Like many small business owners, I desperately need a business dashboard. At the same time, I have WAY TOO MANY business dashboards.

Sound like a contradiction? Let me explain.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF BUSINESS DASHBOARDS

Large and midsize enterprises have long had access to business dashboards, sometimes called executive dashboards. Dashboards are applications that help you see key information and indicators about your business, presented in graphs and charts and tables.

We smaller businesses had far fewer choices in the past. Custom dashboards were too expensive, and even packaged dashboard apps were out of reach cost-wise.

Many a small business owner’s idea of a business dashboard was a laboriously created Excel spreadsheet with a few bar charts embedded in it.

ALONG CAME ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE

But then along came the growth in small business accounting/ERP software. Packages likes QuickBooks, Peachtree, NetSuite, NetBooks and the like dramatically improved the dashboard views into their software. For instance, here is the kind of dashboard you can get in QuickBooks:

And in the case of QuickBooks, the accounting software of choice for millions of small businesses, you could even get an additional dashboard with further metrics in the form of MyBizHomepage. MyBizHomepage imports your QuickBooks data and presents key indicators for you to manage your business. MyBizHompeage is a free Web-based dashboard application designed for small businesses, just upgraded to a new version this past weekend.

The dashboards for your accounting software help quite a bit and are useful to any business owner who takes the time to use them.

SAAS HAS MULTIPLIED THE NUMBER OF DASHBOARDS

But the fly in the ointment … the monkey in the wrench … is software as a service (SaaS). I don’t know about you, but I use dozens of SaaS applications to run pieces/parts of my business. And guess what? Each of them has some kind of control panel or administration screens which, in effect, are dashboard views of some slice of my business.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not complaining about SaaS. I could not run my business without today’s affordable and convenient SaaS applications. I’d have to hire more people or spend many more hours than I do, and probably need a full-time computer administrator.

But I find that my important business information is fractured and difficult to “see.” The proliferation of SaaS creates other data management issues I never had to deal with before.

Here is just a sampling of the many SaaS applications I use to run parts of my business, that have some kind of dashboard, more or less:

• Google Webmaster panel — to view Google’s treatment of my websites
• Statcounter — to manage traffic statistics
• Google Analytics — to analyze traffic flow within my websites
• BillingManager.com — to invoice customers
• BlogTalkRadio.com — to broadcast my weekly Internet radio show
• PodPress — to track downloads and listens to podcast recordings
• FeedBurner — to manage RSS subscribers
• Slicehost — to mange hosting of one of my websites
• Constant Contact — to manage email subscribers / mailings
• Google AdWords — to manage search ad campaigns

And this is just the tip of the iceberg. My list would be a mile long if I included each and every one.

As small businesses take to SaaS with greater frequency, more and more business owners, entrepreneurs and small business managers will find themselves in the same boat with me. I have the convenience and affordability of many different SaaS applications at my fingertips, with all kinds of mini-dashboards to show valuable statistics, information and trends.

But now, I have to visit literally dozens of different applications and sites to find the information I need and want. Visiting these applications — just bookmarking them — soon became a confusing and time-consuming nightmare for me.

START PAGES PROVIDE A PARTIAL SOLUTION

To begin to solve the problem on my own accord, I cobbled together a master “dashboard” of sorts using the free start pages available to today. I first tried it with my Google home page, but liked Netvibes a little better for its colorful nature and the fact that it seemed easier to customize the way I wanted.

Where widgets are available, I have inserted widgets that pull in data to my private Netvibes pages, so I can see the information. For instance, I have widgets for Statcounter, FeedBurner and other applications I use. That way I don’t have to visit each of those applications directly if I just want to see at a glance how I’m doing with some high level numbers. Here you can see how they appear in my Netvibes page:

In other cases, I’ve embedded the URL that takes me directly to the login screen for the dashboard of each application. I can view the application right within the Netvibes page (kind of like a picture-in-picture on a TV screen). This has saved me considerable time each day to stay on top of vital statistics for my business. At least I have access to everything in one place (sort of): my Netvibes start page.

It’s far from perfect. For instance, there’s no integration among different pieces of information, for the most part. I can’t run reports or see charts that compare information from various applications side by side, and show relationships between data from different applications. But at least the information is easier to get at from one place.

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

I’m looking for some company to step up to the plate and create a better solution to manage all this information from SaaS applications we use, in one place, and make better sense of it all. Whether it’s Google or one of the accounting vendors, or some other entity. That would be a true benefit to my small business.