Move Business Reporting to the iPad – Dashboard Development

Now that the iPad has been out for a little while (just over a year), I have recently seen a noticeable shift in the nature of discussions. The discussion is less about "why do I need this?" and more about "I have this, how can I leverage it in my business?" The iPad is an extremely simple device, friendly to use and work with, and executives are quickly realizing the advantages of accessing Anything, Anytime, Anywhere, from or with Anyone. We recently developed a dashboard reporting development process, and while it is not a perfect solution, it can move any iPad user substantially down the road.

Dashboards are an extremely useful way to highlight key data for executives so that they can easily and quickly digest important information about their business. Consider that:

1. Dashboards can eliminate the "clutter" from typical financial reports. By supplementing (or replacing) financial tables with relevant charts/graphs, it becomes simple to see critical information and trends quickly.
   
2. Dashboards enable easy report review and standardization of management information.
   
3. Dashboards can be easy to distribute across multiple platforms – the iPad is an ideal interface with which to view reporting.
   

We have posted a presentation to Slideshare.net that provides an overview of considerations, process development steps and a sample dashboard that we created using information from Panera Bread. If done properly, a dashboard can be developed that is easy to maintain, easy to distribute to executives, and substantially improves the reporting process from where you may be today.