(Do It Yourself Dashboard)

Recently, Angie of The Learning Channel, turned me on to an article written earlier this month about something interesting the Obama administration is doing – publicly showing real time information about the federal IT portfolio.

The article, titled “Obama administration rolls out 'IT Dashboard'” by Martina Stewart (probably no relation to Martha…..) explains:

“Using charts and graphs, the new dashboard displays IT information by federal agency or department. Users can also share or embed the charts on their own Web sites or blogs or on social sites including Facebook, Twitter, and delicious.”

What a great idea!  How could creating your own dashboard apply to you and your channel?  Consider your MDF (marketing development funds) programs.  The instant benefit to your channel partners is real time information about MDF and related programs they can engage in, which helps their and your ROI alike!  The dashboard can then connect to individual program pages or contacts for the partners to get started.  Of course there are more applications than just MDF programs, but start small, and asking for “What else would partners like to see in real time?”  It’s a great way to expand this concept while keeping your channel partners in mind.

Check out the US Government IT Dashboard here.

WANC
(What a Novel Concept)