A Flexible BI Dashboard is Like a Full Box of Crayons!
What if a teacher gave a child a box of crayons with only two colors? Can you imagine the disappointment of that child when they compared their crayon box with the crayons the other children received and realized that the other children had so many other colors from which to choose?
You’re probably wondering why I am talking about crayons but don’t worry! I am about to explain. Consider the average business intelligence product. The enterprise implements the solution and gives the IT staff or professional data analysts the task of deciding what business users need to see. Dashboards and reports are ‘designed’ by these professionals to give the average user what they need. The problem with this approach is that business users rarely get what they need or want. What they get is the crayon box with two crayons, when what they need is a crayon box that contains EVERY color!
Self-Serve business intelligence allows business users the freedom to imagine without limiting data analytics to visual data analysis on predefined dashboards. Think about it! Your business is more than just plotting pieces of information on a graph and filtering them, and you certainly expect your business users and team members to take their roles seriously and to contribute to the overall success of the company by leveraging their knowledge and skill. To do that, your team needs flexible tools – not restrictive dashboards and reports.
Every day there is some new challenge or opportunity in your business. True, dynamic data analysis and data sharing is about questioning assumptions and shifting plans to accommodate changes. No predefined two-crayon type of dashboard can possibly anticipate everything your business users need and want to do. Success depends on having thousands of dashboards and analytics and empowering EVERY team member with the view, format and data they need to execute the vision.
If you want to explore the whole box of crayons, you can start here: Flexible Business Intelligence Tools
