Dashboards present information in two broad ways. First, some of the data presented is averaged or summarized. To get to the details of performance, the user must click repeatedly to access detailed information. This is know as “drilling down” and the user might need to drill down through several layers in order to discover the culprit transaction or data that was skewing the averaged summary statistic on the dashboard.

The second way many dashboards present data is by visual status –- most often using the stop lights colors of red, yellow and green to signal status. Once again, the details are missing and the user must drill down to uncover the underlying issues.

With Excel Dashboards, you connect to your raw data which may be residing in multiple excel files or any other database such as Access or SQL database. Information can be averaged or summarized in the dashboard. So it provides a natural path to the detailed information for drililng straight to the raw transactions.

We are releasing the web component for Excel dashboards in few days and it is going to solve a lot of pain.

You have your data in Excel, you build a dashboard in Excel Dashboard designer and you can share and distribute the dashboard as PDF or live dynamic dashboard using the “Dashboard Viewer”. This is all fine and perfect.

But how about this scenario, what if you could hit a button and publish the dashboard on your website or intranet or your local webserver?

This web based Excel dashboard is not just a static html page but a real dynamic dashboard. You can access the dashboard using a URL on your browser (Internet Explorer,Chrome, Firefox etc) and view it from any part of the world. It would be as dynamic as you see it when you are designing it in Excel Dashboard Software.

Sounds interesting? so watch out for our web based dashboarding solution for Excel which should be out in few days.

So why bother buying an ebook or a pdf tutorial which tells you how to build a dashboard in Excel when you can get the leading Dashboard software just for the same price and you easily deploy it on your website.

Data governance is a set of processes that ensures that important data assets are formally managed throughout the enterprise. Data governance ensures that data can be trusted and that people can be made accountable for any adverse event that happens because of low data quality. It is about putting people in charge of fixing and preventing issues with data so that the enterprise can become more efficient.

Data governance also describes an evolutionary process for a company, altering the company’s way of thinking and setting up the processes to handle information so that it may be utilized by the entire organization. It’s about using technology when necessary in many forms to help aid the process. When companies desire, or are required, to gain control of their data, they empower their people, set up processes and get help from technology to do it

In general, most organizations have proliferated Excel use. When looking at business intelligence, many people use Excel to manage information and to analyze data. The issue arises when people use Excel as the key entry point of information access, meaning that individuals control, edit, and make changes to data used to plan and identify business performance and/or opportunities.

Because of the lack of validation within Excel, the ability to develop analyses based on incorrect assumptions and data manipulation are quite large. Consequently, organizations require the ability to use Excel and to interact with data, while still being able to validate the data being used to ensure proper data governance and overall compliance.

Excel Dashboard allows users to drill through to the original information without having to access a database or have an understanding of where the data resides. The overall ability to access and validate original data provides an asset to business users by allowing them to understand the context of information and how it interrelates with overall business information. When looking at compliance specifically, the ability to meet regulations and to maintain data integrity can have legal implications. Therefore, organizations require ways they can correlate Excel based analyses with original operational data to confirm that information has not been changed or compromised.

What would you see on a Hospital Quality Dashboard?

New online measurements show how consistently hospitals took recommended steps to keep patients from acquiring infections.

To combat surgical infections, for example, one best practice recommends that patients be given an antibiotic within one hour before surgery. The new data show the percentage of time that each hospital did so.

It is worth noting that a hospital’s quality is more than just the sum of these particular measures. Hospitals provide care for many other illnesses and conditions not addressed on this Web site. The information provided here can help you start a conversation with your health care providers about getting the care you, your family or friends need.

One key aspect important for effective Quality measurement is the capture of data. Once you have a single source of truth as your data source then it is the matter of choosing the right tool to translate that information into Quality Metrics on a report or Dashboard.

You can either export the raw data into Excel and point Excel Dashboard Designer to build your custom Dashboard

I am going to use the following story as a reference and it is a true story that happened to one of my Friend at work.

My Friend Mathew (changed name for privacy) works as Business Intelligence consultant and he does free-lancing. With all the down-sizing and budget cuts, his job was on the line to get chopped up since consultants and un-necessary expenses are first to go. When such things happen, companies often do not realize that sometimes these actions do not repair anything.

He was hired to implement Oracle BI software but due to budget constraints the company decided to cut back on the plan and hence get rid of all consultants. The only way he could stay on the job was if the client decided to implement the existing BI software that they already owned. (Yep lot of big ticket BI software often go un-used).

Talking to me, it became apparent that the client should be made aware of the benefits of BI software that they already own but the Oracle BI software being a beast in itself requires dedicated time from the DBA to put in the Development box and some configurations so his hands were completely tied. I offered him to use InfoCaptor to build a quick dashboard that would solve the client’s major pain. But it was upto him to decide on what pain to solve.

Now Mathew is a smart fellow and what he did later was truly genius. He approached the lady who prepares weekly reports on the status of project, tasks, open tickets and some performance metrics. He got multiple raw excel dumps from the different applications and build a common dashboard view. He exported the dashboard output to PDF and emailed it to this lady (Rosy). Rosy was completely blown away with the quaility of the PDF output and the dashboard format. Mathew showed her how easy it is to refresh the dashboard every week. Rosy sent the report to the PMO meeting.

The management got extremely excited. Mathew then presented his case that how Rosy is able to save 2 days of her time every week by automating the dashboard report generation. So if they go ahead with the BI software implementation they could similarly boost the productivity at all department level. Long story short, his contract has been extended for another 6 months and he is now a regular in the PMO meeting. Yes, they are now implementing Oracle BI software.

Clearly, Mathew did provide extreme value to his client but on top of that he demonstrated it by being Proactive and doing something different that nobody had thought of.

If you think your job is in danger or feel like demonstrating more work and value to your boss then follow the steps and you will be guaranteed more visibility and a stronger job security.

Building and demonstrating a Dashboard report is very new and trendy and the beautiful Gauges and Charts surely catches lot of eyeballs. So make it a mission to create something that is attractive and extremely valuable.

Create Value

Create Something Attractive and Extremely Valuable

1. Identify the content that you want to present to your boss

Make a list of things that is routinely done such as daily, weekly or monthly. There must be someone who is creating those summarized reports and sending to upper management on regular basis. This could be weekly sales figures, profit loss measures. Get access to this raw data. If you can get direct access to the underlying database then it is perfect, if not then get the data dump into Excel.

2. Decide on the presentation layout

Remember, you want to create something attractive and eye catching that delivers Valuable information. Kind of Sexy and intelligent woman

Try to summarize the information like total product count by category, total sales by region, average order quantity, total revenue by month etc.

Create the Bar charts and Pie charts for the above summarized information. Throw in a couple of Gauges such as Dials and Thermometers. Remember, you want your boss to call you and ask questions about. So be prepared to answer and justify why you presented the data in certain format. You don’t have to be perfect, you want your boss to suggest improvements. He might say, “Well this data should be better represented by a Pie chart rather than a line chart” and so on. That is true engagement and a silent approval of the work and effort you have put in.

3. Export your Dashboard to PDF

Assemble all your charts and dashboard portlets in a nice format, resize them and align properly. Export the dashboard output to PDF and email it to your boss or the person whom you are working with.

4. Meet your Boss

Your boss is definitely going to call you and arrange a meeting to discuss the PDF that you sent. He is going to discuss important stuff about the business and things he may have never discussed with you before. You are suddenly now on his/her side because you have provided something that was never asked from you. When you meet, make sure that this is a prototype and it should be refined further to suit the business. Admit what your assumptions were and be open for suggestions. This is your chance to be a permanent member of the strategy team for your business.

5. Step Up

Educate your workmates and help them build the dashboards themselves. Learning and sharing is key for leadership roles. Don’t be secretive. Share your knowledge and everybody will be talking the same language. This is the only way you will get noticed and become indispensable.

Download this Dashboard Software and Learn to build dashboards in next 15 minutes

Traditional report layouts made it difficult for managers to quickly see how the Service and business functions were performing. The design of fixed reports are cumbersome and difficult to update. There can also be a lot of formula errors as a result of the amount of manual updating and tasks that need to be done each quarter. Source data was varied and required a lot of time and effort to format it for inclusion in the reports.

The complexity increases when you need to mix-n-match information from multiple Excel Files or different Database such as Microsoft Access.

Producing performance reports can be a real headache. Every week or month the repetitive task of chasing down data sources begins. Then it is passed to someone else for their input. Then there is the process of making sense of the data. However, there is a much better way of reporting performance.

Any new excel dashboard project should have the following objectives:

• To show the charts, showing quarter performance and trends in a graphical format
• To automate as many of the manual processes required in formatting source files and the updating of quarter reports
• To provide better management reports in a consistent format

If you check the below screenshot, you can clearly see that it facilitates instanct visualization for different Time component such as month, quarter or year.

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Some organizations are reducing call center staff to lower operating costs and have fewer agents to do the same amount of work.

In a tightening economy it is difficult to recommend and justify additional call center staff to meet peak period operations.

As a result, companies are seeing lower customer satisfaction ratings, lower service levels and higher than usual number of escalations and complaints in their call centers.

To counteract the effects of staff reductions and hiring freezes, companies are becoming more efficient and effective in their daily routines and tasks. By receiving appropriate information at the agent’s desktop and manager’s dashboard in real time, stakeholders can more efficiently manage their daily workload.

Call centers using Excel Dashboards report a marked improvement in agent adherence to company stated goals, increase in customer satisfaction ratings, and an ability to complete daily tasks. Furthermore, remote or home-based agents have access to the same detailed information as agents in the main center.

Excel Dashboards can be used as desktop tool or a web based solution.

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Be a Dashboard Super Hero

“VOW!” Your Boss and Management:

Dashboards will help your Boss look better in front of his own boss (that is your super boss). Yep, the word will spread around. Believe me, Dashboards have that power. If managers like to read your reports, they read them more quickly and carefully, and they learn more about your organization’s performance.

Gain Clarity and Faster Insight:

Using many small charts communicates complex information more quickly. Build a combination of tables and charts including Bar, Pie, Gauges, Speedometers

Show Any Data:

Use it to derive intelligence for Human resource, Sales, Marketing, Finance and Manufacturing

Heterogenous Data

: Pull information from any number of disconnected Excel Files, MS Access Database, Oracle, SQL server, MySQL, DB2 etc.

Drill from Excel Files into MS Access or Access to Excel. Create a drop down parameter using Excel data and use it to filter Access or Oracle or MSSQL or any database. The combinations are unlimited.

Zero Coding

: You can create professional-quality reports without any coding knowledge. You do not need to know Excel formulas or Macros or VBA coding. You do need any SQL knowledge. Just Drag and Drop

Give Managers More Control Over Their dashboard reports:

Create interactive Dashboard report where you can change the parameter value and instantly see the results refreshed.

Use Dashboards that refresh themselves

Save Time and Money

: Invest initial time on creating the dashboard and then just refresh it each week or month. You will see a guaranteed boost in your productivity.

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Best Practice for Developing dashboards with Microsoft Excel

Here is the problem statement

Your boss just assigned you to build a fancy dashboard with all the Pie and bar charts showing “Gross Revenue for past 12 months”, “Cost of Goods for past 12 months” and “Net Proft for past 12 months”.

The problem is all of the information is scattered in multiple Excel files and some information is stored in the MS Access database.

Here are the possible actions you could take

1. Export data from Access to Excel, Write macros, link worksheets, write formulas and do all sort of Excel Magic work and build charts in another worksheet
2. Get some pre-built Excel Templates, manually type in the numbers into the templates, the templates will then spit out the charts in a pseudo dashboard format

The first option is for the dare devil who is a true Excel Ninja and expert with writing Excel Macros. But the Ninja does not realize that you will end up with the following.

Bloated Excel Files – Macros – Lost Productivity

• Big Bulky and bloated excel files
• Undocumented Macros
• Zero verification on the data authencity
• No way to refresh the dashboard (lost productivity)

The second option involves manual data input and does not fit the Best Reporting and Dashboard Practice or Methods

Seperate Data and Presentation layers

One of the recommended approach is to always keep the Data and Presentation layers. The above two solutions terribly violate this rule by having the Data and the Charts sitting in the same Excel File.

So what is the best approach for building Dashboards with excel ?

Modular Design – Keep Data and Presentation Separate

• Create a separate presentation layer
• Connect to the Excel or Access data files
• Visually Build the Tables and Charts
• Link the Tables and Chart to Common Parameters
• Now you have a presentation layer complete with drop down parameters, drillable charts and tables

Benefits of this approach

• Your dashboard or presenation layer is independent – Dashboard definition is stored separately
• Increased productivity – When you have fresh data just refresh the dashboard, no redevelopment needed
• No Messy Excel Macros or coding knowledge required – Just drag and drop tables and visually build Tables, Charts, Speedometer, Gauges, Dials, Thermometers and more charts
• Simplified Distribution and Presentation – You can Export the Dashboard to PDF or HTML and just send them as attachments
• Save Time - Just build the dashboard presentation layer only once and automate the refreshes.

Excel Dashboard Designer is one such tool that will allow you to build Dashboards using the best practice method.

• You can Auto-refresh the dashboard
• Zero Coding - Visual Development
• Create variety of charts like Pie, Bar, Speedometer, Dials, Thermometers, Line, Bubbles and much more
• One click Export to PDF and HTML
• Centralized distribution of Dashboards

Once you adopt this method of creating the dashboards, you will definitely fall in love with the approach and wished you knew this before.

You can now get this Excel Dashboard Designer for only $47

• Desktop Based
• Create unlimited Dashboards
• Modify any dashboard
• View any Dashboard
• 1 Developer License per named user
• Work with any and unlimited Excel Files
• 10 Additional Viewing licenses per named user

What do you get for $47

• Empowers you to build unlimited Dashboards
• Build Dashboards that provide value for your Business or Organization
• Build Drills and granular reports for data analysis
• Total control over each Dashboard Element

Be a Dashboard Hero!

Dashboards are hot and Excel Dashboard Tool will enable you to reach a new height in the eyes of your management.

100% Money Back Guarantee. Get it now for just $47

• No annual maintenance cost
• Free Upgrades
• Unlimited Dashboards
• Publish Dashboard to PDF document and distribute Freely
• Publish to Static HTML document

Not convinced yet? Give it a Free Try. Download Excel Dashboard