Many companies collect more data than they can use. The right KPIs cut through that noise and show where your team is doing well and where it can improve.
Bold BI is Syncfusion's embedded, self-service and AI analytics platform, distinct from Bold Reports, BoldDesk and BoldSign.
What's inside this Bold BI whitepaper (PDF)
- What KPIs are, and how they can cover the whole business or a single team.
- Four reasons to use KPIs: visibility, transparency, accountability and clear communication.
- The five groups most KPIs fall into.
- Two questions to ask before you choose KPIs.
- Common KPIs for 10 industries, with how teams use them to make decisions.
- A free PDF, available after a short registration form.
The full PDF covers each of these in depth.
Why should you use KPIs?
The Bold BI whitepaper lists four ways KPIs help a business:
- Visibility: KPIs show where your organization is doing well and where it can improve, so issues are easier to spot and work is easier to prioritize.
- Transparency: KPIs set clear expectations for departments and team members, and show people how their work supports company goals.
- Accountability: KPIs let team members see the results of their work and take ownership of it.
- Clear communication: KPIs replace vague claims with specific numbers when you report to stakeholders and customers.
In Bold BI, the data behind a KPI can come from Excel, CSV or JSON files, among other sources.
Which KPIs should I track?
The Bold BI whitepaper groups most KPIs into five categories: financial metrics, sales figures, marketing metrics, customer satisfaction, and production metrics and costs. The right mix depends on your business, so start with two questions:
- What do you want to accomplish? Name the most important problem your business is trying to solve.
- How will you measure progress? Choose data that is specific and measurable, or you will not be able to track it.
Look beyond the obvious number. If sales are lagging, the whitepaper suggests also tracking marketing impact, the number of potential customers visiting your website, and customer satisfaction.
Bold BI shows KPIs with the KPI Card and Number Card widgets, on data from sources such as Excel, CSV or JSON files.
Common KPIs by industry
The Bold BI whitepaper covers KPIs for 10 industries, and the table below samples them. The full PDF gives the complete KPI list for every industry and explains how teams use them.
| Industry | Sample KPIs |
|---|---|
| Education | Enrollment figures, attendance rates, graduation rates |
| Energy | Plant availability, equipment failure rate, average outage time |
| Finance | Net profit margin, working capital, days sales outstanding (DSO) |
| Healthcare | Patient wait times, readmission rates, bed occupancy rates |
| Hospitality | Revenue per available room (RevPAR), occupancy rate, average daily rate (ADR) |
| Information technology | Average first response time, server uptime and downtime, mean time to repair |
| Insurance | Average time to settle a claim, loss ratio, customer renewal and retention rates |
| Manufacturing | Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), first pass yield (FPY), on-time delivery |
| Marketing | Cost per lead, customer lifetime value (CLV), landing page conversion rate |
| Telecommunications | Subscriber acquisition cost, dropped-call rate, customer churn rate |
The complete KPI lists for all 10 industries, with how teams use them to make decisions, are covered in full in the whitepaper.
Key takeaways from the Bold BI whitepaper
- A KPI is a measurement that tracks progress toward a specific goal.
- Most KPIs fall into five groups: financial, sales, marketing, customer satisfaction, and production and costs.
- Pick KPIs by starting with the problem you want to solve, then choose data you can measure.
- Dashboards make KPIs useful because they show changing numbers at a glance and reveal links between data sets.
- Bold BI shows KPIs with the KPI Card and Number Card widgets, and offers a 30 day free trial.
Track your KPIs in Bold BI
Bold BI has dedicated KPI Card and Number Card widgets for showing KPIs on a dashboard, among 41 Modern widgets in 9 categories. You can connect your data through 145 documented data connectors, build dashboards with no-code drag-and-drop design, and try Bold BI free for 30 days with no credit card.
Frequently asked questions about this Bold BI whitepaper
Questions about this Bold BI whitepaper (PDF).
What is a KPI?
A key performance indicator (KPI) is a measurement that tracks how well an organization is reaching a goal, such as an annual sales target or patient wait times. KPIs can cover the whole business or one team. The Bold BI KPI whitepaper explains how to choose KPIs and lists common ones for 10 industries.
What are the main types of KPIs?
Most KPIs fall into five groups: financial metrics, sales figures, marketing metrics, customer satisfaction, and production metrics and costs. Which groups matter most depends on your goals. The Bold BI whitepaper recommends tracking both large, company-wide KPIs and smaller team-level KPIs to get a complete picture of performance.
How do I choose the right KPIs for my business?
Start with the problem you need to solve, then decide which data will show progress. Each KPI should be specific and measurable, or you cannot track it. The Bold BI KPI whitepaper also suggests looking beyond the obvious metric, for example checking marketing impact and website visitors when sales are lagging.
How can I show KPIs on a dashboard?
In Bold BI, you show KPIs with the KPI Card and Number Card widgets, alongside 41 Modern widgets in 9 categories. You connect your data through 145 documented data connectors and build the dashboard with no-code drag-and-drop design. Bold BI offers a free 30-day trial with no credit card required.
Is the KPI whitepaper free?
Yes. The Bold BI KPI whitepaper is free to download. Fill in the short registration form on this page with your name, email, company and phone number, and you can download the full whitepaper with the complete KPI lists for all 10 industries.
Related Bold BI pages and whitepapers
Explore the Bold BI product pages behind the topics in this whitepaper, and the other free Bold BI whitepapers (PDF) in the Resource Library, which cover embedded analytics from different angles.