effective use of dashboards and kpi’s presented by: chris dennis date: january 17, 2007

Effective Use of Dashboards and KPI’sPresented by: Chris Dennis

Date: January 17, 2007

Our Experience. Your Success.

Presentation Agenda

• Introductions

• Level Setting

• Basic Dashboarding

• Good Dashboard Design

• Common Mistakes in Dashboard Design

• Steps for Successful Dashboard Project

• Web Analysis versus Interactive Reporting – Which one to use?

• Q & A


TopDown Consulting, Inc.

CreateStrategic Vision Define Project

Goals

ImplementSolutions

DevelopClient Expertise

QuantifySuccess

SUCCESS

RECOGNITION

VALUE

ACHIEVEMENT

CONFIDENCE

At a Glance Oracle Certified Advantage Partner and Reseller Proven team of Multi-product Experts Over 250 successful customers Located throughout North America

Differentiators Experts in EPM and BI solutions Proven Project Success Methodology Depth of Technical Infrastructure Services Focus on Financial Controls and Compliance Commitment to making clients self-sufficient TopDown Migration Manager


Why TopDown?

Integrated approach to Performance Management, Business Intelligence, Data Warehouses, ETL, and related technologies

In-depth knowledge of Hyperion EPM and Oracle BI products

Experts in architecting enterprise-wide solutions and leading worldwide implementations

Strong Project Management and Change Management

Complete range of services from strategy through deployment

Technical infrastructure team ensures efficient and scalable solution

Proven track record delivering solutions on time & within budget

Project Success Methodology ensures knowledge transfer and measurable return on investment


Partial Client List


Financial Services Manufacturing Healthcare

Education Technology Biotech / Pharmaceuticals

Retail Utilities / Energy Automotive

Vertical Industry Expertise


Scorecards, Dashboards, and Reports - I am Confused. What Do I Need?

The difference between a scorecard, dashboard, and report can be one of fine distinctions. Each of these tools can combine elements of the other, but at a high level they all target distinct and separate levels of the business decision making process.


Level Setting – Metrics / KPI’s

Metrics: Direct numerical measures that represent a piece of business data in the relationship of one or more dimensions Examples

• Trucks Loaded• Cash flow

Key Performance Indicators (KPI): A KPI is simply a metric that is tied to a target. Most often a KPI represents how far a metric is above or below a pre-determined target. Examples

• Percentage of deliveries made on time• Gross profit percentage • Operating profit as a percentage of income


Level Setting – What is a Scorecard?

Scorecards are primarily used to help align operational execution with business strategy. The goal of a scorecard is to keep the business focused on a common strategic plan by monitoring real world execution and mapping the results of that execution back to a specific strategy.


Example Scorecard


Level Setting – What is a Dashboard?

The purpose of a dashboard is to provide the user with actionable business information in a format that is both intuitive and insightful. Dashboards leverage operational data primarily in the form of metrics and KPIs.

Dashboards primarily display quantitative measures of what's currently going on


Example Dashboard


Level Setting – What is a Report?

Most prevalent BI tool seen in business today

Best used when the user needs to look at raw data in an easy to read format

Usually pretty static and very little user interaction


Example Report


Good or Bad Design ? Example 1


Good Bad Design? Bad DesignBad Design

All of the gauges work exactly the same, with the green zone on the left, yellow in the middle, and red on the right, but this doesn’t seem to match the nature of the data. If a high number of people in your company are accessing adult Internet content (the top left gauge), that’s definitely a bad thing (unless your company serves as a pornography watchdog). Low numbers in the green zone and high numbers in the red zone make perfect sense in this case.

These circular gauges use of a great deal of space to say very little. They tell us a number, such as 351 for adult content, and if this is good, satisfactory, or bad, and that’s it. Apparently 351 is as bad as it gets for adult content, because the needle is pegged at the extreme end of the red zone. For a full screen, 10 numbers and ten qualitative judgments (good, satisfactory, or bad), isn’t very much information.

Measures that are in the problem zone (that is, in the red) don’t pop out as clearly as they ought. With so much green, yellow, and red color on this screen, noticing that a needle is pointing to the red zone takes more time than it should, especially for real-time monitoring. This dashboard attempts to assist in the search for trouble by changing the color of the gauge’s title to red when the needle ventures into the red zone, which might be an adequate attention-getter if red were not used so much elsewhere.


Users should never have to scroll their screen to see the dashboard. The purpose of a dashboard is to give a quick summary of well defined metrics. Scrolling takes time and is not user friendly.


Not enough context to give users a quick idea of what the dashboard is displaying.

Fonts in dashboard are different than the rest of the screen. The change in fonts force the user to concentrate more on the fonts than what the dashboard is telling you.


Dashboard is cluttered. Design doesn’t allow the eyes to see the charts clearly. User will spend more time trying to focus on the charts than is needed for a quick glance.


Two charts in center are out of alignment giving the impression to the dashboard consumer that they are more important than the others.

With more attention to detail this dashboard could be good.

Bad color scheme. Multiple colors. By using a lighter color on the pivots the eye is naturally drawn to the difference and might imply level of importance. This is probably not the intent.

More context and exception highlighting would make this dashboard more useable.


Common Dashboarding Mistakes

Exceeding the boundaries of a single screen

Supplying inadequate context for the data

Displaying excessive detail or precision

Choosing a deficient measure

Choosing inappropriate display media

Introducing meaningless variety

Using poorly designed display objects


Common Mistakes (continued)

Encoding quantitative data inaccurately

Arranging the data poorly

Highlighting important data ineffectively or not at all

Cluttering the display with useless decoration

Misusing or overusing color

Designing an unattractive visual display

Trying to do too much on single dashboard


Dashboard Basics

Dashboards are visual displays

Dashboards display the information needed to achieve specific objectives

A dashboard fits on a single computer screen

Dashboards are used to monitor information at a glance

Dashboards have small, concise, clear, and intuitive display mechanisms

Dashboards are customized

Effective Dashboards Communicate


6 Elements of Good Dashboarding

1. Organize objects into meaningful groups

2. Use summaries / exceptions as dashboard objects

3. Support Meaningful Comparisons

4. Discourage Meaningless Comparisons

5. Maintain consistency across all dashboard objects

6. Proper Visual Placement


Characteristics of a Good Design

Exceptionally well organized

Condensed, primarily in the form of summaries and exceptions

Specific to and customized for the dashboard's audience and objectives

Displayed using concise / small objects that communicate the data and its message in the clearest and most direct way possible


Importance of Concise Objects

Both charts show the exact same information, but by using a clear and concise chart type the comparisons are more clearly made and all the information to be consumed more quickly.

OR


What Did You See?

Power of Object Placement Test

Pay Attention


Power of Object Placement

Most Effective Placement Neutral Placement

Neutral Placement

GoodPlacement

Least Desirable Placement


Steps for a Successful Dashboard Project

Gather Requirements

Storyboard

Develop

Educate

Deploy

Follow Up


What is the Right Tool?

Functionality

Tool

Ea

se

of

Us

e W

ith

Re

lati

on

al

Da

ta S

ou

rce

s/A

d H

oc

R

ep

ort

ing

Ea

se

of

Us

e W

ith

Mu

lti-

dim

en

sio

na

l d

ata

s

ou

rce

s/A

gg

reg

ati

on

Re

sp

on

se

Tim

e W

ith

Ag

gre

ga

tin

g D

ata

Dri

ll t

o D

eta

il (

ite

ms

no

t in

th

e c

ub

e)

Ac

qu

ire

Da

ta f

rom

Th

ird

Pa

rty

(s

uc

h a

s E

xc

el)

Pa

ss

ing

Fil

ters

to

Mu

ltip

le L

ay

ers

of

Da

sh

bo

ard

P

res

en

tati

on

s (

Dy

na

mic

pa

ss

th

rou

gh

of

filt

ers

)

Ea

se

of

Sc

he

du

lin

g

Pre

-Co

de

d D

as

hb

oa

rd O

bje

cts

/Pin

bo

ard

s

Da

ta A

na

lys

is

Da

sh

bo

ard

Bu

ild

Tim

e

Se

tup

to

Da

tab

as

e B

uil

d T

ime

Ma

inte

na

nc

e

Bu

ild

Tim

e f

or

Ad

dit

ion

al

Re

po

rts

or

Re

qu

ire

me

nt

Ch

an

ge

s

Em

be

dd

ed

Ob

jec

ts (

UR

LS

)

Mo

dif

ica

tio

ns

of

Da

sh

bo

ard

s b

y U

se

rs

Ex

po

rts

Web Analysis L VG VG L L L N VG G-VG VG G G L-G VG VG VG

Interactive Reporting VG G G VG VG VG VG L VG G VG VG VG VG L VG (w/o Dashboard Builder)

Functionality

Tool

Ea

se

of

Us

e W

ith

Re

lati

on

al

Da

ta S

ou

rce

s/A

d H

oc

R

ep

ort

ing

Ea

se

of

Us

e W

ith

Mu

lti-

dim

en

sio

na

l d

ata

s

ou

rce

s/A

gg

reg

ati

on

Re

sp

on

se

Tim

e W

ith

Ag

gre

ga

tin

g D

ata

Dri

ll t

o D

eta

il (

ite

ms

no

t in

th

e c

ub

e)

Ac

qu

ire

Da

ta f

rom

Th

ird

Pa

rty

(s

uc

h a

s E

xc

el)

Pa

ss

ing

Fil

ters

to

Mu

ltip

le L

ay

ers

of

Da

sh

bo

ard

P

res

en

tati

on

s (

Dy

na

mic

pa

ss

th

rou

gh

of

filt

ers

)

Ea

se

of

Sc

he

du

lin

g

Pre

-Co

de

d D

as

hb

oa

rd O

bje

cts

/Pin

bo

ard

s

Da

ta A

na

lys

is

Da

sh

bo

ard

Bu

ild

Tim

e

Se

tup

to

Da

tab

as

e B

uil

d T

ime

Ma

inte

na

nc

e

Bu

ild

Tim

e f

or

Ad

dit

ion

al

Re

po

rts

or

Re

qu

ire

me

nt

Ch

an

ge

s

Em

be

dd

ed

Ob

jec

ts (

UR

LS

)

Mo

dif

ica

tio

ns

of

Da

sh

bo

ard

s b

y U

se

rs

Ex

po

rts

Web Analysis L VG VG L L L N VG G-VG VG G G L-G VG VG VG

Interactive Reporting VG G G VG VG VG VG L VG G VG VG VG VG L VG (w/o Dashboard Builder)

VG = Very GoodG =Good

L = Limited N = None


Deployed Solution - Biotech

Goal – Provide Clinical Data to the company executives, steering committees, and clinical managers in a graphical and easy to interpret format.

Solution – Built a dashboard application utilizing Hyperion Performance Suite (Brio) that served the executives, clinical managers, and steering committees while maintaining data security and provide report surfing and report drilling capabilities.


Deployed Solution – BioTech


Deployed Solution – Biotech


Deployed Solution – COVAD


Deployed Solution – WRECO


Any Questions?

Presenter Name: Chris Dennis

Phone: 714.931.7360

Email: [email protected]

effective use of dashboards and kpi’s presented by: chris dennis date: january 17, 2007

Documents

investment slide

example scorecard slide

percentage of income

business strategy

partial client list

bi solutions

project goals

business intelligence