Any user can customize their own dashboard with graphs, tables, and other relevant information

Description

The ability to customize dashboards within Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software is an essential feature that adds significant value to users. This functionality allows users to tailor their dashboards with specific graphs, tables, and other relevant information. Customizable dashboards provide users with immediate access to necessary data and help them make informed decisions quickly.

Example Use Case

Scenario: A retail company uses CPM software for real-time monitoring of its product sales by store and geography. The store managers need to access different sets of information compared to the regional managers or the corporate headquarters staff.

Solution: As the CPM software provides customizable dashboards, each user can design their dashboard according to their specific information needs. The store manager may prioritize charts on daily sales and current inventory, while the regional manager is more interested in comparative sales performance among various stores. This way, everyone can make swift, data-driven decisions based on tailored information.

Considerations

Making this easy to use, and by that we mean much easier to use than Excel, is the key to getting wide adoptions for a dashboard tool. Most look at them as a nice to have, but in reality they can be critical if used correctly. Systems that offer users some pre-built data sets from which they can make dashboards quickly usually get better adoption. On the other hand, products that drag the user through confusing intersections and jargon will end up being shelfware.

If you plan to democratize your dashboards amongst the company, make sure you're comfortable with the dashboard technology's ease. Just because you as a finance manager can do it does not mean your department heads can.

Questions to Ask a Vendor

• Dashboard Customization: How extensive are the dashboard customization options in your software? Can users with limited technical knowledge easily customize dashboards?
• Data Representation: How many types of graphs or tables can be inserted into the dashboard? Are any of them pre-built?
• User-Group Specific: Can we create a dashboard for a group of users that we can modify and have the changes cascade to all of them?