One Aberdeen Group study shows that with a dashboard, 48% of business leaders find important information themselves, without the help of an employee. 74% of them can quickly make strategic decisions at the best time. A real gain in time and productivity!
Implementing a dashboard makes data visualization easier by using charts, graphs, maps, icons… Through a simple graphical interface, you can gain an accurate and deep understanding of your company’s health and progress toward your goals.
Want to know how to build a dashboard that makes data visualization easier? Discover our tips in this article, along with 6 tools to create effective dashboards!
The dashboard, the visual representation of your performance
First, let's look at the concept of a dashboard. This tool is designed to track and present all the key performance indicators (KPIs) of your business in one place. It allows you to monitor the health of your activity, a department, or a specific process.
Indeed, to be fully effective, we recommend dividing it by department or objective: marketing, finance, HR, sales management…
A dashboard uses data visualization to simplify complex data sets. Instead of reviewing the columns or rows of a spreadsheet, you can directly analyze your data via a table, chart, or diagrams.
To do this, the dashboard brings together data from various sources. It connects to your files (an Excel spreadsheet, for example), your attachments, and your tools (like a CRM or a marketing automation platform).
It is therefore fully customizable to meet your needs and help you reach your business goals. You can choose which data to display as well as the model to use to visualize the figures.
Why is the dashboard important?
The The dashboard is a valuable tool for planned, data-driven decision-making. These are transformed into actionable, easy-to-read information and reports, which prevents interpretation errors while saving time.
Although it can serve many purposes, the dashboard's primary goal remains to give you full visibility of your activity. You know, at any moment, what is happening in your company and what is working or not.
For example, your sales dashboard can show you exactly the sales volume since the start of the year, the number of missed opportunities or, conversely, those that generated conversions, the number of appointments booked by salespeople, etc. You quickly spot the effectiveness of your sales force and any friction points to fix (for example, if the number of calls that don't result in an appointment is higher than usual, there are likely corrections to be made).
Other benefits include:
- The ability to identify trends
- An easy way to measure the effectiveness of your services
- The ability to generate detailed reports with a single click
- The ability to make more informed decisions
The different types of dashboards
Whether it's Business Intelligence, marketing, sales or finance, dashboards can be classified into three categories:
The operational dashboard
Generally used by production plants, the operational dashboard provides a comprehensive, real-time view of performance related to day-to-day operations. The data it contains is updated in real time.
The strategic dashboard
This type of dashboard is used to align departmental performance with the company's overall strategy. It is used to review performance data from the last quarter, for example, and compare it with the current period.
Data in strategic dashboards is static for a given period and is updated less frequently than operational dashboards.
The analytical dashboard
An analytical dashboard contains a large amount of data created for executives. It gives the company a complete overview of performance, helps identify trends, compare data, and create forecasts and targets.
Also read: 6 reasons to use Google Data Studio for your reporting
Understanding the data visualization used in a dashboard
Put simply, data visualization is a graphical representation of data. It presents information as an image or chart to make it easier to identify patterns and understand complex concepts.
Thanks to technology, you can make data visualization interactive by creating dashboards that users can click on to see more details, for example.
The benefits of data visualization
The data visualization remains an effective way to universally share complex concepts. Why?
- Visuals are more effective than text — a picture is worth a thousand words, as everyone knows!
- Charts and graphs convey information faster than a bulky spreadsheet or report — especially when you consider that, on average, companies use 400 data sources managed across six different tools (according to IDC and Gartner).
- Visual metaphors are a universal language: if you work with people of different nationalities, everyone will have the same understanding of the information.
Techniques used in data visualization
To present data in dashboards, several techniques are used such as line charts, diagrams, and maps… It all depends on your needs.
Line charts show you results at a specific moment, but they can also help you compare periods. Diagrams display distributions, while maps show trends. The key is to find the format that best conveys the information needed for your decisions.
The key to choosing the right dashboard format is to ask yourself these questions before creating each chart:
- Which data should be highlighted?
- Do I need to compare it to another? If so, which one?
- Who is the information for?
This last question is essential, because collaborators do not all need the same level of information. While an executive may be satisfied with high-level KPIs on generated revenue, the sales manager will likely want to know the performance of each store or each salesperson.
6 dashboard tools to use to analyze your data
To create your dashboards and improve the management of your business, there are comprehensive tools to build visual dashboards. Here is an overview of our 6 favorite tools!
Free dashboard tools
Let's start with the free tools to format your dashboards.
1. Google Charts
Cloud-based, the service GoogleCharts allows you to create line charts, maps and diagrams, so you can display your key data in a clear and understandable way.
Dynamic, it lets you obtain real-time insights. This is useful for making quick, informed decisions.
Finally, Google Charts offers a library of charts to draw from to best present your data. Each template can be fully customized to your needs.
2. Metabase
Advanced data visualization tool, Metabase allows you to build custom dashboards. Equipped with collaborative features, it enables all members of your team to create, share and organize data. Perfect for tracking the performance of your various departments.
You can connect it to practically all your data sources: Google Analytics, Apache servers, SQL databases, cloud platforms…
3. Dashbuilder
Whether you want to create static or dynamic dashboards, with real-time data, you can use Dashbuilder Running on Java, it gives you the ability to extract information from your tables, text files and databases.
You can start from existing templates or create your own charts, from A to Z.
Paid dashboards
For more advanced features, we recommend these dashboard creation tools.
4. Tableau
With Tableau, you automatically refresh your dashboard with data from applications such as Google Analytics or Salesforce (which is the creator of this tool, by the way).
Its advantage? It offers user levels: creator, explorer or viewer. That way, you can collaborate on dashboards, and also share them with external teams, partners and clients.
Price: $42 per user/month (annual billing)
5. Klipfolio
Cloud-based application, Klipfolio allows you to create and share dashboards, updated in real time, on the web, via television screens and on mobile devices. It connects to more than 100 applications such as Twitter, Moz, Pingdom, Salesforce, Google Analytics, Instagram, Xero, etc.
What sets Klipfolio apart? You can create your own formulas to cross-reference data and generate dashboards that fully match your needs.
Price: From $24 / 5 users
6. Datapine
Datapine allows you to visualize and monitor your most relevant key performance indicators in one place. A truly powerful tool, it offers advanced analytics based on custom formulas tailored to your activities.
You can also schedule automated reports to save time and build interactive dashboards.
Another interesting aspect of this tool: thanks to artificial intelligence, Datapine detects trends to eliminate guesswork in your business decisions.
Price: From $249 per month + $55 per user/month
Our tip for creating dashboards
Dashboards play an important role in the growth of a company or a specific department. However, collecting data and creating dashboards remains time-consuming. The secret? Automation! By automating your reporting, you get continuously up-to-date information to better steer your activity.
We recommend hiring a freelance analytics expert to help you manage your dashboards and analyze your data. Post an ad now on Codeur.com to find a analytics consultant who can help you set up dashboards and boost your business!
