The ability to make data-driven decisions is no longer a competitive advantage. It’s a necessity for the long-term success of your organization.
Your approach to business intelligence should include determining the strategic impact of learning and development with your most valuable commodity — your employees.
As the torchbearer of your organization's learning journey, you understand the incredible power that knowledge holds – which is precisely why you've invested in your organization's growth through learning and development.
But between all the reports, training metrics, and learning data, it’s no secret that Learning and Development (L&D) professionals are inundated with information. So how do you make sense of it all?
How can you extract meaningful insights and turn this abundance of data into actionable knowledge that drives tangible results?
Well, that’s where business intelligence (BI) comes in.
In a nutshell, business intelligence refers to collecting, analyzing, and visualizing data to gain valuable insights into business operations.
By utilizing BI tools and techniques, companies can aggregate vast amounts of raw organizational data to unlock valuable data insights, identify trends, and drive strategic decision-making – ultimately leading to enhanced training effectiveness, improved operational efficiency, and better business outcomes.
Of course, the real question is: What do you do with all the data you collect?
Enter your BI dashboard.
A BI dashboard is a user-friendly interface that consolidates and presents key performance indicators (KPIs), metrics, and trends in a centralized manner. These dashboards serve as a centralized hub, consolidating data from various sources and presenting it in an intuitive and user-friendly format. With a BI dashboard, L&D professionals can access real-time data to monitor training progress, gain valuable insights into learner engagement, performance, and knowledge or skill gaps, measure training effectiveness, and align their initiatives with organizational objectives.
When expressing BI data, the most intuitive BI dashboards offer diverse visualization options that align with your specific needs and objectives.
Interactive Charts and Graphs
Bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, and scatter plots represent data in a visually appealing and informative manner, allowing for quick comprehension of trends, comparisons, and distributions.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
KPIs deliver an at-a-glance performance assessment using concise and focused metrics. They often present performance levels through numerical values, progress bars, or simple indicators, such as traffic light colors (red, yellow, green).
Heat Maps
Heat maps represent data density or intensity using color gradients. They are beneficial for identifying patterns, trends, or anomalies across large datasets. Heat maps can be employed to visualize learner engagement, knowledge gaps, or performance across different areas.
Geospatial Visualizations
Maps and geospatial visualizations can showcase training coverage, regional performance variations, or learner distribution. By leveraging geospatial visualizations, you can gain valuable insights into geographical trends, identify regional disparities, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your L&D strategies.
Timelines and Trends
Visualizing data over time through timelines or trend graphs allows for identifying patterns, seasonality, and long-term progress, enabling you to assess the impact of training initiatives and identify opportunities for improvement.
Drill-Down Functionality
Drill-down functionality allows users to explore specific areas of interest or access granular data. This interactive feature enhances the ability to investigate underlying factors contributing to trends or outliers.
The choice of visualization techniques should align with the nature of the data and the story it aims to convey. Effective BI dashboards balance aesthetics and clarity, ensuring users can easily interpret and extract insights from the presented data.
It may seem daunting to start with BI – particularly given the large amount of organizational data you’ll collect.
However, you don't need to be a data scientist to leverage the power of BI.
While some BI tools may have complex features and require specialized knowledge, other BI platforms are user-friendly and accessible to regular business users. Thanks to intuitive interfaces and simplified workflows, L&D professionals can effortlessly explore data, create insightful visualizations, and gain meaningful insights to drive their L&D initiatives forward without requiring extensive technical skills.
Ready to unlock the full potential of your training data? We’d love to show you how business intelligence can transform your eLearning strategy.
Unlock your data!In the sea of data, where reports, exports, and metrics from various learning systems flood desks, Learning and Development (L&D) professionals face a daunting challenge: deriving actionable insights from this data.
BI enables organizations to go beyond merely presenting raw data; it tells a compelling story about what the data is revealing.
L&D professionals deliver training programs with specific objectives, such as improving employee performance, increasing productivity, or enhancing customer satisfaction.
BI provides the means to measure and track the impact of training initiatives on critical metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs). It also helps organizations understand whether their training efforts positively influence these essential business outcomes.
Here are three ways BI can help improve your organization's metrics and key performance indicators.
Consolidate all your data into one centralized platform
Consolidating your data eliminates data silos and unifies information across different systems or departments.
By having a unified data source, you can ensure data consistency, accuracy, and accessibility, leading to improved decision-making and operational efficiency.
Analyze the relationship between your training results and real-world metrics
BI can demonstrate whether there is a correlation between the effectiveness of your training programs and the desired business outcomes.
This insight helps you identify areas where training has a significant impact and make informed decisions to optimize training strategies.
Leverage advanced analytics to gain predictive insights
Discover the potential impact of improving training engagements or results on your KPIs.
By using machine learning algorithms and statistical models, you can anticipate the outcomes of training initiatives and make data-driven decisions to enhance operational performance.
By utilizing BI for centralized data consolidation, correlation analysis, and predictive analytics, you can unlock the full potential of your data and drive meaningful improvements in your organization's metrics and KPIs.
Training programs often receive scrutiny in challenging times, such as budget constraints or economic disruptions.
Without the ability to provide clear evidence of the value generated by their training programs, they may face missed opportunities for growth, the risk of budget cuts, or worse… complete program cuts.
The good news is that L&D teams that can demonstrate the impact of their initiatives on the business and provide evidence of return on investment (ROI) are more likely to maintain their training budgets – they may even be able to increase them.
BI is crucial in quantifying the value of training investments and showcasing the tangible benefits to stakeholders.
Let’s break down some BI tools and services and explore how they can help your L&D team demonstrate visible ROI.
Ultimately, comprehensive BI services facilitate the demonstration of ROI on training investments by providing data-driven evaluation, cost analysis, performance measurement, alignment with business goals, visual reporting, and long-term tracking.
By leveraging these capabilities, organizations can effectively quantify the benefits of their training programs, showcase the value generated, and make informed decisions regarding future training investments.
Many organizations generate significant reporting data, but their learning systems aren’t equipped to offer data visualizations or actionable insights.
BI tools bridge this gap by offering advanced visualization capabilities, data exploration functionalities, and customizable dashboards – empowering L&D teams to effectively communicate their data, engage stakeholders, and make informed decisions based on comprehensive and visually appealing reports.
With their advanced capabilities, BI tools can augment existing reporting practices in several ways.
Advanced Visualization
BI offers various interactive and visually appealing charts, graphs, and dashboards beyond traditional reporting formats.
These visually engaging representations enable L&D professionals to present data meaningfully and impactfully. Whether bar charts, line graphs, or heat maps, BI provides intuitive visualizations that enhance data comprehension and facilitate better decision-making.
Data Exploration
BI tools offer the flexibility to drill down into specific data points, filter information, and uncover hidden insights. L&D professionals can navigate through complex data sets, identify trends, patterns, and correlations, and gain a comprehensive understanding of the factors that influence training outcomes.
Customizable BI Dashboards
With customizable dashboards, L&D professionals can tailor their reporting views to focus on the metrics and KPIs that matter most to their organization.
More comprehensive dashboards provide a consolidated view of critical data points, allowing L&D teams to monitor training performance, track progress, and effectively communicate the impact of training initiatives.
Automation Capabilities
BI tools can automate data collection, analysis, and reporting processes, saving time, reducing potential errors, and improving efficiency and productivity.
With streamlined workflows, L&D professionals can focus on analyzing insights, identifying trends, and deriving actionable strategies from the data.
From advanced visualization and data exploration to customizable dashboards, real-time reporting, and automation, the right BI tools and services can help your organization elevate its reporting capabilities, better understand training data, and ultimately improve your L&D team’s reporting practices.
Say goodbye to ineffective reporting. Let us help you to turn your data into a dynamic and strategic tool for success.
Let us help you!Are you ready to unlock the power of BI for your L&D initiatives? Fantastic!
We’ll guide you through the essential steps to get started with BI for L&D. From understanding your goals and identifying key metrics to selecting the right BI tools and implementing a robust data strategy – we are here to support you with every step.
So, let's dive in and discover how you can leverage BI to revolutionize your L&D practices and achieve better business outcomes.
When it comes to getting started with BI, it’s not just about accessing data. It’s about accessing the right kind of data. So where do you get that data from?
Our BI services integrate with various systems to capture and analyze essential data points.
By integrating CRM, HRIS, LMS, LXP, and knowledge retention platforms, we offer a comprehensive data integration solution for your L&D initiatives – ultimately enabling you to tap into the power of diverse data sources, allowing you to make informed decisions, optimize training programs, and drive measurable results for your organization.
Accessing data from your information system involves more than knowing where to look.
The real challenge lies in acquiring the data and making it accessible for analysis.
Luckily, many BI tools allow seamless integration with these platforms, offering efficient data acquisition methods.
Several software options are available for building robust and visually appealing BI dashboards. Two popular business intelligence software choices are Power BI and Tableau.
Developed by Microsoft, Power BI is a robust business intelligence platform that offers a wide range of data visualization and analysis capabilities. With its intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality, Power BI allows users to easily connect to various data sources, create interactive dashboards, and generate insightful reports. It supports advanced analytics, data modeling, and collaboration features, making it a versatile tool for L&D professionals.
Developed by SalesForce, Tableau is another leading data visualization software that enables users to transform complex datasets into interactive and visually engaging dashboards. It offers a user-friendly interface and powerful data exploration capabilities, allowing users to blend data from multiple sources, create dynamic visualizations, and uncover meaningful insights. Tableau also provides features for advanced calculations, statistical analysis, and sharing dashboards with stakeholders.
In addition to Power BI and Tableau, there are other software options available for building BI dashboards, including
These tools offer similar functionalities like data connectivity, visualization, interactive dashboards, and analysis capabilities. They provide L&D professionals with the tools and functionalities necessary to access, analyze, and present training data effectively, ultimately driving informed decision-making and improving L&D outcomes.
When selecting the right software for your organization, it is crucial to consider factors such as ease of use, scalability, integration capabilities, and the specific needs of your L&D initiatives.
The cost of BI software can vary significantly depending on several factors, including the software provider, specific features and functionalities, deployment model (on-premises or cloud-based), number of users, and level of support required.
Some BI software providers offer different pricing tiers or packages to cater to the needs of various organizations, while others may provide custom pricing based on specific requirements. Additionally, licensing models can differ, such as per user, per server, or computing capacity.
The estimated costs of Microsoft Power BI, for example.
Power BI Free
Power BI has its Desktop version, which is free for anyone and could help L&D professionals to run BI analytics without the need of a license. However, features such as sharing and collaborating are only available on paid Power BI plans.
Free; with restricted features
Power BI Pro
Designed for individual users or small teams
$10 per user per month
Power BI Premium – Per User
For organizations that have a smaller user base but still need access to premium features
$20 per user per month
Power BI Premium – Per Capacity
Caters to organizations with larger user bases or more extensive data requirements
Starts at $4,995 per month
It's important to note that BI software costs may include upfront licensing, implementation, and training fees, as well as ongoing maintenance and support fees.
Now you must share your findings with your leadership team and key stakeholders.
With the right tools and techniques, you can efficiently distribute and communicate the insights gained from your dashboard. Here are some practical methods for sharing your BI dashboard.
Online Dashboard Sharing
Invite stakeholders to view the dashboard by granting them access to a shared portal or sending them a link. Online dashboard sharing ensures convenient access to the dashboard anytime and anywhere through a web browser. Stakeholders can explore the visualizations, interact with the data, and gain valuable insights.
Exporting and Sharing Reports
Export the contents of your dashboard as reports in various formats, such as PDF, Excel, or PowerPoint. You can choose to generate a snapshot of the entire dashboard or select specific visuals for inclusion in the report, enabling you to share static versions of the insights with stakeholders who may not have direct access to the BI platform, allowing them to review and analyze the findings offline.
Email Distribution
Distribute your dashboard or reports via email. Export the dashboard as an attachment or include links to the online version, facilitating easy access and allowing stakeholders to conveniently receive insights in their inboxes.
Embedding in Presentations or Documents
Enhance your presentations or documents by incorporating visuals from your BI dashboard. Capture screenshots or export specific visuals and integrate them into slides, Word documents, or other relevant materials.
Collaboration and Team Sharing
Utilize the collaboration features offered by your BI platform. Invite stakeholders to join the platform or specific projects, enabling them to access the dashboard, contribute their insights, add comments, and collaborate with other team members.
Native Mobiles Apps
Securely access and view live Power BI dashboards and reports on any mobile device, with native mobile BI apps for Windows, iOS, and Android.
By selecting the most suitable sharing method based on the nature of the data insights and the preferences of your stakeholders, you can effectively communicate the findings derived from your BI dashboard and facilitate informed decision-making across your organization.
Do you want help to start your BI project? We're here to assist with anything you need.
Find out more!Transforming BI insights into actionable items requires a thoughtful and strategic approach. Consider the following strategies as you navigate this process.
With intuitive and customizable BI dashboard features, you can create visually stunning visualizations that captivate your stakeholders. Using charts, graphs, and infographics, you can effectively communicate key findings and facilitate better stakeholder understanding. Moreover, the interactive and dynamic nature of the dashboards ensures that stakeholders can easily explore and interpret the data, empowering them to make informed decisions based on the insights presented.
Correlation analysis is a valuable tool for linking training outcomes to real-world results on different metrics and KPIs. While it cannot prove causation, it does help identify relationships between variables. When one value goes up or down, the other tends to exhibit a similar trend.
Testing correlation analysis is essential to understanding how training impacts various outcomes.
Correlations can be categorized into three types:
By examining correlations, you can uncover hidden patterns and connections that drive actionable insights for your training initiatives. It allows you to determine if there is a relationship between training results and real-world performance.
Analyze the correlation between training results and sales performance or product knowledge to evaluate how well training prepares your sales team
A strong positive correlation indicates that effective training positively impacts sales outcomes (and vice versa).
This analysis guides improvements in training programs, addressing skill gaps, adopting different approaches, and providing additional support materials to optimize sales performance.
Explore the correlation between employee retention, turnover, and onboarding survey results to evaluate the effectiveness of your onboarding programs
A positive correlation suggests that positive onboarding experiences contribute to longer employee retention. You can use this information to identify specific aspects of onboarding that contribute to higher employee satisfaction and retention.
Insights from this analysis refine onboarding programs, making them engaging, informative, and supportive to enhance employee satisfaction and reduce turnover rates.
Review safety training completion rates versus accident/incident rates to assess safety protocols and training programs
A strong negative correlation indicates that higher completion rates lead to lower accident or incident rates, highlighting the importance of well-trained employees in promoting a safe work environment.
This analysis identifies gaps in safety training, enabling improvements in clarity, relevance, and delivery methods to reduce workplace incidents.
Evaluate customer satisfaction ratings versus customer service representatives' product knowledge scores to measure the impact of product knowledge on customer satisfaction.
A strong positive correlation reveals that employees with higher product knowledge deliver better customer service and increase customer satisfaction.
Insights from this analysis inform tailored training programs focusing on enhancing product knowledge, ensuring comprehensive training, updates, and resources to improve customer service quality and satisfaction.
Review discrepancies between employee knowledge assessments and performance data to identify and address knowledge gaps and misconceptions.
By comparing the two variables, you can uncover specific knowledge gaps, allowing you to take targeted actions such as providing additional training or resources to address them.
You can tailor your training and development initiatives by leveraging correlation insights to bridge these knowledge gaps and improve overall performance.
Looking to turn your BI metrics into a plan that will help your organization grow and succeed?
We can help with thatWhether you're taking your first steps or looking to elevate your existing learning data strategy, when starting your BI project with a consultant, the cost is one of the most significant factors to consider.
Determining the specific pricing for BI consulting services can vary depending on several factors, including the scope of the project, the complexity of data analysis required, the duration of the engagement, and the consultant's expertise. It's important to note that pricing models can differ among different consultancies, and they may offer various options to suit your organization's needs.
Here are a few standard pricing models for BI consultant services:
Data Analysis and Reporting
Insights from this analysis inform tailored training programs focusing on enhancing product knowledge, ensuring comprehensive training, updates, and resources to improve customer service quality and satisfaction.
$2,000–$10,000
Custom Dashboard Development
It involves developing customized dashboards tailored to your organization's L&D needs. It includes designing visually appealing and interactive dashboards that provide real-time insights into learner engagement, progress, and training metrics. The price range may vary based on the dashboard's complexity and the required data integration level.
$5,000–$20,000
Full-Service BI Partnership
It offers end-to-end BI consulting services, including data analysis, reporting, dashboard development, advanced analytics, predictive modeling, data strategy, and ongoing support.
It provides a comprehensive solution for organizations seeking a long-term partnership with a BI consultant to drive their L&D initiatives. The pricing depends on the breadth of services, project duration, and ongoing support requirements.
$20,000+
It's important to note that the pricing ranges provided are general estimates, and the actual cost will depend on factors such as the size of your organization, the complexity of data sources, customization requirements, and the duration of the engagement. You should discuss with BI consultants directly to get accurate pricing information based on your specific needs.
Having delved into BI, assessed its potential for improving your training and development initiatives, and explored the initial steps required to implement it in your L&D practices, it's time to take your data-driven journey to the next level.
But what does the next step look like?
As you navigate the world of data analytics, you may consider embarking on your BI journey independently. You may also consider partnering with a general BI consultant.
However, working with a consultant specializing in BI for learning and development is crucial to truly harness the power of data and amplify the impact of your L&D initiatives.
Partnering with a specialized BI consultant can provide invaluable advantages, including
While a general BI consultant may offer a range of services, partnering with a specialized BI consultant for L&D ensures that you receive tailored solutions, deep insights, and a comprehensive understanding of the specific challenges and opportunities within the learning and development space. Their expertise, specialized tools, and proven track record in L&D analytics empower you to optimize your training initiatives, enhance learning outcomes, drive tangible business outcomes, and help you stay ahead in today's data-driven world.
As you research and evaluate the many BI consultants available, you may wonder, “How can I narrow down a shortlist of candidates?”
So, here are seven key considerations to help you choose the right BI consultant for your organization.
By considering these key factors when evaluating a consultant, you can make an informed decision and choose a partner that aligns with your L&D goals and can effectively support your BI project.
Want a dedicated BI consulting partner? We're ready to excel your expectations with our BI consulting services.
At Neovation, we understand the challenges of managing a BI project and extracting meaningful insights from your data. That's why we offer a dedicated team of experts through our BI Experts. Whether you require support for a specific period or an ongoing partnership, we're here to ensure the success of your BI initiatives.
Meet Roberto, part of Neovation’s Administrative group – his experience as an Operations Analyst will help you uncover the meaning to your data-driven story with business intelligence services and consulting.
Similar to being a fractional member of your team, our Neovation BI Experts provide you with the specialized skills and knowledge required to optimize your BI platform. Here are some ways we can assist you.
Guided Training and Coaching
Our experienced coaches can guide you through your BI project, leveraging the strengths of your platform while sharing expert tips and best practices.
Temporary Team Augmentation
If you have a missing team member due to illness, parental leave, or other circumstances, we can provide short or long-term replacements to ensure a smooth workflow.
Data Integration and Transformation
We can help you integrate and transform data from various sources such as Learning Management Systems (LMS), HR databases, sales data, performance management tools, etc. Ensure data is clean, standardized, and ready for analysis in Power BI.
Power BI Implementation
Our BI experts can assist your organization in implementing Power BI for your L&D department. This includes configuring data sources, designing data models, and setting up Power BI dashboards and reports.
Power BI Dashboard Development
We can support your organization by designing customized Power BI dashboards tailored to your L&D department. We can create interactive visualizations that provide insights into learning activities, learner engagement, completion rates, and other relevant metrics.
Report Automation
Neovation data analysts can automate generating and distributing your organization’s L&D reports using Power BI. Set up scheduled data refreshes, report generation, and distribution workflows to ensure your L&D professionals can access up-to-date information.
Data Modeling and Analysis
Our team can assist you with building robust data models in Power BI that capture relevant L&D metrics and KPIs. Perform data analysis and create calculated measures to gain insights into learning outcomes, skills development, and training effectiveness.
Interactive Self-Service Analytics
For organizations with data analysis capabilities and skills, our BI experts can enable self-service analytics for L&D stakeholders by developing user-friendly Power BI reports and dashboards. These tools empower L&D professionals to explore data, build reports on demand, create ad-hoc visualizations, and derive actionable insights without relying on technical support.
Power BI Training and Workshops
Our BI experts provide training programs and workshops to upskill your organization’s L&D professionals in data analysis tools like Power BI. We can cover topics such as data modeling, report creation, data visualization best practices, and advanced Power BI features.
Data Governance and Security
Strong security policies? Our BI experts can assist your organization in establishing data governance frameworks and security measures specific to Power BI. Ensure compliance with data privacy regulations, define access controls, and implement data security protocols.
Performance Tracking and Evaluation
Utilize Power BI to track and evaluate the performance of learning programs, assess learner progress, and measure the impact of training initiatives. Provide visualizations and reports that enable L&D professionals to make data-driven decisions.
Power BI Consulting and Support
Need to manage your analytics in-house? We offer ongoing consulting and support services for your Power BI users in the L&D department. We can assist with troubleshooting, report optimization, performance tuning, and answering technical queries.
Data Visualization and Storytelling
Let our BI experts help your L&D professionals to communicate insights effectively through data storytelling and visualization techniques in Power BI and create compelling visualizations, interactive reports, and data narratives to engage stakeholders and drive action.
Power BI Best Practices and Optimization
With our experience in BI, our team can guide you with Power BI best practices, including data modeling, report design, performance optimization, and scalability. We help your organization leverage the full potential of Power BI for your L&D analytics needs.
No matter your needs or organizational structure, our BI experts can work seamlessly with your existing setup. We offer complete BI services, tools, and support, ensuring you receive the customized services you need.
At Neovation, we're committed to helping you make the most of your BI project. Let us be your trusted partner in driving actionable insights and achieving organizational success.
Reach out to us and we’d be happy to understand your needs and give you a free quote!
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Manager, Retail Education and Training