Does Your FX Dashboard Spark Envy?
A NeuGroup FX Managers' Peer Group member sparked peer envy while going under the hood of the company’s FX dashboard, which is being built internally by a data analytics team with no IT budget, using QlikView, a BI data visualization tool, and Alteryx analytics. The dashboard, now in phase I, provides managers with a single and interactive source for currency exposures, hedge activity, profit impact, market data and indices. It shows FX exposures that allow you to drill down by currency, all in Excel. Would you like to spark envy with your dashboard? Here's how to get there:
- If you have internal resources, use them! Both treasury and senior management win when an internal data analytics team can be tapped to develop a customized solution that, rather than providing yet another report, creates a “one-stop shop” that can answer questions about exposures and their possible impact whenever they arise.
- Avoid redundancies. The dashboard should provide information that is not already provided via periodic reports. It should also be as close to a real-time snapshot as possible.
- Tier your audience. In the case presented, there are many potential users of the dashboard but not all users have access to the same level of detail. That way, the right information goes to the right people. Otherwise, you may end up fielding a lot of additional questions from users and creating more work for yourself rather than less.
- How many users? With a large number of potential users of the dashboard it’s important to consider the licensing or subscription fees of the tools and data feeds you will be using. With a close-to-zero budget, this company made the decision to go with the services mentioned above rather than more expensive options. Also investigate what tools may be included in software subscriptions you are already paying for, such as Power BI in the Microsoft suites.
How to catch up: Two-thirds of NeuGroup FX members say they already have an FX dashboard or have one in development, underscoring the growing interest of treasury in using tools that make use of advances in data visualization to display real-time information to a broad range of stakeholders. But with 80% of members saying their dashboards are still produced with Excel, it’s clear many departments are not yet taking full advantage of the latest technology.
