Dashboards
are becoming increasingly popular in print management systems.
Dashboards sit on top of a MIS system as the presentation front end,
displaying key company performance metrics. This on-screen display
of metrics often resembles the driver's console in a car. It is
intended to give you a quick snapshot of the current status of your
business, including recent positive or negative trends.
Dashboards may contain gauges and indicators that resemble a
speedometer, gas level indicator or odometer. These gauges typically
represent several key performance indicators such as profitability,
order volume, plant utilization, cash commitments, and receivables.
Many dashboards can be personalized for the user's needs.
Dashboards provide visibility to your
business activities across your organization. Being able to monitor
your business activities help reach your organization’s objectives,
whether that is reducing costs or increasing customer satisfaction.
With a dashboard, a manager can quickly visually comprehend the
status of the business, be warned of new problems and proactively
stop these issues before they escalate.
Drilldown functionality embedded in the
dashboard lets you explore the bottom of your statistics data by
drilling down from top level data. For example, a manager may have a
graph on his dashboard showing that the plant is operating
inefficiently. By clicking on the graph, efficiency graphs for each
departmental may appear showing the problem is coming from the
pressroom.
Dashboards are very
effective in organizations running multiple software applications.
Since they reside on top of MIS systems and database, dashboards can
be designed to consolidate data from multiple systems into a single
graphics or text web based interface. An executive manager's
dashboards my contain plant production information from the print
management system and Accounts Receivable information from a
separate accounting software package.
Although often called Executive
Dashboards, dashboards aren't just for executives. Operations
managers, business line managers also need visibility to their
business activities in an easy to use interface. With so many users
in an organization requiring an easy way to monitor their business,
there is no better tool than a dashboard.
By Craig L.
Press
President, Profectus, Inc.
craig.press@profectus.com
Phone: 888-868-8662 or 941-379-8700
Craig L.
Press is president of Profectus, Inc, a national consultancy that helps
printing organizations implement best business practices and maximize the
value of their information technology investments.
www.profectus.com
