The BrightGauge Blog

Raise your hand if you love new integrations. To be honest, we get really pumped about announcing new datasources we’ve added. Our latest is a big one: Auvik! Many of you have been anticipating this and we’re happy to tell you that it’s now available to connect with. Auvik is an efficient and profitable way for MSPs to manage network infrastructure by providing awareness about network devices and notifications for events, usage, and health stats. When you integrate BrightGauge and Auvik, you get the visibility you need to stay ahead of network issues and protect your client’s business operations. How to connect to Auvik Important note: Auvik API access must be first granted to your account in order to get started with this integration. To do this, please contact your partner success manager at Auvik and request access. Once you have access, it takes just a couple more steps. When you’re in your BrightGauge overview page, click on DATA to get the dropdown menu, then select Datasources. Select Auvik from the RMM category, follow any prompts, and that should get you set up. If you’re looking for more detailed instructions, please check out our Auvik support doc. Want to sign up for BrightGauge? Contact our sales team today to schedule a live one-on-one demo. What do I get out of the box? It’s quite important to have access to your data right away, because you’ve got work to do! This is especially true when it comes to something as sensitive as your client’s networks. So, when you integrate with Auvik, you’re going to find 20 pre-built gauges, 5 default dashboards, and 1 default report to help you get things started. Gauges The default gauges that come with the Auvik integration involve all the details surrounding your client’s networks. Gauges include Device Details, Entity Audits by Week, Interfaces by Op Status, Offline Printers, Servers, and Workstations, Scan Status by Network Type, and Total Devices. Dashboards These pre-built dashboards break up your network statistics into different buckets to give you a 10,000 foot view of your important metrics. The 5 dashboards are Devices, Entity Audits, Entity Notes, Interfaces, and Networks. Report One default report will give you a running start on being transparent and building up trust with your clients. The Auvik Summary compiles your client’s network metrics and shows them exactly how you’ve been keeping things running. If you’ve got questions about our Auvik integration, please feel free to submit a support ticket or contact us and we’ll be happy to help you out.

Advice relating to good business practices can be endless (and beneficial). Determining what makes one business successful over another is not always black and white. But there’s one rule of thumb that everyone can seem to agree on: trust and transparency are key when it comes to maintaining long-term relationships that are a pillar for success. It’s really quite simple to understand. If clients trust you, then they’ll stick with you and they’ll tell other people about you, which means you’ll gain more and better business, which means more cash will be flowing in. There are many ways to build up trust, and it all comes down to being reliable and consistent. Build trust by sending out executive client reports As an MSP, your clients are paying you for specific and really important services. When an SLA was signed, the client gave you their trust in exchange for your word. But that sort of blind trust is not sustainable. Now it’s on you to prove your worth and show that you’re true to your word. That is precisely what client reports help you do. When you send reports to clients, you are literally showing how you are or are not meeting your SLA points. Since they report on both the good and the bad, reports make you really transparent. You’re not hiding behind anything and you’re not skirting the truth. Think about how good and credible this makes you look. But we’ve heard from many peers in our industry that MSPs are shying away from sending regular reports simply because they are incredibly time-consuming and complicated to create. Typically, creating custom reports involves pulling data from whatever PSA, RMM, or other tool you’re using, spitting that data into an Excel spreadsheet, creating pivot tables and complex formulas, digging for the results you’re looking for, and then converting those results into digestible charts. We know from experience that this can eat up 8 to 10 hours a week. The importance of reports is clear but dedicating a full workday to creating them is not a very efficient use of time. The loss of productivity that comes with focusing on that versus revenue-generating tasks can end up harming your business in the end. BrightGauge solves the client reporting dilemma Creating custom executive client reports doesn’t have to be painful and it doesn’t have to mean sacrificing other areas of your business. With BrightGauge, it takes just a few minutes to generate powerful reports that are custom, interactive, and automated. If you’re worried about what exactly to include in your reports, you can start by using one of our pre-built templates. Whether you integrate with ConnectWise Manage, QuickBooks, Veeam, Webroot, IT Glue, or any of our datasources, we offer default templates that are automatically available in your account. Templates can still be customized to your preference. Regardless of if you choose to start from scratch or use a pre-built, you can save your report as a template and schedule it to go out automatically on the date and time you choose, to the recipients you want. What used to take 10 hours a week now takes a couple of minutes. Even better, the payoff is huge because clients can rest easy knowing a comprehensive report will be delivered to their inboxes on a consistent basis. As you look towards the future of your MSP, consider implementing this solid business practice. Don’t be surprised if your churn rate starts improving. Want to see BrightGauge reports, dashboards, and gauges in action? Contact us today to schedule a live one-on-one demo.

We have exciting news! We’re building up our suite of ConnectWise integrations and we’re happy to announce that we now integrate with ConnectWise Sell. A lot of our users have been requesting this, and it is now available for you to connect with. ConnectWise Sell is a quoting and proposal software that makes it easier and more hassle-free to conduct your sales business, as it is all built in the cloud and eliminates the need to use complicated spreadsheets. Paired with BrightGauge, it becomes really easy to keep an eye on the status and results of all your quotes. How to connect to ConnectWise Sell If you’re already a BrightGauge user, then you know how simple it is to connect with any of the datasources in our stack. When you’re in your BrightGauge overview page, click on DATA to get the dropdown menu, then select Datasources. Find ConnectWise Sell, follow any prompts, and that should get you all set up. If you’re looking for further instructions, please read our ConnectWise Sell support doc. Just checking out BrightGauge for the first time? We’ll show you around with a live one-on-one demo - just contact our sales team today. What do I get out of the box? When bringing you new datasources, our priority is to get you viewing your data as soon as possible. Before releasing any integration, we make sure to pre-build gauges, dashboards, and reports to get you started on the right foot. After all, what good is data if you can’t get to it? With ConnectWise Sell, you’ll get 12 gauges, 1 dashboard, and 2 reports to kick things off. Gauges Our default ConnectWise Sell gauges include Count of Quotes by Quote Status, Count of Quotes by Year, Gross Margin, Open Quotes, Quotes Approved Last 30 Days, and more. Dashboard One pre-built dashboard is going to give you visibility into your total revenue on open opportunities, your gross margin for the year, and plenty of information on any open quotes. Reports Transparency is key to any successful relationship. When it comes to business relationships, reports are a powerful way to build trust. To help you get on the right track, you’ll get 2 report templates when you integrate with ConnectWise Sell. The Quote Overview reports on all open quotes by customer while the Sell Overview reports on all quotes approved in the last 30 days as well as those expiring in 30 days. Used internally, these reports will do a whole lot to get your entire team aligned. If you’ve got questions about our ConnectWise Sell integration, please feel free to submit a support ticket or contact us and we’ll be happy to help you out.

Great news! We now integrate with Veeam Availability Console. Many of our users have requested this capability, and we’re happy to announce that this datasource is now available to connect with. Veeam Availability Console (VAC) is a cloud-enabled platform for centralized management and monitoring of data protection operations and services. The solution is intended for physical and virtual environments protected with Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows and Veeam Backup & Replication. When you integrate BrightGauge + VAC, you’ll be able to maintain constant visibility into your entire backup infrastructure, so you can be sure that everything is running properly. How to connect to Veeam Availability Console It’s really easy to connect with any of the datasources in our stack. From your BrightGauge overview page, click on DATA to get the dropdown menu, then select Datasources. Find Veeam Availability Console, follow the prompts to get connected, and you should be all set. If you’re looking for more help, please read our Veeam Availability Console support doc. Are you new to BrightGauge? We’ll happily walk you through a live one-on-one demo! Just contact our sales team today. What do I get out of the box? Whenever we add a new datasource to our stack, we take the time to figure out which metrics would matter most to our users and we set out to pre-build gauges, dashboards, and reports that are automatically available with each datasource. We do this because we want you to be able to access your data immediately. With VAC, you’re going to get 11 default gauges, 1 dashboard, and 1 report template to get you started. Gauges The pre-built VAC gauges you’ll get include Backup Quotas, Backup Repository Details, Backup Space Per Repository, Job Details, Jobs Run - Current Week, Jobs by Status, Repositories by Health State, Repository Errors, Repository Ok, and Repository Warnings. Dashboards Your pre-built dashboard is going to give you a bird’s eye view of your repository health states, backup details, and jobs by status. Reports The pre-built VAC report template makes it easy to share repository, jobs, and backup details with your clients or your internal teams. If at any time you have questions about your Veeam Availability Console integration, please submit a support ticket or contact us and we’ll be happy to lend you a hand.

First Stop IT got its start in the UK when the founders felt that they could take IT Support into their own hands and improve upon the process. With 18 years of experience, First Stop IT has been helping small to medium sized businesses with their technology issues. In 2017, First Stop IT became a BrightGauge customer in hopes that it would help them improve the way they run their business. We chatted with Gemma Staines, Owner & Managing Director, to learn more. First Stop IT’s mission First Stop IT wants to help customers maximize their investment in employees and find business success all through the use of technology. To do this, they rely on great customer service, learning each customer’s specific business needs and going above and beyond to exceed their expectations. An appreciation of the value of excellent service extends beyond their customers and into their own First Stop IT team. “Since we started in 2000, we’ve held onto our core values of teamwork and taking ownership of our client’s problems,” says Gemma. The kind of reputation they’ve built for themselves is what drives First Stop IT clients to refer their provider to others, which is increasingly important as the company continues to grow. When they discovered BrightGauge, it seemed like a tool that would strengthen the First Stop IT team, keeping their reputation intact. Becoming a BrightGauge customer According to Gemma, the BrightGauge interface has the single most intuitive GUI on the market. “The power of BrightGauge is in its simplicity,” says Gemma. Having this tool at their fingertips has made a significant impact on First Stop IT, both internally and externally. As a team, BrightGauge has helped First Stop IT reach a higher level of visibility, from staff KPIs to department targets. “Giving all employees a running commentary on how they’re doing each day has proved to be really motivational. Plus, it’s created some healthy competition within our office,” says Gemma. Externally, BrightGauge has given First Stop IT a valuable edge over their competitors. When pitching to larger clients, having BrightGauge in their back pockets helps them stand out. “Generally, we find the bigger the client, the more they expect a certain level of account management and reporting. With BrightGauge, we’re able to report on just about anything our client’s heart’s desire. This has proven invaluable for customer retention and customer negotiation,” says Gemma. Go-to BrightGauge features At First Stop IT, BrightGauge dashboards are at the heart of their operation. They have 3 large screens in their office that display dashboards day in and day out, with data coming from ConnectWise Manage and ConnectWise Automate. Specifically, their “How are we doing today?” dashboard monitors their helpdesk tickets and alerts. It shows tickets that haven’t met their SLA yet, live figures on how everyone is doing at logging their time and closing tickets, and kill rate % for the whole helpdesk team. BrightGauge dashboards have just given their team members a level of visibility they hadn’t previously experienced, in turn fostering a stronger culture of accountability and visibility. The added power of reports has given First Stop IT a welcome boost. “We’ve been able to report on metrics that we couldn’t before. Between the two datasources we integrate with, BrightGauge allows us to report on 90% of the activity in our business,” says Gemma. Surprising benefits of using BrightGauge BrightGauge has shown First Stop IT the behavior of not only all the endpoints they’re entrusted with, but also with the inner workings of their own company. Gemma says it best: “By opening up this black box of information, it has enabled us to improve moral, team building, efficiency, customer service, and response times. Additionally, the data we can collate and present to clients has given them a much better understanding of their own systems and staff training needs. BrightGauge has empowered us to deliver an outstanding level of service to the SMB market.” It’s thoughts like these that push us to deliver you a tool that meets your needs on a daily basis. Thank you Gemma and First Stop IT for being an awesome BrightGauge customer!

We’ve got a new integration to announce! Jamf is now available for you to connect to and start pulling data from. Jamf is a mobile device management tool that helps you manage your Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV devices. Jamf provides a great way for organizations to streamline their device management by simplifying the required processes. When you integrate BrightGauge and Jamf, you’ll get a real-time view of how many devices you have by model, licensed software information, the operating systems being used on your computers, purchasing information for your mobile devices, and much more. How to connect to Jamf Connecting to any of our existing datasources is really simple to do. Just Head to your BrightGauge overview page and click on DATA to get the dropdown menu, then select Datasources. Find Jamf, follow the prompts to enter your credentials, and you should be set up within a few minutes. If you need more help, please read our Jamf support doc. Not yet a BrightGauge customer? We’ll happily walk you through a live one-on-one demo if you’d like! What do I get out of the box? What good is data if you have a hard time accessing it? We want you to start seeing and making use of your data as soon as you get connected, which is why we always offer pre-built gauges, dashboards, and reports with all of our integrations. With Jamf, you’ll see that 30 default gauges, 3 dashboards, and 2 reports are automatically available in your account when you connect, which should be a good start to your data management experience. Gauges With 30 pre-built gauges, monitor devices using Adobe Acrobat, Firefox, and Microsoft Office, or count how many MacBook Pro, iMac, and iPad Minis you manage, or see the operating systems on each computer, your licensed softwares, and so much more. Dashboards You’re going to get 3 default dashboards with your Jamf integration: Jamf Computers, Jamf Licensed Software, and Jamf Mobile Devices. These essentially take your gauges and put them into buckets, so it’s easier to digest the data you care about. Reports Two reports help you get the ball rolling when it comes to showing your clients or your internal teams what’s going on with their Apple stats: Jamf Computers and Mobile Devices and Jamf Licensed Software - Monthly Summary. If you’re tasked with managing multiple Apple devices and use Jamf to help, you might be interested in adding BrightGauge to your stack. If you’ve got questions, support ticket or contact us and we’ll be glad to help you out.

If you’ve just become a BrightGauge customer, you’ve probably got lots of questions, and we’re here to help every step of the way! One thing most users want to know right off the bat is how they can access their default ConnectWise gauges, dashboards, and reports. With ConnectWise and every datasource we offer, we take the time to figure out what metrics and KPIs would matter most to our users and we pre-build any gauges, dashboards, and reports possible so that you can start monitoring your data immediately. It’s our mission to help you run a better business by having data-driven insights, but if you can’t get to that data, then what good is it to you? So, anytime you add a new datasource to your account, you’re going to get access to whatever defaults come with that integration. It happens automatically, and we’ll tell you how to (easily) find what you need. We highly recommend that each time you add a new datasource, you take the time to go through all of the defaults available so you don't end up recreating something that already exists. Pre-built gauges Your default gauges are going to be really easy to get to. From your BrightGauge overview page, click on GAUGES on the top left. On the next screen, you’re going to find a list of all the gauges available in your account. If you just signed up for BrightGauge and you are only connected to one datasource, like ConnectWise Manage, then all of the gauges listed will be your default ConnectWise Manage ones. But, if you’ve been a BrightGauge user for some time and have built your own gauges, or if you connect to several datasources, there’s an easy way to sort for your defaults. On the left side of the screen, click the arrow in the Datasource field to access the drop-down menu and then find the datasource you’re interested in, like ConnectWise Manage. Once you’ve made your selection, you’ll see a whole list of gauges that pertain to that specific datasource. If it says ‘BrightGauge Admin’ in the ‘Last Modified By’ column, then you’ve got yourself a default. Pre-built dashboards From your BrightGauge overview screen, click on DASHBOARDS, either in the top nav or the card on the page. Again, if you’ve just signed up for BrightGauge and you’ve only integrated with ConnectWise, then all the dashboards listed will be your defaults. But, if you’ve built your own dashboards or have multiple datasources connected, you can usually tell which ones are default dashboards because we tend to tag them as ‘BGS - Dashboard Name’. Pro tip: got some dashboards you frequent more than others? Save it as a ‘Favorite’ so you can come back to it faster. Pre-built reports From your BrightGauge overview screen, select REPORTS either from the top nav or the card on the page. Click on Templates on the left-side of the page and you’ll see a list of all the reports you have saved. Anything that says ‘BrightGauge Admin’ in the ‘Created By’ column means that it’s a default report. Can I modify my defaults? Yes, of course! These defaults are just meant to get you up and running immediately, but you can absolutely filter them for the exact information you need. For everything you need to know about filters, read this. And, there’s always the option to build your own gauges, dashboards, and reports. It’s fun :) Data management can seriously change the way you run your business The time that you’re going to save and the insights that you’re going to gain by having this data at your fingertips can change your day-to-day drastically. You’re going to have a lot more time to focus on revenue-generating tasks and you’re going to have real numbers and trends that will help you make sharper business decisions. Use these defaults to help you get started, since it requires no set up on your end. Once you’ve got an idea of the data you’re tracking and what could be more useful to you, then you can make the necessary changes to suit your needs. Happy data-viewing! And remember, if you need help along the way, always feel free to drop us a line.

Announcing the latest datasources to join our growing list of integrations: Kaseya VSA Cloud! This is currently available for you to connect with and start pulling data from. Kaseya VSA Cloud is a remote monitoring management (RMM) solution that allows you to manage your endpoints and your infrastructure simultaneously. For MSPs, it’s a really efficient way to get a handle on client’s devices. When you integrate BrightGauge + Kaseya VSA Cloud, you’ll get a bird’s eye view of your machine statistics, server statuses, and more. You may know that we already offer Kaseya VSA on-premises, and now we’re happy to support Kaseya SaaS customers as well. How to connect to Kaseya VSA Cloud This is really simple to do. Just head to your BrightGauge overview page and click on DATA to get the dropdown menu, then select Datasources. Find Kaseya VSA Cloud and follow the prompts to get connected. If you’re looking for more help, check out our Kaseya VSA Cloud documentation. If you’re new to BrightGauge and would like a live one-on-one demo, please contact our sales team today. What do I get out of the box? Like any of our integrations, we want you to start viewing your data immediately, so we’ve pre-built some gauges, dashboards, and reports to get you started. Please note that we are adding to this list and more defaults will soon become available. Currently, with Kaseya VSA Cloud you’re going to get 11 gauges and 1 dashboard to get you started. Stay tuned for more to come. Gauges Your default Kaseya VSA Cloud gauges include: Server Disk Space Used, Server Disk Utilization by Drive, Server Disk Utilization by Machine, Server Inventory, Server Operating System, Servers, Servers Offline, Workstation Disk Space Used, Workstation Operating System, Workstation Warranty Expiration Year, and Workstations. Dashboard Your default Kaseya VSA Cloud dashboard is going to provide a bird’s eye view of the important machine data you’re monitoring, putting it all on a single pane of glass that makes it easy to see what’s going on at any given moment in time. If at any time you have questions about your Kaseya VSA Cloud integration, submit a support ticket or contact us and we’ll be glad to help you out.

Customer is king. It’s a philosophy we strongly believe in, and for good reason. Everything we do is for our customers. We want to make sure they are getting real value out of our product and feel like they have a strong support system backing them up. At the end of the day, unhappy customers won’t be advocates for your product or service and they won’t stick around for the long-run, which is no bueno for business. That’s why we are constantly monitoring customer satisfaction and why we recommend it as a smart business practice for all MSPs. What CSAT scores mean Customer Satisfaction is a measure of the degree to which a product or service meets the customer’s expectations. CSAT scores tell a company a lot about how they are doing. These numbers provide insight into operational efficiency, customer’s concerns, and strengths. Peter Drucker famously said, “What gets measured gets managed”, a quote that most definitely applies to customer satisfaction. If you’re not checking in with your customers to get feedback, how can you ever improve upon your offerings? Your customers are the people who are using your product or service day in and day out. They are rightfully going to be critical of what you offer because their assessment will be based on how helpful or not your product or service was to them. Most likely, your organization’s mission is to help your customer in some way, and a CSAT score is a very telling way to figure out if you’re doing that. Where CSAT scores are useful At first thought, it seems that CSAT scores are solely reserved for the service industry. If you’ve dined out recently, you may have noticed a quick on-screen survey at the end of your purchase. It could even be a prompt to choose between 3 smiley faces: This is a CSAT prompt that allows customers to leave a really quick review about the service they were just provided. Of course, this can apply to your service desk also. After closing a support ticket, a user may be cued to review their experience in order to provide your techs with insight. It’s really important to track CSAT at this level. Oftentimes, your support techs will be the first line of communication with customers, so it’s critical to keep this team in check. Not only do you need to ensure they are acting friendly and professionally, but you need to know whether their responses are adequate enough. Is the customer satisfied? Is the customer’s concern being addressed with the least amount of friction possible? Is your customer given advice about how to troubleshoot an issue like this in the future? Paying close attention to CSAT scores in this department will just make your support team that much stronger over time. And trust us, customers notice an all-star support team. When you’ve got an all-star team, people start talking, and word-of-mouth can become your best friend. But CSAT doesn’t have to live and die with your support or service team. CSAT can relate to how a customer feels about your actual product. Surveys related to your product can help you understand and prioritize what needs to be upgraded and improved upon, or what features are missing from your stack. Feedback from CSAT surveys can also shed light on the user’s experience: is your product easy to use and navigate? Is there a learning curve or onboarding period? Do the benefits of the product outweigh the cost? It may seem like such a simple, black and white score (i.e., positive or negative), but if you dig deep into your CSAT reactions, you can uncover pretty powerful insights that can push you towards success. BrightGauge and CSAT scores BrightGauge currently integrates with Customer Thermometer, CrewHu, and SmileBack, 3 tools that help you gather CSAT reactions. By connecting to any of these tools, a BrightGauge dashboard will aggregate your CSAT metrics and display it in a single pane of glass. You might look at CSAT scores for the last 30 days for your entire company. Or, you might break down the scores per technician to determine whether any of your employees might benefit from additional training. You can have a gauge that totals all of your positive reactions or averages your CSAT scores across the board. You can even set gauge thresholds to change color and ring an alarm when your scores fall below a specified point, so that you can take immediate action to course correct. Having a CSAT dashboard on display for all employees to see is a really motivating way to get your team members focused and to make every effort to put customers first. 4 main benefits to tracking CSAT In sum, CSAT scores can speak volumes about your product, service, and team. As an MSP, you’re definitely going to want to keep a pulse on CSAT at all times because it’s only going to benefit you in the end. Perks of monitoring CSAT include: Turning customers into loyal clients. Deciphering what helps your customers feel satisfied means you can reduce churn, which is huge for any MSP. Figuring out which customers are a perfect match. Not every customer is going to be the right customer for you, and through CSAT, you can identify those that are a match and those who are going to be too noisy. Identifying areas that need improvement. Feedback from CSAT surveys will tell you what you’re doing right, what you could be doing better, and what new features you need to offer. Gaining promoters of your brand. Satisfied customers will let their friends, peers, colleagues, social followers, etc. know and word-of-mouth is awesome for any MSP! Want to start gathering CSAT reactions but aren’t sure where to start? Download our free whitepaper Customer Satisfaction Surveys That Work.

We’re all getting busier and busier and it’s hard to keep up with ourselves, let alone everything going on around us. Sometimes, it helps to stop and evaluate what you’re doing to make sure your approach is as effective and productive as possible. Today, we’re sharing quick dashboard tips so that you’re not only getting the most out of your data, but you’re inspiring your team members (and yourself) to take action. 3 things you can do right now to make your BrightGauge dashboards work for you Business intelligence dashboards are awesome because they save you a lot of time. Instead of toggling between a bunch of windows or logging in and out of accounts to get all the metrics you’re interested in, you can just see all your data in one place. This should make your work day calmer and simpler (two ideas we’re very into). BrightGauge integrates with a lot of popular tools on the market - like ConnectWise Manage, Webroot, Datto, Salesforce, QuickBooks, Smileback, and more - in the hopes that data insights will help you make better business decisions. But if you’re not fine-tuning your data, you’re going to end up with analysis paralysis instead of data insights. Information overload. Too much data, too little time. You get the drift. To avoid that, you can take 3 really simple steps to ensure that you’ll get what you need out of BrightGauge dashboards: 1. Keep your dashboards clean. What we mean by that is to remove the mess, remove the clutter. Don’t try to cram every gauge you care about into one single dashboard because it will quickly lose its effectiveness. Ideally, you’ll be able to view your whole dashboard without having to scroll down or adjust your screen. If you overcrowd it, you run the risk of becoming overwhelmed by too much information, which will prevent you from digesting the important data you’re looking for. Remember that you can drag your gauges to change the size and get your dashboard to a point that feels nice and calm for you. A calm dashboard = a higher chance of taking action based on the metrics you see, since there’s less of a chance that anything will fall through the cracks. 2. Take advantage of thresholds. If you’re monitoring time-sensitive data, like number of servers offline, you’ll definitely want to be alerted to that info sooner rather than later. That is literally what gauge thresholds do. You set them up based on your preferences and what you consider to be a warning sign, so your safe zone is completely determined by you. When you have a gauge with a threshold up on a dashboard, it will change colors and audibly ding based on the parameters you’ve set. You can even set multiple thresholds for one gauge. For example, the number can turn purple if you reach 1 server offline (i.e., something is off); yellow if you reach 2 servers offline (i.e., it’s not looking good); and red when 3 servers are offline (i.e., this is really bad and immediate action needs to be taken to prevent further issues). Say you’ve got a TV displaying your BrightGauge dashboard in a room full of busy techs. The second your threshold alarm dings, everyone is made aware of an issue and can immediately react quickly and effectively. Read more about thresholds here. 3. Use leaderboards to encourage healthy competition. Leaderboards are quite possibly the most motivating gauge on a dashboard in terms of inspiring your team members to take action. Leaderboards essentially rank employees based on their performance, whether you’re monitoring the number of tickets they’re closing, the number of dials they’re making, number of hours worked, etc. You can set up the leaderboard with the parameters that fit your preference and you can assign badges (or icons) to pop up next to each ranking. When you put this leaderboard up on a dashboard, it becomes visible to everybody. And who doesn’t love seeing their name in the #1 spot? Your team members are going to work hard to see if they can earn that coveted spot. Add a little more incentive by promising a reward to the top performer. An extra PTO day perhaps? Always be improving The more you dive into your data and use tools to assist you, the better you’ll get at knowing exactly what works for you. Little tweaks here or there can pay off in a big way by saving you even more time, getting you to your data even quicker, and motivating your employees to stay focused and productive. We encourage you to evaluate and clean up your use of gauges, dashboards, and reports a few times a year so you can squeeze all the juice out of your BrightGauge, so to speak. To get even more tips, watch our free webinar, Dashboard Best Practices.