Business Dashboard - Benefits, Data to Be Included, Potential Challenges - Example

BUSINESS DASHBOARD Name: Course Instructor’s name Institution Date Table of Contents Introduction 3 1.0. Suggested Audience 3 2.0. Benefits of the Dashboard 5 3.0. Data to be included in the dashboard 6 4.0. Potential challenges in implementing the dashboard 8 5.0. Planned method for implementing 9 Conclusion 10 References 11 BUSINESS DASHBOARD Introduction Woolworths is the largest supermarket chain in Australia with an estimated number of 5961 stores across. The Company also has an estimated number of 111,000 employees who are spread out across its distribution centers, stores, support offices, they are committed to providing customers with valuable services. Woolworths also prides itself with working closely with the Australian farmers and growers to provide the best products to the Australian convenient stores’ market. The Company also prides its self with an estimated 29 million customers across its brand. This paper therefore, aims to report on the implementation of a dashboard in the company. 1.0. Suggested Audience The suggested audience for the dashboard is the management of Woolworth’s organization, they are the main consumer of the dashboard who uses its metrics in getting insights about the organization (Cuwer 2016, p.12). In this case the inflation needs of the organization’s management in decision making or coming up with strategies in the course of achieving the organization’s goals makes the organization management the best fitted audience for the dashboard. On the other hand, the organization management is also the audience for the dashboard having that it has the analytical capabilities to be used in analysis of the dashboard. Further, Woolworths’ management is the suggested audience for the dashboard since they are familiar with the performance metrics to be used in the dashboard; in this case the organization management is familiar with the industry and internal company terminologies (Smith 2013, pp.21-45). The end-user groups for the dashboard are the customers who use the information in deciding whether to buy goods from Woolworth and the category of goods that they will purchase. Thus, the dashboard presents this group with information of the type of goods on offer to help them purchase depending with the provided information around the various performance variables and other metrics of the organization (Kurczewski, 2013, pp.593-600). In this case, the dashboard provides the customers as the end–user group with opportunity disseminated information to help them decide whether to purchase a particular product or not. The customers as the end-users of the dashboard are specific to the group since they are stakeholders in the company. Additionally, the organization goals are built around ensuring that they satisfy their customers. In this case the customers pay the role of consummation of a transaction with the organization (Dwivedi et al. 2012, p.531). On the other hand, customers as the end-user group for the dashboard in this case, are also referred to as the entity that interacts with the organization. The decision made by the customers as the end-users of the dashboard is to determine whether an organization product or service meets their desired standard. Hence, the customers are also responsible for determining whether a particular service or good satisfy their needs or wants (Wang, Harris & Patterson 2012,p.63). The customers as the end –users of Woolworths’ dashboard are also responsible for giving feedback to the organization in consideration to the organization products and services. Additionally, as the end-users of the organization dashboard they are responsible for making request on areas that the organization should improve on (Madnick et al., n.d.). Further, as the dashboard end-users they are also responsible for giving credit to the organization in regards to the areas where the organization products and service have flourished. The benefits of customers as the end users in the organization is to increase the organizations sales margin which in the long end also increases the organization profit margin. Moreover, the customers as the end-users in the organization is that they increase the organizations public image since they highlight on the issues that the organization should improve from. The other importance of customers as the end-users for the organization customers is that it gives them a competitive advantage over their competitors (K and Venkatapathy, 2014, pp.1-5). 2.0. Benefits of the Dashboard One main benefit of the dashboard is that it gives great visibility and insight to the organization management. Through the business intelligence, data is able to be induced therefore the organization management is able to know what is exactly going on in all aspects of the business (Baur et al. 2014, p.7). The other benefit of the dashboard is that it enables measurability of various variables in the organization in relation to organization performance. Another benefit of the dashboard in an organization is that through its analytical aspect it is able to drive real-time decision making for the organization (Pappu & Quester 2006, p.6). The other benefits of the dashboard in relation to KPI’s is that they help in tracking and monitoring performance for the organization or business enabling it to stay in control of the Key Performance Indicators at all times (Cuwer, 2016, pp.11-14). Moreover, they help the organizations point out at the KPI’s and the metrics around them that are core for the organization hence it gives the organization a broad preview of the key organizations data and insights. One opportunity brought along by dashboards is that they have enabled the creation of a web user interface that is accessible and functional (Denny and Gross, 2016, pp.223-223). Additionally, the dashboard ensures the delivery of dynamic data of an organization. Another opportunity presented by dashboards is that they provide an analyzed data for the business through graphs, intuitive plots, and visualizations using JavaScript libraries for purposes of passing real time information to all stakeholders (Kurczewski 2013, p.597). Dashboards also enable the organization to track its own progress and other metrics. On the contrary dashboards bring forth threats in any organization like Woolworths and one of the threats presented by dashboards is that they might result to the creation of a negative environment in an organization (Marland, Lewis & Flanagan 2017, p.133). In this case, the use of dashboards in an organization tends to lead to cut throat competition which results from the organization employees being jealous of one another. Moreover, the threat of the dashboard being less effective for usage as an important KPI is not included in the dashboard. 3.0. Data to be included in the dashboard One of the data that should be included in the dashboard it the internal data. In this case, the information created inside the organization. Thus, one of the internal data will include the organizations sales. This particular internal information will be essential in determining the bottom-line performance for the organization (Smith 2013, p.34). The other internal data to be incorporated in the dashboard is the finance data. This data will help in tracking the labor, production and overhead cost of the organization. The other internal data to be included in the dashboard is that on marketing, thus, the toll-free numbers and the website traffic statistics could be used in the dashboard. The other internal data to be incorporated in the organization is the human resource data. For instance, workforce data could be used in the dashboard (Wang, Harris & Patterson 2012, p.71). The other type of data that should be included into the dashboard is the external sources of data. This is data that is available outside the organization. One type of external data that should be included in the dashboard is the government statistics, this may entail; population census, import and export statistics, social survey and family expenditure surveys. The other type of external data that should be included in the dashboard is the data retrieved from trade associations. This may entail information disseminated from trade activities (Cuwer, 2016, pp.11-14). Additionally data retrieved from commercial services can be included in the dashboard, for instance, media statistics and consumer information. Also data external data retrieved from national and international institutions can be included in dashboards. These may entail data such as; university research reports, bank economies reviews and data from journals and articles. On the other hand motivating data should also be incorporated in the organization. This has proven to be essential in motivating the organization employees as well. Further, it is also claimed that the use of motivation data in the dashboard tends to act as performance trigger in the organization by uplifting the workforce spits and performance (Pappu & Quester, 2006, p.7). In this case, tracking, analyzing and sharing of the organization workforce performance while incorporating the motivational data could positively impact to the organization workforce. Hence, Woolworths’ employees are empowered by the motivation data to work to their capability. 4.0. Potential challenges in implementing the dashboard One of the potential challenges in implementation of the dashboard is data quality. In this case, real-world alignment of data refers to the data provider’s perspective. Hence, data tends to be an abstract description of reality where it can never be perfected since there is an evident digital distance between the constantly changing world and the presented data (Mahmood, Rashad & El-Dosuky 2014, p.3). Therefore, the data quality tends to be tampered with since the reality is not the same with the digital world as represented by the data. Another potential challenge in implementation of the dashboard is data unavailability. Thus, the organization faces a lot of challenges in accessing data from multiple sources for instance, it is forced to carryout complex inquiries and use different systems to access this data. However the organization may be unable to access data from the transactional or production databases since some of the system used are not created for data extraction (Rivera and Shanks 2015,p.77). Selection of the correct data is another challenge. This challenge is claimed to be caused by lack of a clear vision in regards to the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Hence, due to varying metrics the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) which impacts on the selection of the collected data varies. Therefore, the standpoint in regards to the collected data often makes the selection of the collected data a quite difficult task (Smith, V. (2013). End-users satisfaction is another challenge, due to the varying Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) the end users satisfaction variables also tend to change. Thus, there are different metrics of measuring the end-users satisfaction. Moreover, the end users also vary therefore ensuring that these three issues which determine the end users satisfaction align could prove to be a challenge (Lieber 2016, n.d).The other challenge is choosing of the visualization, the interpretation of data by the readers tends to vary. Therefore, the work of choosing the perfect visualization which will be easy for the readers to interpret data easily tends to be quite a challenge. In line with this, this is also a challenge since cognitive processing should as well be kept to a minimum in regards to visualization. 5.0. Planned method for implementing The method for implementation of the dashboard should abide by the Business Intelligence Lifecycle. The preference for this method relies on its flexible nature which allows one to make some changes during the implementation stages. The implementation of this design process focuses on the generation of data objects, front end semantic layers, data models and data integration mapping (Denny & Gross 2016, p.223). Business Intelligence Lifecycle is implanted and deployed by following the following steps . The first step is the organization of the dashboards entire systems life cycle; the next step is project initiation where the phases and deliverables are defined. The next step in physical and logic system design, which also entails a couple of steps. Another stage is the implementation stage of all modules where the data collection modules such as ETL/ELT and the Data model as well as the configuration of SW&HW environment are implemented and the last stage is integration, testing and documentation (Baur et al. 2014,p.11). The development team to implement this method should be certified of predefined standard course on the Business Intelligence Lifecycle. On the other hand, the development team should have taken part in couple of tailored user workshops focusing on specific areas of the Business Intelligence Lifecycle (Rivera & Shanks 2015, p.81). The Business Intelligence Lifecycle varies depending on different platforms. In addition to this, there are other additional costs which include the implementers cost, these are the experts who use their skill and knowledge in its implementation (K and Venkatapathy, 2014, p.5). This is known as the development cost. Additionally there is also the deployment cost; this entails the hiring cost of the experts to install the Business Intelligence Lifecycle. Another cost is that relating to the end user training cost, which is the cost incurred while training the organization personnel on how to use it (Lieber 2016, n.d). Conclusion The implementation of the dashboard seems to have a lot of promise for Woolworths Company. The dashboard in this case, is an already proven tool which the organization management can benefit from in getting insight on the areas which they could improve on in the course of striving to attain success for the organization. The dashboard in this case is an ideal tool for any organization intending to focus on specific areas within the organization to boost its success. References A.Mahmood, R., Z. Rashad, M. and A. El-Dosuky, M. (2014). A Dashboard of an Education Data Portal using Big Data Solutions. International Journal of Computer Applications, 90(19), pp.1-5. Baur, A.W., Genova, A.C., Bühler, J. and Bick, M., 2014, November. Customer is King? A Framework to Shift from Cost-to Value-Based Pricing in Software as a Service: The Case of Business Intelligence Software. In Conference on e-Business, e-Services and e-Society (pp. 1-13). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Cuwer, P. (2016). Smart Dashboard. International Journal of Modern Trends in Engineering & Research, 3(10), pp.11-14. Denny, D. and Gross, D. (2016). Establishing an oncology quality dashboard for improvement. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 34(7_suppl), pp.223-223. Dwivedi, A., Merrilees, B., Miller, D. and Herington, C., 2012. Brand, value and relationship equities and loyalty-intentions in the Australian supermarket industry. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 19(5), pp.526-536. K, A. and Venkatapathy, S. (2014). A data-agnostic dashboard visualization framework with customizable layout for e-commerce data analytics. ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes, 39(4), pp.1-5. Kurczewski, P. (2013). Life cycle thinking in small and medium enterprises: the results of research on the implementation of life cycle tools in Polish SMEs—part 1: background and framework. The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 19(3), pp.593-600. Lieber, K.R., 2016. Business Intelligence and Strategic Decision Making. Madnick, S., Choucri, N., Camina, S., Fogg, E., Li, X. and Fan, W. (n.d.). Explorations in Cyber International Relations (ECIR) - Data Dashboard Report #1: CERT Data Sources and Prototype Dashboard System. SSRN Electronic Journal. Marland, A., Lewis, J.P. and Flanagan, T., 2017. Governance in the Age of Digital Media and Branding. Governance, 30(1), pp.125-141. Pappu, R. and Quester, P., 2006. Does customer satisfaction lead to improved brand equity? An empirical examination of two categories of retail brands. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 15(1), pp.4-14. Santiago Rivera, D. and Shanks, G., 2015. A dashboard to support management of business analytics capabilities. Journal of Decision Systems, 24(1), pp.73-86. Smith, V. (2013). Data Dashboard as Evaluation and Research Communication Tool. New Directions for Evaluation, 2013(140), pp.21-45. Wang, C., Harris, J. and Patterson, P.G., 2012. Customer choice of self-service technology: the roles of situational influences and past experience. Journal of Service Management, 23(1), pp.54-78. Read More