Back to the basics

LyndsayWise
Posted by LyndsayWise March 9, 2009

There has been so much written about how to optimize dashboard design, develop effective Key Performance Indicators, and how to use dashboards independently or within a full BI framework.  What seems to be missing is the bare bones essentials of what makes dashboards and data visualization applications useful to organizations, what options are out there, and how various players differ from one another on a high level.  This is one of the endeavors I’ve undertaken this year – to help organizations sift through the data visualization market by identifying how dashboards can add value to organizations, what solutions are available, and where these solutions fit in relation to one another (on a high level – of course!). 

Hopefully, bringing the look at BI value back to the basics will provide additional value and help organizations that may find the market confusing (I know I would if I didn’t speak to vendors on a daily basis – and even so, differentiations, inherent value, etc. can become a blur after awhile). So far, solution providers such as IBM(Cognos), QlikView, Klipfolio, Visual Mining, Corda, InetSoft, just to name a few and in no particular order, have participated by filling…

There has been so much written about how to optimize dashboard design, develop effective Key Performance Indicators, and how to use dashboards independently or within a full BI framework.  What seems to be missing is the bare bones essentials of what makes dashboards and data visualization applications useful to organizations, what options are out there, and how various players differ from one another on a high level.  This is one of the endeavors I’ve undertaken this year – to help organizations sift through the data visualization market by identifying how dashboards can add value to organizations, what solutions are available, and where these solutions fit in relation to one another (on a high level – of course!). 

Hopefully, bringing the look at BI value back to the basics will provide additional value and help organizations that may find the market confusing (I know I would if I didn’t speak to vendors on a daily basis – and even so, differentiations, inherent value, etc. can become a blur after awhile). So far, solution providers such as IBM(Cognos), QlikView, Klipfolio, Visual Mining, Corda, InetSoft, just to name a few and in no particular order, have participated by filling out a survey that identifies product and service offerings, some key features, and general market fit.  

Anyway, even though I’ve done some preliminary research based on the results, the final close date is the end of March.  I’m looking forward to seeing the results and will keep you posted as some of the results come in.

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