How can performance indicators be kept up to date automatically?
Efficiency question :
Performance indicators, often called KPIs, are important elements in dashboard design. They help track organizational results and focus attention on information that is genuinely useful for decision-making.
It is relatively rare to need to change the performance indicators themselves on a regular basis. The priority is to choose the right indicators from the start, calculate them rigorously and feed them with up-to-date data.
Once the indicators are properly defined, they can be updated as the dashboard data is refreshed.
Key considerations:
The main consideration is choosing the right performance indicators when the dashboard is designed rather than continually changing them afterward.
Indicators should reflect the organization’s objectives and the decisions managers need to make. Their relevance is therefore more important than their number.
An effective dashboard should focus attention on the few indicators that genuinely help users understand results and how they are changing.
Challenges:
In entrepreneurial settings, leaders often use a relatively limited number of indicators to monitor their businesses. These indicators are closely tied to the industry, the strategy and the way the organization is managed.
Customization is therefore important. Indicators that matter to one company will not necessarily be useful to another.
A dashboard rarely needs 20, 25 or 30 performance indicators. About ten well-chosen indicators, supported by drill-down capabilities to explore selected results, can provide much more relevant information for decision-making.
Technology:
When data is structured as a database, each column, also called a field, represents a type of information.
DAX functions can create calculation measures from these fields. These measures can be used to build the performance indicators required by the dashboard and address the organization’s analytical needs.
Power Pivot can use these measures in the data model so that indicators are recalculated when the data is refreshed.
Developer's advice:
Before multiplying performance indicators, identify those that leaders actually use to understand the business and make decisions. Start with those indicators, then provide drill-down capabilities so users can explore results in greater detail when necessary.
To develop the knowledge required to structure data and create these measures, SLV Expert’s Power Query and Power Pivot for Controllers and Analysts course is a good starting point.
To go further with calculation measures, the DAX Functions for Power Query and Power BI course provides deeper knowledge of the DAX language and the calculations required for performance indicators.