Dashboards evolved from executive information systems, which were information systems designed specifically for the information needs of top executives.

Today, however, many employees, business partners, and customers can access an organization’s digital dashboards.

A dashboard provides easy access to timely information and direct access to management reports.

It is user friendly, it is supported by graphics, and, most importantly, it enables managers to examine exception reports and drill down into detailed data.

Below table summarizes the various capabilities common to many dashboards. Moreover, some of the capabilities discussed in this section have been incorporated into many BI products, as illustrated in Figure below.

One outstanding example of a dashboard is the Bloomberg Terminal. Bloomberg LP (www .bloomberg.com), a privately held company, provides a subscription service that sells financial data, software to analyze these data, trading tools, and news (electronic, print, TV, and radio).

All of this information is accessible through a colorcoded Bloomberg keyboard that displays the desired information on a computer screen, either the user’s screen or one that Bloomberg provides.

Users can also set up their own computers to access the service without a Bloomberg keyboard. The subscription service plus the keyboard is called the Bloomberg Terminal. It literally represents a do-it-yourself dashboard, because users can customize their information feeds as well as the look and feel of those feeds (see Figure).