As data based decision making is at the core of better management practices today, tools such as scorecards and dashboards can assist with providing critical business data for decision making. Dashboards are operational tools used to illustrate the company’s performance in its most relevant areas. In their recent study on changing practices of financial departments and management audit in businesses (2011), Bearing Point and the Association Nationale des Directeurs Financiers et de Contrôle de Gestion (DFCG) identified several trends in using dashboards across organizations.
Each February, Gartner releases one of its most important research reports: Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence. Last year, Gartner changed the name of this Magic Quadrant from “Business Intelligence Platforms” to “Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms”, to emphasize the growing importance of analysis capabilities to the information systems that organizations are now building.
As it goes, discussing team performance and performance management gives due attention to means and measurements that address staff qualities. This is understandable, as a great part of the overall productivity is attributed to the quality and effort invested by team members into their work. Also, there is a reasonably larger number of team members, than there are team managers and leaders. This assumption provides a healthy premise for investing in research that aims for boosting performance through stimulating staff qualities. Nevertheless, when discussing team efficacy, one cannot and should not overlook the effect team leaders have on the overall performance.
“Open data will encourage civic involvement and increase the pace of innovation in the city.” These are the words of Mayor Parker, who strongly believes that a more transparent approach towards reporting public performance will support Houston’s development.
Dashboards are visual representations of the company’s performance. As an operational tool, it illustrates the most relevant information for decision making. Their core objective is to consolidate on a single screen the most important KPIs, in order to monitor data at a glance.
