VisualCue is a friendly company. Honestly. At heart we are just a bunch of data enthusiasts on a mission to help the world use information better.

But here’s the thing- as much as we might like to be friendly and get along with everyone there is an undercurrent in our mission statement. We believe that the way the world is currently using data could use a little work- if everything were perfect there would be no reason for us to even be here.

We believe that we are at the forefront of progress at VisualCue. And sometimes progressing into a brighter future means leaving some things behind. And that can be a painful conversation to have- eye opening, yes, and necessary, but nevertheless uncomfortable because it admits that we aren’t perfect at something important.

We’re here to help you with that conversation.

Leave the past in the past

We started thinking about this in earnest when we read a recent article by Marius Moscovici where he makes a pretty bold claim- the business intelligence dashboard is dead.

Now, for any reader out there that is currently using some kind of business intelligence dashboard that is undoubtedly hard to hear. Why? Easy- because it means that your business, whether it be large or small, is using an outdated technology. And outdated technology has always led, invariably, to obsolescence- just ask the rotary phone, VHS player or portable tape player.

So if you are using an outdated technology that means that your company, too, is on the way to being obsolete. This conversation is even harder if you stop to consider that if you are reading this you might have even been the one to propose and implement the dashboard in the first place.

But don’t worry- your heart and head was definitely in the right place. According to the article “The point of the dashboard is to display data in a visually pleasing way, in a manner that helps executive decision makers see the big picture and make decisions based on quantitative truths rather than qualitative assumptions.” And certainly there is no one on earth who could possibly argue with that.

Cause of death

So why is the dashboard dead, according to Moscovici?  He writes

“There is simply too much data for businesspeople to know what matters most, and in which context. It’s not as simple as looking at the dashboard of your car, seeing that you’re running out of fuel and finding a gas station. Executives can glance at dashboards all day long and still not know which important changes are taking place now. Dashboards don’t integrate real-time unstructured data, like tweets, nor do they scan for every possible context. The information they provide is always incomplete.”

That’s a pretty compelling argument when you think about what the dashboard really is. It’s a high-level overview, but it lacks actionable details and it lacks the context required to really understand what it is you are looking at. If your business were as simple as a car then yes, perhaps the modern day dashboard would be sufficient but it’s just not. Modern businesses take in data from multiple sources and all of those metrics are connected to one another in chains of causality that not even the most data-savvy employee or manager has even thought to explore.

Put simply- there’s just too much and it’s too connected for a dashboard, even a great one, to give you all the information you need.

Putting new life

But don’t worry- there is hope. According to Moscovici-

“The game has changed from gathering, storing and reporting on data to putting data to work. The volume of data has grown to the point that the BI dashboard itself is based on obsolete principles…. Dashboards only offered insights because data pools were the size of a pond, not the Pacific Ocean. Today’s data glut means dashboards don’t have the contextual sophistication to provide information applicable beyond an executive glimpse, because data and context changes too quickly.”

That’s where the good news comes in. Because data is growing at such a pace there are more tools than ever that gather information from multiple sources and provide contextual, actionable insights into even the largest of data pools.

How do we know that? Because it’s precisely the kind of business we are in.

Now we understand- leaving your old dashboard behind and trying a new system that gives your data context and automatically highlights the actionable metrics can be challenging- but we’ve thought of that to. Check out our free whitepaper to why and how you need to break up with your old dashboard for a brighter future.

Until next time,
The VisualCrew