Comments on: Operations Dashboard for a Matrix Organisation

By: Errol W

Errol W — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:20:05 +0000

Thanks Colleen. Appreciate the clarification.
Yes.. I agree access to data; and the ability to determine relevancy of such data to the objective is critical.

My focus is to help the decision-maker – reach the optimum decision – recognizing that there will always be shortfalls in data and resources. I invite you to take a look at some of the papers on my website. http://www.xpertus.com

Thanks again.

By: Colleen Chan

Colleen Chan — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:17:42 +0000

Clash of data and decisions refers to the amount numbers an organisation has to sift through to find the answer to a question.

In a matrix organisation there is numerous amounts of data in operating a business. Decisions are made within the business based on how much cost to the business to do the activity, how much revenue these activities will create, long term strategy and intangible assets. There will be decisions made in one market segment in one product that may seem the correct decision at the time but may in turn adversely affect another market segment within the business. For example, there is a call for a cut in opex in an operating division as the particular market segment’s margin is falling, though the planned budget shows growth in another market segment or another product which may call on that current excess capacity, so a decision maybe not to cut all but a portion or redirect elsewhere within the business, pull forward orders or a drastic decision to stop the activity completely.

In the comment below, the decision makers have to be able to understand the data in an easy format. The model will demonstrate that looking at masses of numbers will not overwhelm decision makers so decisions to be made have reason and practicality for the organisation.

By: Colleen Chan

Colleen Chan — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:08:17 +0000

Not only trusted but also understandable to the decision makers. There is no need to process all the data when only the sources of the data understand the numbers.

The decision makers have to be able to understand the data in an easy format that does not change when they have to look at a report from different lines of business and different market segments and that goes without saying with any business. There are many mapping tools and BI products but as a business analyst I have to be able understand where the decision thought process in the data for the question to be asked before you start building. It is understanding the ambiguity which is where a business analyst skills must lie.

Product profitability analysis and with further analysis in following posts will explain that decisions made during the planning stages in the business has a measurable number and a number to an activity to compare.

I have been told previously,

“very interesting! This model with some modifications also could be applicable for the no-profit and small research evaluation firms.” Gisoo B

By: Tom Rossi

Tom Rossi — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:31:30 +0000

To be really effective, dashboards need to be easy to read, and based on “trusted” data. For many smaller organizations, this means he “dashboard manager” has to be part business person, part database programmer, involving many different areas which feed into the core set of business data.
Interested parties should explore DataCube Pivoteur, the Intelligent Information Manager. It can rapidly assemble all of the core business data in a meaningful organization so data veracity can be quickly checked, and as a bonus, helps one build the dashboard tables and charts in a highly user-efficient manner, all without requiring any user programing skills. You can go from sets of diverse data to actual reports in just minutes, with even faster refresh as new data becomes available, saving your valuable time, while increasing the usefulness and reliability of your dashboards
Tom Rossi, President, Pivoteur Solutions (www.pivoteur.com)

By: Errol W

Errol W — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:30:05 +0000

My specialty is Decision-Making. So naturally your comment caught my eye.
Can you please elaborate more on what you mean when you refer to a clash of Data & Decisions?