Shockingly Effective Dashboards

[former_member188942]

I have been talking and writing a lot recently about a vision of Universal BI, where interactive dashboards are the perfect tool to allow everyone in an organization to get exactly the information they need to do their jobs. So, last week, at SAPPHIRE NOW in Orlando, it was great to see a real-life example of Universal BI in a presentation from FedEx Office.

Andy Mills and Charlotte Huff discussed their SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (aka Xcelsius) implementation and the transformational effect it had on the running of their 1,800 stores where previously “too much data” had been the biggest issue. The presentation finished on a quote from their COO Kim Dixon:

"I consider ICE a true game-changer for FedEx Office field operations. It provides great visual dashboards of key metrics. With ICE, it's easy to spot areas of strength and weakness so you can take quick action to improve performance. This really is the next generation of reporting and managing our business"

A perfect way to sum up the promise of Universal BI.

However, there were some negative comments made on Twitter about the visualizations used, which I feel were not only misplaced but actually lead people to undermine their BI success.

See the comments, the dashboard which provoked them and why I think they are wrong here.