Management Control, Dashboard and Business Intelligence
The dashboard is an essential tool for the good management of a company. It allows the managers to have a fast and complete access to the necessary data to make decisions.
Much more than a simple table, the dashboard often includes various visual dials (graphs, tables or other) that allow you to follow the performance indicators, often called KPIs for “Key Performance Indicator”.
The dashboard, a necessary management tool
Running a business without a dashboard is like flying an airplane without navigation tools: you have no idea where you are, you don’t know where you’re going, and you’re totally blind to potential problems.
This did not stop the pioneers of aviation or the first industrialists of the 19th century, but it has become absolutely inconceivable today.
For a complete and efficient management control, we distinguish 3 types of dashboards:
The operational dashboard
As a short-term management tool, it allows you to manage the progress of action plans and ensure the smooth day-to-day running of the company.
Examples of indicators :
- Order book
- Delivery time
- Project follow-up
The management dashboard
It is the management control tool par excellence, the objective of which is to compare reality with the budget forecasts. It enables the company to be managed in the medium term.
Examples of indicators :
- Turnover
- Inventory value
- Absenteeism
The strategic dashboard (balanced scorecard)
In order to set up a long-term strategy, this dashboard must analyze the parameters essential to the good health of the company. The whole must be coherent and precise, in order to make the right decisions.
Examples of indicators :
- Margin and profit
- Customer satisfaction
- Payroll
A useful dashboard for the company
To be truly effective, a dashboard must take into account the specificities of the company and be based on reality.
Performance indicators adapted to your company
Of course, many KPIs are common to all companies (turnover, salaries…) but each sector, each company has a different operation. For efficient management, its particularities must be shown in the dashboard.
The choice of indicators is therefore a crucial step that requires the intervention of various departments, but also of external consultants.
Correct and up-to-date data
It goes without saying that the information on the dashboard must be real and up-to-date. Making decisions based on wrong or outdated figures is the best way to lead your business to disaster!
Yet this has long been one of the main problems with dashboards:
- Numbers entered manually may be embellished, or may be victims of an input error.
- Data collection is time consuming and analysis is tedious. The indicators in the scoreboard are likely to show a past situation that is several months old.
- Updating dashboards is time and resource consuming.
New technologies, the digitization of processes and the advent of Business Intelligence solutions make dashboards powerful, reliable and accessible to SMEs.
BI solutions for efficient management control
The benefits of Business Intelligence software for your business are numerous. They allow a considerable gain in efficiency and accuracy thanks to their automatic reporting capabilities.
Reliable information
BI solutions access data directly. Their integration, homogenization and restitution is entirely automated, which avoids possible human errors.
Consequently, the figures presented in the scoreboard correspond in every respect to reality. This allows an accurate analysis and thus gives the possibility to make the best decision.
Real-time results
Business Intelligence collects information automatically and instantaneously. The computing power of the algorithms used means that data processing is immediate. Updating a dashboard therefore only takes a few seconds.
Decision-makers can thus accurately monitor the company’s evolution and instantly implement any corrective actions.
An infinite number of performance indicators
A dashboard should by definition have a limited number of KPIs, in order to remain clear and easily comparable. However, it may occasionally be necessary to analyse a specific point in more detail in order to identify a blockage or an area for improvement.
Before the advent of Business Intelligence solutions, this required the mobilization of many resources and was time consuming.
Today, software such as Qliksens(https://www.qlik.com/fr-fr/), Power Bi(https://powerbi.microsoft.com/fr-fr/), Tableau(https://www.tableau.com/fr-fr) and many others make it possible to obtain this information quickly via queries.
Similarly, Process Mining algorithms can be used to analyze business processes to identify bottlenecks in a precise manner. The data can then be included in the reports, in order to implement corrective action.
Management control facilitated by BI
The implementation of a Business Intelligence solution will undoubtedly facilitate the management and the piloting of your company. You will be able to have accurate and up-to-date dashboards with a large number of indicators at your disposal.
The choice of a Business Intelligence software and its implementation often requires the support of a partner.
The Altermès teams are made up of financial and business experts
professionals with many years of experience in management control, business intelligence, data analysis and digitalization of companies. We are at your disposal to propose different solutions adapted to your company’s reality and to help you in their implementation.
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