Like the dashboard on a car tells the driver the current state of the car’s operations: current speed, current amount of gas in the tank, etc, the digital dashboard tells a business owner, the current state of his business.

Understanding the potential of the dMine Franchise Dashboards product and Business Dashboards help you monitor the current status of your business, Shambhavi Anand from SME Franchise India has interviewed Sanjay Patel, Director of dMine Business Dashboards products and the benefits that the product brings to the table.

Here is the snapshot of the interview on Franchise Dashboards

What is a business dashboard

A business dashboard or a digital dashboard is the visual display of important data needed to achieve one or more objectives of a business, consolidated and arranged on a single screen, so that they can be easily monitored.

The dashboard can give you the summary of different arrears & industries which are important for you to monitor like, finance, sales & marketing, telecom, hospitality, construction, port, automobile, retail, pharmacy and airlines.

“It helps an organisation achieve its goals by monitoring it’s performance against it’s objectives. Used and deployed correctly, a dashboard can align an organisation or team, focusing everyone’s efforts on common goals and ensuring visibility of performance and allow tracking of the organisations key performance indicators (KPI’s),” says Sanjay Patel, Director, dMine Business Dashboard.

How does it help in business?

A Dashboard will allow you to create, monitor, collaborate and schedule Dashboards for Analytics, Organisational KPIs, balanced scorecards, sales dashboards, performance management, service monitoring consoles, operational metrics and MIS.

It enables organisations to monitor their business performances closely with industry standard metrics and benchmarks. According to Mr Patel, dashboards can be used in any businesses be it manufacturing, retail, insurance, banking / finance, media and entertainment irrespective. For example, in the manufacturing industry, decisions may focus on resource allocation optimization and waste reduction, as supported by the Lean Manufacturing Methodology.

He adds, “For small businesses, it is important to solve business problems at a price that makes sense. Beauty of the Dashboard solutions is, it can start small and grow big in your implementation does not require traditional way of deploying heavy and costly Business Intelligence tools. Hence it perfectly suits well for the SMEs / SMBs also all this at an affordable price.”

Advantages of using a dashboard:

• The data can be displayed in the format you prefer. You have all the choices you want tabular, graph, pie chart, single metrics, graphical trend analysis, capacity gauges, geographical maps, percentage share, stoplights etc.
• The biggest advantage of a dashboard is effective sharing and communication of information which leads to effective monitoring of business operations and facilitates better decision-making process.
• Another advantage of an executive dashboard that technology team will not have to make any extra effort to incorporate this application. The dashboard can run on any compatible browser with adobe flash installed. Some of the recent dashboard products use latest technology to get the best results and this increases the costs of these products. But there are many which use open source technologies as well as rely on existing technology infrastructure of the customers and thus help in reducing the investment costs for customers.
• It is an easy to use technology. There is no need for you to learn any new application. All you need to know is how to click. Dashboards use Rich Internet Application UI and have features like drag and drop.

Where does the data displayed on a dashboard come from?

The data shown in the Dashboards may come from multiple data sources of the various applications being used in an organization. Most of the organizations use systems to capture and store business information while some organizations also use plain vanilla spreadsheets.

Most Dashboard tools run on a read-only mode and prefer storing data in a secure data source so that this data cannot be altered or tampered.

Another important question is whether you can access the data on your dashboard through emails and smart phones? Mr patel says that There have been innovations happening on this front, Business Dashboard tools like dMine have the capability of exporting the Dashboards and charts into PDF formats which is interactive so there are mouse over and mouse click events on the PDF file, thus retaining the experience of the browser even in the PDF file. This PDF file can be sent as an attachment in emails with the graphs and data bundled.

For more details on dMine Business Dashboard Software kindly refer to www.dminedashboards.com

Lets have a look on why Experts put high emphasis on using Business Dashboards for effective decision making.

Increase bottom line revenue

Business Dashboards helps to increase bottom line revenue by highlighting the key areas of profit maximization

Greater business insight

Business Dashboards promotes greater business insight to the management. Dashboards also facilitates better decision making for top level executives

Identify and correct issue

Business Dashboards allows C level executives to identify and correct trends before they become an issue down the line

Maximum utilization of resources

Dashboards reporting tools capacitate management to identify and reduce labor effort and overhead costs. Hence, ensures maximization utilization of resources

Elimination of duplicate data entry

Dashboards reporting tools disallow duplication of data entry and facilitates unique data for analysis

Accurate analytical reports

Dashboards reporting tools has ability to provide detailed, accurate, and analytical reports instantly

Evaluate Organization health

Performance Dashboards facilitates management to effectively identify, track, trend, and correct problems pertaining to business while evaluating the health of key areas of the organization

Effective monitoring of business operation

Performance Dashboards allows detailed analysis of every aspects of business and hence allows effective monitoring of business operation

Identify and apply Proactive measures

Performance Dashboards enables organizations to Proactively identify and apply corrective measures to the measure areas of concern

Effective communication

With a Web-based reporting dashboards organizations can exercise effective communication and sharing of information to different levels in the organization

IBM and Icicle Technologies, hosted an evening event focusing on Business Intelligence and Organizations titled “Making the Right Business Decisions” for senior and top managers to examine ways to leverage enterprise information for maximum benefit.

The event began at around 6.30 pm with eminent speakers from various industry segments like Banking, Retail, Pharma, Consulting, spoke on the importance of Information and how Business Intelligence could help organizations improve performance by creating and monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs). Around 90 delegates from organizations ranging from Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs) to Large Corporates, attended the event.

Mr. Sanjay Patel, Director, Icicle Technologies spoke on the occasion and emphasized on the need of Business Intelligence Dashboard tools for measuring and monitoring organizational performance. The dMine Dashboard product was demonstrated in different business scenarios and test cases.

About dMine Dashboards (www.dminedashboards.com)
dMine Dashboard allows the business users to create, monitor, collaborate and schedule Dashboards for Analytics, Organizational KPIs, Balanced Scorecards, Sales Dashboards, Performance Management, Service Monitoring Consoles, Operational Metrics and MIS.

dMine Dashboards from Icicle Technologies enables organizations to monitor their business performances closely with industry standard metrics and benchmarks. dMine is extensively used across different domains like Manufacturing, IT, Retail, Finance, Media etc.

About IBM
International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed “Big Blue” (for its official corporate color), is a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology

dMine Business Dashboards has added a new Channel Partner, Insight Business Machines Pvt. Ltd., today. In an agreement signed between Insight Business Machines Pvt. Ltd. and Icicle Technologies, both companies have agreed to jointly market and distribute dMine Business Dashboards for SME sector across all verticals.

Speaking on this occasion, Mr. Neel Shah, Director, has said “Insight has been in this Industry for about two decades, and we understand the problems faced by our customers in getting information which are critical for business decisions. With dMine Business Dashboards we can address those problems in a much more focused way”.

The agreement includes marketing and sales support for dMine Business Dashboards. Icicle and Insight will jointly market, sell and support business dashboards for different verticals focusing on SME sector.

About dMine Dashboards (www.dminedashboards.com)
dMine Dashboard allows the business users to create, monitor, collaborate and schedule Dashboards for Analytics, Organizational KPIs, Balanced Scorecards, Sales Dashboards, Performance Management, Service Monitoring Consoles, Operational Metrics and MIS.

dMine Dashboards from Icicle Technologies enables organizations to monitor their business performances closely with industry standard metrics and benchmarks. dMine is extensively used across different domains like Manufacturing, IT, Retail, Finance, Media etc.

About Insight Business Machines
Insight Business Machines was established in 1992 and offers end-to-end technology solutions, including Infrastructure Optimization, Efficiency Optimization, Secured & Converged Networking, Risk Mitigation, Infrastructure Management, Compliancy & Regulatory Audits, Team Sites & Software Development etc. Insight Business Machines Pvt. Ltd. is behind most of the prestigious IT infrastructure supply, install and maintain, which include Government, Defense, Media, and IT and ITES sectors across PAN India.

The agreement, signed between Icicle Technologies and Omnitech includes marketing and sales support for dMine Business Dashboards. One of the significant components of this association is offering of dMine on IBM Smart Business Platform. Icicle and Omnitech will jointly build, market, consult and support dashboards for different verticals focusing on Performance Management, Business Availability and Continuity, Remote Management etc. under this agreement.

“This partnership will add a new dimension to our product offerings. This would enable us in offering our existing and prospective clients the new ways of Performance Management and Risk Management with dMine Dashboards.This would in turn offer the reduced IT cost by deploying the solution on IBM SmartCube”, said Mr. Devarshi Buch, Executive Director of Omnitech.

About dMine Dashboards (www.dminedashboards.com)
dMine Dashboard allows the business users to create, monitor, collaborate and schedule Dashboards for Analytics, Organizational KPIs, Balanced Scorecards, Sales Dashboards, Performance Management, Service Monitoring Consoles, Operational Metrics and MIS.

dMine Dashboards from Icicle Technologies enables organizations to monitor their business performances closely with industry standard metrics and benchmarks. dMine is extensively used across different domains like Manufacturing, IT, Retail, Finance, Media etc.

About Omnitech InfoSolutions
Omnitech InfoSolutions Ltd is an ISO 9001-2000 certified company committed to empowering global business and industry with leading-edge software and world-class support.
Since their inception 22 years ago Omnitech have evolved into a Managed Service Provider par excellence, with competencies related to Business Continuity and Availability. These include Performance Management, Remote Management, Infrastructure Management and Disaster Recovery.

In an agreement signed today between Icicle Technologies and WinVision, both the organizations have agreed on need of executive dashboards in the Financial domain. Icicle and WinVision will jointly build, market, consult and support dashboards for BFSI like Risk Management, RBI Reporting, Statutory Reporting, Branch KPIs, Broker Dashboards etc.

“Right information at the right time is very critical in Financial Industry. We are planning to build dashboards and KPIs on dMine which allow our clients to get this information in real time so that they can make business decisions much more effectively” said Mr. Shrikanth Sathe, Managing Director of WinVision.

About dMine (www.dminedashboards.com)
dMine Dashboard allows the business users to create, monitor, collaborate and schedule Dashboards for Analytics, Organizational KPIs, Balanced Scorecards, Sales Dashboards, Performance Management, Service Monitoring Consoles, Operational Metrics and MIS.

dMine Dashboards from Icicle Technologies enables organizations to monitor their business performances closely with industry standard metrics and benchmarks. dMine is extensively used across different domains like Manufacturing, IT, Retail, Finance, Media etc.

About WinVision iTech Private Limited
WinVision iTech Pvt.Ltd. is active in the area of banking software for more than 12 years. WinVision was the first Indian company to develop Bilingual Windows based banking software and it had implemented this software at different co-operative banks.

WinVision also has a Centralized database solution where in banks can consolidate data from branches at the central server and generate about 75 BSR reports and 75 MIS reports. This solution can sit on top of core banking solution as well and can generate NPA, ALM reports for core banking banks as well

On October 7, 2008 IBM announced IBM Smart Business as the official name for this strategic initiative. This new, open platform solution has successfully launched with some of IBM’s Independent Software Vendor (ISV) business partners.

Icicle had registered with IBM as an IBM Independent Software Vendor and after completing all Icicle has been nominated as an ISV on the IBM Smart Business Platform. With this initiative Icicle has ported our dMine Business Dashboard product on the IBM Smart Business Server and the dMine Product would be bundled along with the IBM servers and other products which could be procured by SMB’s through channel partners. Looking at the proactive involvement that icicle has been maintaining with IBM, Icicle has also been granted the IBM Advanced Business partner status.

About dMine (www.dminedashboards.com)
dMine Enterprise Dashboard, a Business Intelligence product of Icicle Technologies is a user driven, multi-data sources, rich user interface system that offers an integrated functional and graphical view of business data providing decision makers with the flexibility to create, view, interpret and monitor Business Parameters while minimizing IT overhead

About IBM
International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed “Big Blue” (for its official corporate color), is a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology

IBM Smart Business Platform includes IBM Smart Cube – basically a pre-configured, remote managed Server, aimed at the SMBs. IBM Smart Cube is currently available in US and India. dMine Dashboards, which will be pre-installed and remote supported, can connect to multiple applications on the Smart Cube and present a comprehensive dashboard view to the users.

“We are very excited about this relationship with IBM”, said Sanjay Patel, Director, Icicle Technologies. “SMBs can now take advantage of dMine’s BI capability with the ease of Smart Cube. dMine Dashboards can now act as main dashboard for multiple applications which customers deploy on a Smart Cube”

Customers can now order a IBM Smart Cube with dMine Dashboards pre-installed and configured. IBM will provide Remote Support including system updates, configuration and issue resolutions under Smart Business. Customers can call up a single call center number for any issue with any of the applications installed on the Smart Cube.

About dMine (www.dminedashboards.com)
dMine Dashboard allows the business users to create, monitor, collaborate and schedule Dashboards for Analytics, Organizational KPIs, Balanced Scorecards, Sales Dashboards, Performance Management, Service Monitoring Consoles, Operational Metrics and MIS. dMine Dashboards from Icicle Technologies enables organizations to monitor their business performances closely with industry standard metrics and benchmarks. dMine is extensively used across different domains like Manufacturing, IT, Retail, Finance, Media etc.

About IBM
International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed “Big Blue” (for its official corporate color), is a multinational computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and offers infrastructure services, hosting services, and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology

Understanding the potential of the dMine Dashboard product and the way in which it could help organizations focus on critical information and help decision making, Ajay Ohri from Virtua Analytics has interviewed Sanjay Patel, Director and cofounder Icicle Technologies on the dMine products and the benefits that the product brings to the table. Sanjay also provides advice to young entrepreneurs who are currently venturing in starting their own companies. Details of the interview can be seen on the blog site http://decisionstats.wordpress.com/2009/03/07/interview-bi-dashboards-dmine-sanjay-patel/

In line with the interview that had been conducted, Virtua Analytics also plans to partner with Icicle Technologies for selling the dMine Product to some of their customers.

About dMine (www.dminedashboards.com)
dMine Enterprise Dashboard, a Business Intelligence product of Icicle Technologies is a user driven, multi-data sources, rich user interface system that offers an integrated functional and graphical view of business data providing decision makers with the flexibility to create, view, interpret and monitor Business Parameters while minimizing IT overhead

About Virtua Analytics
Virtua Analytics is an Analytics company which mainly focusing on SAS driven data crunching to provide customers with critical analytics which help in cost reduction which gives customers a cutting edge over their customers. The team uses contemporary tools for fast, secure and effective value added analytics. Through their blog site www.decisionstats.com Virtua Analytics has also been promoting and highlighting critical details and information that can be used by most organization

Icicle has been nominated by Red Herrings as a finalist for the Top 100 Promising startup companies in Asia in 2008.The Red Herring editorial team used a very competitive process to whittle down this pool of 1800 eligible promising companies to the 200 finalists of this first-time award. Evaluations were made on both quantitative and qualitative criteria such as financial performance, innovation, management, global strategy, and ecosystem integration.

Says Praveen Wicliff, Director Icicle Technologies, on being nominated as finalist “It is a indeed a privilege to be nominated by Red Herring as the Finalist for Top 100 Promising startup companies in Asia, from the overall list of more than thousand other companies. We feel really proud of this accomplishment and would surely strive hard in future to be on the Red Herring list in the coming years.

About Icicle Technologies (www.icicletech.com)
Icicle Technologies is an innovation based, high quality Financial Software Products company with portfolio of software products spanning Capital Markets, Retail Banking, Private Banking, Wealth Management and Insurance. Icicle has been forefront in developing innovative and process oriented financial systems and solutions for Global and Indian giants since its inception.

About Red Herring
Red Herring is a global media company uniting the world’s best high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine; an online daily technology news service; technology research, and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider’s access to the global innovation economy, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy.