Item: iDashboards Enterprise Suite
Rating: 7
Author: Tim Gossett

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have a CRM that is very manual and does not provide any dashboards whatsoever. Idashboards provides a bridge to that gap to look at the state of our business in several capacities, from marketing lead generation and conversions all the way to the forecasting for our schools. It allows us to look at things from different angles in a rapid fashion in order to make improvements and address problems as needed.

Pros and Cons

As long as the creator of the dashboard keeps the user experience in mind, it is very intuitive for end users.
Dashboard creation and chart creation is relatively easy and can be as robust as needed.
Drilldown features are strong and can be linked within dashboards.
User management is very easy from an administrative standpoint.

Relatively low limit on the data sources (10 MB). For companies that want to intertwine a lot of data, this could prove problematic.
Anything that is beyond some basic yes/no questions can be cumbersome in terms of set up--programming is something that is needed.
Because it is not set up as a direct link to any CRM, this tends to make iDashboards isolated and non-relational.

Alternatives Considered

We have Tableau for more BI things, and we utilize this solely for information, reports, and what not. The visual aspect of Tableu is more difficult to create from a dashboard perspective, and in order to deploy this to other users, it requires an additional purchase of a server or licenses. Idashboards, on the other hand, is more flexible and is available on the web for users to see at anytime. While the creation of charts and reports in idashboards is a bit more cumbersome than Tableau, both serve the purpose for what we need.

Likelihood to Renew

We are actually going to be going to a CRM that has built in customizable dashboards that is relational. By having this available, we will no longer need iDashboards. However, us doing this was in no way a "driver" as to a negative reflection on iDashboards. It just made sense to have a one stop shop.

Likelihood to Recommend

It would be wise to ask about the creation of dashboards and charts in terms of the "BI" or "analytics" portion. What iDashboards shows you during demos is very slick, but I would ask to see the "how" behind it to get a full understanding as to how complex some of these items can be to create. Likewise, be deliberate prior to the conversation as to the things you want to see and ask those questions very specifically.

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Price
Product Features
Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor
Analyst Reports

We needed a solution that our CRM could not provide at all. This meant having reporting available to a diverse set of users that could be accessed quickly and efficiently. We did not want to spend a lot in order to do that (who does?), and idashboards provided that type of solution.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

Not necessarily change anything in terms of the scoping, but perhaps would have loved to have seen our data in a demo in order to see the full impact, as well as the how to get there in order for us to see what technically was needed to administer the product.

iDashboards is a great tool for basic dashboards/charts for mid to small businesses

Overall Satisfaction with iDashboards Enterprise Suite