Dashboard Wars For Enterprise Tech Supremacy
image from Bloombergquint.

Dashboard Wars For Enterprise Tech Supremacy

This week, I got certified in Data Studio. I see a coming "dashboard wars" between Google, Salesforce (Tableau), Microsoft, Adobe, SAP, Oracle and IBM (and maybe some smaller players like DOMO too). Since my last book about how software and algorithms are changing the face of marketing, the trend has only become more pronounced. Increasingly, companies run on dashboards. Given the value of speed, more and more of the decisions that can be automated are in fact becoming automated. It seems to me that whoever controls the dashboard and automated decision workflow will dominate the software business.

I know many are talking about AI as the battle ground, and AI/ML is an important component, but I think AI/ML becomes a utility service buried behind the decisioning dashboard & workflow system or record. Whoever controls the dashboard and workflow can make their AI/ML services better integrated and therefore easier for a dashboard user to adopt, thus winning the lion's share of business simply by owning the prime real estate of the dashboard & workflow. Google is not only a strong AI/ML leader, they are democratizing dashboards and analytics too.

Democratizing access to dashboards and analytics could be a game changer for small and medium sized businesses as Google develops more templates, and is more thoughtful about integrating more data and actions. For example, why not create a restaurant template that integrates the restaurants sales and other data with Google's location, weather, traffic data as well as it's local events schedule, etc. to predict the number of orders a business should see this week? Why not connect that prediction to a the restaurant's staffing grid and inventory ordering of food so supply matches demand? Why not show the restaurant manager/owner how many more orders they'd likely get if they spend a couple thousand on advertising or CRM promotion to their customer file to boost demand? This integrated business dashboard with forecasting and automated marketing activation would be a killer app. Moreover, every business that participates increases the data Google has to further refine its predictions. It is a virtuous cycle of data feeding data to make the collective brain smarter.

Google's Marketing Platform isn't all the way there yet. It doesn't seem to do anything to automate actions and workflow, leaving that to a the humans reading the dashboard. But with Data Studio, and several advertising and analytic components in place, Google it seems to be a serious contender.

What are your thoughts? Will winning the dashboard wars mean having the dominant position in enterprise tech? What other companies are serious contenders? Should I include Amazon in the list? Facebook? Or, are they not likely to be a serious player in empowering business to automate data driven decisions? Should "Dashboard Wars" be my next book? #googleanalytics #google #sap #microsoft #ibmwatson #tableau #adobeanalytics #oracle #ai

I'd very much appreciate my friends and colleagues input and comments.

Edward O'Meara

Global, mobile and data-driven. One of the MONOPOLY guys!

4y

The Dashboarding process can be useful, mostly because organizations fail to interrogate their KPI's. But once calibrated, rapid decay occurs. (No one pays attention after the second instance.) An organization is far more effective demanding a Test/Learn/Proof culture than a Reporting/Automation/Validation culture. Sadly, most college graduates today can't even spell Null Hypothesis, let alone defend it. Worse, most Dashboards end up designed by committee, with positive feedback loops representing political interests.

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Javad Ahmadi

Brand Builder | Art Director | ROI-Driven Brand Marketer | Disruptive Campaign Architect | Growth Strategist

4y

Interesting read, enjoyed it. Simplicity & AI are key factors.

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