As we all know there is a subtle but important difference between the process of "writing a Report" and the "Report" itself. While "preparing a Report" connotes the idea of capturing and ordering data, whether textual or numerical, a completed Report is the concrete representation of that information.
For example, imagine an industrial company that has a wealth of information about its supply chain; In this case, a report could be a simple Excel spreadsheet with accounting data on aspects such as payments to suppliers, receipt of merchandise, stock status, etc. All of them aspects that need to be known about the different participants in this supply chain.
On the contrary, the process "prepare a Report" is one by which this data is captured, processed and presented for your knowledge. This process implies that the company has defined a communication methodology that will be implicit in all the reports that this industrial company issues for the knowledge of its activities.
The importance of this difference is great because the techniques of creating Reports are changing profoundly in the entire business environment today.
When you think of a “traditional” Report, most people imagine a Standard report, with endless rows and columns where the data is sorted by category, with subtotals and totals but that are rarely supplemented by charts and graphs.
But this technique is fast becoming obsolete which is seen with joy by business people who should read those Reports. What's more, this method is already out of fashion and is quickly being replaced by a much more intuitive and productive new tool: the Dashboard.
The Dashboard is the new face of Reporting
What is happening is that this tool is replacing traditional reports as it is a quick and easy solution that offers great visual appeal and real-time processing.
With the new Dashboards, executives can explore information much more deeply, allowing them to make better decisions.
How? Thanks to the intense visual display of the new Dashboards made with bar graphs, charts, comparisons, maps, etc. The data from different sources can be integrated and consolidated in such a way that they show the concept that needs to be known, its past and its trends and correlations.
These features are especially important given the evolution of business needs.
Indeed, after many years of "sitting" on mountains of data, companies now need to use this information to become more competitive.
The demand for information is growing and although companies have a wide availability of data, it is disorganized for the analytical purposes of the user.
The need for Dashboards is great, but given that there is always little time and that you cannot count on assistants to "interpret" the data, executives need this tool to be quick and easy, at a reasonable cost and to analyze the information in time. real.
In addition to the visual advantages, the Dashboard allows the exploration of the data. That is, if a user wants more information about a special metric, he can deepen the investigation by obtaining primary data through the same tool.
There is also the possibility of creating special “what if” scenarios. This analysis consists of achieving an interaction between fixed and variable data that lead to representing possible situations and evaluating results if the hypotheses are fulfilled.
In other words, with the Dashboard you can investigate the root cause of the phenomena shown by the data.
This movement towards the use of the Dashboard also integrates the movement towards greater use of Business Intelligence tools, the branch of management that has the greatest growth prospect currently in the business world.
Consider the following examples where the Dashboard can be used as a component of the Business Intelligence methodology to evaluate information throughout the organization and at all levels.
In the health sector, doctors, nurses and administrative employees have much to gain with better reports on patients and their diagnoses.
Years ago, only a few people within hospitals had access to information about the state of affairs regarding the operation of the hospital, but nowadays, if Dashboards are in place, all staff can have access to this information filtered by rules. security at different levels.
For example, the administrator can see aspects of financial cash flow, the doctor can check the results of patient satisfaction surveys, and the nurses can see the number of admissions. In other words, this greater availability of data presented in a simple and instantaneous manner allows accountants, doctors and nurses to have important information regarding their work, with the consequent improvement in patient services.
Industry is another sector that benefits from simple Business Intelligence techniques. For example, plant and warehouse managers can access production information in real time and practice concrete cost savings from consistent and immediate information. Replenishment of stocks is a good example of savings due to improved information.
Dashboards provide a new response to the old need for Reports; you should only have the appropriate tool to handle this data. In other words, with a remote login, a user can securely access their transactional data and can create visual information, graphs in real time and create new analytical series such as budgets, forecasts and more. All of them are new possibilities to enhance the use of information. Typical questions like "What are we spending on?" or "Are we retaining our clients or not?" or "Do we have idle capacity in the factory?" They can be answered in real time and analyzed in time series or related to other data that give more meaning to the information.
Through these simple examples, it is possible to see why Dashboards are rapidly becoming the new face of information, opening the world of reporting to new new audiences in both large organizations and small companies. For all types of users, from the manager who guides the course of your company, to the neutral newly-entered operator, who contributes his strength so that the company goes forward, from the consumer who with his demand drives the growth of the company to Providers who must plan to supply Dashboards on time offer everyone a quick and easy way to explore information between gigantic amounts of data, with the consequent benefit of making decisions smarter and faster than they could have done. never until now.
