Business Intelligence - Challenges Encountered in Developing the Dashboard - Case Study Example

Running header: Dashboards Dashboards Author’s Name Institutional Affiliation Date of submission Business Intelligence The challenges encountered in developing the dashboard The main challenge encountered in developing the dashboard involves displaying all the required information on a single screen, clearly without distraction in a manner that can be assimilated quickly. In developing the dashboard, we encountered a number of challenges. Some of these challenges included selecting the right KPIs to include in the dashboard and hence data selection. We did not know what data to include in the dashboard and what not to include. At first, the data we selected was too much such that the dashboard was too much clouded and we did not think that intended users would get the intended meaning. As such, we had to keep on reducing the data and modifying it until we achieved the present form. Another challenge was understanding the audience (Kaushik, 2016). We did not understand what data would be appropriate for them and how we would present the data in order to make it useful for them. In addition, we did not know how to select the tools we would use in developing the dashboard. There were many options but since we did not have prior experience, choosing the right tool was a great challenge. We even had challenges in choosing the kind of charts to use in order to effectively communicate to the target audience. We also didn’t know what colors to use in developing the dashboard and following the guidelines in order to come up with a perfect dashboard also proved a challenge to us. The type of BI users the intended audience of the dashboard are The purpose for preparing the dashboard was to communicate the fact that Uber offers very affordable services even for the low income earners. We intended to show them that this is a good solution that they should adopt. We also intended to show potential investors that Uber is a good investment opportunity owing to the kind of services they are offering. Thus, our target audience for the dashboard are mainly the low income earners with the intention of showing them that they can adopt uber as a cost effective way of transport (Lavinsky, 2016). This was also aimed at showing them that uber as a cost effective way of transport is a good investment vehicle given that many can afford its services and hence high returns can be expected. The specific data used and why the particular data would be useful for the intended audience of the dashboard In developing the dashboard for Uber, the following data was used; i) How uber has performed in the recent days in terms of Uber App downloads. The downloads included those from 3rd of October to 12th of October. The application downloads ranged from 128,000 downloads to over 160,000 downloads every day. This was aimed at showing the target audience that Uber applications and hence uber services are in high demand and hence the low income earners should not be left behind in adopting Uber transport services. ii) Data on busiest hour of usage- In this regard, the least busy hour of usage was noted to be 4am with usage at 60,000. On the other hand, the busiest hour was noted to be at midnight with slightly less than 200,000 users. Similarly, this was aimed at portraying the high demand levels for Uber services to the target audience. In addition, this was aimed at portraying the reliability and safety of our services in that Uber services can be used any time of the day and they are reliable and safe meaning that the target audience should not shy away from adopting Uber services. iii) Data on users’ gender in the month of September in percentage- the data indicates that 60% of Uber services users for the month of September were female. On the other hand, 40% of the users were male (Noetix Corporation, 2004). This was aimed at showing how different genders have adopted Uber services over the time. In addition, this was aimed at showing that Uber is a trusted service given that more women who are concerned about safety are using Uber than men who are less concerned about safety. This in essence was aimed at demonstrating that it can be adopted by families who care about reliability and safety in the low income tax bracket given that more women are in the low income bracket than men. iv) Data on age of average Uber users in September 2016 in percentage- we also depicted the age of people who used Uber services during the month of September. In this regard, majority of the users were found to be in the 30-49 years age bracket followed by those over 50 years age bracket and those between 18 and 29 years. The least users were between 13 and 17 years of age. This data was aimed at demonstrating that Uber services are trusted and used by people across all ages. The majority of users were found to be family men and women and those of old age. As such, this was again aimed at demonstrating the safety and trust associated with our services and hence encouraging the target audience to adopt our service. v) Data on average income of users-This data was aimed at demonstrating that the low income earners form the bulk of Uber services users. In this regard, the majority of users were noted to earn $50,000 and below. This was aimed at persuading more and lower income earners not to shy away from adopting Uber services as their transport solution. Benefits of an organization investing in BIA An organization stands to derive numerous benefits from investing in BIA. This is because it will change the way the organization conducts its business through improved business process and transformation of how decisions are made to a more information, data or fact driven activity. This would also help in the execution of the business strategy. Investing in BIA would also lead to increased profits owing to better decision support since it would result in using of information that is more reliable while encouraging faster and more accurate reporting (Kitchen, 2016). It would also protect the organization from competitors while resulting in faster response to changing market conditions. In addition, investing in BIA will greatly help in new product or service development. This is because it result in data driven decision making and hence it helps in avoiding poorly planned initiatives. It will also result in performance measurement systems necessary for supporting organizational alignment such that the entire organization will be aware and aligned with key information. In addition, investing in BIA will also result in better targeting of potential customers and hence increase sales and profitability as is the case with Uber Dashboard targeted at low income earners. What the organization could do to make BIA implementation easier, including to manage challenges of BIA A number of challenges are associated with BIA implementation. As such, the organization ought to take elaborate steps in overcoming these challenges if the BIA implementation is to be successful. The challenges as well as the steps necessary for overcoming the challenges are explained below; a) Understand business or organizational needs- A big challenge that organizations face when implementing BIA solutions is failure to understand the organizational needs. For instance, there is need to understand how to enable cross organizational collaboration, how to connect and engage business sponsors, how to establish and preserve top priorities and how to determine the right teams and put them into places. The BIA tools implemented ought to have the ability to help the organization have full control on its data and information to produce top performance which should include development and alignment of the organization’s goals, mission and priorities with its vision, directing of business drivers according to organizational needs and capabilities, determination of future opportunities to create business value, analyzing common business pains and obstacles in a bid to develop comprehensive solutions for the problem, appraisal of organizational and technical readiness, development of relevant business driven plans, establishment and communication of the strategic direction and identification of program sponsor for it and setting up the initial return on investment justification (idashboard.com, 2016). If the organization is able to understand its needs as well as its top priorities, it will help in comprehending its business disadvantages and from this be able to know what exactly it needs in implementing its BIA solutions. b) Effective data control – after understanding organizational data needs, the other challenge will be on data control. There is need to develop a solid, well planned architecture foundation for managing the ever increasing user base, the increasing volumes of data, the different types of data and for integrating new data sources effectively. This should involve creation of conceptual models to support the business requirements to architectural capabilities on the basis of organizational needs and objectives. The organization should identify business gap by matching of current capabilities and conceptual model together and filling the gap. It is good to identify the best practice company applying architectural solution that would help the organization address its business needs and requirements. Data control should also involve clarifying the key entities, tools and technologies for the initial stage and the minimum requirements for the BIA project then add details to the ROI plan. The data should be analyzed carefully and effectively. c) Leveraging data into information-organization needs to overcome the hurdle of cost control to meet the ROI justification, quickly create business value, guarantee target delivery dates and manage the shifts between priorities and business needs (Ballou, Heitger and Donnell, 2016). This should be done through establishing a BI program capable of fully managing the whole process. It should involve establishment of program governance through development of management team, charter and protocols. The organization should build high level iteration based program based on organizational priorities, implementation time and value time. It should identify the scope, deliverables and success criterion for each iteration, the organization should plan and determine the estimated costs and resources necessary for the initial and subsequent iteration. Finally, the report should be communicated and checked for approval from the higher management board for the implementation process to start. d) Translating strategy into action- the final step should involve translating strategy into action. The implementation strategy should be aligned to the organizational implementation cycle and should involve project management and process reporting, detailed solution design, database implementation , data mart and data warehouse, data integration, cleansing and transformation services, extracting, transforming, loading , dashboard and report development, training, coaching and supporting end user, training and mentoring support staff. The dashboard or report that we should develop next Organizational dashboards have been hailed for the various benefits they accord the organizations that adopt them. Such benefits include saving time, saving money, insight to customer behavior, aligning strategy with tactics and ensuring a widespread goal driven and performance culture (Wayne, E2010). Although, there are many types of reports or organizational dashboards, I think we should develop an operational dashboard for the organization next. This is a KPI dashboard that will tell us if the organization is on target today. In other hand, the importance of having an operational dashboard is because it will guide the organization in the day to day performance helping us decide whether we are on course. In this regard, the most important operational dashboard will be for the marketing department since it will help the organization set marketing objectives and strive to achieve them for the benefit of the whole organization. References: Kaushik, A2016, Digital dashboards: Strategic & tactical: Best practices, tips, examples, Retrieved on 1st September 2016, from; http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/digital-dashboards-strategic-tactical-best-practices-tips- examples/ Lavinsky, D2016, Executive dashboards: What they are and why every business needs one, Retrieved on 1st September 2016, from; http://www.forbes.com/sites/davelavinsky/2013/09/06/executive-dashboards-what-they- are-why-every-business-needs-one/#564728375688 Noetix Corporation, 2004, Dashboard development and deployment: A methodology for success, Retrieved on 1st September 2016, from; https://xcelsius.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/ddlc.pdf Kitchen, J2016, Strategies for successful dashboards: Avoiding common pitfalls, Retrieved on 1st September 2016, from; http://www.ebizq.net/topics/bi/features/12098.html idashboard.com, 2016, Planning your dashboard project, Retrieved on 1st September 2016, from; http://www.idashboards.com/wpcontent/themes/idashboards/pdf/whitepaper/Planning%2 0Your%20Dashboard%20Project.pdf Ballou, B, Heitger, D&, Donnell, L2016, Creating effective dashboards, Retrieved on 1st September 2016, from; http://www.imanet.org/docs/default-source/sf/03_2010_ballou-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=0 Wayne, E2010, Performance dashboards: Measuring, monitoring, and managing your business, New York, John Willey & Sons. 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