It’s no secret that the current and future state of business are based around data utilization. While the origins of business intelligence were modest (requiring massive teams to solve relatively small problems), the equation has been reversed in today’s world. The power of BI is now available to companies of all sizes—even those without dedicated data teams.
Despite the overwhelming explosion of analytics as a key element of enterprise companies, only 10 percent of organizations have a Chief Analytics Officer. Fortunately for small- and medium-sized businesses, there are now tools that allow them to flourish without massive teams. It all comes down to how you implement and organize your dashboards.
Here’s how you can get the most out of this crucial tool
Do Utilize Embedded Analytics: Embedded analytics is an important feature to consider when putting together a BI dashboard. It’s one of the best ways to facilitate self-service BI. Daniel Harris does a great job of explaining embedded analytics in his article on Software Advice. He describes embedded as the intersection between business intelligence and business applications. Basically, it turns complex, data-driven BI concepts into easily understandable dashboard visualizations that can be inserted or shared in many places.
Opt for the Best BI Tools
When finding or putting together the right dashboards for your business, it’s important to opt for the best. At the end of the day, dashboards should provide evidence for the efficacy of a program, which is essential for planning and decision making.
So, what are some of the most powerful tools available? One tool would be text analysis software like Qualtrics, which allows you to analyze extracted and classified unstructured text data, such as those from surveys, emails, reviews, social media posts, and so on.
Another tool is relational search, which is arguably the hottest dashboard analytics feature on the market right now; and is being sold through ThoughtSpot and other vendors. It allows users to quickly conduct inquiries in the way they might look something up in a search engine. It’s truly the ideal BI tool, as it allows anyone within an organization to instantly get integrated, accurate results. Organizations that implement search-based analytics can compound their growth much faster than those that don’t.
Understand That Self-Service Analytics Is Essential
In today’s business world, operating with full-blown data teams is becoming a hindrance more than a benefit. Operating this way is typically slower and costlier than more streamlined options. This is why self-service dashboards are essential to organizations trying to cut out inefficiencies in their workflows.
Don’t Keep Your Data in Silos
For a long time, it was common practice for organizations to keep their data segregated in silos. There are a variety of reasons for this, as outlined by the Harvard Business Review, such as structural, political, or even vendor-specific motivations. Modern best practices have shown that data silos are actually a hindrance to most businesses. They’re restrictive, and slow down progress. This just isn’t an option in today’s competitive landscape.
Don’t Assume Visualizations Are Excessive
There’s a tendency by some people to assume that making things easier to understand isn’t necessary. After all, the people who need to “get it,” such as managers and executives, surely will, right? Don’t be so sure. Visualizations don’t just make it easier to comprehend data and make more informed decisions, they also make it more shareable. This will save tons of time when putting together presentations—both for internal and external uses.
Conclusion
It’s easy to brush off the construction and content of your BI dashboards as something of extraneous importance. But this would be a mistake. By building the best possible dashboards, you’re giving yourself and your employees the best chance to be successful.
