5 Brutal Truths: Your Qlik Sense Apps Aren’t Driving Executive Decisions (February Edition)

Read time: 2.5 minutes

5 Basic Truths (And How to Correct Them In Qlik Sense)

1. Revenue is not the only information reported. The same is true for revenue risk.

Solution:

• KPI measuring Revenue at Risk

• Include variables to drive win-rate scenarios (e.g., 2% and -5%).

• Show EBITDA impact on the same page as total revenue.

Question for consideration: "What happens if the win rate drops by 3%?"

2. While costs are being measured, sensitivity to margins is not being tracked.

Solution:

• Create a panel tracking Margin Sensitivity.

• Include Cost Inflation scenarios (+1%, +2%, +3%, +4% and +5%).

• Display Gross Margin and Operating Income impacts within same report.

Question for consideration: "If the Cloud Cost increases significantly, what will fail?"

3. Employees are being counted (i.e., headcount), but there is no measure of how productive they are.

Solution:

• Measure Revenue per Employee.

• Measure Gross Profit per Employee.

• Create a trend vs plan using Set Analysis for each measure above (i.e., both Revenue and Gross Profit).

Question for consideration: "Are we increasing overall company size, or are we increasing company costs?"

4. Cash is being measured in the Qlik Sense environment, but no one is aware of how the Cash Runway is affected.

Solution:

• Create Cash Runway scenarios.

• Model a revenue drop (e.g., -10% and -15%).

• Display total number of months cash available.

Question for consideration: "How durable is Q2?"

5. KPIs are displayed visually; however, decision frameworks do not exist, thereby limiting executive decision-making.

Solution: Each executive KPI must include the following:

• Thresholds.

• Financial consequence.

• Clear Action Trigger.

If you do not have a Decision Guide, you will not provide value to Executives.

💡Key Takeaway: 

Variance is emerging already in February, and the board requests visibility into risk. If your Qlik Sense application doesn’t provide immediate answers to “What would happen if…?” it’s not a strategic tool... instead, it’s a decorative piece. Therefore, executive dashboards should provide a view of exposure, sensitivity, and response, as well as guidance to their users.