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Business Dashboards

5 tips for creating a killer business dashboard

EducationOkay, so you’ve been asked to create a business dashboard. Where do you start? How can you create a dashboard that is equal parts powerful and amazing?

Before you do anything, you must define a clear objective. You must understand who plans on using the dashboard, why they want a dashboard, and what they hope to get from this dashboard. You’ll want to pull very specific objectives out of the future users. Don’t settle for generic answers like, “We want to see sales data.” Get specific. You can’t develop a clear objective without very specific goals.

Okay, so you have the specifics, you know the objective, and you’ve mapped out a plan for this dashboard. How can you make it great? Here are 5 tips for you:

How to integrate cloud data into a dashboard (using web services)

developmentDo you remember back when cloud computing was a new trend? Back then, most businesses ran their software on-premise. Cloud computing was viewed as a security risk and many doubted whether or not it would ever see mass adoption.

Fast forward to the present and cloud computing has most definitely experienced mass adoption. Most businesses these days use multiple cloud services/applications in their day-to-day operations.

In fact, businesses rely so heavily on cloud apps and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) they now face a growing challenge: Their data resides in multiple places. How can they pull data from their disparate cloud apps into a single place for reporting and analytics?

It’s easier than you might think. We just created a video that shows you how quickly you can integrate cloud data (from multiple sources) into a single dashboard using the m-Power Development Platform. In this video, we show you how to:

– pull data out of cloud applications (using web services),
– create web apps and reports over that data,
– and combine those apps and reports into a dashboard.

You can watch the video below:

Do you want to see a solution like this in your company? Setup an m-Power demo here.

The 3 most important aspects of a business dashboard

analyticsSummary: Business dashboards help organizations get a clear view of their business at a glance. But, some dashboards do a better job of that than others. What’s the difference between the two? What elements must an effective dashboard include? What separates a good dashboard from a worthless dashboard? In this article, we explore the most important aspects of a business dashboard, and explain why each is important.

7 essential elements of embedded analytics software

EducationSummary: What is embedded analytics and why is it so important? What should you look for in an embedded analytics platform? While the requirements vary by company, I believe that certain elements are essential in a good embedded analytics tool. In this article, we explore 7 essential elements you should look for in any good embedded solution.

6 essential elements of modern enterprise reporting software

EducationSummary: What do you look for in a reporting tool? Obviously, the requirements vary by company, but I believe that certain elements are essential in a good reporting tool. In this article, we explore 6 essential elements you should look for in any good reporting solution.

How to create a custom BI/Reporting suite (with write-back and data warehousing)

EducationSummary: The m-Power Development Platform is a low-code development platform that lets you create enterprise-class web applications without coding. This video takes you on a deep dive into m-Power’s build process, walking you through a start-to-finish business intelligence and reporting project in under 2 hours.

Webinar Replay: Dashboards 101–How to create effective dashboards

EducationSummary: While a business dashboard will help you make sense of your data, not all dashboards are created equal. Typical dashboards are inflexible–displaying a pre-determined set of metrics in a pre-set layout. Learn how to create flexible dashboards that your users love, while avoiding the common problems found in many modern dashboards.