What are Web Dashboards

Web dashboards are simply collections of charts and data displayed in a web page. The web page might be internal or external, to display the web dashboards to either an internal or broader external audience. A web dashboard is typically powered through a business intelligence platform, often in conjunction with software add-ons that power web based dashboard functions to enable the web dashboard. Web dashboards are becoming increasingly popular both for internal use and for external communication.

Why use Web Dashboards

There are numerous advantages to using web dashboards but two of the most critical are for maintaining internal low resource usage and for providing external communications in a seamless and interactive method. The first use for web dashboards centers on the fact that business intelligence software that can power web dashboards relies only on a browser to deliver content. Because of this the cost of developing and deploying web dashboards is significantly lower than traditional deployments.

External Web Dashboards

The second use for web dashboards is to provide data to the outside world. Using web dashboards a business can provide information in a rich and often interactive method giving its consumers and visitors a way of interacting with the organization that can give more clarity, especially in environments where public disclosure is of critical importance, like government applications. The web dashboards in this case are used for the sake of transparency and provide the organization a way of meeting customer information challenges without investing into additional software or services.

Disadvantages of Web Dashboards

While there are many benefits to web dashboards there can be disadvantages. The biggest one typically has to do with security and disclosure. An improperly developed set of web dashboards could provide competitors or non-friendly entities with information that can be used against the organization hosting the web dashboards. Understanding what type of data should be used in web dashboards and how the web dashboards should be published is a paramount part of properly using, deploying and benefiting from the use of web dashboards.

Uses for Web Dashboards

Among the best uses of web dashboards is the disclosure of information to external users. In this type of use of web dashboards the organization might need to provide information to its constituency for informational or for disclosure purposes. Examples of these web dashboards could include government agencies displaying web dashboards to disclose usage of government funds or companies using web dashboards to display changes in stock price over the course of time. Regardless of usage, web dashboards can be deployed in a number of ways, but one of the easiest and most seamless is through the use of web services - if supported by the business intelligence platform.