3 Important aspects of a business dashboard

With the growing technology, we come up with numerous new tools that make our life easier. Especially for the business field, there are many different tools to make the business profitably growing. In digital marketing, many strategies help in optimizing the rankings of your website. For making business strategies, we provide you with expert ideas and methods in this article.

Like all other essential business tools, a business dashboard helps you manage the complexity of a business. It is a tool that manages all the information regarding key data points relevant to a business, department, or specific process. A business dashboard can be used across different operational organizations and measures the performance of your business. It is tracking data points that are important to your business, and a dashboard provides you with all the advantages regarding essential strategies. Still, many people don't realize the importance of these advantages. There are three important aspects of the business dashboard, and if any of them is missing, then that dashboard cannot perform effectively.

1. A structured and accessible service.

Organizational tooltip

The dashboard sometimes makes a problem like it tries to include many features or extreme data in organizational settlements. It provides extra information on the screen, which can reduce the power of your dashboard. If your data cannot store complete information on one page, you have the report, not the dashboard. For this, you need to select golden dashboard metrics. In this way, you can make your data presentation easy and understandable.

Custom tooltip

A modern dashboard includes another aspect that can be used for customization. This option is used when one size doesn't fit in one screen dashboard, so you need to build your dashboard for a specific user role or department. Different users want to see different data. But the problem is, many dashboards still display a pre-determined set of metrics in a pre-set layout. Whereas each department can obtain its dashboard, users of that department are stuck with a static layout.

Designing

Another essential aspect that includes the designing dashboard, an adequately designed dashboard is constructed around the concept of visual hierarchy. There are many options for designing dashboard templates that give you excellent results. All these options need to be adjusted and manage appropriately.

2. Advanced data options

To make an interactive report, you will always want accurate access to the data chart you are exploring. For this purpose, the advanced data option helps you understand your raw data by yourself or get the ability to easily explore each part of the data chart in its raw form. It is the most important aspect, so most of the business's dashboard is being used. Data visualizing is an important part, where most people create mistakes and make the data in such a form that it is hard to understand each element. Through advanced data options, the visualization becomes easily understandable that how each element of a particular chart consists of and what kind of data it is.

3.Graphic filters

Charts

The visualization of data with charts and other different ways can help you understand the trend more quickly with one sight. With data visualization, you come to know about the trend of your business that tells you what's happening in your business over time. These filters allow dashboard users to use dashboard and graphic dimensions as temporary filter values. It is as simple as clicking on a data set in your charts. It creates a quick filter that applies to your dashboard data and provides new information in an instant.

Maps

Maps are another important part of the dashboard filter, and it is an essential data visualization and, at datapine, can be fun using on dashboards. Dashboard maps get even better when using them with a different filter.

Wrapping up!

The dashboard is essential and has gained a lot of popularity as it provides businesses with a significant opportunity to make their business more effective and faster. With a dashboard, you will know what's going on in your business at all times. When you get all the information, it becomes easy for you to take urgent action according to the prevailing situation. As we have known the importance, three crucial aspects of the dashboard need to be considered. In this article, I have explained those aspects. I hope that these will be understandable to you and help you perform your business effectively.

Are you ready to try your hand at business dashboard ? Try Business Dashboard free forever!

George Lewis, Digital Marketing @DashboardBuilder  

Dashboard App for MS Windows 10

Your FREE data visualization tool for MS Windows

Dashboard App Windows overview

A dashboard app a data visualization tool for Windows that visually tracks analyzes and displays graphs, charts, key performance indicators (KPI), metrics, and key data points to monitor your business.

Dashboard App for Windows which installs directly on a computer having Microsoft Windows 7 & 10 or later version installed. No web server or 3rd party application required can be faster and more responsive. Doesn't need to rely on internet connectivity to run the software

Our dashboard app gives you access to live data in Apache Server. Check-in on your business anytime on your Phone, Tablet, or Personal Computers.

Dashboard app comes with a variety of different charts that includes line chart, scatter chart, bar chart, pie chart, donuts chart, bubble chart, stack chart, area chart, heatmap chart, Sankey diagrams, and choropleth map, etc. Dashboard app for Windows can be used to create either static or real-time database-driven dashboards with data coming from a variety of sources such as MySQL, MS SQL, SQLite, ORACLE, PostgreSQL, Sybase, and Cubrid with no programming required. A part of the community, this dashboard app is designed to integrate with a PHP application you may be using and also import data from Google Driver, MS Excel, and CSV files.

Getting Started

Let's get started with our Dashboard app Windows, the dashboard app Windows generates PHP source code for your web application. Not only, but it also generates embedded code in HTML, which helps to republish your dashboard in an embedded. For this, we will be demonstrating with our freely available drag and drop desktop-based Dashboard app for Windows. To install and run the Dashboard app, the following are the requirements.

Requirements

Our Dashboard app can be installed in MS Windows. Folloing is the details of the requirements.

• Windows 7 or later. Old operating systems like Windows XP and Vista are no more supported.
• Requires "Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015" installed
• Firefox 52, Chrome 57, IE 8, or any other Browsers support SVG

Installation

There is a Free version of Dashboard app available for trail bases,

STEP-1: Download from the following location

https://dashboardbuilder.net/download-free-dashboard-desktop

1. When you see a blue screen with the message "Windows protected your PC," do not be alarmed. This is a security prompt from Windows Defender SmartScreen to verify the source of the application.
2. Click More info to reveal additional options. This will display details about the publisher and provide further choices for proceeding.

1. A Run anyway button will appear below the warning message. Click this button to continue with the setup.
2. Ensure that you are installing software from a trusted source to avoid security risks. If the publisher is unknown or not verified, proceed with caution.
3. If you frequently install applications from the same trusted source, consider adjusting Windows security settings to prevent repeated warnings.

STEP-2: Double click the file

STEP-3: Click next button

STEP-4: Click next button

STEP-5: Click Finish button

Dashboard app examples

When you launched the dashboard app the following screen will appear, in which you can select the lange and go through with take a tour. Curently Dashboard app Window supports English, Freanch, German, Spanish, Italian & Portuguese.

STEP-1: Connect with your Database

• Run the web folder in your browser. e.g. http://localhost/dashboardbuilder following welcome screen will appear.



• This is the main panel of the Dashboard app. This is a HTML5 based fully responsive interface built in PHP, HTML, JavaScript and CSS. The interface has a minimal design with a drag-and-drop feature that allows you to add multiple chart panel to customize the dashboard on according to the way you want.
• Now Click the Database icon
• Following screen will appear. In our dashboard app example, we will use the sample SQLite database called Northwind.db to connect and fetch the data. Now, Select Database from data source tab. Select SQLite from the drop down list of Database, Enter your "../data/Northwind.db" in the DB name field and Save changes    as mentioned in the screen.

 



 

 

• When you click the save changes, a green tick mark with Database will appear that shows that your database is successfully connected.

STEP-2: Chart settings

• In our next step, we will fetch data from the database we have just connected. Select the gear icon for your Chart preference.

• The following screen will appear. List of the tables from Northwind.db will appear on the table list as shown in the picture below.

STEP-3: SQL statements

• In our example, we will be creating a simple Dashboard app for our sales management. This dashboard app will contain a chart where users can find the sales stats and maintain the data about the products.
• Now, enter the following SQL statement in text box in a following manner

SELECT strftime('%Y-%m',o.shippeddate) as xaxis, sum(d.quantity) as yaxis from `order details` d, orders o where o.orderid = d.orderid group by strftime('%Y-%m',o.orderdate) limit 50

• Now, we want to execute our query and fetch the data from the tables. Click the Run Query button

• Query Result will appear. Now, we have to assign x-axis data to the x-axis column and y-axis data to the y-axis column. Select your x-axis data from the drop down list of X   and y-axis data from the drop down list of Y .
• Click Save Changes

• Charts will be appeared on the screen as shown below.

STEP-4: Adjust the position

• You may adjust the size and the position of the Chart Panel by dragging its corner. The size and position are fully responsive according to the Bootstrap framework

STEP-5: Code generation

• So far we have successfully build our dashboard. In this step we are going to generate PHP source code for dashboard we have just created. Click the Generate   button to auto-generate PHP source code for our dashboard

• PHP code for the chart will automatically generate, you may copy past this code to your Dashboard app.

Auto-generated PHP source code

Following is an example of auto-generated PHP source code. You may copy & paste the following PHP source code in your web application.

/**
 * DashboardBuilder
 *
 * @author Diginix Technologies www.diginixtech.com
 * Support  - http://www.dashboardbuilder.net
 * @copyright (C) 2018 Dashboardbuilder.net
 * @version 2.1.5
 * @license: license.txt
 */

include("inc/dashboard_dist.php");  // copy this file to inc folder 


// for chart #1
$data = new dashboardbuilder(); 
$data->type =  "line";

$data->source =  "Database"; 
$data->rdbms =  "sqlite"; 
$data->servername =  "";
$data->username =  "";
$data->password =  "";
$data->dbname =  "data\Northwind.db";
$data->xaxisSQL[0]=  "SELECT strftime(^%Y-%m^,o.shippeddate) as xaxis, sum(d.quantity) as yaxis from `order details` d, orders o  where o.orderid = d.orderid group by strftime(^%Y-%m^,o.orderdate) limit 50";
$data->xaxisCol[0]=  "xaxis";
$data->yaxisSQL[0]=  "SELECT strftime(^%Y-%m^,o.shippeddate) as xaxis, sum(d.quantity) as yaxis from `order details` d, orders o  where o.orderid = d.orderid group by strftime(^%Y-%m^,o.orderdate) limit 50";
$data->yaxisCol[0]=  "yaxis";
$data->name = "linechart";
$data->title = "Line Chart";
$data->orientation = "";
$data->xaxistitle = "x-axis title";
$data->yaxistitle = "y-axis title";
$data->showgrid = "";
$data->showline = "";
$data->height = "167";
$data->width = "";
$data->col = "0";
$result[0] = $data->result();

?>

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html> 
<head> 
	<script src="assets/js/dashboard.min.js"></script> <!-- copy this file to assets/js folder --> 
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="//maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.2.0/css/bootstrap.min.css"> <!-- Bootstrap CSS file, change the path accordingly --> 

<style>
@media screen and (min-width: 960px) {
.id0 {position:absolute;margin-top:67px;}

}
.panel-heading {line-height:0.7em;}
#kpi {font-size:34px; font-weight:bold;text-align:center;}
#kpi_legand {font-size:11px; color:#999;text-align:center;}
</style>


</head>
<body> 

<div class="container-fluid main-container">
<div class="col-md-12 col-lg-12 col-xs-12">
<div class="row">
<div class="col-md-4 col-lg-4 col-md-offset-4 col-lg-offset-4 col-xs-12 id0">
<div class="panel panel-default">
<div class="panel-heading">Line Chart</div>
    <div class="panel-body">
        <?php echo $result[0];?>
    </div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>

An overview of the best business dashboard

Business dashboards are vital to various companies across the world. Learning how to make a business dashboard is important but one should know what a business dashboard actually is, a data management tool used by most of the biggest companies throughout the market. It helps the businesses to learn which of their strategies work and which don’t, which helps these corporations interact better with the targeted audience. The reason behind it is so important for most quick software firms is because it makes managing their data easier for them.

Business dashboards can be used in different ways by different corporations, the definition of a dashboard depends mainly on the part it plays in the company, it serves different purposes for different firms and the users know how to use their dashboard.

How to manage your business dashboard?

Business dashboards manage the data in easy-to-understand and simple ways which makes it so useful and convenient for the firms, the dashboard first visually tracks the key performances indicators which are commonly referred to as KPIs, then analyzes the KPIs and later displays them. KPIs are chosen by the user to line up to corporation’s aims, the user should calculate if the KPIs are meeting the aims of the firm or not, it is very important for KPIs to align the goals of the firm as only then the readings of the KPIs will be effective and helpful for the company, KPIs will help the company learn which of their strategies and plans are helping the company more than the others, this aids the firm in making better strategies similar to the ones that work better and to get rid of the ones that aren’t very effective and so the document will only include the information which can apply to their firm only.

Alongside KPIs are metrics and key data points, these three work together and keep track of the health of the business, section, or a process like KPIs, these are also malleable to reach certain needs of the department and firm. A dashboard connects to your files, attachments, services, and APIs, but it presents this information in the form of bar graphs, line charts, tables, and gauges. This is what makes the metrics just as important as the KPIs in a dashboard.

What do you need to create a good business dashboard?

A good business dashboard will also need decent data visualization, data visualization is very important for a dashboard as it is the only way through which the information can be read and understood after only looking at it once. Bar charts, alongside highlighted features and dates, are the most typical and the most commonly used features used to get the visual patterns that are needed. The structure also holds a really important role in a dashboard; it should be chosen very carefully, and it needs a lot of attention too. Some of the greatest examples of dashboards for data visualization include the Dashboard Builder.

The user is supposed to be able to make decisions and act upon the taken decisions via the information on the business dashboard. Thus, the dashboard must include the data that is needed to help the user in taking the steps it needs to take as it is one of the main purposes of the dashboard. The dashboard is there to make it more effortless for the user to read the performance of their or the business they are working for to compare the data easily and understand it. This is a much more effective way through which you can extract the insights that can be functional and exciting to keep the firm’s direction stable and balanced or make changes if needed by the company.

How important is a real-time data for your business dashboard

A dashboard should be embedded with the business software that can update in real-time as the data keeps changing and evolves quickly so software that is quick is very vital as it can keep the data always updated. The easiest and the most effective way to achieve this aim is to have analytics tools and software that has the ability to gather all the data automatically, it should also be in a format that is simple and easy to use for the person using it and also present it for the user in an automated dashboard. Some firms think of google analytics as a better option and choose to use it as their business dashboard solution.

A dashboard can give you a prestigious view of the data of your firm. But at the same time, it should also be able to let you dig deeper into the information if that is a need of the firm or the user. As sometimes the basic and the main information is not enough and more information is needed to have a better understanding of the statistics. For example, if a graph from the user’s dashboard tracks in real-time sales of the products. The dashboard should also be able to let the user dig deep to find out which of his products are selling better than others, in what places are they selling, and other relevant information that might be needed.

Choose the platform for your dashboard wisely.

In the past 5 years, mobile devices as laptops, tablets, and mobile phones have become necessities instead of luxuries. If you look at the statistics, from 2012, the use of mobile browsers has moved from 8% to 33% as desktop browser use falls from 92% to 66%. And from here it doesn’t go backward, the use of mobile browsers will keep on increasing as it is easily accessible from anywhere and more people are starting to use it. The business should keep this in mind and should make all the applications they make or implement adapt to all the platforms. so in this world where the use of mobile devices keeps dominating other devices, users are able to access their respective dashboards from anywhere they please and are easy at.

Customize the dashboard as per your desire.

When we are talking about dashboards, standard size doesn’t work. The data a dashboard needs to be used for varies from user to user, some users have the same data but they want it to be organized differently. Still, some businesses make fixed and standard dashboards for their users. This makes the user having to waste their time on making different variations of the same dashboard and get aggravated. This can be easily avoided by the firms if they just customizable dashboards, this will save the users a lot of time they will be able to spend on other useful causes as this dashboard will let the user choose how and which of the data he wants to display.

If you’re getting customizable dashboards the users are going to also need the ability to save a view for instant access later. For example, if a user wants a specific dashboard for every day of the week, rather than customizing a dashboard for every day every time, the user can easily just create a saved view for every day and then just access it whenever they want instead of experiencing the hassle of making one every time they need it.

Conclusion:

The main aim of a dashboard is to help the corporation in understanding how it can reach its goals better and these were the main must-haves of a dashboard that are essential for a functioning dashboard that you should know if you’re making your own business dashboard.

Are you ready to try your hand at business dashboard ? Try Business Dashboard free forever!

Kambar, Digital Marketing @DashboardBuilder