From spreadsheet to dashboard: analysing your data to decide

The spreadsheet is the first analysis tool of almost every company, and it does great service. But when decisions rely on figures scattered across several files, the question changes: how can you make sure everyone is looking at the same data?

What business intelligence does

Business intelligence turns raw data into useful information for decisions. The chain is always the same:

1. sources: management software, files, online tools;
2. extraction: retrieving data automatically rather than by hand;
3. transformation: cleaning, matching, applying calculation rules;
4. storage: a single, reliable place;
5. reporting: readable dashboards and reports.

The limits of the spreadsheet alone

• several versions of the same file circulate;
• copy-pasting introduces errors that are hard to spot;
• formulas become fragile as the file grows;
• there is no reliable history;
• everything depends on the person who knows the file.

Moving to a dashboard, step by step

You do not need to change everything at once. A reasonable progression:

1. make the spreadsheet reliable: a single version, checks, written rules;
2. automate data import to remove copy-pasting;
3. centralise the data in a shared space;
4. build a dashboard with a suitable tool (for example Power BI or Qlik Sense).

What it brings to a small organisation

Faster decisions, because figures are up to date; calmer discussions, because everyone looks at the same source; problems spotted earlier.

The point to watch: data quality

A nice dashboard is only as good as its data. The most important thing is to agree, in writing, on the definition of each figure: what is an “active customer”? A “sale”? See also the article on choosing indicators.