Paradise by the dashboard light: Management dashboard technology can be a good tool to keep tabs on your operations

摘要

A few years ago I wrote an introductory article about management dashboard technology (MDT): what it was, its use and what the current state of technology allowed for. Much like the business process management software field, this technology has taken off and is becoming much more powerful, user-friendly and affordable. A number of enterprise solution vendors are now incorporating MDT features into their solutions by either creating their own or partnering with organizations that have created stand-alone MDT solutions on compatible technology. Management dashboards are used by organizations to track key performance indicators (KPIs) and represent reports in a graphical format. The information is harvested from one or more databases and then presented in the format chosen by the user. This creates two primary benefits to organizations: cost savings and the ability to set up and control various continuous improvement methodologies. Management-by-exception is a good example of the latter. The cost savings come from the reduction of printed reports required and the time that people spend looking for nuggets of information. Another benefit is that that management can take more time to be proactive with planning and managing for future events when they are confident that there are no urgent KPI issues to contend with.