Suppose you’ve spent hours and hours, and a whole lot of money targeting areas of needed improvement within your organization.
For example, you may have discovered a need to increase enrollment among first-time college communities and have gone on to implement expert-advised specific practices that you hope will help new generations become new and successful students. To really know if you’re meeting your goals, you will need more than just your total enrollment numbers.
A KPI is simply a Key Performance Indicator that tells you if your company is hitting its goals–what is working or not, so to speak, and if you’re even in the ballpark. A KPI is a measurable benchmark that clarifies how well a company performs against key objectives and priorities–key objectives and preferences that you have decided.
It is important to note that KPIs are not the company objectives or goals themselves, but they’re the measurements that tell you if you’re moving in the right direction along the way or if you need to adjust course.
If you’re a little confused about how to create specific KPIs, don’t worry. Here at Full Stack Data Solutions, we’ve got you covered. We have qualified data engineers who are trained to work with you to create targeted KPIs packed with understandable and invaluable information. It would be shortsighted to think KPIs are only weekly reports. KPIs facilitate a holistic understanding of where an organization’s performance, growth, and health are at any given moment. This allows those in top positions to make critical adjustments to achieve their strategic goals. Creating and evaluating the correct KPIs makes this process faster and more accurate. An effective KPI is based on valid data and must provide a context within the organization’s goals. A skilled data engineer will pair their own experience with the company’s objectives to create the perfect KPIs.
For organizations to grow, effectively serve their clients, and become and stay successful, executives and administrators must make informed decisions based on pertinent data. Using KPIs gives a complete understanding of where the organization or department is currently sitting and what areas need support and growth. KPIs assess objectives to the actual, quantifiable data over a specified period. Let’s say funding sources may be heavy in one area and not another, customers are unintentionally limited to a narrow demographic, students are only being enrolled from wealthier neighborhoods, or maybe donors are earmarking their monies for one group and not another. With a KPI in place, you can sort out the data. And in the example of the donation, you’d be able to see the percentage of funds directed towards a specific scholarship, ensuring that you meet the donation requirement, as well as note the focus needed towards gathering donations for another area of need.
Quality data engineers can create a dashboard, or flash report, with the KPIs that will give an overview of how an individual department, project, business, and everything in between is doing at any given time.
Basically, KPIs show you a snapshot of your business’s moving parts at once.
In 2020 the education industry changed. Institutions that were unable to quickly create an adaptable strategic plan to deal with this change were left in financial and operational trouble.
In higher education, KPIs can evaluate if an institution, program, department, or even a student is progressing towards their goals. Using KPIs lets objectives easily be communicated across your organization and ensures that central goals are at the forefront. This real-time snapshot quickly and efficiently tells you and your employees how your school or organization is doing and lets you pivot when needed so that you are not frantically scrambling at the end of the year. A KPI will allow you to rest easy, knowing that your team has the most accurate information.
A KPI is as important as it is versatile. We create a unique and collaborative environment with our clients to ensure we fully understand their individual needs. Our experts create individually focused actionable KPIs. Working hand-in-hand with you, we will team up to understand your goals and then produce strong KPI strategies. We will help you establish clearly defined business processes and create qualitative and quantitative measurements to determine your KPI needs.
Most organizations will need multiple KPIs. Your KPIs will be unique and focused on your organization’s needs and goals. A quality data engineer can tie the KPIs together, allowing for a single snapshot that incorporates a plethora of indicators. You will be able to track under-performing programs to offer additional help and highlight departments and people exceeding your expectations. Actionable KPIs will ensure that your organization stays viable and meets its goals. Let the experts at Full Stack Data Solutions help you create KPIs that give you a dynamic and holistic understanding of your organization.
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Contact us to see how we can improve your end-to-end data processes by strenghtening your team with our expertise.