Having one or more dashboards can significantly help a company achieve its short, medium, and long-term goals. Many of the platforms that businesses use today come with dashboard functionality. This functionality might be integrated with limited customization or fully customizable. The issue is that in 2024, a company uses several platforms to manage its operations across different areas, and the number only increases over time. Most of the time, these platforms do not communicate with each other, making it difficult for managers to have an overall view of their company or department. For this reason, many companies turn to data visualization solutions like Power BI to centralize their data and create a complete and comprehensive picture.
However, it’s often easier said than done. The more scattered your data is, the more complex the task becomes. That’s why a considerable portion of your Power BI project should be dedicated to preparation.
How do you prepare for a Power BI integration project?
The first step is to identify who the dashboards are for. Who will need to make decisions based on the visual representations of the performance indicators?
The second step is to identify what you want to closely monitor in the company or department. All managers, with or without data, are more or less aware of the challenges in their company or department. However, to avoid getting lost, it’s important to define the objective you have in mind when integrating such a solution. What do you want to know?
The third step is to identify the performance indicators that are related to the challenges and factors identified in the previous step. For example, consider a distributor who wants to closely monitor the inventory level of certain products that represent the majority of their sales. It would be useful to have a performance indicator for the stock level of these products versus the associated safety stock level. Are we missing revenue opportunities because we are constantly out of stock?
The fourth step is to identify where this information comes from. Is all your data in your ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning platform)? If not, what other platforms will you need to gather information from? What information is available and in what format? Who is responsible for this data? Who knows how to retrieve it? Who is in charge of maintaining this data?
The final step is to identify who will be the project leaders, whether fully or partially internal:
- Who is responsible for coordinating this project?
- Who is responsible for creating the visuals?
- Who is responsible for the analyses?
- Who is responsible for connecting the data sources?
Keep in mind that the success of your Power BI integration depends largely on the time you take to go through the different steps mentioned above. It’s important to thoroughly understand your challenges, clearly define your objectives, and become well-acquainted with your data to stay as efficient as possible in completing such a project.
Don’t worry, Avalon CSC has some seasoned experts in the field on its team! Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or if you need help navigating through these steps and the ones that follow (stay tuned).
