capture (CDC) across all sources through a single control panel;
enabling massive management consolidation of multiple Qlik Replicate servers and heterogeneous endpoints;
real-time monitoring, analysis and control of replication for diagnosing and troubleshooting;
viewing dashboards with KPI in real time, as well as historical data;
automating the development and execution of replication tasks;
integration with Qlik Catalog (automatic cataloging of information assets generated by Qlik Replicate in the catalog);
monitoring the origin of data.

Previous #fridaypost “Qlik Data Streaming”

Qlik Data Streaming

The need to quickly respond to events and make decisions is especially important for today’s business. Users are interested in working with data as it occurs. Now there is an increased interest in streaming data processing technologies. This is explained by the fact that working with real-time information allows to reduce financial and operational risks, increase customer loyalty, improve the quality of customer service, etc.

Streaming data processing involves the use of special technologies focused on receiving and processing a stream of regularly updated data. Qlik Data Integration enables the efficient delivery of large volumes of real-time analytics-ready data to streaming and cloud platforms, warehouses and data lakes.

Capture data changes in real time

Qlik provides real-time data movement from source to destination. The process is guided through a graphical interface that fully automates end-to-end replication. A simplified and agentless configuration allows data scientists to configure, control, and monitor data pipelines based on Data Change Capture (CDC) technology.

Support for sources, targets, and platforms

Qlik Replicate supports multiple sources and objects, and allows to upload, ingest, migrate, distribute, consolidate, and synchronize data across on-premise, cloud, and hybrid environments. These include:

RDBMS: Oracle, SQL, DB2, MySQL, Sybase, PostgreSQL;
Data warehouses: Exadata, Teradata, IBM, Netezza, Vertica, Pivotal, Azure Synapse;
Cloud platforms: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud;
Cloud service providers: Databricks, Snowflake, Confluent;
Stream content delivery platforms: Apache Kafka, Confluent;
Corporate applications: SAP, Salesforce;
Mainframes: IMS/DB, DB2 z/OS, RMS, VSAM.

Monitoring and control at the enterprise level

Qlik Enterprise Manager allows to create, execute and monitor many integration tasks across distribution centers and cloud environments. This makes it easy to monitor and scale the data flow in real time through KPIs and alerts.

Previous #fridaypost “Qlik: Data Warehouse Automation”

Qlik: Data Warehouse Automation

Information is a key resource for any business. Easy access to data helps to gain market leadership in the digital age. It is possible to set up quick access to it with data warehouse automation, which simplifies and speeds up the data warehouse life cycle.

Qlik Data Integration automates the entire data warehouse lifecycle while speeding up access to ready-made analytical data. Data engineers have the ability to create models and new data marts, as well as add new data sources. Automation is provided at every stage of the pipeline from data modeling and real-time ingestion to data mart and control.

Advantages:

Automation of data obtaining and updating in real time.

The universal solution provides a continuous process of uploading corporate data to storage in real time. CDC is the foundation for accelerating data movement from different enterprise sources into storage.

Automated and continuous refinement

A modern approach to the process of creating and operating a data warehouse. Model-driven approach for rapidly designing, building and managing corporate data stores on premises or in the cloud.

Trusted corporate data

Smart catalog creation for all corporate data. The security level allows to securely share all datasets, marts, etc. with other business users.

Support for flexible architectures

It is quite common for organizations to implement both data lakes and data warehouses to meet different analytic needs. Qlik Compose combines warehouse and data lake automation in one unified user interface.

Previous #fridaypost “Qlik Security and Privacy”