What is a Control Tower?

Start with the decisions it should support

A Control Tower is a workspace designed around the business and the people responsible for its work. It can bring operating views, tasks, reporting and system handoffs together. The useful question is which decision a view supports and where its information comes from.

1. Identify the decisions the owner or team needs to make.
2. Name the records, reporting period and responsible person for each view.
3. Agree the connections and verification needed before describing a report as current.

• A designed dashboard is not automatically a live source report.
• A configured connection does not prove that information is flowing.

Read each view in context

Check the source, period and freshness before acting on a figure. A view may contain saved application records, an authenticated provider report or an illustration. Those distinctions should be visible and should remain clear when a report is shared.

• What source produced the information?
• When was it read or last verified?
• Who owns the next action or exception?

Ask for a business-specific view

Describe the decision and the evidence it needs. A clear requirement is more useful than requesting every possible metric on one screen.

• The business question and its owner.
• The source systems and required reporting period.
• An example of a decision that the proposed view should make easier.