How To Track KPIs? Utilize KPI Tracking Software & Tools

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KPI tracking by datapine

In the modern age, brands, and businesses that benchmark their activities stand to gain an all-important edge over the competition.

Whatever your niche or industry, working with dynamic KPIs will empower you to track and improve your performance in a number of critical areas, accelerating your commercial success in the process. Without data, you will only ever be ‘shooting in the dark when it comes to formulating strategies and making informed decisions. While there are numerous KPI examples you can choose from, you should pick only the most important ones and focus your resources on them.

That said, using the right KPIs is essential to both your immediate and long-term organizational activities. KPI tracking is a technique that will give you a deeper insight into the inner workings of your business – and we’re going to discuss the concept in detail.

Here, we will consider what it takes to track KPI metrics, explore the dynamics of a contemporary KPI tracker, and look at how to track KPIs. Let’s start with a definition!

What Is KPI Tracking?

So, what is KPI tracking, exactly? Key performance indicator monitoring is a definitive means of monitoring your most relevant key performance indicators for increased success with the help of modern KPI software. By measuring KPIs regularly and automatically, you can increase productivity and decrease costs. 

By selecting the right KPIs for various areas of the business, it’s possible to use them to arrange as well as visualize large datasets. Doing so will not only help you to squeeze additional value from your organizational data, but it will also provide the opportunity to set targets and measure incremental success in vital areas of the business.

To track KPIs is to gain greater business intelligence. Through visual innovations such as a KPI dashboard, you uncover greater insights than you ever thought possible, streamlining your organization for success in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.

In that sense, KPI tracking tools are a powerful vessel for organizational growth and evolution.

What Are The Benefits Of KPI Tracking?

Now that we’ve looked into a practical definition, let’s look at the business-boosting benefits.

If you use a KPI tracker to its full potential and work with metrics that are relevant to your business’s core mission, you will reap incredible rewards. To put this into perspective, here are the main benefits of using a tracker for your business:

  • Intelligence: To prevail on today’s commercial battlefield, making consistently informed decisions based on relevant metrics is a must. Knowing how to measure KPIs will empower you to improve your business strategies in a way that will ultimately save you time and money while fostering a level of innovation that will allow you to stand out in your field.
  • Benchmarking: One of the most powerful functions of committing to track KPI metrics is gaining the ability to benchmark. KPI tracking software gives businesses the innovations to set informed goals and benchmarks. By setting intelligent goals for your organization, you will be able to evolve, scale, and refine your most vital processes while becoming more adaptable to change.
  • Innovation: Working with the right software offers insight that empowers you to spot and uncover trends or patterns that you otherwise wouldn’t notice. When this happens, you will be able to unlock a level of creative thinking that will improve innovation throughout the business. When companies gain the ability to innovate, they often become thought leaders in their field, building trust and boosting brand awareness in the process.
  • Communication: KPI reports and trackers are visual and interactive, which means that they are incredibly inclusive. KPI software serves up insights that everyone within the organization can understand, which ultimately enhances interdepartmental communication while unlocking the full potential of modern data storytelling.
  • Motivation: By working with a KPI dashboard to set actionable goals, you will motivate staff and specific departments to improve their processes, which, in turn, will increase productivity and motivation.
  • Consistency: Using the right indicators as your informational North Star will also help you keep moving forward at a constant, steady pace. Accurate benchmarks result in continual progress, and armed with the software you require to manage your KPIs, you’re not only likely to scale consistently but at a pace that sets you apart from the competition.

“KPIs and Outcomes. We start with the functions and processes driving the business, then push for the company to set goals, delineate measurable Brand Promises, and pick Critical Numbers on the One-Page Strategic Plan.” – Verne Harnish (Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t)

So, what do most companies use to track KPIs? The short answer: smart dashboards and technology. To measure KPIs and set actionable benchmarks, today’s most forward-thinking businesses use what is often referred to as a KPI tracking system.

A KPI report is a tool that facilitates the measurement, collection, arrangement, analysis, and study of essential KPIs over certain periods. In the digital age, a solid KPI monitoring system is visual, interactive, customizable, and accessible via a number of mediums, including mobile and desktop.

By using a smart KPI tracker to your advantage, you become empowered to identify potential strengths, weaknesses, patterns, and potential areas for improvement across all critical areas of the business.

Usually presented in the form of an interactive dashboard, key performance indicator reports offer a digestible representation of critical internal functions, from sales and marketing to finance, fulfillment, and beyond.

With interactive business KPIs, you will be able to get in touch with data in a way that gets real results – both retrospectively and in real time. KPIs provide a panoramic snapshot of your business’s essential activities. We will go more in-depth about these types of tools and what you should expect before investing in one of them later in this post. But first, let’s look at some industry examples to put the power of these indicators into perspective. 

KPI Tracking In Action: 10 Real-World Dashboards

Now that we’re clear on how monitoring key performance indicators assists with enhanced organizational development and got a first glance into which tools today’s companies use to measure them, we’re going to look at real-world dashboards that cover management, customer support, finances, logistics, and senior marketing so you can see in more detail how to track KPIs and add value in your business operations.

1. Management KPI dashboard

Management executive dashboard showing important KPIs to C-level executives, created with a KPI tracking software

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When it comes to swift and informed senior decision-making, management KPIs are invaluable. Visually balanced and populated with essential operational metrics, our KPI tracking dashboard is equipped with actionable insights for sustainable commercial success.

With KPIs that offer a panoramic snapshot of progress in areas including sales, customer acquisition costs, and customer lifetime value, this powerful CEO dashboard offers a wealth of information geared toward helping senior executives formulate strategies that ultimately streamline core internal processes while improving the business’s service and customer experience (CX) offerings.

Primary KPIs:

  • Customer Acquisition Costs
The Customer Acquisition Costs are all the costs involved in the process of turning a prospect into a client. Keeping them as low as possible is a best practice to have

Also known as CAC, the customer acquisition metric provides an accurate appraisal of how much you’re spending on signing up a new consumer. A crucial component of any KPI monitoring strategy, CAC serves up real-time data on your average acquisition costs while offering a trend-based monthly breakdown of your performance. Whether you deal in tangible goods, you’re a SaaS company or you run on a subscription model, setting a solid CAC benchmark and taking measures to reduce it incrementally will ultimately boost your bottom line. Armed with the ability to hone in on essential trends, you can pinpoint the driver of your costs and take strategic action to tackle the issue head-on.

the Customer Lifetime Value is a KPI that represents the amount of money you would like/forecast to make on the period of time that your relationship lasts with that customer.

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is an essential metric for any modern business looking to squeeze maximum value from their consumer relationships. This particular metric facilitates real-time KPI tracking for trend discovery and customer experience (CX) management. Like our CAC visualization, CLV empowers you to monitor your average lifetime values in real-time while drilling down into trend-based data from specific timeframes. If you notice peaks in your CLV, you can pinpoint the issue and apply strategic tweaks to your campaigns and communications in a way that consistently prompts sales and boosts customer loyalty.

2. Financial KPI dashboard

Financial dashboard tracking KPIs related to liquidity, invoicing, and budgeting

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This KPI dashboard is full of essential metrics that focus on monitoring the financial health of a business in areas such as liquidity, invoicing, and budgeting. By analyzing all these KPIs together businesses can manage to boost their financial strategies and keep operational costs at a minimum while still ensuring continuous growth.

Covering critical financial areas such as the current working capital, the cash conversion cycle, and the vendor error rate, this financial dashboard is an invaluable tool to closely monitor KPIs and answer vital questions about business performance. Thanks to a mix of interactive graphs and charts, financial managers can spot inefficiencies, create accurate forecasts, and keep cash flowing through the organization.

Primary KPIs:

A KPI tracking example depicting the cash conversion cycle in a specific time frame

For water-tight financial KPI monitoring and reporting, this visually-striking metric will help you remain on track even during turbulent periods. By regularly monitoring this metric, you will gain a clear understanding of how quickly you can convert your assets and resources into cash. With accessible pattern-centric visualizations, it’s possible to maintain your business’s financial efficiency throughout the year. If your cash conversion cycle starts to plateau or rise, you will be able to hone in on the driving factor and nip it in the bud before it spirals out of control.

Working capital depicting details of current assets and current liabilities as one of the financial graph templates for showing short-term financial health.

A critical component of any financial KPI tracking template, our working capital metric provides a linear breakdown of core costs or expenditures as well as a dynamic snapshot of your ongoing total. Rather than a percentage or ratio, this serves as a panoramic view of your company’s immediate or short-term financial efficiency. By looking at each core expense or liability, you can see what is expanding or contracting your working capital total over time and discuss ways you can improve fluency or efficiency in specific areas, including accrued expenses, taxes, operating expenses, and credit card outgoings.

3. Customer support KPI dashboard

KPI tracking a customer support department through the revenue value, costs per support, average time to solve an issue and overall satisfaction

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Whether you’re a senior customer service manager, a frontline agent, or a service strategist, our dynamic KPI tracking dashboard boasts all of the aspects of insights that will allow you to set business-boosting targets while doing your job more effectively.

The logical presentation of the dashboard above offers at-a-glance access to essential customer service-centric KPIs that drill down deep into functions like service levels, support costs, and overall customer satisfaction over specific time periods.

This is a powerful tool that helps businesses implement significant improvements to their customer support strategies regardless of their sector or industry. For additional insights on different aspects of customer service, you can explore our article focused on a call center dashboard.

Primary KPIs:

KPI tracking example showing customer satisfaction

As pivotal data visualization for any valuable consumer-focused KPI tracking system, this customer satisfaction metric will empower you to preserve your brand reputation. By giving your consumers the chance to provide feedback across your company’s main touchpoints and feeding into this performance indicator, you can easily keep tabs on exactly how your customers feel about you and your offerings. Monitor this frequently and you will gain the tools to consistently drive your satisfaction scores up by using this invaluable feedback to provide agent training, eliminate service inefficiencies, and make your communications more personable.

  • Support costs vs. revenue
Evaluate your support costs to stay aligned with your budget

This dynamic visual offers an accurate representation of how your support costs feed into your company’s overall revenue stream. The bar chart-style design of this vital metric makes it easy to uncover correlations between your annual revenue in relation to your support or service costs to check that you’re consistently hitting your targets. The aim here is to provide the best possible service across channels for the lowest possible costs and this metric will help you achieve these goals on a sustainable basis.

4. Pick & Pack KPI scorecard 

KPI tracking system: a logistics scorecard tracking relevant picking and packing processes

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Our next example is a KPI scorecard for the logistics industry. A scorecard is a KPI tracking tool that monitors the progress or achievement towards a set target, making it an invaluable tool for monitoring. Decision-makers use this format to visualize different metrics together and get a bigger picture of their overall performance as well as find any bottlenecks in the process. 

Divided into four main areas that track logistics KPIs for finances, effectiveness, utilization, and quality, the pick and pack scorecard will tell you if your picking and packing processes are running smoothly compared to a target of last month’s results. Paired with this, the scorecard offers details about the progress of each line of work. This way you can see if there is an underperforming line and find the reasons, or implement different strategies on each line to test which one works better for your warehouse. Through this, you can optimize costs as well as important processes to ensure great order management and quality of service. 

Primary KPIs:

Pick and pack cycle time logistics KPI

For tracking KPIs in logistical environments, the pick and pack cycle metric is invaluable. Visually accessible and designed to evolve with ongoing data fluctuations, here you can measure exactly how long it takes for an operative to pick an item from the warehouse and package it ready for dispatch. Split into individual fulfillment lines, it’s possible to find out what may be reducing efficiency within the picking and packing environment and offer the right level of a strategic report to get back on target. This is a valuable efficiency driver for busy warehouses or fulfillment departments.

KPI tracking example: picking accuracy

As one of our most intricate KPI tracking examples, this essential visualization will empower you to plot out your department’s picking accuracy over a predetermined time frame. Ultimately, driving down errors and preventing droves of customer returns will save you unnecessary expenditures while preserving your brand reputation, which will have an ongoing impact on your commercial growth. This performance metric will play a pivotal role in increasing your accuracy and optimizing your fulfillment strategy.

5. CMO dashboard

An example showcasing a marketing KPI tracking system focused on metrics such as cost per lead, MQL, SQL, and cost per customer

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In today’s fast-paced, ultra-competitive digital age, if you want to cut through the noise and connect with your audience on a meaningful level, being innovative and consistent with your marketing activities is essential.

As such, the job of the chief marketing officer (CMO) is challenging and demanding. From consumer demographics to website traffic, lead ratios, and beyond, when it comes to marketing, there is a colossal amount of data to sift through. Our marketing dashboard features KPIs that serve up relevant marketing metrics, allowing busy CMOs to streamline their data while extracting actionable insights at a swift glance.

For both “in the moment” decision-making and long-term strategy, this robust KPI dashboard offers a wealth of information that empowers senior decision-makers to drive marketing success and innovation on a sustainable basis. But not only, with this dashboard, you can also create powerful marketing reports that will skyrocket your whole departmental performance.

Primary KPIs:

MQL-to-SQL ratio: KPI tracking template

If you’re a stretched CMO looking to track KPIs that will result in genuine growth and evolution, keeping a close eye on your MQL-SQL ratio is vital. Pivotal to your top-level lead nurturing activities, this interactive metric will serve as an ongoing compass for understanding how many qualified leads are converted into warm sales leads over a specific period. By setting a solid benchmark and monitoring this metric frequently, you will be able to hone in on the right phases of your funnel and make tweaks to not only speed up the conversion process but earn more profits for your efforts.

Cost per marketing lead

Cost per lead (CPL) is a critical sales and marketing metric, as it offers an honest snapshot of the expenditure associated with acquiring new clients or customers. With frequent monitoring, you can uncover exactly which channels or communications you need to focus on to earn quality leads without overspending. Use your CPL targets as a working guide to ensure all of your lead nurturing-based marketing activities offer the healthiest return on investment (ROI).

6. Sales performance dashboard

KPI tracking example of a sales performance dashboard

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For senior executives and decision-makers in a dynamic modern sales environment, KPI monitoring is essential. Our sales dashboard is equipped with a cohesive mix of metrics designed to track, monitor, and measure every relevant aspect of departmental growth.

Here, you have access to a wealth of KPI tracker capabilities that cover a deep dive into sales growth, targets, customer lifetime value, and essential acquisition costs. With this melting pot of information available in one easy-to-navigate sales dashboard, you can formulate smart sales strategies that drive down unnecessary costs while promoting growth and seize valuable opportunities as they arise. An essential KPI measuring dashboard for any modern sales department.

Primary KPIs:

Sales growth is a good productivity metric to measure evolution and results.

A core part of our sales-centric KPI tracker, this intuitive growth metric provides the tools to monitor your ongoing progress through sales. Armed with the ability to drill down into individual sales rep performance, you will uncover trends that will empower you to realign your departmental structure where required. You will also have the intelligence to provide the right level of training and support to your reps and, ultimately, accelerate sales growth while consistently hitting your targets.

Sales target: a management KPI in which setting goals in advance and implementing a strategy to reach and exceed them is of utmost importance

Drilling down further into sales targets, this performance indicator will show you if you are on track with your planned goals. If you notice an anomaly or a negative trend, you will be able to respond instantly and get your strategy on course. This particular metric will remain your target-meeting companion even when you’re under pressure, serving up intuitive target-based information with a quick glance.

7. Employee performance dashboard

Employee performance depicted as a KPI tracking example

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Your employees are the beating heart of your organization. Without highly engaged and motivated internal talent, your company will fall flat almost instantly, which is why monitoring how employees perform is essential.

Using a KPI monitoring system to track how employees develop will empower you to understand absenteeism rates as well as training costs, overtime hours, and most importantly, employee productivity. Our employee HR dashboard offers all of these essential metrics – information that will empower you to develop a culture where your talent thrives while offering the right level of training or support where needed. A vital KPI measuring system for any forward-thinking HR department.

Primary KPIs:

KPI tracking example for generating the absenteeism rate.

Our next KPI tracking example is designed to support senior staff and team leaders in not only earning the best possible ROI from their employees but keeping everyone in the team engaged and inspired. If you spot an upward trend in absenteeism, you can get to the root of the issue quickly, providing tailored support, assistance, or incentives where necessary. Dealing with issues like this swiftly will help you apply the right adjustments when it counts most, resulting in a happy, healthy workforce.

HR KPI tracking: training costs

Staff training and development is a pivotal component of your company’s ongoing success. Working with this metric will not only show you how much you’re investing in staff development over specific timeframes, but it will also give you an indication of whether your training efforts are offering healthy returns. Monitoring this cost-based visual on a regular basis will feed directly into your training and development strategy, empowering you to optimize it for maximum success.

8. IT project management dashboard

Project management KPI tracking example

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As the nerve center of the organization, your IT department must remain fluent, cohesive, and adaptable. Our IT project management dashboard exists to help technical staff balance their project budgets while improving handling times and working through tickets swiftly and with confidence.  

Monitoring your most important metrics within this interactive monitoring dashboard will ensure you can nip any potential technical issues in the bud before they spiral out of control while boosting productivity across the department. An intelligent project management KPI tracking template that will make your entire organization more efficient, more communicative, and more profitable.

Primary KPIs:

Average handle time IT KPI tracking

Every IT project will have a direct impact on your business’s operational efficiency and this metric will show you how effective your department is at keeping its tasks under control. Setting a general handling benchmark and analyzing individual employee performance will give you a clear-cut direction when it comes to delegating tasks, distributing workload, and offering help or assistance when required.

  • Total tickets vs open tickets
KPI monitoring template: total vs open tickets

Keeping a firm grip on your tickets will keep every project or initiative on track while optimizing your department’s delivery success across the board. This savvy data visualization provides a clearcut breakdown of remaining open tickets as well as specific deadlines and individual workloads. Checking in with this daily will ensure your projects remain in motion while giving you the tools to support everyone in meeting their individual targets.

9. Daily OAE dashboard

KPI monitoring system for manufacturing daily operations

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Your manufacturing department is integral to the growth and profitability of your organization. Designed to offer deep-dive insights into your overall operating effectiveness (OAE), our dedicated manufacturing dashboard is one of our most practical KPI tracking examples.

This interactive informational hub offers a glance at information surrounding the efficiency of your machines while showcasing pivotal trends on scrap rates, throughput, and first-pass yield. With this information at hand, you can identify strategic changes that will make your manufacturing processes more cost-effective and improve output while maintaining quality. A KPI tracker that will help you accelerate your commercial growth.

Primary KPIs:

First pass yield manufacturing KPI

The best KPI tracking software for operational management will include a highly-visual YPY metric. A miniature dashboard in its own right, this punchy KPI offers a panoramic view of your various machines’ reliability and efficiency. If you notice any specific drops in your FPY, you can pinpoint the machinery that’s causing the issue and implement improvements that will benefit your overall production efficiency.

Scrap rate manufacturing KPI tracking

One of the most insightful manufacturing metrics the scrape rate will give you a real-time, as well as historic, indication of the rate or percentage of materials that are never transformed into finished (and profitable) products. Monitoring this visual closely will provide the intelligence required to drive down your scrap rate, reduce the handling of defective materials, and streamline your daily operations.

10. Facebook page dashboard

Real-time KPI tracking dashboard for Facebook page performance

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A highly visual way of tracking KPIs related to Facebook, this powerful dashboard will help you optimize your social media strategy for sustainable success in an ever-changing digital landscape. 

Here, you can gain a panoramic view of essential metrics including user demographics, on-page engagement, number of fans or followers, and page views by source. With all of these critical metrics consolidated into one slick Facebook dashboard design, you will quickly build a profile of the content that resonates most with specific segments of your audience. In doing so, you can make creative as well as strategic decisions that will boost brand awareness significantly.

Primary KPIs:

Page views by sources line KPI

An essential metric for any successful social media strategy, page views by source will show you exactly where your traffic is coming from throughout the year. As a result, you can assess the quality of your referral sources while improving your content and communications in a way that drives more social media engagement. Work with this regularly and you will accelerate your brand growth through your social media marketing efforts.

The number of fans on Facebook depicted by the top countries and the aurience growth over time.

Not only will this savviest of Facebook KPIs give you a breakdown of your fans via region, but it will also offer a clear insight into how much value your fans are potentially offering your business. Armed with this information, you can craft social media content that is likely to resonate with specific segments of your audience at the times when they’re likely to engage the most. This is an essential visualization for anyone looking to level up their Facebook marketing strategy.

How To Track KPIs?

Top 10 best practices for KPI tracking

Now that you saw some KPI tracking examples in action, you must be eager to start benefiting from this BI practice. To help you achieve universal success, we put together a few tips and tricks on how to track your KPIs.

1. Set your business goals

The first and most important step before starting with your KPI tracking is defining clear business goals. What might work for some companies might be completely different from others, for this reason, you need to set realistic targets that will allow you to monitor if your company is growing as you expected. Once you have your core business goals in place you also need to define specific ones for each department of the company. This way, you will be able to easily pick the right KPIs to track the progress of each department as well as carry out cross-analysis between them. 

2. Define your audience

Now that you have your business goals defined, you will be one step closer to start performing powerful KPI monitoring. But before you dive into picking your KPIs you also need to think about your audience and what will be more efficient for them. For this purpose, you can ask yourself questions like What data is important for these people? How frequently do they need to check it? Are these KPIs providing context? 

3. Follow BI KPI tracking best practices 

Once you have defined clear business goals and your audience it’s time to pick which specific KPIs you want to track in order to monitor and achieve those goals. For this purpose, there are two KPI best practices from the business intelligence industry that you can follow to define the best indicators for your business. 

  • SMARTER: This is a practice that stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound, Evaluate, and Reevaluate. It basically works like a checklist that your KPIs need to follow in order to be considered relevant for tracking. As you can see they need to be specific to a business goal, relevant and attainable to your business, and be in continuous evaluation. 
  • Six A’s: The second KPI tracking best practice you could implement is the Six A’s which stands for Aligned, Attainable, Acute, Accurate, Actionable, Alive. Just like the SMARTER criteria, this practice also aims to evaluate the relevance of a performance indicator based on some important characteristics. In this case, the indicator is expected to be aligned with your company goals, keeping everyone in the company informed, actionable, and evolving with the business. 

4. Use a mix of real-time and historical data

With the right KPIs in hand, it is time to start analyzing. To extract the actionable insights you need from your KPI monitoring you need to take into consideration historical data as well as real-time data. On one hand, historical insights will let you spot trends and compare performance to see if you are improving, and on the other hand, real-time insights will give you a glance at your current situation and allow you to spot any difficulties before they become bigger issues. 

5. Use the right visualizations 

The next stage in your process to track KPIs is to pick the right type of visualizations for each of your metrics. There are several types of graphs, charts, and business dashboards available for you to visualize your data, the goal here should be to pick the ones that will make the analysis process most interactive and easy to understand for technical and non-technical users. Static Excel tables are no longer useful to extract the maximum power out of your analysis. This is why you should invest in KPI tracking innovations that will provide you with a wide range of visualization types to fit each of your goals and support decision-making discussions.

6. Differentiate between KPIs and metrics

It’s true that performance indicators and metrics both fall under the umbrella of data analytics. But there are core differences between the two branches of information – and they mainly boil down to progress or performance. While metrics offer a lower level of insight, key indicators provide top-level information. KPIs also exist to help you measure your progress towards essential organizational goals while metrics shed light on your overall performance in core areas. Understanding these definitive differences will ensure you get maximum value from your KPI monitoring tools. Read our essential guide on KPIs vs metrics for more information.

7. Set key performance indicator targets

When considering how to track KPIs effectively, setting the right goals and targets will prove essential to your success. To set accurate KPI goals and targets, you should take the time to assess your current situation in all relevant areas. Looking at your competitors’ performance and conducting ample market research will also help you set benchmarks that are not only realistic but will actually lead to continual progress across the board. When you’re setting your key performance indicator targets, defining both your short-term and long-term goals will help you set powerful KPI-based targets.

8.  Choose cohesive groups of KPIs

As you may have noticed when exploring our systems for KPI tracking examples, each dashboard is equipped with KPIs that work in unison to measure progress in a specific area of the business. That said, when you track KPIs, your visualizations should complement one another, weaving together to form one benchmarkable, informational tapestry. If you’re looking to track marketing performance, for instance, you might choose to work with customer acquisition, click-through rates, and cost-per-click in the same dashboard.

9. Gather internal feedback

With your targets and KPIs to track list firmly in place, you should allow stakeholders within the company to test your choices to ensure that all of the performance indicators you’ve selected offer genuine value. Gathering internal feedback will give you the level of insight required to ensure everyone in the organization can work towards effective benchmarks related to their department, function, or role. Armed with your feedback, you can refine your choices to say, with confidence, that you have the best KPI to track your success in every relevant area of the business.

10.  Reassess your tracking choices periodically

As you start to reach your benchmarks and scale the business, you should check in and consider whether you need to refine or update your key performance indicator tracking choices to continue your forward progress. Carve out time to reassess your choices on a quarterly basis, gathering internal feedback in the process, and your real-time KPI tracking processes will remain optimized for success across the board. A performance indicator that no longer aligns with your organizational needs will take up unnecessary space on your software or dashboard. So, replacing redundant visualizations will offer additional value in terms of growth and success. This is perhaps the most important process you can focus on when it comes to key performance indicator tracking.

What Are The Top Features A KPI Tracking Software Should Include?

Top features that should be included in a KPI tracking software

We already introduced you to the general concept of KPI tracking tools earlier, now we will go into more in detail about the specific features you should look for when deciding on which KPI tool you want to invest in. 

The first and arguably the most important feature you should consider when choosing KPI tracking software is the possibility to connect all your internal and external sources into one single point of access. This can be social media data, historical databases, CRM tools data, or any other source of information that is useful for your business. By doing so you will be able to perform cross-analysis between the different departments and exceed your KPI analytics goals. 

Among other things, data connectors will also save you and your employees time manually updating the data as the tool will automatically provide the latest information available for successful KPI monitoring. 

  • User-friendly interface 

In today’s modern world, data analysis is no longer intended only for analysts or data scientists to perform. On the contrary, a company that wants to be successful by leveraging the power of its information needs to invest in software that is accessible to everyone in the company. For this reason, one of the main features that a KPI tracker should include is a user-friendly interface that will enable anyone from technical to non-technical users to take advantage of the latest insights for better decision-making. 

Paired with a user-friendly interface, KPI software should also include advanced analytical features for technical users that want to go the extra mile with the data. Being able to perform advanced analysis in distinct databases such as marketing data, CRM, and ERP, or common SQL databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and MS SQL can lead to deeper insights into the performance of your KPIs and help fine-tune your strategies. Some of these features could include cross queries, custom fields & expressions, data predictions, and trend analysis, among others. 

  • Predictive analytics & AI 

With so many KPIs to track and so little time to do so, the KPI tracking system you decide to invest in should also include advanced technologies such as predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to improve your daily operations. On one hand, predictive analysis gives you a glance into the future by taking historical data to predict a possible outcome in your performance. And on the other hand, AI technologies such as datapine’s intelligent alarms will use neural networks to learn from trends and patterns to find any anomalies in your data. You just have to set predefined goals and the tool will immediately notify you if something is not going as planned. 

  • Interactive KPI dashboards

If you saw our list of KPI dashboards above, then you must be aware of how these powerful visualization innovations can take your benchmarking efforts to the next level. For this reason, when picking a KPI monitoring tool you should ensure it includes a powerful dashboard designer with basic and advanced features that will allow you to interact with your information and measure your key performance indicators to deliver the best results. 

  • Sharing options to promote collaboration 

Following on the accessibility point mentioned above, another important feature you should look for in a professional tracker is advanced sharing options. KPI tools such as datapine, provide several sharing capabilities such as live links with distinct viewer rights, scheduling of reports on defined time periods as well as the possibility to download the insights and share them in different file formats such as PDF, CSV, XLS, or PNG file. Sharing your reports and dashboards between teams will build a strong data-driven culture in your organization that will increase overall productivity in the long run. 

  • Real-time access to KPI data

Another powerful feature of modern software is the fact that you can get untapped access to dynamic real-time data. The best dashboards provide interactive visualizations that present key patterns, trends, and information as it unfolds. By connecting with powerful real-time insights, you can deal with any issues before they spiral out of control while making better, more informed decisions that will ultimately benefit the growth of your business. Working with real-time data will also help you communicate key segments of information with your colleagues, improving communication and collaboration in the process.

Last but certainly not least, the cutting-edge modern dashboard also comes equipped with in-built interactive filters. The addition of interactive filters means that it’s possible to drill down into critical pockets of information almost instantly. Drilldowns and chart filters are built to allow the user to dissect key performance indicator data with a few simple clicks rather than wading through droves of irrelevant information. Interactive filters will help you get to the point when you need to most, streamlining your analytical processes, boosting output, and optimizing your strategic planning as well as your crisis response in ways you never thought possible. 

“You can’t effectively run a company without having clarity on its key performance indicators.” – Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

Key Takeaways KPI Tracking 

We’ve answered the question, “what is KPI tracking? and one thing is clear: it doesn’t matter what you specialize in or what you’re selling – in the Age of Information, making your most valuable organizational data work for you is vital. It’s no longer good enough to simply glimpse at gargantuan chunks of organization and hope for the best. In these modern business times, you must extract every last drop of value from the metrics that matter.

By setting the right key performance indicators for your business and working with the right systems, you will be able to measure your existing success while setting essential benchmarks and analyzing past data to gain a level of intelligence that will propel your business to the next level. But it doesn’t end here; if you work with multiple clients and stakeholders, you can utilize client reporting tools and consolidate all your needs in a single place.

To measure  KPIs is to conduct your daily, weekly, and monthly organizational activities in a way that is strategic and ensures that every initiative you roll out offers real business-boosting value. The more you measure your KPIs, the more cohesive and intelligent your company will become. And in a time when the competition is fierce, utilizing your data to its maximum capacity will set you apart from the pack.

In the digital age, there’s no excuse for wading around in the dark, sifting through data without a clear purpose or an accurate means of setting actionable benchmarks. By embracing modern software and dashboards, you will start seeing positive results in every vital area of the business while pushing yourself ahead of the pack, one smart initiative at a time. And, that’s a wonderful thing.

We hope our key performance indicator guide has inspired you to take charge of your data. If you want to use a professional and modern solution to trace your metrics, you can sign up for datapine for a 14-day trial, completely free!

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How To Track KPIs? Utilize KPI Tracking Software & Tools
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