Dashboards, Scorecards, and Mashups

Information Builders enables agile information solutions with business intelligence (BI) and integration technologies. WebFOCUS the most widely utilized business intelligence platform connects to any enterprise system or application and enables simple and intuitive interaction with information.

Dashboards, Scorecards, and Mashups

Visual Insight Into Your Organizations Health and Performance
Dashboard, scorecard, and mashup applications are vital to any business intelligence (BI) strategy. These tools provide valuable insight into an organizations health and performance so stakeholders at all levels from executives and managers to frontline workers, analysts, customers, and business partners can more quickly and effectively make accurate decisions.

Built by an end user, this Information Builders dashboard includes Adobe Flex charts and third-party Web 2.0 gadgets such as AIM instant messenger, Wikipedia Search, and the Wall Street Journal news feed.

The WebFOCUS business intelligence platform from Information Builders features robust and innovative solutions that let users create compelling, intuitive, and visually appealing dashboards, scorecards, and mashups. These powerful tools enable companies to communicate missions and goals, link operations and tasks to strategic objectives, and monitor progress in real time. As a result, they can discover and leverage opportunities instantly, indentify the corporate and market trends that have the greatest impact on performance and profitability, and uncover and correct issues before they become major problems.

A Comprehensive, Flexible Platform

Offering a wide array of cutting-edge features and capabilities, WebFOCUS integrates the four critical elements for smarter decisions: data integrity, performance management, business intelligence, and advanced analytics. These important attributes are also accessible in WebFOCUS dashboards, scorecards, and mashups, which users can easily create and deploy.

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With WebFOCUS dashboards, scorecards, and mashups, users can visualize data using the four critical elements for smarter decisions: data integrity, performance management, business intelligence, and advanced analytics.

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Data Integrity

Master Data Management

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Data Integrity
A comprehensive data quality management solution ensures dashboard quality while integrating external and internal information assets from more than 300 data sources.

Master data management creates a golden record that provides a set of validated, universally recognized values derived from disparate sources housing similar information that have been reconciled and stored in a centralized hub for use as a primary frame of reference by all users, systems, and dashboards WebFOCUS includes real-time extract, transform, and load (ETL) enhancements as well as full integration with real-time data adapters and iWay Data Quality Center to ensure the timeliness of dashboard content

Performance Management
WebFOCUS Performance Management Framework (PMF) provides more than 400 cataloged industry metrics and more than 30 pre-built dashboards.

PMF introduces new concepts for measuring risks and consequences alongside performance PMF gadget dashboards support Web 2.0 third-party content and allow them to participate in dashboard mashups

Business Intelligence
WebFOCUS helps all users make smarter decisions by delivering rich, real-time, consumable, interactive dashboards and mashups to the widest audience possible.

WebFOCUS empowers analysts and decision makers with portable dashboards that use Active Technologies for offline analysis or with portable devices such as laptops, netbooks, smartphones, or PDAs End users at any level can create their own dashboards and mashups, subscribe to existing ones, and schedule them for automatic e-mail delivery WebFOCUS maximizes the communication and comprehension of information through more than 200 visualizations and the ability to output dashboards in any format, such as Adobe Flex, Excel, Adobe PDF, and portable dashboards (Active Technologies)

Advanced Analytics
Analysts have access to in-memory analytic dashboard tools offering cutting-edge visualization capabilities for intuitive visual-based OLAP and multivariate analysis, such as identifying key trends and root causes.

WebFOCUS Visual Discovery uniquely provides data-driven conditional formatting (also known as traffic lights or stop-lighting), where outliers are rendered visually without the need to create thresholds and conditions WebFOCUS Visual Discovery visualizations, color coordination, and interactivity provides contextbased analysis so users can drill down while simultaneously viewing higher-level data In-memory capabilities leverage the 64-bit architecture of desktop computers to represent more than 100 million rows of data in interactive visual displays

Strategic and Performance Management Dashboards

Time is money for todays busy executives, who require the ability to make at-a-glance observations of key activities that relate directly to critical corporate strategies. WebFOCUS strategic dashboards eliminate the hours spent sifting through mountains of information to uncover whats important. High-impact data visualizations and design techniques, such as icons, glyphs, Stephen Fews bullet graphs, and Edward Tufts sparklines, clearly convey issues requiring immediate attention. So, senior management can instantly determine where to focus and how to act.

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Annotations, multiple drill downs, and visualizations help users uncover the root cause of problems and identify opportunities (Figure A). Partners can use dashboards, data visualizations, and alerts to manage performance (Figure B). WebFOCUS dashboards take advantage of visual perception, design techniques, and data visualizations like Stephen Fews bullet graphs and Edward Tuftes sparklines (Figure C).

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WebFOCUS offers maximum flexibility when it comes to information delivery. Dashboards can be deployed in any format including inline HTML, Adobe PDF, Flash, and Excel and can be accessed on any device from desktops to laptops to smartphones. They can also be distributed dynamically via e-mail, to printers, Web portals, or report archives at schedule-driven intervals or when critical business events occur. Dashboards in PMF allow organizations to define, share, and monitor crucial metrics and performance indicators across all levels of the business. Fully customizable according to user roles, PMF dashboards enable executives to obtain a high-level view of broad-reaching strategies, while line-of-business managers can track the day-to-day tactical activities that link to those strategies. This allows everyone to actively participate in corporate performance monitoring, ensuring that all projects or initiatives are fully aligned and that all goals are being reached.

Analytic Dashboards
WebFOCUS Visual Discovery is a state-of-the-art solution that replaces cumbersome, complex OLAP tools and data models with in-memory analytic dashboards possessing cutting-edge data visualization capabilities. Visual Discovery lets users do more than just slice and dice data. It transforms multidimensional information from any source into impressive graphic presentations such as 3D bar and pie charts, histograms, data constellations, multiscapes, and more. With features such as selecting, zooming, pivoting, and re-sorting, these intuitive visualizations can be changed dynamically on the fly, enhancing insight by enabling more rapid and accurate data measurement, comparison, and observation.

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Interactive analytic dashboards can represent information, such as U.S. foreclosure activity, using a geographically plotted bubble chart to dynamically reflect activity over time (Figure D). Users can identify, isolate, and correlate business drivers intuitively with WebFOCUS Visual Discovery (Figure E). WebFOCUS Active Dashboards can e-mail portable dashboards with embedded analytics to mobile workers (Figure F).

Portable Dashboards
WebFOCUS Active Dashboards can be distributed automatically to anyone, anywhere, at any time. Executives, operational managers, and other constituents inside and outside the enterprise, working online or offline, can access high-impact graphical dashboards via the Web; save them to their PC, laptop, or mobile device; receive them in e-mails; and forward them to colleagues. Key business processes can always be tracked and monitored no matter where a stakeholder is located. Active Dashboards also support embedded analytics, combining data with interactive features that allow users to perform a variety of analytic functions such as sorting, filtering, calculating, and charting. This revolutionary technology is easy to use, empowering even non-technical workers to interact dynamically with charts and tables even multiple graphs simultaneously in ways that cant be accomplished with traditional tools like Excel. Best of all, no special software is required and there are no per-user or per-seat licensing costs.

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HTML Sales Dashboards feature embedded analytics, integrated filtering, and multiple scenarios via tabs (Figure G). Portable Sales Dashboards in Adobe PDF contain several Flex-based charts and reports, embedded analytics, and full printing capabilities (Figure H). Executive briefing booklets contain fully formatted text, logos, and images as well as live strategic dashboards and reports with embedded analytics (Figure I).

Customer-Facing and Self-Service Dashboards

Making BI applications available to users outside the organization, such as customers and business partners, customer-facing and self-service dashboards promote collaboration and save companies millions of dollars in support costs. These applications also boost profitability by opening up new revenue channels through the sale of value-added information services. WebFOCUS is the industrys leading platform for outward-facing reporting and analysis environments. Organizations in every industry use WebFOCUS to make vital corporate information available to tens or even hundreds of thousands of stakeholders outside the enterprise. Each day, WebFOCUS helps millions of external users around the world access account statements, invoices, and other reports via a Web site or in their e-mail inbox. When powerful dashboard capabilities are used to enhance those customer-facing systems (for example, with embedded, user-friendly analytic capabilities), external users can fully leverage the power of BI without having to purchase licenses or install special software.

A customer support center dashboard lets customers check existing orders, review purchases, and take advantage of personalized special offers (Figure J). The hotel benchmarking application is a customerfacing BI solution from Travel and Transport that integrates WebFOCUS Google mapping to map a clients hotel preferences (Figure K).

Robust Features to Maximize Dashboard Value

The unique, cutting-edge functionality within WebFOCUS allows companies to maximize the value of their dashboard environments, extending them with a variety of advanced capabilities.

Business Activity Monitoring

WebFOCUS dashboards can be used for real-time monitoring of core business activities, providing companies with the instant insight they need to leverage opportunities or solve problems the moment they arise. Companies using WebFOCUS dashboards to track their most important processes from order entry and claims processing to distribution and inventory management have achieved significant improvements throughout their entire operation. WebFOCUS uniquely combines industry-leading integration capabilities for real-time unification of information assets, intelligent monitoring and dynamic alert technologies, and the most comprehensive set of data visualization features for superior information presentation. Companies can indentify problems proactively, and then automatically distribute relevant information to the appropriate person or system. As a result, issues are resolved before they reach critical mass, and opportunities are seized while theyre still hot.

This operational dashboard provides real-time bed utilization tracking to help hospitals manage room and bed allocations more efficiently (Figure L). iWay CEP Enable integrates business activity monitoring (BAM), complex event processing (CEP), and BI for viewing, monitoring, and reporting on business processes (Figure M).

Location Intelligence and Geographic Information Systems

Location intelligence is a single application that integrates WebFOCUS and leading mapping solutions from ESRI, Google, and Adobe Flex. Combining the power of reporting and GIS, location intelligence lets users more intuitively process and comprehend spatially oriented data. This approach allows users to better visualize and understand information so they can more rapidly discern critical patterns and trends. With little or no training, users can aggregate real-time information from disparate databases and spreadsheets, build individual ad hoc queries and formatted reports, and instantly transform the results into compelling geographic maps. The similarities and differences between objects in specific geographic locations, as well as the spatial relationships between dimensions with similar or outstanding values, will be instantly identifiable.

Sales and campaign management mashups can include store revenue Active Reports with embedded analytics, and a Google map generated by WebFOCUS for Google Maps that geographically tracks the impact of marketing campaigns (Figure N). Performance management dashboards built with WebFOCUS Enable for Adobe Flex integrate GIS capabilities that help partners evaluate sales and cost trends geographically (Figure O). Law enforcement analytic dashboards integrate a GIS and predictive modeling with real-time crime data, which helps users understand when and where crimes may occur (Figure P).

Integration and Data Quality Management

A business intelligence dashboard is truly valuable only if the data is as complete and accurate as possible. WebFOCUS provides several styles of integration to support any type of dashboard deployment. A suite of pre-built integration components unifies information from more than 300 enterprise assets, while autonomic servers that are self-aware, self-healing, and self-optimizing effectively manage workload, traffic, and capacity minimizing the impact on back-end systems, enhancing dashboard performance, and reducing total cost of ownership. WebFOCUS also offers data quality management solutions for companies that need to create a data quality firewall, which not only locates and cleanses bad data that already exists, but also proactively prevents it from entering the environment in the first place. The integrity of the information contained in dashboards is guaranteed at all times.

A universal metadata layer (Figure Q) and companion tools accelerate integration by making potential data sources look like simple relational tables. WebFOCUS provides end-to-end management of all metadata and master data (Figure R) as well as comprehensive data quality services (Figure S) to optimize accuracy, timeliness, and reliability.

End-User Customization and Tools

With WebFOCUS, users can access their dashboards without having to wait for IT. Even those with little or no technical savvy can create their own dashboards and mashups. Intuitive dragand-drop assembly allows reports, charts, and dashboards to be built quickly and easily using any content, inside or outside the enterprise. WebFOCUS dashboards also include extensive end-user customization capabilities that allow pre-built information gadgets containing charts, graphs, reports, and information utilities to be rapidly assembled into interactive dashboards. Wikis, RSS feeds, and other Web 2.0 components can also be incorporated. These dashboards can then be used to drill through to detailed metric information or to change gadget preferences without IT assistance.

A simple drag-and-drop interface (Figure T) allows users to quickly build custom dashboards (Figure U) that can include any WebFOCUS asset, including reports, charts, WebFOCUS gadgets, Adobe Flex charts, and Active reports, as well as third-party Web 2.0 gadgets like AIM Chat, iGoogle Calendar, and New York Times Top Stories.

Ad Hoc Dashboards

Find Out More

To find out how our solutions can help your company succeed, talk to an Information Builders representative today. Contact your local Information Builders office, visit us at informationbuilders.com, or in the U.S. and Canada, call (800) 969-4636.

WebFOCUS InfoAssist gives users greater control over their content with comprehensive ad hoc reporting, querying, and cube-browsing capabilities. Dashboards can be constructed from any data source, and output in a variety of formats including Active Dashboards, Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe PDF, Flash, and Flex PDF.

InfoAssist lets users create pixel-perfect ad hoc dashboards from more than 350 data sources including cubes (Figure V), in several formats (Figure W), and with scheduling and distribution capabilities for delivery via e-mail, to a report archive, printer, or FTP site.

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