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Building Efficient Dashboards: Achievable Insights Regardless of Scale

Stoke Consulting - Executive Coaching | Leadership Development

We helped a multinational manufacturing and service organisation in Australia consolidate varied data sources into one efficient dashboard. Addressing challenges that all businesses face, we simplified data collection, integration and aggregation, as well as clarified KPIs. The result was straightforward and consistent reporting, clearer decision-making, and measurable ROI, demonstrating that effective data management is achievable for businesses of any size.

Problems

  • Diverse data streams, from ERPs to manual Excel entries, clouded a comprehensive view of the business metrics.
  • Reporting of metrics was ad-hoc and inconsistent across all business units.
  • Without a unified dashboard, the granularity of data became a hurdle rather than an asset – people spent more time questioning the validity of the data rather than using it.
  • KPIs lacked clarity due to varying interpretations across business and functional units.

Solution

Universal Needs Analysis: Engaged with stakeholders to map out core needs – a process every business should undertake regardless of its size. In other words - defined and agreed the questions you are trying to answer on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.Seamless Data Integration: Crafted a method to consolidate varied data sources, a challenge businesses big and small often face - created a "single source of truth" for monitoring and reporting.Adaptable Dashboard Design: Crafted a dashboard that provided simplicity and clarity to decision makers. Measures were added incrementally - start with one or two KPI's and add / change / delete as required. It became the "Head-up Display" that was presented in Operational Reviews - no more PowerPoint Slides.True Efficiency gains: It greatly improved the timeliness and efficiency of the reporting cycle. Measures and reports were available in near real time without the need for manual intervention or interpretation.KPI Clarity: Provided clarity and consistency of KPI definition and made this visible on the dashboard.Ease of maintenance – maintaining the dashboard didn’t require IT support – with a bit of training, business operational staff were able to maintain and update it

Outcomes

Decision-making For All: With clearer data, decisions became more informed, a result every business, big or small, aspires to. There was a demonstrable improvement across all relevant KPIs within 2-3 months of deployment.

Universal Reporting Efficiency: The streamlined reporting process showcased how data handling can be optimized at any scale. This meant Operational reviews could happen earlier in the month resulting in earlier interventions. The adaptive nature also meant the time taken to add / change / delete KPI’s used for review could be measured in days not months.

Clear, Scalable Insights: KPIs became accessible and actionable insights, emphasizing the universal nature of good data interpretation. This allowed the Operations leadership team to become more cohesive and allowed them to debate the issues, not the data.

ROI – A Shared Goal: The project showcased that smart, and scalable investments in data lead to growth, a shared objective for companies of every scale. The investments were largely self-funding – business improvements freed up cash to invest further as required.