[1] How often do you log into the dashboard as part of your work?
I access it every day. Today, I'm looking at the August monthly report, and I'll compare it to last year, the previous month and the second month after the previous quarter.
On other days, I'll look at loan growth and see what deposits are doing. You can look at loan growth every day and drill down into that.
[2] What's the biggest challenge your bank is facing right now that's easier because you're using this dashboard?
Everybody in banking is trying to figure out what to do with the flat rate environment and declining revenues.
How do you make that work? I have to have an understanding of our expense structure, so it helps to be able to easily access two or three years of data at a few clicks to see what it took, from an expense perspective, to make various parts of the bank work, and how that needs to change today to achieve the best financial results.
All banks have shrunk, at least organically, so if you can see where you are spending money and where you have expense increases, it's a great starting point. If an IT expense has gone up, you can quickly look at comparison data.
[3] Do you use the dashboard to communicate better with other executives, to solve problems faster?
If I'm looking at a report and see a line item that looks high, I can drill down and see where that cost is coming from.
Instead of calling the head of IT and trying to find out where the extra cost is coming from, I actually know.
I can ask [the IT director] about why there's been extra expense from the use of a specific system and then find out why that system has been getting used more.
[4] Do other executives use the dashboard?
The retail [operation] uses the dashboard to assess branches on a daily basis in terms of deposits and how the branches are performing relative to the entire company. You can see deposit outflows, yields, etc.
[5] How are you using this to inform strategic decisions?
We are working to build a performance culture.
The information that I get allows me to see what areas and people are performing well, and that becomes part of the process as I think about where we are going to invest resources.
