KPI Dashboards for Every Department, with AI Analysts

Most dashboard projects hard-wire today’s KPIs into reports. The first time a formula, a target or a reporting rule changes, the reports have to be rebuilt and the history stops matching. We design the platform the other way round.

Raw data is kept. Every file departments upload and every system extract is saved exactly as it came in, encrypted and locked.

Each KPI is a rule in a catalogue. Which data, which formula, which cycle, which target and who owns it. The KPI registry is the single source of truth for the whole organisation.

History recalculates. When a KPI or a reporting rule changes, we update the rule and the figures are recalculated from the original data. You decide whether past periods are recalculated or kept as reported.

New departments without a rebuild. A department, a KPI or a source system is added through the same registry. Nothing is rebuilt and nothing is lost.

Looking for BI across sales, marketing and finance instead? See business intelligence and AI dashboards.

KPI rules change: a new formula, a higher target, a new reporting rule. In the platform every change goes through the same four steps and never touches the raw data. Raw files never change. Every version stays in the registry, and the dashboard shows which version each number was calculated with.

Instead of a separate integration for every system, we build one shared integration layer. Each system plugs in through a small adapter, so the heavy work is done once: sign-in and secrets, scheduling and retries, one data model, checks and encryption, logging, alerts and monitoring. Compared with building each integration on its own, this cuts the integration budget roughly in half, and a new system later is one more adapter, not a new project.

Integration map

• ERP: HR, finance and procurement KPIs. API or a read-only database view, daily.
• HR and recruitment systems: HR KPIs. API or a scheduled export, daily.
• Power BI: KPIs already modelled in your datasets. Power BI REST API with read access, after each refresh.
• Excel and CSV: KPIs kept by hand in departments. Upload portal with templates and checks, when a KPI is due.
• Other systems: named and mapped at Discovery. API, database view or scheduled file export.

Safe by design

• Read only. We only read from your systems. Nothing is written back to them.
• Always a fallback. If an API is not ready, changes or goes down, the data owner uploads a CSV or XLSX on the same template. Same checks, same KPI, no gap in reporting.
• Monitoring. If a feed fails or data is late, our team and the data owner get an alert the same day.
• What we need from IT: read-only service accounts or API keys, a test environment where possible, and a contact for each system.

The data layer is the same in both cases: integrations, checks, encryption, the KPI registry and rule history. Only the screen on top changes, and we decide it together at Discovery.

Option A: BIG LAB dashboards

• Arabic and right-to-left built in
• Uploads, approvals and comments on the same screen as the KPIs
• No per-user licences for viewers
• All department pages from one template

Option B: your Power BI

• We publish one certified dataset with every KPI and its history
• Reports are built in Power BI, and each department sees only its own data
• Your team keeps working in a tool it already knows
• Uploads and admin stay in the BIG LAB platform; viewers need Power BI licences or Premium capacity

Need a single report rather than a KPI platform? Our dashboards and reporting service covers that.

Build work starts only from agreed definitions. Discovery takes the first weeks of the project and covers every department: we read the existing KPI pages, run a two-hour workshop on site with each department, review the KPI cards together and get the registry signed off. Every data owner then gets a template.

Working rhythm

• Weekly: status with your project manager on progress, open questions and access requests.
• Every two weeks: a demo of working software to the KPI owners involved.
• Monthly: a steering meeting with the project owner on scope, risks and decisions.
• All the time: a shared plan, risk log and decision log you can open at any moment.

Risks and what we do about them

• Access to systems takes longer: we ask for access in week one and start with file exports, so the plan does not wait.
• Poor data quality in source files: row-level checks on upload, fixes at the source and a data quality score per department.
• Departments disagree on a KPI: your project owner decides, and the decision and the reason are recorded in the registry.
• Department staff have little time: two-hour workshops prepared in advance, and we fill in the templates together.
• Scope grows: new KPIs go through the registry, small changes fit into support hours.

Team

A CTO for architecture, security and integrations; developers for the platform, dashboards and integrations; data analysts for department workshops, the KPI registry and data mapping; a project manager; and a designer for dashboards and the upload portal. The project manager and data analysts are based in Dubai and work on site during Discovery and roll-out.

What we need from you

One project owner with the authority to agree KPIs across departments, plus a few hours a week from a data owner in each department, an IT and information security contact, and the owners of each source system.