{"id":753,"date":"2026-02-27T13:51:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T13:51:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ccfsc-cccs.ca\/cusm\/?page_id=753"},"modified":"2026-03-25T11:05:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T15:05:04","slug":"dashboard-considerations","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ccfsc-cccs.ca\/cusm\/dashboard-considerations\/","title":{"rendered":"Dashboard Considerations"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Dashboards can be powerful tools for tracking progress, supporting collaborative decision\u2011making, and communicating results to leadership, partners, and communities. Choosing the right tool depends on a team\u2019s goals, data maturity, capacity, and budget. The considerations below can be used to guide decision-making.<\/p>

This will be treated as a living resource that can evolve as the CCFSC team continues to expand our practice. The original focus was on shared lessons discussed within the CUSM project<\/a>‘s Community of Practice. Please feel free to reach out<\/a> if you think there are core themes we\u2019ve missed or misrepresented. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Summary<\/h2>

Most widely used business intelligence tools<\/h4>
  • Power BI<\/strong> \u2014 General\u2011purpose BI widely used in organizations already using Microsoft 365.<\/li>
  • Tableau<\/strong> \u2014 Industry-leading tool for complex visualizations and deep data exploration, requiring decent analytics expertise.<\/li>
  • ArcGIS Dashboards (Esri)<\/strong> \u2014 Purpose\u2011built for spatial storytelling; widely used in municipal, public safety, and community planning contexts.<\/li><\/ul>

    Sector\u2011specific planning and performance tools<\/h4>
    • Envisio<\/strong> \u2014 Designed for public sector strategic planning, KPIs, performance reporting, and council\/board dashboards.<\/li><\/ul>

      Other tools sometimes used in government, nonprofits, or research<\/h4>
      • Qlik Sense, Looker, IBM Cognos, Sisense<\/strong>, Domo<\/strong> \u2014 Appropriate when organizations have specialized needs (e.g., embedded dashboards, enterprise-scale data warehousing, or advanced analytics).<\/li><\/ul>

        Key Differences Across Tools<\/h2>

        When comparing dashboard platforms, consider these questions:<\/p>

        • Analytics capability<\/strong>: What level of analysis do you need: simple trend lines or predictive modelling?<\/li>
        • Customization of visuals<\/strong>: Do you need standard charts or highly polished, interactive designs?<\/li>
        • Data size and complexity<\/strong>: What is the scope of data sets?<\/li>
        • Integration with existing systems<\/strong>: What existing systems does your org use that might influence pricing or connectivity with chosen tools?<\/li>
        • AI features<\/strong>: Is it important to be able to leverage AI features (e.g., automated insights, natural language queries, forecasting)?<\/li>
        • Cost and licensing model<\/strong>: What\u2019s the budget and will this be considered per user or org-wide? What are your organizations\u2019 risk tolerance levels with changing license costs?<\/li>
        • Ease of use<\/strong>: Is it important that mostly non-technical staff can use the tools, or will mostly specialists be involved?<\/li>
        • Governance & security<\/strong>: How do key policies or considerations around privacy, storage, access, etc. align with policies for the different tools?<\/li><\/ul>

          When to Choose Each Tool<\/h2>

          Power BI<\/h4>
          • Microsoft ecosystem integration:<\/strong> Your organization already uses Microsoft 365 tools (Azure, Teams, SharePoint).<\/li>
          • Cost-effectiveness:<\/strong> You need strong BI capabilities with lower licensing costs.<\/li>
          • Self-service dashboards:<\/strong> You want staff to be able to build or update dashboards without specialist skills.<\/li><\/ul>

            Power BI fits most small\/medium CSWB teams because it balances cost, capability, and ease of adoption.<\/p>

            Tableau<\/h4>
            • Advanced visualization:<\/strong> You need highly polished, flexible, or interactive visual storytelling.<\/li>
            • Deep data exploration:<\/strong> Your team needs to explore trends, relationships, or geospatial patterns in detail.<\/li>
            • Technical capacity:<\/strong> You have data analysts or staff trained in advanced BI tools with steeper learning curves.<\/li>
            • Diverse data:<\/strong> You rely on many different data sources or require sophisticated blending.<\/li><\/ul>

              Tableau is often the best fit for data-rich organizations and evaluation teams that care about design quality.<\/p>

              ArcGIS Dashboards<\/h4>
              • Place<\/strong>\u2011<\/strong>based analysis:<\/strong> Your CSWB work relies on mapping neighbourhood conditions, community assets, environmental factors, or hotspot trends using location\u2011based indicators.<\/li>
              • Survey<\/strong>\u2011<\/strong>integrated workflows:<\/strong> You collect or manage geographically tagged data through tools like Survey123.<\/li><\/ul>

                ArcGIS Dashboards excel when place, environment, or spatial inequities are core to your project.<\/p>

                Envisio<\/h4>
                • Monitoring of strategic plans:<\/strong> You are monitoring CSWB plans, municipal strategies, KPIs, or performance measures.<\/li>
                • Project management:<\/strong> You need to track actions, timelines, owners, and progress across multiple initiatives.<\/li>
                • Structured reporting:<\/strong> Your primary need is organizational performance reporting\u2014not deep data analytics.<\/li><\/ul>

                  Other Tools<\/h4>

                  Other tools (e.g., Qlik Sense, Looker, Looker Studio, Cognos, Sisense, IBM Cognos Analytics, SAP Analytics\/SAP BusinessObjects BI Suite, Domo) might be worth considering if:<\/p>

                  • Your dashboarding strategy sits within a larger enterprise data strategy<\/li>
                  • You anticipate enterprise\u2011level scaling or extremely large datasets<\/li>
                  • You need embedded dashboards inside your own software or websites<\/li>
                  • You have specialized IT support or unique architecture requirements<\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
                    \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
                    \n\t\t\t\t\t\t
                    \n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
                    More details on other dashboard tools <\/div><\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg><\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/path><\/svg><\/span>\n\t\t<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/summary>\n\t\t\t\t
                    \n\t\t\t\t
                    \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
                    • Qlik Sense<\/strong> \u2014 Self\u2011service BI and data discovery with an associative in\u2011memory engine, allowing flexible ad\u2011hoc exploration and slicing\/dicing of large datasets.<\/li>
                    • Looker<\/strong> \u2014 Cloud\u2011native enterprise BI with a unified semantic layer, strong data governance, and tight integration with Google Cloud and BigQuery.<\/li>
                    • Looker Studio<\/strong> \u2014 Free, lightweight dashboard tool useful for public reporting and simple visualizations, especially if using Google services.<\/li>
                    • Sisense<\/strong> \u2014 Strong for embedded analytics, custom applications, and large\u2011scale BI deployments requiring integrated dashboards inside portals or internal systems.<\/li>
                    • IBM Cognos Analytics<\/strong> \u2014 Enterprise\u2011grade BI and reporting designed for robust governance, scalable reporting, and historical\/complex enterprise reporting needs.<\/li>
                    • SAP Analytics Cloud \/ SAP BusinessObjects BI Suite<\/strong> \u2014 Used by organizations already operating within the SAP ecosystem; strong for planning, enterprise reporting, and data governance.<\/li>
                    • Domo<\/strong> \u2014 Cloud\u2011based BI with strong collaboration features, real\u2011time data ingestion, and broad connector options, useful for teams needing rapid dashboard deployment.<\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/details>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
                      \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

                      Questions to Help Dashboard Selection<\/h2>

                      If your organization has used dashboards before<\/h4>
                      • Which software did you use, and why was it selected?<\/li>
                      • What were the strengths and limitations?<\/li>
                      • How easy or difficult was it to update or maintain?<\/li>
                      • What worked well for communicating results? What created challenges (e.g., data quality, capacity, licensing)?<\/li><\/ul>

                        If your organization has not<\/em> used dashboards before<\/h4>
                        • What decisions do we want dashboards to support?<\/li>
                        • Who are the primary users (internal staff, leadership, council, public)?<\/li>
                        • Do we have reliable data sources? If not, what\u2019s needed to get there?<\/li>
                        • How will dashboards align with our CSWB goals, indicators, and reporting needs?<\/li><\/ul>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                          Dashboards can be powerful tools for tracking progress, supporting collaborative decision\u2011making, and communicating results to leadership, partners, and communities. Choosing the right tool depends on a team\u2019s goals, data maturity, capacity, and budget. The considerations below can be used to guide decision-making. This will be treated as a living resource that can evolve as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":10,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-753","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccfsc-cccs.ca\/cusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccfsc-cccs.ca\/cusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccfsc-cccs.ca\/cusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccfsc-cccs.ca\/cusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ccfsc-cccs.ca\/cusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/ccfsc-cccs.ca\/cusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1418,"href":"https:\/\/ccfsc-cccs.ca\/cusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/753\/revisions\/1418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ccfsc-cccs.ca\/cusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}