Symptoms of needing a Dashboard

With so many numbers on spreadsheets, it's impossible to
separate the critical measures from other numbers.
You have trouble seeing plan versus last year.
Daily and weekly data comes to you in separate forms. As soon
as you start reading the monthly report, you want to take a nap.
The 2 inch paper report on your desk requires
- A staff member to summarize it for you
- A meeting to explain it to you
- Nothing - you wait for the meeting
- Nothing - you know what is going on
You are constantly on the phone or in meetings explaining
how your business is doing
Over 50% of your meeting time is spent talking about what
has already happened
You don't know what key indicators are driving your business
Historical trending is absent in your reporting
Your performance reporting is done monthly in Excel and Powerpoint and sent out via email or distributed on paper
Action items that are agreed upon are never followed up and no one remembers the same deliverable
The recipients of reports can't open the attachments because they are too big or they can't
read them on the computer screen
Current measurement techniques depend on who does the measurement, and the presentation
changes each month
Your bulletin board of performance graphic charts is never read because it is too hard to read
There is no alignment of key indicators up and down the organization, or you need to effectively communicate them to many people