Why Should Organizations Use Business Intelligence Tools?
Last year, my supervisor asked me to attend an important training. It was called “Dashboard Training.” Our speaker started the training by showing us a picture of his car’s dashboard. All of us laughed. I thought to myself if I was enrolled in the right training. Then, the speaker started to talk about the importance of monitoring the symbols in the dashboard – the engine oil pressure, the fuel level, battery charging system, and many more. He said that he needs to make sure that everything is all right and running smoothly before he takes the car for a drive. Just like the car, companies should regularly check if their operations are functioning well. Organizations should be aware of their day-to-day operations. Top management should be vigilant on knowing the status of the company. To make sure that everything is being monitored, most companies use various business intelligence tools just like a dashboard.
In a team, everybody is encouraged to be aware of their operations and performance. But how can you encourage them to give importance and practice business intelligence? In my organization, one simple way line managers do to encourage the use of business intelligence is by maintaining a visual management dashboard. Each team are provided with a board and required by the management to post important information such as brief description of their work, current production status, a graph of their historical data, list of problems encountered and solutions. Line managers are then required to teach their staff to read, interpret and present the data in the dashboard. The staff then take turns to present the dashboard to the team during its weekly or monthly meetings. This practice is intended to increase the employees’ involvement and commitment to the company.
Pandesal sa Umaga 