Data dashboards are powerful information management tools and an integral part of any data strategy framework. They are designed to track, analyse and display key performance indicators (KPIs), metrics, and data points. You can use data dashboards – also known as data visualisation solutions – to monitor the overall health of your business, department, or specific processes.
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In today’s dynamic business landscape, the right data dashboards and data visualisations are flexible. They can quickly and easily be created and adapted to meet the very specific data requirements of your teams. For instance, your executives may have a dashboard displaying key finance metrics and KPIs, whereas your marketing team’s dashboard will primarily be focused on marketing data.
What is the purpose of a data dashboard?
A data dashboard transforms your organisation’s raw data into something understandable and insightful. Dashboards will enable your busy employees to make better decisions, faster, without having to sift through columns and rows in spreadsheets. Data intelligence solutions in insurance industry can play a crucial role in this transformation. Data visualisations can be presented in the most appropriate format, whether that’s a table, line chart, bubble chart, or bar chart – the visual possibilities are limitless.
By taking raw data from various sources and consolidating it before presenting it in this tailored, customised visual way, data dashboards can help make sense of your company’s most valuable data and empower you to find actionable answers to those burning business questions.
The 3 types of data dashboard solutions
Operational dashboards
An operational dashboard will keep everyone in your organisation up to date with what is currently happening across the business. Use this type of dashboard to monitor real-time or transactional data against key metrics and KPIs. Data on operational dashboards updates on a frequent basis, which can be up-to-the-minute.
Operational dashboards are designed to be used during the daily working schedule. They often contain contextual information, enabling dashboard viewers to explore the data and apply it more effectively within the decision-making process.
Operational dashboards can be used, for instance, to track website performance metrics such as new users or bounce rates. They could also be used to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing by tracking your return on advertising expenditure (ROAS).
Strategic dashboards
Strategic dashboards typically align departmental performance with overall corporate strategy.
For example, a strategic dashboard could be used to take benchmark performance data from the previous quarter and compare it to the current period. This will help you identify whether things have improved, stayed the same, or worsened.
Obviously, your managers and executives need a birds-eye-view of strategic KPIs. But when this sort of performance data is transparently shared with all employees, there can be major benefits. After all, if you empower the whole team with knowledge, you never know who will have the next great idea.
Analytical dashboards
Using data from the past, an analytical dashboard draws on business intelligence (BI) and analytics to identify trends that will help you make decisions about the future. These dashboards are tools that users should be able to interact with and explore. Visual elements such as pivot tables and drill-downs are often found on analytical dashboards.
Identifying important data and comparing that data across multiple variables is an essential part of data analytics. An analytical dashboard must be able to compare data across time. This enables users to identify performance differences and correlate these differences with corporate action or any other outside forces, such as the time of year, which may have an impact on metrics.
Analytical dashboards analyse large volumes of data, allowing users to:
- Investigate trends
- Predict outcomes
- Discover insights
- Make better-informed decisions
Blended dashboards for your business needs
Most data dashboard solutions fall into one of the above three categories. However, all businesses have their own unique requirements. Good dashboard design can facilitate elements of all three types of dashboards. There are innumerable variations on the dashboard theme depending on the data they contain, the design choices made and the ultimate purpose of your dashboard.
The right data dashboard will unlock your company’s data
Dufrain’s consultants can help you to develop and build data dashboard and data visualisation solutions that will make your important data accessible to everyone. Find out how the right data dashboard will help your people to gain deeper insights and make better business decisions.