DASHBOARDS - CONSTANTLY SCANNING YOUR BUSINESS

By Mark Porter

Your business generates a great deal of information but often there are key pieces of information that you use to monitor the pulse of the company.


The Dashboard of a car is a great analogy. There are many things going on in the operation of the car but the main pieces of information Gas, Speed, Oil Pressure and Temperature can be monitored and adjusted to ensure you get to your planned destination.


Different members of your staff will have different information needs. The President may be concerned with one set of data while the Plant Manager may need to focus on different data to ensure that he can perform his tasks to maximum efficiency.


Information Technology Dashboards save you tremendous time by automatically compiling and displaying key information from different modules on one screen and refreshing that information in a timely manner.


You eliminate the need to consult with multiple people to get data or to have to access and combine information fromseveral reports.


Information is always upto date and your access to it is never dependant on the availability of other people.


Data can be accessed from anywhere via gotomypc or your smartphone.


Now at any momement you may see a breakdown of estimates that have been done by Job Type. This can predict how busy you will be in the near future. If all the estimates you have done are for work we typically don't get then we must generate more business.


Listing of Jobs Opened. If we have opened 10 jobs but they are all Perfect Bound jobs we may be in to a overload situation that must be dealt with.


Hours booked against key pieces of equipment like the Perfect Binder or Bobst press.


Jobs Invoiced and their profitability.


Each Manager is different in their information needs but the information they need to make the best business decisions should be at their finger tips.