An important axiom in performance management theory is that you cannot manage what you cannot measure. Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 has been designed and developed to help companies measure their financial data and manage their processes and systems to bring them in line with performance goals. In other words, PerformancePoint Server bridges the gap between strategy and execution.
The Dashboard Viewer
After a dashboard has been designed and built by using Dashboard Designer, users can view and interact with it on a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services site or a Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 site. This section gives you a short overview of the usefulness of a dashboard in enhancing productivity and of how you can interact with the data that a dashboard displays.
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Dashboard Viewer Features |
Description |
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Drill-down in analytic charts |
Within analytic charts you can drill down (or up) to see lower (or higher) levels of detail, see the individual transactions that make up a particular value in a chart, or use actions that are defined in the data cube. |
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Drill-down in analytic grids |
Within analytic grids you can drill down (or up) to see lower (or higher) levels of detail, see the individual transactions that make up a particular value in a grid cell, or view additional data beyond what is shown in the default view. |
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Export to Excel |
When exported, the data associated with an analytic chart or grid opens as an Excel table with standard Excel features. |
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Apply filters |
Scorecards, analytic charts, and analytic grids can be linked to one or more filters. Filters are drop-down lists designed for the dashboard. They restrict the displayed data to the selected filter. |
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Add annotations |
The annotations functionality enables you to add comments and information to the cells of a scorecard view in an Office Scorecard View Web Part on your Web page. |
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Select rollups |
Rollups enable you to group KPIs by average weighted, worst performing, and indicator count. |
The dashboard
Dashboards are versatile because they can be created to contain multiple scorecards and reports, together with an almost unlimited number of key performance indicators (KPIs). Dashboards are designed during the authoring process by business analysts or IT Administrators and are then deployed to a SharePoint site, where everyone from senior executives to individual sales representatives can see the information that is most useful for their areas of responsibility.
The scorecard
The most useful information for managers is actionable information in corporate context. The benefit of the scorecard for line-of-business (LOB) managers, for example, is that the scorecard lets provides a way to view all of the metrics for all the areas of their business: financial performance, customer satisfaction, and operational excellence.
Using a scorecard, managers can get to the core of an issue by expanding the scorecard to see all the metrics or by using filters to isolate "off target" items. Although this view can provide a preliminary survey of any potential problems, more contextual information may be needed to help the LOB manager better understand the details. The same dashboard that contains the scorecard can also contain one or more reports, one of which may be a strategy map.
Visualize the data with strategy maps
A strategy map is a great way to visualize key metrics. It can demonstrate how backorders for a product affect profit margins, which in turn affect the company’s goal to increase revenue. Additionally, the scorecard and strategy map can use the same colors to code identical metrics, thanks to the tight integration that Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 has with Microsoft Office Visio, Microsoft Office Excel, and other Office products.
Add annotations
Although the metrics and the ability to visualize how those metrics interrelate are valuable, LOB managers can also add annotations to Scorecard Web part cells. Annotations enable business users to share and view the complete history of an issue and take action.