The Costly Mistake of Doing it Internally

I’ve seen this scenario play out more times than I can count: a company decides to save money by building internal dashboards or reports. The plan? Hand the task to a graduate or junior employee to tackle in their spare time.

At first glance, it sounds like a win-win—cost savings and a quick, in-house solution. But here’s the reality: this approach rarely works as intended. Let’s break down why.

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The Challenges of Doing It Internally

1. Lack of Expertise in Your Business and Data

Junior employees often don’t have the in-depth knowledge of your business or its data systems to build dashboards effectively. They’ll spend a significant amount of time just getting up to speed—learning your processes, navigating your tools, and understanding what matters most for your reporting needs.

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2. Inefficiencies and Frustration

Building dashboards isn’t a quick task, even for experienced professionals. For someone learning on the job, it’s an uphill battle. The back-and-forth between the grad, your team, and leadership will quickly turn into a time sink. Misunderstandings, misaligned expectations, and revisions will drag the process out further than anyone anticipated.

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3. Missed Opportunities

While the team focuses on figuring out the technical details, the higher-value work—like ensuring data quality or aligning dashboards with strategic priorities—takes a backseat. The result? A dashboard that may technically work but doesn’t deliver the insights your business needs to improve performance.

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Why Outsourcing Is a Smarter Choice

When you work with experts, you’re not starting from scratch. Here’s what you gain:

• Experience Across Industries: Companies like ours have likely worked with businesses similar to yours. We’ve built dashboards that address the same pain points you’re facing, and we know what works.
• Proven Templates and Tools: Instead of reinventing the wheel, we bring pre-built templates and methodologies that fast-track the building process.
• Focus on High-Value Work: By quickly assembling the dashboards, we free up time to focus on critical aspects—like ensuring data quality and aligning the reporting to your strategic goals.

In short, outsourcing allows you to skip the steep learning curve and dive straight into actionable insights.

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The Bottom Line

Building dashboards internally might seem like a cost-effective option, but it often ends up being the opposite. Time is wasted, frustration builds, and the result rarely meets expectations.

By outsourcing to experienced professionals, you ensure the process is efficient, the dashboards are high-quality, and your business can focus on what really matters—improving performance and driving growth.

So, before you hand off your reporting needs to someone learning on the job, ask yourself: is this really saving you time or money?

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