Scorecards and Dashboards

Scorecards & Dashboards translate strategy into accountability and measure progress. Maybe these systems can be amalgamated and be referred to as scoreboards?

What's the difference between Scorecards and Dashboards?

Historically, software scorecards were a direct result and visual representation of the theoretical balanced scorecard approach to business strategy developed at Harvard Business School. Software scorecards are also distinguished by the regimented top down organizational planning process defined by the theory that underlies the scorecard interface. This process aims to identify the few  key performance metrics that best indicate an organization's progress towards stated strategic goals, and then cascades down through the organization to all supporting and contributing metrics, groups, and individuals. Software scorecards emphasize individual accountability for contributing to and achieving strategic goals.

In contrast, business dashboards evolved as the information systems equivalent of the automotive dashboard that displayed real-time changes to tactical information often displayed as charts, graphs, and gauges. Software dashboards also offered the ability to drill through top-level information into supporting data. As they evolved, software dashboards became increasingly common as the user interface for individual applications such as ERP systems and web analytics packages.

Blurring the lines between scorecards and dashboards

Modern business dashboards are placing less emphasis on differentiating between scorecards and dashboards and paying more attention to the overlap between the two approaches. Ultimately, both scorecards and dashboards are concerned with measuring enterprise performance against pre-determined KPI metrics, and communicating this information in easily understood, interactive reports. Today it matters less whether you have a red metric on a scorecard or a declining graph on a dashboard than it does that different people can look at the same information, understand it at-a-glance, and then take immediate remedial action to correct the problem. In the end, all that matters is that you have an effective system for translating top-level strategic goals into individual accountability and measuring progress against these goals in a timely manner. Maybe these amalgamated systems will be referred to as scoreboards?

Scorecard or Dashboard, Klipfolio makes it accessible

Once you've decided to start monitoring a scorecard or dashboard, the next step is deciding how to provide everyone access to that information. If your data goes unnoticed, then all your effort is for nothing. To make sure that your knowledge is broadcast to the right people, a desktop dashboard or mobile dashboard may be the right choice for you. A business dashboard provides access to key metrics on any desktop via the cloud or on any mobile device, whether you are in-the-office or on-the-go. For over 10 years, Klipfolio has been putting important data where it is unavoidable so you can improve decision-making, performance, and profitability.