This is from the Minneapolis PeopleReady BI Summit on 4/7/2009.

1. Business Dashboards
Dan English
Principal Consultant – Business Intelligence Architect
DanE@magenic.com
http://denglishbi.spaces.live.com

2. Who am I?
Dan English
http://denglishbi.spaces.live.com/
• Developing with Microsoft technologies for over
12 years
• Over 5 years experience with Data Warehousing
and Business Intelligence
• Experienced in ETL and Analysis Services
development, requirements gathering, and data
modeling
• Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) and
Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS)
• PASSMN 2009 – Executive Board Chair
• YouTube Videos -
http://youtube.com/user/denglishbi
• MSN Videos (Soapbox) -
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-
us&user=-3657354010876223112

3. Who is Magenic?
 Founded in 1995, Magenic is a technical
consulting firm focused exclusively on
Microsoft technologies and has designed
and delivered more than 500 Microsoft-
based applications
 Headquartered in Minneapolis, with offices
in Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and San
Francisco
 2005 Microsoft Partner of the Year, Custom
Development Solutions – Technical
Innovation
 2007 Microsoft Partner of the Year Finalist,
Data Management
 Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and
National Systems Integrator
 Over 200 consultants

4. Today’s Agenda
• Microsoft Business Intelligence Offering
• Dashboard Overview (and Election Demo)
• Dashboard Design and Functionality
• Dashboard Demos
• Summary and Q&A

5. Quick Audience Poll
• How many SQL/BI Developers? Managers? Others?
• How many are using Excel, Access, or Reporting
Services for information delivery?
• How many are currently using dashboards or portals?
• How about scorecards?

6. Today’s Agenda
• Microsoft Business Intelligence Offering
• Dashboard Overview (and Election Demo)
• Dashboard Design and Functionality
• Dashboard Demos
• Summary and Q&A

7. Microsoft Business Intelligence Offering
BUSINESS USER EXPERIENCE Self-Service access & insight
Data exploration & analysis
Predictive analysis
BUSINESS MIDDLE TIER
Dashboards & Scorecards
Excel Services
Web based forms & workflow
Collaboration
Enterprise Search
Enterprise Content Mgmt
LOB data integration
DATA INFRASTRUCTURE & BI PLATFORM
Analysis Services (OLAP)
Reporting Services
Integration Services (ETL)
Data Mining
Data Warehousing

8. Today’s Agenda
• Microsoft Business Intelligence Offering
• Dashboard Overview (and Election Demo)
• Dashboard Design and Functionality
• Dashboard Demos
• Summary and Q&A

9. Dashboard Overview
Dashboards help you become:
• Focused
• Aligned
• Effective
Display and deliver information
in a user-friendly way.

10. Dashboard Overview – Election Demo

11. Dashboard Overview – Election Demo

12. Dashboard Overview
Why are dashboards important?
1.“You cannot manage what you do not measure”
- How are you doing compared to previous
performance, goals, and benchmarks?
2.“What gets watched, gets done”
- Workers will strive to perform well when they know
how they are being evaluated.

13. Dashboard Overview
Manage Measure
Achieve
strategic
Optimize objectives
Monitor performance
Increase
corporate
agility
Leverage
information

14. Dashboard Overview - Benefits
Communicate
Refine Strategy Increase Visibility
Strategy
Increase Increase
Consistent View
Coordination Motivation
Reduce Costs
and Redundancy Deliver Actionable
Empower Users
Information
• Get rid of data silos
• Single version of truth

15. Dashboard Overview
Business Intelligence (BI) is the foundation
upon which dashboards grow and flourish.
Focus to align people and processes with
strategic objectives and make smart, timely
decisions.
BI encompasses Data Warehousing
(DW) and data integration technologies
as well as query, reporting, and analysis
tools.

16. Today’s Agenda
• Microsoft Business Intelligence Offering
• Dashboard Overview (and Election Demo)
• Dashboard Design and Functionality
• Dashboard Demos
• Summary and Q&A

17. Dashboard Design and Functionality
Do not overwhelm your audience, just because you can do
it doesn’t mean that you should.
Keep things simple and deliver what is needed.

18. Dashboard Design and Functionality
When it comes to BI tools,
dashboards, and user analysis,
“one size does not fit all”
You need to know the intended
audience and purpose:
• Standard reports
• KPIs
• Scorecards
• Strategy Maps
• Query/Reporting tools
• OLAP
• Spreadsheets
• Charts/Gauges
• Data Mining
• Ad-hoc reporting/design tools

19. Dashboard Design and Functionality
Provide information in a systematic
• Give them all the data they want
and structured way.
• Only the data they really need
• And only when they need it

20. Dashboard Design and Functionality
Highlight anomalies in a graphical
interface and give users option to
investigate the detail if they desire

21. Today’s Agenda
• Microsoft Business Intelligence Offering
• Dashboard Overview (and Election Demo)
• Dashboard Design and Functionality
• Dashboard Demos
• Summary and Q&A

22. Business Dashboards
Dashboard Demos

23. Business Dashboards - Demos

24. Business Dashboards - Demos

25. Business Dashboards - Demos

26. Today’s Agenda
• Microsoft Business Intelligence Offering
• Dashboard Overview (with Election Demo)
• Dashboard Design and Functionality
• Dashboard Demos
• Summary and Q&A

27. Business Dashboard Summary
• Become more focused and aligned
• Keep them simple, yet effective
• Know your audience and their needs
• “One size does not fit all”
• Highlight anomalies and provide analysis option

28. Sources
Presidential Interactive 2008 Election Map
http://www.npr.org/news/specials/election2008/2008-election-
map.html#/president?view=race08
Effectively Communicating Numbers: Selecting the Best
Means and Manner of Display
(http://download.microsoft.com/download/a/2/1/a2133c6c-b75d-
46c7-9bc5-
91493c62cfa5/Effectively_Communicating_Numbers.pdf)
Stephen Few
Perceptual Edge
November 2005
Common Pitfalls in Dashboard Design
(http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/6/e/16ef48ad-412d-
487e-887e-
3e12dec5f58d/Common_Pitfalls_in_Dashboard_Design.pdf )
Stephen Few
Perceptual Edge
February 2006

29. Resources
Microsoft BI Site
http://www.microsoft.com/bi/
PerformancePoint Home Site
http://www.microsoft.com/business/performancepoint/default.aspx
PerformancePoint Developer Portal
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb660518.aspx
PerformancePoint Team Blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/performancepoint/default.aspx
Channel9 MSDN BI Screencasts
http://channel9.msdn.com/Showforum.aspx?forumid=38&tagid=277
SQL Server Best Practices
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/bb671432.aspx
Microsoft Virtual Labs (TechNet and MSDN)
http://www.microsoft.com/events/vlabs/default.mspx
Dashboard Zone
http://www.dashboardzone.com
Magenic Blogs
http://blog.magenic.com/blogs

30. Contact Information – Thank You!
Contact us to find out how your business can benefit
from a complimentary strategy session with one of our
consultants and look into one of our BI quickstart
engagements.
Dan - http://denglishbi.spaces.live.com
Magenic - info@magenic.com