The contents of this Blog Post were presented at NextCorp Client Day on September 17, 2009

Executive Summary

• Key Performance Indicators - create a quick snapshot of the metrics that that measure your business
• Real-time availability - eliminate the hours or days it takes to compile critical reporting
• Low cost alternative to BI - dashboards can bridge the reproting gap at a fraction of the cost of full system integration or data modeling projects
• Distributable via email/web - get the data in the hands of those who need it and even automate distribution via email
  

Background

• Use Dashboards as a daily tool for monitoring key metrics for health of your business
• Facilitate cross-departmental meetings with dashboards that provide clear performance measures without requiring industry or technical proficiency
• Key Performance Indicators are the more critical metrics that let you know the health of the business
• Real-time availability eliminates the "rear-view mirror" effect of reviewing last month's numbers
• Drill down capability makes going from summary to detail data just mouse clicks away
  

Immediate Benefits

• Relieves staff of compiling data
• Real-time reporting to compliment trends
• Easy distribution
• Minimal requirements (SQL Server 2005+ / Included with NextCorp Premier Services for Hosted Clients)
• Rapid, low cost alternative to BI suites

Report from Multiple Systems

• Report from multiple systems
• Data integration not required
• You provide constraints
• Integrated into your systems or stand alone

Know Sooner

• Push reporting to inbox, mobile device
• Graphical indicators
• Drill down into the issue
• Export to Excel and use BI tools to slice and dice

Sample Dashboards

The following Dashboard provide simple, graphical indicators of complex business metrics and also provide quick drill down capability to source data. Not the guage gives a clear indication of a key metric.

NextCorp CRM Usage Dashboard Example.png (255.52 kb)

The next dashboard does not use guages but provides both trend and summary data for a quick snapshot report the sales manager can access any time to determine how the team is performing.

NextCorp Sales Manager Dashboard Example.png (126.83 kb)

Next Steps

• Consider your key business metrics and reports your team requires
• Note the multiple systems data comes from and at what frequency
• Evaluate the time to compile and analyze
• Contact NextCorp to discuss providing your consolidated, simplified, automated reporting dashboards
• Check out the [link]10 Types blog on Implementing the SRS Dashboard Accelerators for Dynamics CRM[/link]