In the business world, it is always necessary to make various decisions. These decisions are often based on prior data analysis that has revealed certain aspects. However, it can be inconvenient to present the results of the study in the form of dry figures and numbers. So, there is a Business Intelligence strategy for collecting, analyzing, and presenting data, which is what this topic will be about.
What is the BI
Business Intelligence (BI) refers to the technologies, strategies, and practices used by organizations to collect, analyze, and present data in a meaningful way to support decision-making and improve business performance. BI involves gathering data from various sources, transforming it into actionable insights, and delivering those insights to the right people at the right time using various ways of visualization.
The significance of BI in the modern business world is immense. BI enables organizations to make informed decisions based on data rather than relying on intuition or guesswork. It provides insights into customer behavior, market trends, operational efficiency, and other critical aspects of the business, helping leaders make more accurate and effective decisions. Also, BI allows businesses to identify bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and areas for improvement within their operations. BI tools provide interactive dashboards, reports, and visualizations that make complex data easy to understand and interpret.
Business Intelligence uses three processes working together to turn raw data into actionable insights: data collection, data analysis, and visualization. Data collection ensures that relevant data is gathered, data analysis uncovers meaningful patterns and insights within the collected data, and data visualization presents the insights in a visual format that is easy to understand and use for decision-making. By leveraging these processes effectively, organizations can harness the power of data to drive better business outcomes.
Moreover, the visualization part is quite important and plays a critical role in data analysis results presentation. So there is a tool in BI called dashboard, which we will cover in the next section.
Importance of dashboards in BI
A Business Intelligence dashboard is a visual representation of the various data analysis results in the form of charts, graphs, tables, and other interactive visual elements. It is a user-friendly interface that presents data in a visually appealing and interactive manner, allowing people to monitor, analyze, and track essential information at a glance.
The purpose of a BI dashboard is to provide a centralized and easily understandable snapshot of key business information, enabling users to quickly identify trends, patterns, and anomalies. It helps in monitoring performance against targets, tracking progress toward goals, and making data-driven decisions. Also, with interactive features, users can drill down into specific data points, filter information, and explore different dimensions of the data to gain deeper insights.
BI dashboards are widely used across various industries, including sales, marketing, finance, and executive management. They offer a convenient way to access and interpret data, facilitating better communication, collaboration, and decision-making. By presenting data in a visually compelling manner, BI dashboards empower users to monitor performance in real time, identify opportunities, and take timely actions to drive business success.
Key principles in dashboard design
Now that you know what role dashboards play in BI, it's time to talk about how to make a quality dashboard. In this section, we will discuss the key principles of dashboard design. These principles will allow the dashboard to be more informative and visually appealing, as well as reflect important information in a pleasing way.
1. Clarity and simplicity. Keep the dashboard design clean and uncluttered. Use clear and concise labels, headings, and visual elements. Avoid unnecessary details or excessive data. Focus on presenting the most relevant information in a straightforward manner.
2. Illustrative charts. Use a variety of graphs to display data and the results of its analysis. However, it's worth considering using the right charts and visualizations. Some information might look better in the form of a pie chart, and some information may be better presented in the line chart.
3. Relevant and meaningful metrics. Select and display the most relevant and meaningful metrics that align with the dashboard's purpose. Ensure that the metrics chosen are actionable and provide valuable insights. Avoid information overload by focusing on the key metrics that drive performance.
4. Consistency and standardization. Maintain consistency in the design elements, such as colors, fonts, and layouts, throughout the dashboard. Use standard conventions and visual cues to make the dashboard intuitive and easy to navigate. Consistency helps users understand and interpret the information consistently across different sections of the dashboard.
5. Responsiveness and adaptability. Design the dashboard to be responsive and adaptable to different screen sizes and devices. Ensure that the dashboard layout and visualizations adjust dynamically to fit various screen resolutions, including desktops, tablets, and mobile devices. Many BI tools now allow creating the responsive dashboards that fit many screen layouts.
6. Interactivity. Provide interactive features that allow users to explore the data further and drill down into specific details. Use filters, slicers, or interactive charts to enable users to interact with the data and gain deeper insights. This empowers users to customize the view and analyze the data from different perspectives.
Here is an example of a good dashboard design from Microsoft created in Power BI:
In this example, we can see a quality dashboard that satisfies basic principles. It is clear to understand and has a nice color scheme. It has relevant information only, some of which is presented in the form of interactive graphs.
Best practices for effective reporting
Now that you have a visual presentation of the data analysis you've done, presented in the form of a quality dashboard, it's time to talk about how to report your results to the audience.
Firstly, you need to understand your target audience, who will be attending the presentation, and which information they want to hear. For example, investors will be interested in the company's financial results, while the cybersecurity department will be interested in the statistics of attacks on the company's servers.
Secondly, you also need to make sure that the data presented in the dashboard is up-to-date and reflects the real picture. In some cases, it may be necessary to automate the process of updating the data to keep it relevant without your time investment.
In the end, you need to be sure that the audience understands how to interpret the data they're seeing. If something seems unclear, it can be useful to ask for feedback.
Conclusion
Business Intelligence technologies are ubiquitous and constantly improving. It is important to understand the BI strategies and be able to apply them in your work. Nowadays, such technologies can even work with the help of AI, which makes all the processes easier.
You have learned a lot today, now it is time to proceed with the practice part!