IQ Solutions

There is a lot of hype in the software industry today about strategic scorecards and dashboards with most of it coming from the software vendors desperate to convince senior executives of the need for powerful business analytics that report the overall performance of their organisation.

But what about folks further down the hierarchy?

This has remained fairly virgin territory with the bulk of business intelligence investment being spent on datawarehouses and datamarts that feed the more senior decision-makers. In a number of recent engagements though we have seen significant advantages for management and the workforce alike when operational dashboards have been deployed ‘at the coal-face’.

What is an operations dashboard?

An operations dashboard is aptly named. Imagine driving a vehicle with no instruments to tell you whether the engine was in need of a service or you were close to running out of petrol or water. Like the dashboard of a motor vehicle, operational dashboards enable managers or workers to monitor, analyze and manage workflow far more effectively.

Monitor - Timeliness is critical to accurate decisions

When driving a car people are always alert to changes in the dashboard display such as petrol creeping down or temperature rising up. These are all signs we continuously monitor but crucially we do this in ‘real-time’. We don’t wait for a monthly report to inform us of oil or petrol levels yet many companies still rely on these kind of periodic reports to make decisions.

Operational dashboards provide instant feedback and this is vital to making accurate decisions.

Analyze - Discover the root-cause of poor performance.

Imagine if your car dashboard only had one dial to tell you how fast you were going. If the speed suddenly dropped off sharply you would have no indication of the underlying fault. Was it lack of petrol? Reduced oil pressure?

Modern cars have incredibly sophisticated computers to help the driver or mechanic analyse the root-cause of the condition in seconds.

This is why operational dashboards are so powerful, they enable the user to drill- down to the underlying fault using one tool, no more trawling through endless reports and print-outs.

Imagine you notice a spike in customer complaints? Operational dashboards enable you to rapidly analyse underlying trends that infer common causes that can be remedied immediately.

Manage - Enable 360 degree management

Modern managers are under incredible pressure. They often have to manage disparate teams, outsourced relationships, increasing economic pressures and increasingly mobile workforces.

Operational dashboards provide vital feedback into every aspect of their responsibility without overwhelming them with too much data.

They are able to gain insight about purchasing, procurement, production capacity, inventory management, distribution, logistics, unit costs, quality management, process efficiency - without having to interact with a variety of different systems and reports.

Implementation - So how are operational dashboards created?

In recent years many organisations have invested literally millions in data warhehousing and business intelligence but the results have been mixed.

We believe that the reason most of these initiatives fail to deliver tangible benefits is that they are targeted too far up the organisational hierarchy and not in the ‘engine-room’ where rapid, accurate decisions are critical.

Our approach is to work from the ‘bottom-up’ using what we term ‘Workforce Wisdom’.

We believe the key to implementing operational dashboards is to focus on rapid, high return using low-cost but cutting-edge business intelligence technology. Gone are the multi- million pound warehouses, instead we opt for lightweight applications that bolt-on to existing operational databases and transform data into intelligence in real-time.

Using this method, dashboards and reporting platforms are created in days with extremely low investment and zero operating impact. Low investment also means no protracted procurement cycles so the operations teams can improve performance much faster.

What are the business benefits?

Every IT initiative needs to be backed by a solid business case and dashboards provide a compelling example of how a simple solution, focused on a particular business area can deliver clear financial and operational benefits with no risk.

Some of the benefits cited by customers include:

Lower workforce costs. In one recent engagment we discussed the current operational performance in a workshop format. Feedback came flooding back as to where improvements could be made. Several workers spent literally days analysing data to create reports, with their new dashboard this was reduced to minutes. They bought in to the concept completely because it made their lives far less stressful.

Accurate decisions. Bad decision making costs your business. By demonstrating to senior management that you can make decisions instantly, without waiting for monthly reports you will create a strong case for implementing an operational dashboard. An example of this is that companies using dashboards find that they make better purchasing and procurement decisions which reduces spare stock levels thus improving cash flow performance.

Streamlined processes. Dashboards give you insight into every aspect of the workflow process. The performance manager now has a simple tool for analysing the cause of delays, bottlenecks and costs, all in real-time. This enables performance improvement teams to continuously improve poorly performing processes.

Want to know more?

Reserve a (free) dashboard workshop to learn more about the benefits to you and your organisation. Just contact us here.