Everyone knows that BI (business intelligence) is going to help get you answers that you wouldn't otherwise have at your fingertips, but not a lot of people know how to get those answers, let alone how easy it can really be (with SharePoint). In this session, we'll go over some of the simple ways of giving users (and yourself) what they deserve - the information they need, accurately, and timely.

1. SharePoint BI for the Common
Person
By Colin Phillips :: SharePoint MVP ::
itgroove

2. Business Intelligence 101
Every business, big or small, can benefit from
business intelligence
-
Key Performance Indicators
-
Dashboards
-
Charts
-
Many (many) more possibilities

3. The Game of BI Buzzwords
Big Data
Analysis
Sparklines
Source of Truth
Metrics
Aggregation
… The list goes on, and on, and on
Did
Someone
say BIG
Data?

4. Cutting Through the Crap and Getting Down to
Meaning
The keys to building a good (and useful) business
Accuracy: These have to be right,
or people may miss out on earned
vacation (or worse, get too much)
intelligence thingy [insert buzzword here]
-
Purpose: Why is this necessary?
-
Relevance: Bring to the surface relevant info
-
Vision: A vision of what “it” may look like (if it
Purpose: To Help
Wendy Find
What She Needs
actually has a visualization)
-
Accuracy: The details have to be right
-
Relevant
Info
(And sometimes have a little fun)
Fun
Vision: This could’ve been
imagined on a napkin

5. Tools of the Trade (SharePoint Wise)
Things differ quite a bit when comparing 2010 and 2013
The MS Answer to BI in 2010:
The MS Answer to BI in 2013:
•
Performance Point
•
Excel / Excel Services
•
(Ad hoc) KPI’s
•
PowerPivot
•
Visio Services
•
PowerView
•
SQL Server Reporting Services
•
Excel / Excel Services
•
PowerPivot (Later add-on)
•
PowerView (quite limited and later add-on)
The rest still “exist” in 2013, but are no longer in the
spotlight

6. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly 2010 to 2013
What you spent all your time on in 2010 is now mostly deprecated (or lacking) in 2013
Good:
-
PowerPivot is AMAAAAZING!!!
Bad:
-
You have to learn something new (all over again)
Ugly:
-
Conditional formatting was easy in 2010, now only really something a programmer
can handle in 2013 (though it’s power has certainly vastly improved)

7. Demo #1 – BI Using Only Your Mouse
Goal:
Creating business intelligence about a SharePoint list without ever using your keyboard
Ingredients:
•
SharePoint List Data (in 2013)
•
Excel (2013)
•
PowerPivot
•
A Pointing Device (Mouse)
•
Halloween data collected about all costumes worn by my kids since first born (2005).

8. About Demo #1
Because that example is Ad-hoc (using
export to Excel), it works in both onpremises installations, and in the cloud
(Office 365).

9. Demo #2 – This time, “To The Cloud!”
Part I
We’re going to do a similar analysis as in the first Demo,
but this time we’re going to get the information from a
cloud data source
Part II
Combine the data from Demo #1 and Demo #2 together

10. From Ad-hoc Reporting to Dashboards
Step 1: Ad-hoc Reporting
Step 2: Dashboards
Step 3: Profit?

11. There Are No Rules When Building A Dashboard
•
Make a dashboard what you want it to be
•
Dashboards should serve the end-user, not the
author
•
If you don’t like what you’re given (and have the
ability/permissions) change your dashboard to be
more useful

12. Ok, There Are Rules When Building A Dashboard
•
If this is a “state of the union” dashboard, your dashboard should be quiet unless something needs addressing
 Include KPI’s that target specifically what you care about
•
Simplicity over quantity – if there’s too much going on, people will get lost, or worse, bored
•
Know what keeps your executives up at night
•
List views are your friend

13. Dashboards As a Central Focus
•
To make dashboards the most
successful, direct users to them constantly
•
Make them your users’ browser homepage
•
If they’re everywhere, people can’t miss them
•
If they have the information people
need, people will be inclined to use them
•
Don’t be afraid to adjust things along the
way and make improvements
Above: Example trend of a static dashboard that you have to go out of
your way to find

14. The Careful Curve of Dashboard Complexity
Too Much
Information
Just Right
Too Little
Information
No
Information
At the end of the day,
Too much is better than
too little – but way too
much is just wrong.
Information
Overload

15. Taken from “the head cheese” at itgroove
The following slides are taken from our 2013 dashboard strategy…
(Circa January 2013)

16. What do we
need to
manage?

Ourselves (Corporate)

Our Customers (Client Manager)

Myself (Individual)

17. What our dashboards need to tell us
Customer Service

What is past due?

What is expiring this week?

What are our risks?

What is overdue for me?

What is on today and tomorrow?

What is on for me today and tomorrow?

What is on this week?

What is on for me this week?

What is on this month?

What is on for me this month?

What changes are coming to customer

What Risks do I own?
systems?

What customers do I own Responsibility for?
Business & Billing

Client Monthly Hours

Future KPI’s
Our Dashboards are about
surfacing relevant data, and
mitigating risk.
Time Entries Today

Think “Outlook Style”
Key Message:
Have a strategy

18. Client Manager Dashboards
Client Manager
Customer
Service
Business &
Billing
New!
Consultant
Dashboard [Me]
GM View
Everywhere you go in our
portal, you’re surrounded by
dashboards.
Key Message:
Make them a central focus, and
people won’t even realize they’re
gaining the benefit

19. Let’s Build a Dashboard!
Here’s what we’re going to make:
-
Get data from a SharePoint list
-
Build some list views
-
We’ll use several (pre-built) Excel services solutions (for brevity)
-
Combined together in a web-part page in SharePoint
Voila! Dashboard

20. Dashboards – Gone Wild

21. Simple Dashboard Colouring Guidelines
- Proper use of Colour
-
Use colour only on outliers (icons are
optional)
-
Don’t cloud the design with colour
We all know green is good
-
Think about what it will look like when
printed
No matter how much you try to avoid it,
someone will always want to do this

22. Dashboards I Love

23. So what did we cover?
-
How to pull information from SharePoint lists (both
on premises and cloud) and do ad-hoc reporting
-
How to combine data from more than 1 source (on
premises and cloud) into an ad-hoc report
-
Use dashboards!!!
-
Have a plan for your dashboard strategy
-
-
Making dashboards a central focus = Good!
How to build a simple dashboard with SharePoint
list views and Excel
And kids in cute Halloween costumes are adorable

24. Questions?
Contact Info
Colin Phillips
cphillips@itgroove.net
blog: mmman.itgroove.net