Your figures sit in five systems. You need them in one place.
In most mid-sized companies the figures already exist, they are just spread out: revenue in accounting, pipeline in the CRM, stock in inventory management, utilisation in the project software, the rest in Excel. Anyone who wants an overview assembles it by hand once a month. Attek Solutions builds dashboards that bring these sources together automatically — rented, with no upfront investment, from €500 a month.
The problem is not missing software. It is having too much of it.
Over the years a tool arrives for every task. Each one was the right decision at the time, each one does its job.
What comes out of it is a state that almost every managing director recognises:
This is not a software problem in the narrow sense. It is the result of systems having been bought for individual tasks — with none of them responsible for showing the whole picture.
What a CEO dashboard does
All sources come together automatically
Accounting, CRM, inventory management, time tracking, project software, shop, bank — and the Excel files that still exist. Also where the same application is present more than once: sites, tenants and companies are brought together and remain evaluable individually at the same time.
One metric has one definition
What "revenue" means is defined once and calculated the same way everywhere. That sounds obvious and in practice it is the point where most of the time is lost — because sales, accounting and management currently quote three different figures and all three are right.
Every figure is traceable
One click shows which cases it consists of and which system it comes from. Without that traceability no dashboard gets used: as soon as someone questions a figure and nobody can explain it, the trust is gone.
The status is current
Depending on the source hourly, daily or, where needed, by the minute instead of monthly. It is always visible when the last refresh happened and whether a source was unreachable.
Anomalies report themselves
Instead of you checking every day, you receive automatic notifications when a metric moves outside the defined range — contribution margin below threshold, receivables above limit, utilisation below plan.
What it typically shows
The selection is specific to each company. What appears in almost every dashboard:
Finance
Revenue against last year and plan, contribution margin, open receivables by age, liquidity forecast.
Sales
Pipeline by stage, quote volume and win rate, revenue per customer and per partner, new customers against churn.
Delivery and utilisation
Orders in progress, utilisation by team or site, lead times, post-costing against costing.
Stock and procurement
Stock value, coverage, slow movers, open purchase orders.
People
Headcount, turnover, sick leave, open positions.
A good selection has ten metrics rather than sixty. A dashboard that shows everything does not get read.
Where the real work is
The presentation is the easy part. Three other places decide whether a dashboard gets used or stops interesting anyone after four weeks.
Connecting the sources
Some systems have a usable interface, others only an export, others nothing at all. For every source the route is defined individually — including the question of what happens when a transfer fails.
Matching across system boundaries
The same customer has a different name in the CRM than in accounting. The same article has two numbers in two inventory systems. Without clean matching the dashboard adds up things that do not belong together — and delivers wrong figures with full conviction.
Defining the metrics
Does revenue count from the invoice date or the delivery date? Do cancellations belong to last year or the current one? These questions are decided and documented in the workshop. They are the reason a dashboard project is not a purely technical project.
That is also why a dashboard is often a good first step: it exposes where the data does not add up — and makes visible which follow-up project is worth doing.
Why not Power BI or Tableau?
For many cases these tools are the right choice. If you have someone in house who knows them, your sources offer common interfaces and the task is evaluation — use them.
A custom-built dashboard pays off under different conditions:
The practical difference rarely lies in the presentation. It lies in who builds it, maintains it and adapts it when things change.
How it works
- 01Intro call, 30 minutes. You describe your problem. We tell you honestly whether custom software pays off for you or whether off-the-shelf software is the better choice.
- 02Personal demo. Instead of slides you get software: we take a problem you described in the intro call and show it to you as a working application. That way you judge from your own case whether the effort is worth it, before you sign anything.
- 03Requirements workshop. We go through your workflows until we have understood them completely. Free of charge.
- 04Signing the contract. After the requirements workshop you receive a fixed monthly price for your requirements, and we sign the contracts.
- 05First productive version after one to two months. This is when you start paying — not before.
- 06Operations and continued development. Your workflows now run automatically and your team gains time for the business. We take care of operations, maintenance and support.
The process in detail — including what you contribute yourself →
We explicitly recommend starting small. A dashboard with five reliable metrics gets used every day. One with forty unclear ones is closed after a month.
The alternatives compared
| Option | Excel by hand | Power BI or Tableau | Reporting in the ERP | Attek CSaaS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bringing sources together automatically | no | yes, once set up | own data only | yes |
| Merging instances that exist more than once | manual | with effort | no | built in |
| Matching across system boundaries | manual | configuration effort | not applicable | part of the solution |
| Who builds and maintains it | your staff | your staff or a consultant | the vendor | Attek |
| How current the figures are | monthly | configurable | current | hourly, daily or by the minute |
| Traceability of a figure | traceable, but laborious | limited | yes | part of the solution |
| Access for external parties | no | a licence question | rarely | built in |
| Upfront investment | none | licence plus setup | included in the ERP | €0 |
| Running costs | 1–3 days of working time per month | licence per user plus maintenance | — | From €500/month |
When you do not need this
If your figures already sit in one system and its reporting is enough, you do not need an additional dashboard. With a small budget and a manageable system landscape that is the right decision. The same applies if you have someone in house who knows Power BI and has time for it.
Talk to us as soon as you want to grow or cut costs. A monthly overview assembled by hand costs the same working time every month, and more of it the more sources are added — sites, tenants, companies. What gets expensive above all is what is decided without current figures. From €500 a month, no matter how many people look at it.
Frequently asked questions
How do I bring data from different systems together in one dashboard?
Every source is connected individually — via an interface, database access, an export or a file transfer. The data is unified, matched across system boundaries and calculated according to defined rules. The laborious part is not the display but the matching: the same customer has a different name in two systems, and without clean resolution the dashboard adds up things that do not belong together.
Can several instances of the same software be brought together as well?
Yes. Several sites, tenants or companies with separate installations are evaluated together and can still be broken down individually.
What does a CEO dashboard cost?
From €500. The price depends above all on the number of source systems and how accessible they are. No setup fee, no upfront investment. First productive version after one to two months.
How current are the figures?
Depending on the source hourly or daily. It is always visible when the last refresh happened and whether a source was unreachable.
What if a system has no interface?
Then another route is chosen: direct database access, a regular export, a file transfer from a defined directory. With legacy systems that is the normal case, not an exception.
Is this not the same as Power BI?
Power BI is a builder that someone has to operate. A custom-built dashboard is a finished solution including operations. If you have someone in house who knows Power BI and has time for it, it is the cheaper choice. If not, experience shows that nothing lasting comes of it.
Can staff get different views?
Yes. Site managers see their site, department managers their department, the management everything. Access for an advisory board, a bank or an investor with a precisely defined extract is possible as well.
Can I see what a figure consists of?
Yes, that is a core requirement. For every metric the underlying cases and their source system can be called up. Without that traceability a dashboard stops being used as soon as someone questions a figure.
Tell us which five figures you want to see every Monday.
In the intro call we go through where those figures sit today and how much effort it would take to bring them together automatically. 30 minutes, free of charge.
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