The Dashboard is Dead, Long Live the Dashboard

This article was written by Qlik and originally appeared on the Qlik Blog here: https://www.qlik.com/blog/the-dashboard-is-dead-long-live-the-dashboard

 

There is a lot of talk these days about the dashboard being a thing of the past. After all, simply displaying KPIs and visualizations in a dashboard is something everyone can do, right? If monitoring KPIs is all you need to do, then we would agree: The dashboard is largely dead. We can deliver those singular data points to you anywhere, monitoring what you’re interested in, alerting you to changes and triggering action.

 

But, there is a BIG difference between simple KPI monitoring and investigatory analysis, supported by a rich, interactive, augmented analytics application. The need to question your data to uncover insights that inform future strategy and direction is very much still alive. And, this requires more than just a static dashboard.

At Qlik, we have the best dashboards in the world. Our dashboards are not just static displays of content with limited filtering, they are rich analytics applications that provide unmatched interactivity and exploratory power. They allow people to make selections literally anywhere and see the impacts of those selections everywhere. They expose all the relationships in your data, including what’s related and unrelated to your selections. You can search across all your data to refine context. You can see all your data at all times, across all your data sources, from the highest-level summarization down to the full transaction-level detail. And, calculations update as fast as you can think, no matter which selections you make, how complex the data is, or how many users there are.

So, why does this matter? Because this is how discoveries are made. When a business user looks at a dashboard or visualization, they usually end up with more questions than answers. In order to make an informed decision, they have to ask and answer follow-up questions. They need to go through a process of questioning, evaluating and then questioning again – until the right insight is fully uncovered and understood. By contrast, a narrow view and one that lacks context typically won’t deliver the same quality of output. This process is unique to every user and his or her line of thinking. And, it shouldn’t be limited to just data experts and analysts that can build visualizations and queries.

Our unique associative engine is what makes the magic happen. It employs a number of technology innovations that Qlik pioneered, including compressed binary indexing and storage, logical inference and high-performance dynamic calculation, all designed to support non-linear, free-form exploration and search without the limitations of query-based architectures. Most importantly, this all happens under the hood – and just like a high-performance sportscar, you can feel the difference when you drive it.

Now, with AI and natural language, we have raised the bar again. Our associative engine works together with advanced cognitive capabilities to deliver next-level analytical power, in new forms, across a full range of user experiences. Users can now instantly generate new visualizations and advanced analyses within the dashboard using natural language search. They can drive the process of interactive questioning, using fully conversational analytics across all their dashboards. They can create sophisticated data alerts for instant insight when data changes. And, they can combine data and author visualizations and applications with assistance from AI.

So, although some say the dashboard is dead, at Qlik, we say long live the dashboard.

Try out a Qlik Sense dashboard application by clicking the image below.