Much is said about the importance of KPIs but few really understand what this acronym stands for. Have you ever been asked if you have set your KPIs for the coming year? 

It happens to all of us that December is the month where the words: results, analysis and objectives are the ones that haunt us the most. The good thing is when you get the processed information without having to spend hours and hours analyzing and compiling data from the whole year. 

In short, this year is coming to an end and it is inevitable to start planning for next year by defining clear and achievable objectives. For this, it is necessary to have as many data sources as possible and, of course, to work with KPIs.

So, let's start from scratch. KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. 

Now, what are KPIs and why are they important?

KPIs are measurable values that indicate progress towards your objectives. A KPI can be measured in terms of quality and quantity. For example, your organization's order and sales quantities are quantitative KPIs, and product reviews and customer satisfaction rates can be qualitative KPIs.

This way, you can determine if your business is progressing, predict problems and make timely decisions. 

The problem is that it is difficult to track multiple key metrics for an organization as they may be distributed across different data sources. That's why we need KPI dashboards.

What is a KPI dashboard?

KPI dashboards are a collection of key performance indicators in one place, giving you a bird's eye view of your business performance. You can identify where your goals are and make decisions to achieve them.

What is it good for?

With a well-designed, visually appealing and relevant KPI dashboard from Zoho Analytics, you can:

• Access all metrics in one place: Nothing better than finding all relevant metrics in one place, this will help you streamline decision-making processes and be able to analyze if you are meeting the year's objectives correctly.
• Get real-time information from the data: data in the KPI dashboards is updated in real time.

Super benefit: You can set up data alerts for critical KPIs and receive notifications about changes, anytime, anywhere. Everything we need!

• Spotting trends and outliers: Anything better than identifying a trend and taking advantage of that opportunity? You can visualize data patterns and eliminate outliers easily.
• Predict problems early: One of the most important points is to prevent any inconvenience, thanks to these panels you can forecast your performance and growth with artificial intelligence.
• Make better decisions: Last and crucial benefit, with information and predictions you can make timely decisions, design or revise strategies and improve business performance. All this? Yes, all just with a KPI dashboard.

What does a board look like?

These may vary depending on the type of business, the industry and the metrics they wish to track. 

Recommendation: The more customized and tailored to your company, the better.

For example, you can have a dashboard just for social networks. Thanks to it you will be able to track all your key metrics in one place.