Data is essential to all business, to understand and enhance operation so as to decrease costs and save time. So of course, it is no surprise that a program such as Power BI, allowing businesses to organise, synthesise and ultimately make their data useful and accessible is being used across industries and around the world.

From Finance to Health Care, having data in aesthetic visuals and in real-time is a far cry from a slew of static excel documents. As a result, Power BI has positively transformed the way many organisations work. One success story can be found in local government, Melbourne’s Cardinia Shire, where using dashboards has improved decisions, saved time and increased transparency.

Smarter Decisions

Cardinia’s dashboards track everything from babies born and completion of residential builds to service request response times. By having the most important metrics clearly displayed in real-time allows for full visibility across the shire at all times. This accessibility and up-to-date data mean trends can be identified quickly and with ease. Resulting in faster response times, better allocation of resources and overall the data provides the basis for smarter management decisions and improved planning.

Transparency

Cardinia Shire has its performance report readily available on their website. The report offers a clear indication of how the shire is performing, what is working, being accomplished and what isn’t. This transparency has seen a benefit in both the internal and external relationships of the organisation. Peter Philp, the Manager of Service Planning and Improvement at Cardinia Shire Council believes the performance report has done a great deal in ensuring the community understand the work being done and what their rates payments go towards. The clear demonstration of the council's work and its impact on the community moves towards building trust and respect.

Source: Microsoft Local Government