Dashboard Examples: Executive Dashboards for the Insurance Industry. This letter came to the Dashboard Spy recently:
Dear Dashboard Spy: How does one design an executive dashboard in the insurance industry? I’m in the process of designing a global Business Intelligence system in the form of executive dashboards for my organization. The goal is to understand the minimum perspectives that a executive dashboard in the insurance industry should include. Looking for diverse views from people on how have they designed dashboards or what key performance indicators or metrics such insurance dashboards should contain. Hoping you can help.
Well, you’ve come to the right place for dashboard examples. I dig through the archives for you. Meanwhile, here are a couple to check out:
Google uses a text-based layout for “The Google Dashboard”, a product that informs Google account holders of all the various data that Google knows about them. Take a look at this video and you’ll see that the simple design works very well.
Here’s how Google explains it:
Transparency, choice and control have become a key part of Google’s philosophy, and today, we’re happy to announce that we’re doing even more.
In an effort to provide you with greater transparency and control over your own data, we’ve built the Google Dashboard. Designed to be simple and useful, the Dashboard summarizes data for each product that you use (when signed in to your account) and provides you direct links to control your personal settings. Today, the Dashboard covers more than 20 products and services, including Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Web History, Orkut, YouTube, Picasa, Talk, Reader, Alerts, Latitude and many more. The scale and level of detail of the Dashboard is unprecedented, and we’re delighted to be the first Internet company to offer this — and we hope it will become the standard.
What? Can it be true? Can one have too many business intelligence dashboards? Well, take a look at this article. Just as too many metrics and Key Performance Indicators can lead to analysis paralysis and failure to take action, one could have too many dashboards on too many systems to keep track of.
This article is from an ft.com post titled: Business Intelligence – Too many dashboards will bog you down.
Dane Group, a UK supplier of building facades and architectural metalwork, used frequently to incur unanticipated costs that cut into its profits.
It managed its contracts – which can take up to 18 months to complete – via a welter of spreadsheets that were not always kept updated.
“We would get to the end of a contract thinking we had made so much money on it and then discover £100,000 ($157,000) of costs we had not spotted before,” says Richard Bertram, finance director of the company, which has £25m of annual sales and 150 employees.
“We would order things on the phone and forget to place a purchase order. When the invoice came in, there was nothing to match it up with.”
To improve control of the manufacturing and billing process, Dane installed a business management system, supplied by a Swedish company – Industrial and Financial Systems.
This allows management to keep track of designs and materials and monitor costs and margins as a contract progresses.
“We used to make decisions based on perceptions rather than an analysis of the facts,” says Mr Bertram.
“Now we get better quality information in a more timely manner, which helps us with our decision-making.”
Awareness of true costs and margins gives the purchasing department more time to get better quotes from suppliers and simplifies calculating the amount of profit against sales.
Training on the new system started at the top of the company and went down.
Some staff readily adapted to the system, but additional training was provided for those who were warier.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems of the sort installed at Dane have become vital to the management of businesses of all sizes over the past 30 years.
The increased uncertainty and volatility created by the credit crisis of 2007-2008 has made businesses even more dependent on up-to-date information on suppliers, customers and the internal workings of their own businesses.
Chief executives can no longer leave the management of their IT systems to their technology teams or their chief information officer. They must integrate it into their long-term strategy.
The use of smart phones and tablets at home and in the office has helped bridge the technology gap, but companies of all sizes often struggle to achieve full integration of IT into their strategic planning.
“We try to get chief executives to understand that if they can prioritise their key decisions and decide what information they need, they can get their technology organisation to create it,” says Stacy Blanchard, lead partner for organisation effectiveness for analytics at Accenture, a consultancy.
“If chief information officers do not see their role as being involved in the decision-making, then they are missing an opportunity. Lots of companies don’t have a creative partnership between the chief executive and the IT team.”
Even when senior management and the IT team are working effectively together, they can be swamped by the sheer amount of information that modern systems generate.
“Companies can be overwhelmed by data,” says Ms Blanchard. “They have to take a step back and sort out what information they need to achieve their strategy and to make decisions.”
Faced with this complexity, many companies have turned to “dashboards” to present the most vital data in an easily digestible format.
The onscreen dashboard will show top-level information in graphic form – like the dashboard of a car – and allows users to look at the underlying data as well.
In theory, dashboards are meant to overcome the conflicting versions of events that used to occur when companies depended heavily on spreadsheets, which were difficult to control and not always kept up to date.
But many companies now find they have too many dashboards and key performance indicators, so once again clarity is lost.
This profusion of information can mean senior management gets bogged down in analysing the past instead of using the data to think about the future.
Matt Peers, chief information officer at Deloitte, says: “People spend too much time poring over last week’s sales, rather than getting a model for next week’s.”
Technology can deliver the information, but leaders who have a clear idea of the data they require and the strategy they intend to pursue are vital for success.
A Dashboard Spy reader who is a dentist undergoing their annual HIPAA Compliance Audit was running some software to check for technology security problems and decided to grab a screenshot for me. Take a look:
I’m not sure what software they were running. I’ll ask and report back. Here is some additional material he sent me:
The checklist for HIPAA compliance for tech systems includes the following documents:
Possible Interview and Document Request for HIPAA Security Onsite Investigations and Compliance Reviews
Personnel who may be interviewed
President, CEO or Director
HIPAA Compliance Officer
Lead Systems Manager or Director
Systems Security Officer
Lead Network Engineer and/or individuals responsible for:
administration of systems that store, transmit, or access Electronic Protected Health Information (EPHI) o administration of systems networks (wired and wireless)
monitoring of systems that store, transmit, or access EPHI
monitoring of systems networks (if different from above)
Computer Hardware Specialist
Disaster Recovery Specialist or person in charge of data backup • Facility Access Control Coordinator (physical security)
Human Resources Representative
Director of Training
Incident Response Team Leader
Others as identified….
Documents and other information that may be requested for investigations/reviews a. Policies and Procedures and other Evidence that Address the Following:
Prevention, detection, containment, and correction of security violations
Employee background checks and confidentiality agreements
Establishing user access for new and existing employees
List of authentication methods used to identify users authorized to access EPHI
List of individuals and contractors with access to EPHI to include copies pertinentbusiness associate agreements • List of software used to manage and control access to the Internet
Detecting, reporting, and responding to security incidents (if not in the security plan)
Physical security
Encryption and decryption of EPHI
Mechanisms to ensure integrity of data during transmission – including portable media transmission (i.e. laptops, cellphones, blackberries, thumb drives)
Monitoring systems use – authorized and unauthorized Use of wireless networks
Granting, approving, and monitoring systems access (for example, by level, role, and job function)
Sanctions for workforce members in violation of policies and procedures governing EPHI access or use
Termination of systems access
Session termination policies and procedures for inactive computer systems
Policies and procedures for emergency access to electronic information systems
Password management policies and procedures
Secure workstation use (documentation of specific guidelines for each class of workstation (i.e., onsite, laptop, and home system usage)
Disposal of media and devices containing EPHI
Other Documents:
Entity-wide Security Plan
Risk Analysis (most recent)
Risk Management Plan (addressing risks identified in the Risk Analysis) • Security violation monitoring reports
Vulnerability scanning plans
Results from most recent vulnerability scan • Network penetration testing policy and procedure
Results from most recent network penetration test
List of all user accounts with access to systems that store, transmit, or access EPHI (for active and terminated employees) • Configuration standards to include patch management for systems that store, transmit, or access EPHI (including workstations)
Encryption or equivalent measures implemented on systems that store, transmit, or access EPHI
Organization chart to include staff members responsible for general HIPAA compliance to include the protection of EPHI • Examples of training courses or communications delivered to staff members to ensure awareness and understanding of EPHI policies and procedures (security awareness training)
Policies and procedures governing the use of virus protection software
Data backup procedures
Disaster recovery plan
Disaster recovery test plans and results
Analysis of information systems, applications, and data groups according to their criticality and sensitivity
Inventory of all information systems to include network diagrams listing hardware and software used to store, transmit or maintain EPHI
List of all Primary Domain Controllers (PDC) and servers
Inventory log recording the owner and movement media and devices that contain EPHI
