Dashboard to Smarter Banking

We live in a world where, often times, we don’t know what we don’t know. When we happen to learn something new, we wonder why we never made the connection before. One example of this kind of connection is between your car and your business. Did you know that driving a car can make your job at the bank easier and help you grow your business?

An automobile is a complex piece of machinery and technology that we use every day. Millions and millions of data points and information are created and consumed to allow your car to operate properly and safely over the road. But when you’re driving, the most important feature you, the driver, pays attention to is the dashboard. It has all the key information you need to operate the vehicle successfully. By understanding the concepts behind your car’s dashboard, you can understand the world of Business Intelligence (BI).

One of Business Intelligence’s most powerful tools is the dashboard. BI dashboards give you the leverage necessary to operate your business successfully. Dashboards take all the data created and consumed day-to-day, and visually presents it to you through mature, tested BI technologies and concepts. These technologies and concepts are designed to strategically and repetitively provide the information necessary for your dashboard. Some powerful features include the ability to:

• Visualize data across dimensions (e.g., Customer, Product, Timeframe, Geographies)

• Drill down into those dimensions with the click of a button or the hovering over of them

• Visually depict information and highlight it with colors, maps, shapes, etc.

• Publish reports created directly to the web for consumption by teammates

• React in real time to data-driven discussions and questions

In the banking industry, understanding credit risk is extremely important. Banks make money by loaning money. If done poorly, banks lose more money than they make. BI dashboards can help. On a Credit Risk Dashboard, you might monitor Assets, Liabilities, Expected Loss, Risk Percentage, Accounts at Risk, and so forth. An exciting feature of dashboards is your ability to interact with it. With clicks and double-clicks of the mouse, you can see what your assets are made up of. You can check on different asset groups, view interactive maps that show groupings of where your loans are geographically located, and even see where you might expand your reach. You can extend your search to show multiple product lines of loans and mortgages, or you can narrow it down for a closer view of specific mortgage data.

BI has replaced the spreadsheets of yesterday and revolutionized how business is run today. Instead of updating summary papers one document at a time, or revising spreadsheets one workbook at a time, BI allows your team members to make a change, even the slightest change at the remotest of bank branches, and have it automatically flow through your organization and report on your dashboard. Your BI dashboard can track the data points you need, allowing you to make informed decisions as you maneuver your business toward your desired destination.

BI’s concepts and technologies include on-line analytical processing, operational and ad hoc reporting, data visualization, and dashboards. All these technologies are geared toward giving you the knowledge and power you need in the fast-paced, big data, block-chained world you live in. BI can and should replace activities that are resource intensive but yield limited payout or effect. 10 people with calculators and spreadsheets can never compete with the often instantaneous results shown on a BI dashboard.

Being able to get answers to your business intelligence questions without waiting for IT to do it for you is priceless. FinResults, Inc. can help. Our team of experienced Principals use strategies, experience, and talent to help you solve your data-intensive BI needs.

For More Information

For more information, please contact Pete Ferrara, Principal, FinResults, Inc. (pete.ferrara@finresults.com).

About the Author: PETER FERRARA FinResults, Inc. Principal, Data and Analytics

Pete specializes in identifying, designing, building, and implementing Business Intelligence solutions. He believes that growth comes through solving problems, not avoiding them. Pete specializes in identifying, designing, building, and implementing Business Intelligence solutions. He believes that growth comes through solving problems, not avoiding them.