{"id":8128,"date":"2014-07-14T13:31:28","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T18:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/?p=8128"},"modified":"2014-07-14T15:18:04","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T20:18:04","slug":"are-dashboards-wasting-your-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrc-productivity.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/are-dashboards-wasting-your-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Are dashboards wasting your time?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Education\"Summary: When used properly, dashboards give your executives real-time insight into your organization’s key metrics. However, some dashboards do more harm than good–wasting your valuable time and hindering your decision-making process. Learn why, and which type of dashboard lets you avoid this problem.<\/em><\/span>
\n<\/a>
\nAn executive dashboard provides decision makers with a visual representation of their company\u2019s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). They display a live overview of business operations and help leaders make quick, informed decisions.<\/p>\n

How the wrong dashboards waste time<\/h3>\n

The problem is, dashboards often lack flexibility. They display a pre-determined set of metrics in a pre-set layout.<\/p>\n

\"While<\/a>
While this dashboard displays good data, it’s inflexible. It shows every user the same data.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While this works if your dashboard never need any changes, let me ask you a few questions:<\/p>\n

What happens if you need slightly different data in your dashboard than others need?<\/p>\n

What happens if you need your dashboard formatted differently?<\/p>\n

What happens if the dashboard you receive doesn\u2019t quite meet your expectations?<\/p>\n

Or, what if you need an additional metric in your dashboard?<\/p>\n

For traditional dashboards, this requires the IT department. If you need a new dashboard, or an existing dashboard changed, you go through the IT department.<\/p>\n

It means you submit a ticket, describe what you need, and wait. You could wait days, or you could wait weeks. It all depends on how busy your IT department is at the time.<\/p>\n

What does this mean for your business? It means you can\u2019t analyze the data you need right away. It means you can\u2019t operate as smoothly as you\u2019d like. It means that your decision-making process suffers.<\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t you rather have a dashboard that you could change yourself? Wouldn\u2019t you rather customize your dashboard on the fly with the data you need?<\/p>\n

Of course!<\/p>\n

What’s the answer?<\/h3>\n

Here\u2019s one way: Try user-defined dashboards<\/span><\/a>. User-defined dashboards let you
\n– control which data you see in your dashboard,
\n– control the structure and layout of your dashboards,
\n– create your own custom dashboards, and
\n– save and share your dashboards with other users.<\/p>\n

To get a better idea how user-defined dashboards work, check out this short video:<\/p>\n