Dashboards for Media Organizations Using Dynamics GP

This article discusses dashboard solutions for media organizations that are seeking to enhance their Microsoft Dynamics GP data analyses.

Whether your organization focuses on television, radio, the Internet or a different medium, a complete dashboard solution would be an effective way to ensure your company meets the demands of the digital disruption. Data visualizations provide easily digestible and accessible data analyses with charts, graphs, and scorecards that spotlight trends, successes, and challenges employing key performance indicators (KPIs) and your data to inform management decision-making for a department, a project, and/or the entire company.

Based on a study conducted by Salesforce for their 2015 State of Marketing, there are three technologies that Salesforce mentions are most critical to creating a cohesive customer journey, which are mobile applications, marketing analytics, and customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Over the last couple of years, we all saw the continued shift from traditional mass advertising to digital mediums; and it has been important to media companies that the customer interacts with their brand, as well as the brands that they represent. In the modern era, customers are looking for the complete customer experience. Using a dashboard solution allows media organizations to benefit from several advantages that will not only assist their own employees with better analyses, but that also can connect the customer to a memorable experience. For instance, data consolidation, better data analysis, relevant data visualization, and smarter and faster decision-making capabilities help you identify patterns for overall success.
Dashboards can integrate your company’s data from multiple sources so that you can see what the puzzle looks like when completed, without having to access your library of applications and systems. If you are looking for simple but real-time analytics for your accounting data, you can rely on the built-in dashboard functionality within your Dynamics GP system. Dashboards help make sense of your data in one snapshot in a customized format that allows the end user to view any metric.
The right dashboard will revolutionize both your success and enjoyment in running a media organization by identifying relevant information from your sources, eliminating any inaccurate and redundant data, predicting results early on and enhancing decision-making for your organization. Using clear and aesthetically pleasing visuals, such as charts, graphs and other features, your company can track information over specific time periods, monitor current company performance, campaign costs, and summarize important company data. Dashboards can be interpreted in many ways, so it is important to know that dashboards are designed to be intuitive to any user. Therefore, graphics should provide an easy navigation throughout your company data. More companies are implementing commercial dashboard tools, but they are facing some issues like information overload or lack of experience. Just like anything in life, too much of one thing is bad news. If there is too much information or if there are too many visuals, your dashboard will not be easily readable.
With a dashboard tool, companies are able to see their information organized into one location using visuals that improve operational efficiency by making more informed business decisions in little time. Historical data can be produced quickly to identify any challenges and successes from the past. Also, real-time data can be used to forecast the impact of current business decisions based on future company goals. Additionally, because company information is reported in real-time, any potential challenges can be identified and fixed to resolve problem areas quickly. This not only saves time, but it also saves your company from potential significant financial and operational burdens. It is also okay to have multiple, easy-to-read dashboards, as opposed to having one dashboard and overloading it with information and visuals. This will allow your end users to know exactly the information they find on each dashboard. For example, with a sales dashboard focused on revenue generating units (RGUs), a chief operating officer (COO) has access to a single view about the RGUs. The COO will be able to know the figures of the revenue comparative, sold quantity comparative, total RGUs trend per period, added RGUs trend per quarter, Churn RGUs trend per quarter, and bad debt RGUs. See below for a photo for an example of the dashboard.
 

Dashboards allow users to familiarize themselves with organizational data trajectories. Business Intelligence (BI) dashboards are primarily different because of their interactive nature. You can alter your dashboards to obtain the insight you desire to better understand the reality of your organization’s success. Most BI dashboards are built with drill-down and drill-to functions so users can focus on their analyses on specific data to enhance their Dynamics GP experience.
Consider your technology platforms. Software that have Excel add-ins may be the easiest choice to implement due to how familiar the spreadsheet program and its features and functions are for people who already know Excel. Dashboards can be produced in the Excel spreadsheet, but interactive data visualizations are important to executives. Media organizations are looking for web-based tools, including browser-based dashboard solutions, both on-premises and/or in the cloud. Web-based tools provide access from anywhere you have internet access. It makes sense that a media organization invests in a modern web-based or cloud tool as media companies are usually on trend with the latest technology. Also, there are mobile dashboard applications for users who are on-the-go. There are only a few independent software vendors (ISVs) creating mobile dashboards, with screen size limiting it to one visual or KPI at a time. With that said, some software offers dashboards by joining Excel, mobile, and web types of data access.
Media organizations should invest in dashboard solutions that strengthen the company to track metrics properly and that offer the company the flexibility it needs to focus on the data. Solver would be happy to answer questions and generally review BI360’s Excel, web and/or mobile-based, easy-to-use dashboards module stand-alone and component in the comprehensive suite of BI modules for collaborative, streamlined decision-making capabilities for media organizations using Microsoft Dynamics GP.
Solver enables world-class decisions with BI360, a leading web-based CPM suite made up of budgeting, reporting, dashboards, and data warehousing, delivered through a web portal. Solver is reinventing CPM with its next generation solution. BI360 empowers business users with modern features including innovative use of Excel in the model design process. If you’re interested in learning more, our team is excited to hear about your organizational needs and goals.