He Deficiencies of Using Dashboards - Research Paper Example

The deficiencies of using dashboards Introduction: In modern word, information technology is one of the main pillars for the success of any organization. Various IT tools are now considered as the main supporting act not only for the IT industry but at the same time other industries are also using these applications to run their business smoothly and effectively.There is a conception that larger organizations are able to invest more money in software to get maximum benefit out of it in comparison to smaller one, but the concept is now changing rapidly. This change is mainly due to “an increase of low-cost computing power, storage and bandwidth available via the cloud. It is also recognized that businesses will continue to accumulate increasing volumes of data, from a growing variety of sources at accelerating speeds, a phenomenon also known as big data.”(BBC News, 2012). In this aspect dashboard is one of the key tools of IT that every organizations, small or big are using to analyze various data to get maximum benefit. In this paper the main objective to analyze the importance of dashboard in modern business environment, what is its strength and what are its deficiencies. Research hypothesis: In this paper the main research is based following hypothesis: “How can vendors make dashboards more effective and easier to understand for the user?” Dashboard: Technological Advantages and its Deficiencies Dashboard generally a tool for analyzing data of any particular organization, the market segment and the competitors more in detail to helps organization to derive a successful and competitive business strategy. A dashboard or business intelligence dashboard can be defined as “a graphical interface that displays the current status of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) for an enterprise”. (Rouse, 2010). According to Six Sigma Online (2014) “dashboard is a computer software program that controls and analyze bulk data so that data values are represented in a concise numerical language. The values on a dashboard can be manipulated in a way that affects real-time processes, such as manufacturing.” (Six Sigma Online, 2014).Business management creativities such as the time-tested Six Sigma approachalong with modern data processing software as a means of removing product flaws or making a practical cost/benefit examination. Modern dashboard technology is far more advanced in comparison to manual recording or non-real-time manual input software systems. Some of the key advantages are: Dashboards can be and often are configured or calibrated to meet the specifications of a very specific and detail oriented process outputs. Dashboards are designed by programmers to be exceptionally user friendly. A complicated program could, in the end, be more of a hindrance on the evaluation of a process. That is why dashboard programs are written so that they are extremely customizable and relatively simple to use, while at the same time being very powerful and all encompassing. Dashboards encompass some of the most well-engineered and powerful information processing components such as Six Sigma etc. to make data analysis more and more accurate for the enterprises to get more accurate results. (SixSigma Online, 2014) Jeremy (2009) and James (2012) in their review has mentioned 4 key advantages of using dashboard in any business organizations. These are: dashboards are customizable up to various management levels; dashboard can easily drill into numerous data to get an appropriate position of the business unit in the market; dashboards can helps the organization to understand the trend in the respective field, and most importantly dashboard helps the company to maintain a constant data flow by analyzing the existing data on real time basis and by giving more or less appropriate feedbacks. (Jeremy, 2009; James,2012) There are various forms of dashboards that one generally uses in any organization. One such important parameter is performance dashboards. Nelson (2011) in his review has defined the performance dashboard as “visual and interactive displays of the most critical information you need to make better decisions, laid out strategically within the confines of a screen.”(Nelson, 2011) Generally every good and successful dashboard implementation is able to provide accurate and timely results across the departments in any organization. Good dashboards act as the connector between the gap of plan and implementation in aparticularly succinct way, and are extremely and unavoidablyintensive in nature. To get tis accurate results important to invest maximum time and great efforts. “As with anything involving communication, its easy to babble, but its very difficult to be concise. This is why executive summary dashboards built for top-level business leaders are sometimes the toughest to design and execute.” (Nelson, 2011). Good Data Visualization is another important aspect of Dashboard. When the users are not able to understand the result of the dashboard, they used to point finger towards the efficiency level and user-friendliness of the same. But in most of the cases it has been observed that “when people think that their existing dashboards are "missing the mark", the problem is actually often related to some misunderstanding of how data visualization is supposed to work. (Nelson,2011). Now in modern time the big question associated with this technology is what makes a good dashboard. In a broader perspective one cannot give any specific answer to this question as dashboards are used by various section in every organization in each industry and their requirements is not always the same in term of dashboard operation. So to give a accurate answer one first have to analyze the actual use of the dashboard by that particular organization. Stangarnoe (2013) in his analysis have mentioned that the key objective of using dashboard is to get answer of a simple question and that is how the business or any particular part or segment of the business is performing in a certain point of time in comparison with industry standard and their competitors. To answer this simple question it is absolutely important that a good dashboard must have following features: Displaying relevant data; easy accessibility and real time data analysis skills. Display relevant data as par the requirement of the business or the particular business segment. Generally any dashboard can show demand of which product or service is most in a particular day or during a particular phase of a calendar year but a good dashboard can at the same time figure out what are the main reasons behind this high demand of that very particular product or service in the market. A good dashboard must have a better accessibility for its user. Generally people consider any dashboard as good and effective when they can access the same from anywhere anytime. If management have to be in office to get an access to their dashboard to get an idea about what is happening around the business market then no matter how accurate it may be it cannot be considered as a good dashboard. A dashboard can only be considered as a good one when one can easily handle it or operate it from anywhere with the help of smartphone or Laptop or tablet. Another key point associated with a good dashboard is processing of real time data. Technologist in their review often have mentioned that the main objective of using dashboard is to give accurate result on real time basis Basic Challenge: The main problem with using dashboards is not getting the desired result out of it since most of them provide a poor presentation of data. Instead of focusing in providing the most number of info in a clear and understandable way, developers are going for the flashy colorful dashboards that make no sense to the user. Few (2007) notes in his article “Why Most Dashboards Fail” that “The fundamental challenge of dashboard design is to display all the required information on a single screen: clearly and without distraction in a manner that can be quickly examined and understood” Clubbing up results or mistake in the output presentation is one of the key problem associated with the poor performance of dashboards in modern times - “Business intelligence dashboards, meant to present BI data to business users in an easy-to-grasp way, instead end up representing a triumph of form over substance and sizzle over steak. But it doesnt have to be that way.” (Earls, 2012). Cluttering of data in some of the dashboard is another key problem associated with the poor performance of various business dashboards. Research Methodology: This research will be a qualitative research and the data we are gathering are based on dashboards performance in regard to its visual design and how it present its results, so we are going to interview a representative from IBM and get their perspective about dashboards and how much they are beneficial to a company. We are hoping to get some data that shows the percentage of success that dashboards provide to a company and the percentage of failure and then we can build our research based on the results. We are also going to interview a company that uses dashboards and get their opinion on how much results they are generating from the software and what they suggest to be improved within the visual designs of dashboards. We are going to examine how our interview notes answer the research question. We might also make tentative interpretations of a certain patterns occur. After completing the cooked data, we are going to code and organize the interview data. We might as well use triangulating data to get more accurate result. Limitations of Research: Main limitations of this research are it is entirely based on the interviews of both the companies-those, who are using this dashboard system and the other who are the manufacturer of the same. For IBM, the manufacturer of this application will always rely on the positives of their invention so they will always highlight the better sides of it in terms of design as well as its user friendliness. Likewise, when second interview of the company who is using this system/application has been conducted their trend can be to point out all the drawbacks of the application. So the opinion given by both parties are of completely opposite ends. Findings of the Research: To analyze the positives and negative of the dashboard and also to recommend few points to make the use or application of dashboard better a detail survey is being conducted among two companies. One of them is the IBM. A set of 8 questions are given to randomly selected 100 employees in the company and based on their results following findings are documented. 1. What kind of dashboard is most important? As per the IBM officials, there are 3 broad categories of dashboard used in the industry and these are Operational, Strategic or Executive and Analytical. Majority (63%) of them have given emphasis on the Analytical type as according to them this is the most important type for the industry. 20% people believe that operational dashboard is important as it is based on real time or close to real time data. 2. Which field needs the dashboard technology most? As per IBM, dashboard is most important for the information technology department of any organization as well as for the sales and marketing team. According to the review of the IBM officials, 40% believes that it is an integral part for the IT department to have a closer look on the operation of the company whereas 38% believes that is an indispensible tool for the sales and marketing to analyze the market trend, demand supply ration and competitive analysis. 3. What is essential for effective use of dashboard? As per the people of IBM, the most important thing that one must know to get the best out of a dashboard is data interpretation skill. Generally dashboard is used for helping people to get key findings from a cluster of data. So data analyzing skill is very important. Followed by the data interpretation skill another key part associated with the effective use of dashboard is a vast knowledge of data source and a clear idea about what are the points which are incorporated to get this result. 4. What are the points that company needs to remember while making an effective dashboard? As per the IBM people, there are 4 thumb rule associated with making an effective dashboard and these are: keeping in mind the target section; selecting right type based on the needs of the company; group similar data accordingly an also keep enough space so that users can easily identify them and finally making data relevant to end user. According to them, grouping of data (45%) and selecting right type of dashboard (34%) are the two major success factor associated with the possibility of success and failure of any dashboard operation. 5. Why the use of Dashboard is declining? There are various reasons associated with the decline of dashboard popularity. Most common one is the complexity of the design. many of the IBM people believes that to make dashboard more eye catchy for the end user the basic style is now started to abolish so it is getting harder for the people to get the desired result at a single glance. Overloading of historical data is another loophole which is now started to get in dashboard operation. Introducing three dimensional graphs makes it look very advances but at the same time it is hard to get what one want in one glance. Not setting a right time gap to refresh data is another loophole associated with the dashboard operation as per the IBM officials review. 6. What are the points that need to be addressed while making dashboard in the future? /what are the changes that you want to make in future dashboards? Based on present analysis and feedback given by the users, IBM has come up with following suggestions which according to them are essential for future advanced dashboards. Dashboard must be easy operational for the end users and they must have the power of choosing the variables. The dashboard must have interactive legend to filter the available data for a particular period or based on any particular company or department. This has to be easily moveable over the char area. An interactive scroll is necessary at the bottom half of the dashboard so that one can easily set the preferred timeline. A speedometer gauge is helpful for the user to understand what amount of data is being used while making the necessary assessment according to their query. The main area of dashboard has to be designed such a way that users can take note of various interdepartmental data at one go or can easily compare the results of more than one organization at a time. Above is the point of view of one the leading IT Company in the world, which is associated with the dashboard operation over a long period of time. Following are the key findings based on the response given by one organization that are using this operation. 1. Which Segment needs dashboard the most? Like IBM, here also employees believe that information technology department and the sales and marketing department needs to use dashboard more compare to others. According to 39% employees IT department need it the most whereas 36% believes that sales and marketing team need it more than others. 20% people believe that finance and operation department need it more and rest believes it is not so much important in terms of success of the business. 2. What are the key points of a successful dashboard? Most of the people believe that most key part associated with the operation of dashboard is the simplicity of displaying the results. 45% people believe that it is the most important part. 32%believes that time gap at which data have been refreshed are essential with the success of the dashboard, According to 20% employees, making a proper framework to analyze the data collected from the dashboard is also important as only the correct data analysis cannot give success to any organization. 3. What are the main advantages of using dashboard? As per the answer given by the employees followings are the main advantages of dashboard in a business organization: It helps to analyze data more easily; give a clear picture of the market scenario; helps in drawing new business strategy as per the changing market trend; helps in reviewing business strategies; helps to keep a track on production process. 4. What kind of problem you are facing in Dashboard? The employees have mentioned various problems that they have faced while using the dashboard in their office, Followings are some of the common points mentioned by them: Often there are various historical data in the dashboard which are of less consequence for the organization. There have to be a tool which can help the company to set a timeline so that company can analyze the current data easily. Often the data or graphs are presented in a three dimensional figure which make it hard for the end user to analyze effectively. There are fewer options to manually edit the dashboard. People need an option so that they can put some hypothetical data for the future and analyze the future trend of the business. The design of the dashboard needs to be simple and users friendly so that all the people of any organization can easily access the benefit. More often people from various departments find it difficult to reset the dashboard as per their departmental needs. It will be helpful for them if the dashboard screen is segmented department wise and each segment is editable without affecting the application or operation of the other segments. 5. What are the keys of developing an effective dashboard? Being the end user, it is important for every dashboard manufacturing companies to understand what the thinking of the customer about effective dashboard is. The points given below are the common points mentioned by all the employees who have participated in this research process about making an effective dashboard: Developing a proper metrics; ensure that there is simplicity in the design as well as operation of the dashboard; ensure that there is proper training to some of the top executives by the IT company so that they can effectively operate the system for the betterment of the business; less clouded with historical data and more emphasis on present/real time figures; ensure that there are regular updating of data in quick interval so that there is a proper balance among market figure and dashboard figure. 6. What are the main Challenges of Dashboard? /Why Dashboard Use is declining? People are very much aware of how important the dashboard technology is in terms of making the business competitive. But at the same time they are also very much concern about the increasing complexity associated with the use of the modern day’s dashboard technologies. Following points as per their opinion are the main reason behind the declining of dashboard usage: Presenting the wrong information to support the desired business strategy, objective(s) or job function Presenting information without considering the technical skill-level of the receiving audience, or the environment in which it will be consumed (think mobile) Presenting information in the wrong order and form – information needs to be prioritized “like the news” and should all lead towards action The misleading or inaccurate presentation of information Failure to provide supporting text to explain the significance and contexts of charts within a dashboard. Complexity associated with the presentation of data; more frequent use of 3 dimensional graphs, charts looks attractive but harder to interpret for the executives. Use of large amount of historical data to explain the old trend and co relate the same with the present day trends. Recommendation: How to revive the use of Dashboard Technology Based on the above survey and also after analyzing the feedbacks given by the employees who are using dashboards in their organization following recommendations can be given to the dashboard maker to revive the use of dashboard technology. The maker of the dashboard must consider the fact that easy to access and speed of implementing the operation (analysis) is the key behind the success of any dashboard technology. The makers also have to ensure the fact that the metrics which they are using in the dashboard system must be meaningful for the stakeholders. Various verticals of business use different kind of analysis. So it is important to understand their needs well. To increase the effectiveness of dashboard the makers must make it sure that it acts as a facilitative management tool alongside a data analysis table/tool. It is important that dashboard must generate actions to attain certain business objective. Kawamoto (2007) in his review has mentioned that “a dashboard should enable an iterative approach and be an "evolving" document that changes over time in response to new business conditions. This characteristic was also identified as one of the most difficult to achieve.” (Kawamoto, 2007). It is important to make it sure that dashboards have the power to display data in more logical manner or in logical groups. For example, if any dashboard is responsible to display financial and sales KPI data, then it must group all financial data side by side and all sales data side by side so that people can easily make a judgment by analyzing the same. As the screen is the most important part of any dashboard, so to place a manufacturer logo in top left or right corner is not a good practice. Manufacturer must allow the user to use every part of the dashboard screen for the data analysis part. While displaying the data, company have to make it sure that it is relevant to the segment audience. One of the main problems associated with the modern dashboard is huge amount of data cluttering. Some dashboards are jumbled with valuable and relevant material whereas; some are jumbled with impractical and irrelevant information. None of these situations are acceptable for the end users as these kind of cluttered displays deflect the focus from the important messages. Earls (2012) in his review has mentioned that “As BI is extremely strategic, every element that is part of the dashboard needs to have flow and significance; every element should have direct meaning and thus should only be present to convey a message. (Earls,2012). To make a successful dashboard one can consider the approach mentioned by Earls in his review. According to Earls while making an effective dashboard, the It company must consider following points and if every company who are associated with the dashboard technology can follow this simple guidelines then the declining phase of dashboard technology will soon be vanished and the technology can enjoy its old importance. The points are as follows: Ensure that there are less amount of data cluttering in the screen and only relevant and current data are displayed in aright manner. There isfewer amounts of three dimensional graphs. Charts in the dashboard and most of the trends are simply demonstrated with the help of 2 dimensional line or bar graph which is easy to understand. Develop dashboard according to the choice of the customer as it is not necessary that every executive analyze or see dashboards figure is same way. “Rather than trying to craft a master dashboard that encompasses cross-enterprise information in a single place, a top-down approach which means start with lower-level dashboards that focus on a single specific item” is a better way to develop an effective dashboard system.(Earls, 2012) Data security issue is one of the key points associated with the effective dashboard system and company must take a look into this matter. Conclusion: Based on the above research one can easily mentioned the fact that Dashboard is an integral part of modern day business. It helps the organization to develop effective marketing and promotional strategies, helps them to analyze the trend of market and take necessary actions. Although it is an integral part but on modern days the complexity associated with the dashboard operation making it a bit difficult for the people to effectively use the benefit of it, generally the complexity is more with the pattern of displaying result. More historical data, complex three dimensional graph or data table making it difficult for the organization to quickly interpret the results or findings of the dashboard. Most of the companies have a common problem with dashboard operation and that isinterpreting the results faster than the others. As discussed by the employees of the organization in this research it is very clear that in their opinion IT and marketing and sales department need the dashboard most, but for the manufacturer it is important to make dashboard an integral part for all the verticals in an organization. If they are able to make the dashboard use easier and make the display more simple for all segment of employees across the industry then the declining trend of dashboard using can easily be overcome by the market. Since dashboards are very powerful tools that give so much advantage to its users, we hope in this research that we can bring attention to the problem with the visual designs of dashboards and find a solution to improve it by interviewing vendors and businesses that use dashboards and get their feedbacks. References Cheap technology helps small business grow big, (2012). BBC News; retrieved on 14.7.2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-17303658 Earls, R. A. (2012), Clutter, data overload put dashboard designs on path to failure; TechTarget; Retrieved on 14.7.2014 from http://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/feature/Clutter-data-overload-put-dashboard-designs-on-path-to-failure Few, S. (2007),Why most dashboards Fails? Perceptual Edge. James, L (2012), Are Business Intelligence dashboards on the brink of extinction? ; Yellow fin; retrieved on 14.7.2014 from http://www.yellowfinbi.com/YFCommunityNews-Are-Business-Intelligence-dashboards-on-the-brink-of-extinction-118485 Jeremy, (2009), 4 Advantages to Dashboards; Refocusing technology; retrieved on 14.7.2014 from http://www.refocusingtechnology.com/2009/03/03/4-adv-dashboard/ Kawamoto, T.& Mathers B. (2007). Key Success Factors for a Performance Dashboard; Compass America: dashboard Insight; retrieved on 14.7.2014 from http://www.dashboardinsight.com/articles/digital-dashboards/fundamentals/key-success-factors-for-a-performance-dashboard.aspx Nelson N.G., (2011), Critical Dashboard Project Success Factors That Most Tend To Miss; Dashboard Insight; retrieved on 14.7.2014 from http://www.dashboardinsight.com/articles/digital-dashboards/fundamentals/critical-dashboard-project-success-factors-that-most-tend-to-miss.aspx Rouse, M, (2010), business intelligence dashboard; TechTarget; retrieved on 14.7.2014 from http://searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/definition/business-intelligence-dashboard Stangarone, J. (2013) The 3 most important aspects of a business dashboard; mrc productivity; retrieved on 14.7.2014 from http://www.mrc-productivity.com/blog/2012/05/the-3-most-important-aspects-of-a-business-dashboard/ Why use a Dashboard? (2014) Six Sigma Online; Retrieved on 14.7.2014 from http://www.sixsigmaonline.org/six-sigma-training-certification-information/articles/why-use-a-dashboard.html Data and Statistics Analysis of the answer given by the employees of IBM: Types of dashboard %of Liking     Analytical dashboard 63% Operational dashboard 20% Strategic dashboard 13% Department needs % of Response Dashboard       IT or Information Tech. 40% Sales and marketing 38% Production and operation 15% Strategy Development 5% Key of Effective Dashboard % of Response     Target Section oriented 19% Type of Dashboard 34% Grouping of relevant data 45% Easily understandable 2% Analysis of the answer given by the company Using Dashboard Unit need dashboard Most % of Response     Sales and Marketing 36% IT or Information Technology 39% finance and operation 20% Others 5% Key of Successful Dashboard % of Response     Simple Display Pattern 45% Time gap of data refreshment 32% Proper analyzing frame work 20% Advantage of Dashboard % of Response     Easy to analyze data 29% Clear market scenario presentation 24% better strategy development tool 28% Questioner For IT company Making Dashboards 1. What kind of dashboard is most important? 2. Which field needs the dashboard technology most? 3. What is essential for effective use of dashboard? 4. What are the points that company needs to remember while making an effective dashboard? 5. Why the use of Dashboard is declining? 6. What are the points that need to be addressed while making dashboard in the future? /what are the changes that you want to make in future dashboards? 7. How Dashboard industry can tackle this problem? For the Company who Using dashboard technology 1. Which Segment needs dashboard the most? 2. What are the key points of a successful dashboard? 3. What are the main advantages of using dashboard? 4. What kind of problem you are facing in Dashboard? 5. What are the keys of developing an effective dashboard? 6. What are the main Challenges of Dashboard? /Why Dashboard Use is declining? 7. As an end user what are your suggestion for It companies to make dashboard more effective/userfriendly Read More