Information and knowledge are two very different things. Due to the sheer amount of data that companies have, there just often isn’t enough time to analyze everything that is pulled from various systems. Having the data is important, yes, but using it and having it be presented in a meaningful way is much more important.

Dashboards are a commonly used tool to help manage and present information. For them to be effective however, you need to know what you are looking for in your data and how the information can be used. Just because you have the ability to add an indicator in a dashboard, doesn’t mean you have to or should. Ensure that all data going into your dashboard to be evaluated is important and will provide some sort of value. Compare it to a car dashboard – it is important to know your speed, tire pressure, and amount of gas you have, but not as important to know whether a window is rolled up or down. While this may be useful information, it is not crucial to regular operations of a car. This rule should apply to your business dashboards as well – a dashboard’s inputs should differ according to specific business role and what that employee monitors (ie. CFO vs accounts receivable clerk).

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are also important and useful. Every role has KPIs that are managed and evaluated on a regular basis. However, this is another important part where context comes into play. If you have data but nothing to measure it against, the data doesn’t mean anything. You need to know what to measure, and what ‘good’ or ‘bad’ may look like.

In today’s society, the amount of data organizations collect only continues to grow, and the systems we use provide us with the ability to have a ton of this information at our fingertips. However, for this information to be valuable, it needs to be used and presented in meaningful ways. At True Sky, we understand how important getting the right information to the right people is for decision making. To learn more about how we can help you manage your data meaningfully, give us a call today at 1 855 878 3759 or visit our website www.truesky.com.