EV and Dashboards

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rfielden
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OLAP Product: TM1
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EV and Dashboards

Post by rfielden »

Does anyone have any suggestion(s) on how to get up-to-speed on using EV and also creating dashboards? Thanks, Rick.
rkieboom
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Joined: Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:24 am

Re: EV and Dashboards

Post by rkieboom »

Hi Rick,

I don't have much knowledge regarding dashboards, but I think other people who are a member of this forum might have some additional information that could be of help. I do know how to get you started with Executive Viewer, however.

Getting you up to speed with Executive Viewer is not really hard - it only depends what you would like to do with the software and the choices you make regarding some settings. Could you please let me know how you would like to use Executive Viewer with regards to the following:

- Which type of OLAP server will you be using (TM1, Essbase, MSAS, SSAS 2005)
- In case it is TM1 you want to use, which version?
- Which version of Executive Viewer do you want to use?
- Will you be using Executive Viewer and the OLAP server on one machines, or will you be using separate machines?
- What type of security provider do you want to use (Windows, TM1, Essbase, Forms). For example, you could use the Windows security provider allowing users to enter with the credentials they entered when logging on to the network with their computer, or do you want to use the TM1 security provider, asking for the TM1 credentials when logging on to Executive Viewer and after that there is no need to logon to TM1 anymore when working with Views.

If you could let me know, I might be able to lend a hand ;-)

Regards,

Ruben Kieboom
Mike L
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Re: EV and Dashboards

Post by Mike L »

I know absolutely nothing about using EV, but regarding dashboards in general there is some good advice at Charley Kyd's web site: Pablum Dashboards and Down with Gauges are short, funny, and to the point. Don't let the negativity fool you, there is insight on doing it right.

Consider also the first bullet point in this snip from The OLAP Report: "Contrary to the notions of the bright techies who created the products, senior executives spend their time in meetings, reading printed reports and making presentations, not analyzing data. When they need data analyzing, they delegate the task to younger, cheaper specialists, rather than doing it themselves. These analysts need powerful tools, rather than the patronizingly simple user interfaces of an EIS supposedly aimed at the boss." -- When designing dashboards, think carefully about who will be using the information and how they will use it.

I hope these snack foods for thought are helpful. If not, at least they may be amusing.
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Martin Ryan
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Re: EV and Dashboards

Post by Martin Ryan »

Mike L wrote:there is some good advice at Charley Kyd's web site: Pablum Dashboards and Down with Gauges are short, funny, and to the point. Don't let the negativity fool you, there is insight on doing it right.
I must have a below average IQ, I like the Excelsius reports!

I've always been a big fan of graphs, because the reality is they're the simplest way of conveying data to a wide audience - especially when doing a presentation. Yes, people who want the nitty gritty need different reports with more numbers, but it's horses for courses.

I disagree with these articles that suggest dashboards are always wrong. Always using dashboards is wrong, but sometimes using them (IMHO) is often an excellent way of getting your point across to the right people.

Martin
Please do not send technical questions via private message or email. Post them in the forum where you'll probably get a faster reply, and everyone can benefit from the answers.
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Mike L
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Re: EV and Dashboards

Post by Mike L »

I did not mean to suggest that dashboards are always wrong. (Nor would Charley, who is trying to peddle his own dashboarding tool.) The criticism is that dashboards ought not overdose on eye candy at the expense of a balanced diet of useful information.

The Xcelsius examples are not all bad, but several of them devote a lot of screen space to two dimensional display of one dimensional data or a single data point. In the same space one could add, without sacrificing clarity, additional information such as trend, dispersion, correlation, or other dimensions that lend context and significance for interpreting the data. Even the most refined KPI is hard to interpret meaningfully as a singular datum.

Of course, sometimes what you really need is something like PowerPoint: five facts per slide, plus or minus two. But this format is usually best for presenting results that have already been analyzed and aranged to make a point, and is less well suited to a monitoring dashboard.

My purpose was probably obscured by citing extreme points of view, but I meant to offer an antidote to the common tendency for dashboard design to focus exclusively on ease of reading the data and ignore ease of interpreting the data. Both are essential. The latter is harder, and is not usually addressed well in the documentation of dashboarding tools: it requires analyzing how the information will be used.

A more substantial resource, not specific to dashboards per se, is Stephen Few's highly regarded book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, which addresses making information-rich graphs easy to interpret without a lot of clutter. (Borrow it before you buy it. Some people do not care for his approach.) He has a more recent book specifically about dashboards, Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data. I have not seen it, but it is also highly regarded.
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