Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Charting Your Course To Success

You’ve probably heard the old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” The same holds true for your business. Today, there are various “dashboard” tools available that convert huge volumes of raw operational data into visual cues that will enable you to respond more quickly to changes, help you make more informed decisions, and set (or keep) your business on a course to success.

The View From Here is Great!
Business dashboards communicate an abundance of complex information quickly. They translate information from Microsoft Dynamics GP and other data sources into visually rich presentations using gauges, maps, charts and other graphical elements for a quick view of your key performance indicators or “KPIs.” KPIs refer to critical metrics that measure the health of your business. Examples might include total sales, gross profit margins, desired inventory levels, or any other metric you watch closely to quickly determine whether your business is performing within an acceptable range.


While dashboards are extensively used by managers and executives, associates at all levels of an organization (with proper security) can evaluate visual metrics that are important to their role within the company. In addition, most dashboards will allow you to drill down into the underlying details to further investigate an issue and to support a quick and informed response.

It’s Like Driving a Car
Like the dashboard in your car, one glance provides everything you need to know about your speed, fuel level, and other vital gauges. The same can be said about a business dashboard that aggregates huge volumes of data and presents it in a format that’s easy to interpret at a glance. And with flexible personalization options, you can choose which KPIs and gauges are important to you. Dashboard elements can also be arranged in a specific order and display as much or as little detail to fit your needs.

What About My Current Reports?
Traditional reports play an important role in your company. However, dashboards offer advantages that can be used to compliment your existing reporting structure. Dashboards can combine data across multiple databases into a single view … a task that can be a bit more difficult and time‐consuming using traditional reporting tools. Plus the visual cues and graphical charts provide meaningful insight at a glance (it’s a lot harder to “glance” at a 15‐page report). It’s all about empowering you with tools to monitor and evaluate business performance in real‐time, make quick and informed decisions, improve profitability, serve your customers better, and chart your course for success!

What’s the Best Tool for Creating Dashboards?
There are a host of business dashboard tools available for Microsoft Dynamics GP. Depending on your needs and the complexity of your operations, you can leverage a combination of tools that are built‐in
to your existing system and/or add‐on products that take web-based and dashboard‐style reporting to the next level.


Contact us for information about using dashboards to monitor & evaluate business performance or to discuss dashboard reporting options for Microsoft Dynamics GP

1 comment:

Jer said...

Great post!!! Well done.