Just like any business intelligence system business dashboards help decision makers make informed and better decisions. The idea of the business dashboard is presenting the business information in a way which is easy to understand and information is updated based on the business reporting needs which might be real time or at some defined period such as daily, weekly or monthly. Business Dashboards use technology to integrate data, systems and knowledge into an effective report. This offers opportunities for decision makers for improvement in their financial, operational and overall strategic organizational performance. 

Traditionally business reporting in organizations has been organized through the use of data warehousing approaches with the purpose of managing multiple sources of data. The business dashboard reporting approach, which started in the eighties, brought to the table more sophisticated way of reporting and analysis through better data management and visualization. Today, as the business is become more competitive and time to make decisions should be fast the need for business dashboards in organization has been increased dramatically. The reporting time frequency is going from monthly to real time and organizations with better information will be able to manage their business better then competitors. Especially for organization where operational decisions have to be made fast and accurate business dashboards can bring competitive advantage. Effective Business Dashboard will present both intern organizational information and external market information in a way the information supports decision making which is further linked to the overall organizational mission and strategy. The dashboard reporting should be a continuous business analysis and reporting process which should be supported by appropriate training.   

Developing an Effective Business Dashboard requires a thorough business analysis, needs assessment and building business intelligence strategy. The creation of the business intelligence strategy should be with an approach of creating a competitive advantage through effective business analysis and reporting. The next step is finding the trade off between time required for developing the business reporting, the cost and the impact on the organizational bottomline. Major issues to be considered are the purpose of the system, the potential users, time to develop the system, technical requirements and what part of the system should be outsourced and what are the activities which are going to be performed in house. What are the right metrics to be measured with the business dashboard. Ideally the metrics should support managerial decisions towards achieving your business plan. If your organization has a formal business plan take a look at the executive summary and ask the question how our metrics support the overall strategy and what other metrics are we supposed to measure to support the overall business strategy. 

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