Business Intelligence, what is your dashboard not telling you?
Business Intelligence is not a dashboard
Business Intelligence is a solution and time-strapped executives and business managers are inconstant need of quick and simple reports on corporate performance. It is true that dashboards often win out over scorecards in the executive world because of the perception that a Balanced Scorecard implementation takes too long and is too complex to manage.
Business Intelligence dashboards are attractive
Dashboards are indeed attractive because they provide an at-a-glance view of performance across any number of key areas. People can see and act when performance is in the red. As a mechanism for managing performance, however, dashboards are of little value unless
- they reflect the actual business drivers of performance
- they allow drill-through to the underlying data for further analysis
- the insights gained can be fed back into these dashboards and acted on in a closed loop manner.
And these are the hallmarks of a Business Intelligence management system.
Business Intelligence is collaboration
Ownership, accountability, consistency, and collaboration are some of the key attributes of an effective Business Intelligence system. Businesses cannot achieve this if their dashboards and scorecards are not connected to the underlying performance data. Your business needs a business Intelligence management environment that provides everyone—from executives to front-line employees—with consistent information tailored for their specific responsibilities. An effective business intelligence management system is also one in which definitions, targets, and thresholds are commonly shared and understood by everyone.
Business Intelligence Solution
Yes, business can create this system with the right Business Intelligence solution. For business intelligence to be the right solution you need high-level dashboards and scorecards with the vital connections to the underlying data. You business intelligence needs to be that people at any level of the organization gain a clear understanding of where performance is on-target and where corrective actions are needed and this more that a dashboard, right?