designing a dashboard with performancepoint services

thesolidqjournalbusiness intelligence 10

To build this dashboard, you first need to create the dashboard elements (e.g., the

scorecard, the Excel Services report). You then need to create the dashboard that will host those elements.

Creating the Scorecard

The dashboard’s monitoring system is based on the scorecard and its indicators. The scorecard is made of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). They are represented by color-coded graphics that quickly convey that things are going well (green), average (yellow), or bad (red). Both the KPI graph-ics and the color codes are configurable.

In the scorecard, there is a feature that pro-vides the current KPI value, which reflects the actual business activity (e.g., actual sales). This figure is read from the storage system since it is gathered from the transactional systems and shows a reality that has already occurred. There is also a feature that provides the target KPI value, which reflects the value that must be reached in the business process (e.g., sales quota). The target is usually set by the CIO or the business manager and is linked to a business strategy.

There are some additional features you can use in a scorecard. For example, one feature provides a score that reflects an assessment of the current KPI value versus the target KPI value. Another feature shows trends based on several KPI values over time.

You can also configure the scorecard so that users can input values to determine possible outcomes. One way to achieve this is by using Excel’s What-If Analysis feature, which enables you to write back directly to cube, and the write-back functionality found in the Enterprise Editions of SQL Server. The data insertion can be done in multiple ways, although not many tools support that functionality. Among the tools that support it are Excel 2010’s What If Analysis feature and ProClarity-tailored developments using Multi-dimensional Expressions (MDXs) and UPDATE CUBE statements.

For example, suppose that you need to create a dashboard for the managers in your company’s Sales department. Figure 1, page 11, shows the managers and other members of that department. In the dashboard, you need to create a scorecard that has two KPIs: sales and sales quota. The sales managers need to be able to modify quotas in the scorecard to assess different scenarios when

The SolidQ™ Journal, September 2011– www.solidq.com/sqj

By Pablo A. Ahumada

Designing a Dashboard with PerformancePoint Services

In ”PerformancePoint Services: A Different Point of View,” I introduced you to Performance- Point Services, which is now part of SharePoint 2010. In this article, I’ll show you how to use PerformancePoint Services’ Dashboard Designer to design a dashboard that has a scorecard, an Excel Services report, a strategy map report, and two filters. The Excel Services report will give users access to a PowerPivot workbook. The strategic map report will feature a geographic map that dynamically displays data.

sqj 13 pág. 10-19ok kb.indd 10 9/21/2011 6:05:37 AM

11


planning their budgets. This needs to occur without the involvement of the IT team once the proper settings have been configured.

The first thing that you must take into account is the allocation method. There are two options: using an equal allocation or using an allocation defined by weighting coefficients.

Suppose that the Sales department has a total sales quota of $10 million and you want an equal allocation among the leaf-level members of the Sales department. When you divide the total sales quota by the 18 leaf-level members, the sales quota for each member is $555,555.56, as Figure 2 shows.

The other option is to assign each Sales mem-ber’s quota based on a weighting coefficient. Sup-pose that the individual quotas are weighted based

on both job position and region. First, you need to post the weighting coefficients (in this case, .25, .12, .12, .50, and .01) in the same cells used for the quota assignment, as Figure 3 shows.

Next, you need to assign the total sales quota. In this particular example, the Sales department has a total sales quota of $200 million.

The last step is to modify the What-If Analy-sis settings so that the weighting is taken into account. In the Allocation Method section, you must select the Weighted Allocation option, as shown in Figure 4 on page 12. If you have an

Figure 1: The Sales department staff

Figure 2: Equal allocation of the quota

Figure 3: Assignment of the weighting coefficients




MDX returning the weighting coefficients, you can enter it in the Weight Expression text box. Otherwise, the current weighting coefficients in the cells will be used.

Figure 5 shows the results. As you can see, the amount is apportioned according to the weights previously configured.

With this approach, the sales managers can modify the quota values, without having to ask the IT team for assistance. They can change the

quotas and weighting coefficients at their conve-nience and immediately can see the outcome. It is important to note that the changes can be published to the cube. However, this operation is resource-consuming, so the IT team will need to carefully consider the impact on the other opera-tions that will be running.

Figure 6 shows an example of a completed scorecard. In it, you can define several quotas and specify which particular quota you want to compare with the current one. You use the Data Mappings column to specify the data sources for the quotas. In this example, I chose Adventure Works DW’s Reseller Sales Amount measure for the current quota and Adventure Works DW’s Sales Amount Quota measure for the target quota. You can use the Number Format column to format the KPI values and the Calculation column to select a calculation type when a scorecard includes a hierarchy of KPI calculations.

Figure 6: Example of a completed scorecard

Figure 4: Configuring the What-If Analysis

Figure 5: Quota allocation defined by weighting coefficients


13


If you click any of the quotas in the scorecard, the Thresholds options pop up. Just like in the previous versions of PerformancePoint Services, this is where you can configure the KPI graphics and color codes, the band thresholds, and the trend indicator.

Creating the Excel Services Report

Reports supplement the information displayed by the scorecard. The first report I’ll show you how to create is an Excel Services report that lets you gain access to a PowerPivot workbook stored in the PowerPivot gallery for SharePoint.

To begin, select the Excel Services report template in the Dashboard Designer, as Figure 7 shows.

After you name and publish the report, you just have to browse the Document Library and select the PowerPivot workbook that you want to use in the

report. At this point, you have the option of choosing the items you want displayed, such as defined tabs or reports independent from the PowerPivot sheet. However, I recommend not specifying any items now because what you want displayed will depend on the settings you select when you publish the PowerPivot workbook in the SharePoint gallery. So, simply save the PowerPivot workbook, and then use the Dashboard Designer’s editing window to open the workbook, as Figure 8 shows.

The report created and stored in the Power-Pivot library consists of two slicers with four filters:

• A vertical slicer with the title (representing the area manager in the department hier-archy) and the employee’s complete name

• A horizontal slicer with the year and quarters

In the graph, the vertical axis shows the sales in blue and the budgets in red, as Figure 9, page 14, shows. This graph is based on a dynamic table that has the sales and sales quotas ordered in columns and the time dimension in rows.

Figure 8: Using the Dashboard Designer’s editing window to open the PowerPivot workbook

Figure 7: Selecting the Excel Services report template

Just like in the previous versions of PerformancePoint Services, you can configure the KPI graphics and color codes, the band thresholds, and the trend indicator.




Changing a slicer affects both the graph and the dynamic table. For example, Figure 10 shows how the graph and table are affected when you select the year “2005” and the area manager “North American Sales Manager.”

All the filtering functionality in the report re-mains after it is integrated into the dashboard as well as after it is integrated into the SharePoint presentation.

Creating the Strategic Map Report

The strategic map report has a rather special pur-pose: It dynamically displays the sales and sales quota data in given regions or countries in a strat-egy map. Like the scorecard, the strategic map lets the sales managers modify quotas.

The strategy map needs to be built in Visio 2007 or later. Once built, it is accessible in the strategy map report by means of the Import Visio File button. The Visio map drawing I used is down-loadable for free at http://www.visguy.com/visio-links/shapes. To download it, you need to register using a valid email address.

As I mentioned previously, the dashboard’s moni-toring system is based on the scorecard and its indi-

Figure 9: Graph showing sales and sales quotas by quarters

Figure 10: The effects of changing a slicer


15


cators. In fact, to be able to include a Visio strategy map, you need a scorecard. Thanks to the scorecard, you can link KPI values with zones (e.g., country or region) in the Visio map, as Figure 11 shows.

After each relevant zone has a link and the report is published, you’ll have a map like that in Figure 12. When the KPI data is modified, the map will be dynamically updated and display the appropriate color, depending on the KPI scoring.

Creating the Filters

You need to include two filters in the dashboard. The first one filters the data by time period. The

second one filters the data by the geographic area in which the sales managers work. I’ll refer to them as the time and geography filters, respectively. The Member Selection filter template is used to create both filters, as Figure 13 shows.

Moreover, as Figure 14 on page 16 shows, each filter will be based on (1) the data source, (2) the dimension and members, and (3) the display method (List, Tree, or Multi-Select Tree).

Creating the Dashboard

Now you need to create a dashboard that will host the scorecard, reports, and filters you just created.

Figure 11: Linking a KPI value with a zone in a strategy map

Figure 13: Using the Member Selection filter templateFigure 12: Completed strategy map

When the KPI data is modified, the map will be dynamically updated and display the appropriate color, depending on the KPI scoring.




The dashboard will have two pages. The first page will contain the scorecard and the strategic map. The second page will contain the PowerPivot report.

The first page needs to consist of four sections that have the distribution shown in Figure 15. The second page needs just one section, as Figure 16 shows.

After the sections are in place, you just have to drag the scorecard and reports from the Details pane to the desired sections. Figure 17 shows the Details pane.

The next step is to drag the time and ge-ography filters to the scorecard section so that they interact with the scorecard. You need to configure the time filter’s connection so that the Member Unique Name value affects the columns in the Calendar hierarchy, as Figure 18 on page 17 shows. When the connection is set up this way, the values in the scorecard will be conditionated

Figure 14: Configuring the filters

Figure 15: The first page of the dashboard

Figure 16: The second page of the dashboard

Figure 17: The Details pane

1 2 3


17


by the filter selection. Similarly, you need to configure the geography filter’s connection so that the Member Unique Name value affects the rows in the Employee Department hierarchy, as Figure 19 shows.

Once the dashboard is ready, you can deploy it, assuming you have the necessary permissions. Right-click the bottom of the dashboard and select Deploy to SharePoint. By default, it will be saved in the PerformancePoint content library of the specified site. You can change the library in the dashboard’s Properties page, as Figure 20 shows. You can also change the master page template, add the dashboard to the page navigation list, and add other properties.

After deploying the dashboard to SharePoint, you will have the entire solution stored in the same site. However, SharePoint allows you to customize a PerformancePoint content site by adding Web Parts, which makes the final layout flexible and lets the SharePoint elements interact with the PerformancePoint elements. Figure 21 on page 18 shows the completed dashboard.

Summary

In this article, I showed you how to create a dash-board that uses a strategy map report in a not-so-common way. The map colors change according

Figure 18: Configuring the connection for the time filter

Figure 19: Configuring the connection for the geography filter

Figure 20: The dashboard’s Properties page




to the linked KPI scoring. This is accomplished by including a geographic map prebuilt in Visio. I also showed you how to include a PowerPivot workbook in the dashboard by creating an Excel Services report. Perhaps more important, you now know how to configure a scorecard in which users can input values to determine possible outcomes. As you saw, this is achieved by using Excel’s What-If Analysis feature and the writeback functionality in SQL Server.

The individual elements are impressive, but not as impressive as the completed dashboard. With this user-friendly tool, sales managers can quickly assess how the Sales department is doing as a whole, then explore how individual staff members are doing—all without having to ask the IT team for assistance.

About the Author

Pablo A. Ahumada works for SolidQ as a mentor. He has been in the computer industry for more than 14 years. He has broad experience in different areas, such as high-availability architecture. He is now focused on business intelligence (BI) so-lutions. Over the last four years, he has

been involved in developing and designing data warehouse applications and demonstrating Proof of Concepts with the Microsoft BI Stack. Pablo’s qualifications include MCP, MCTS PerformancePoint Server, MCTS SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence, MCITP SQL Server 2008 Business Intelligence Developer, and MCT.

Figure 21: The completed dashboard


designing a dashboard with performancepoint services

Documents