A couple years ago, Gallup conducted a survey that categorized employee engagement into three levels. The results showed that, in any given organization, 30% of employees are actively engaged in propelling the company along, half of the employees are just coasting on the efforts of the others, and 20% are actively attempting to disrupt progress within the business. Do you know which of your employees fall into which categories? More importantly, do you know how to improve these conditions?

Executive dashboards often add the "Wow!" factor to Enterprise Resource Planning systems. Those collections of colorful funnels and three-dimensional columns supposedly allow decision-makers to understand their company's key metrics in visual form. However, gorgeous graphs do not automatically equate to intelligent business decisions. True business intelligence (BI) capabilities must be thoughtfully designed and implemented, and the underlying technology must be versatile enough to make those pretty pictures come alive in dynamic and purposeful ways. Here is how smart businesses can leverage this incredible resource.