QAD Business Intelligence Dashboards Demonstration Guide May 2015 BI 3.11
Overview This demonstration focuses on one aspect of QAD Business Intelligence Business Intelligence Dashboards and shows how this functionality supports the vision of the Effective Enterprise; where every business process is working at peak efficiency and perfectly aligned to the company s strategic goals. QAD Business Intelligence Business Intelligence Dashboards Key Points Enabling the Effective Enterprise
Related Metrics Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) define what the Effective Enterprise means to your company, mapping your company s vision, strategy and goals to specific measurements that will help you drive efficiency and identify improvements in the business process. Business Intelligence Dashboards highlight performance information, helping you to make better decisions by presenting just the information you need, the way you need it confident you are always looking at complete, up-to-date information. QAD provides a set of dashboards to track a pre-defined set of metrics in ten key areas. Additional metrics and the relative importance of each one will depend on your definition of the Effective Enterprise. You can easily change Business Intelligence Dashboards to include your metrics and priorities. Business Intelligence Dashboards Related Metrics Days Sales Outstanding Days Payables Outstanding Operating cash flow / sales ratio KPI Financial reporting person days Metrics Dashboard Key Points Pre-built Dashboards Add / change dashboards to monitor company-specific metrics Standard metrics Importance varies by company
Enabling Solution Business Intelligence provides a set of pre-defined dashboards for each of the main modules of QAD functionality - using the QAD Key Performance Indicator (KPI) framework as a guide. You can use these dashboards, or create your own custom dashboards to view trends and monitor performance against key metrics. Using Business Intelligence Dashboards each of your decision-makers can create and re-use secure dashboard components to achieve unique views into the data, summarized and presented in graphical or grid format, with the ability to drill-down into all supporting details. Unlike off-line spreadsheets, dashboards take data directly from the Data Warehouse, using data optimized for fast access and ensuring you are always making decisions based on complete and up-to-date information. You can easily access the information you need, and you can do this yourself, without having to wait for assistance. Business Intelligence Dashboards Enabling Solution Pre-defined dashboards Customized by user - Graphs, charts, grids - Drill-down to details Access data from Data Warehouse - Up-to-date, complete information - Optimized data access Key Points Pre-defined dashboards o o o Customized by user (usually a power user) Graphs, charts, grids, messages, links, graphics Drill-down to detail Mobile support for ipad and Android; same data as you see on Web browser Leverage information assets from data warehouse
Demonstration Summary In this demonstration, you will see how Business Intelligence Dashboards support the measurement, data gathering and analysis steps in the closed-loop decision-making process; drawing on the wealth of data in the Data Warehouse and presenting it in a view customized to your needs exposing trends, and supporting fact-based decisions and continuous improvement. First, you will see how easy it is to interact with the standard dashboards provided with the application, then see how quickly and easily you can customize these dashboards. Unlike creating a custom spreadsheet with charts, these dashboards access up-to-date information from your data warehouse ensuring you are always basing decisions on the most current data, gathered from across your global enterprise. Business Intelligence Dashboards Demonstration Summary Interacting with dashboards Customizing dashboards Creating unique data views Creating new dashboards Interactive editing tools Measure Business State Implement Gather Data Model Analysis Collaborate Key Points Using, changing, customizing dashboards, visual objects and queries Note: Data is up-to-date, based on the frequency that you refresh the Data Warehouse data from the transactional systems Support decision-making process Measure, gather, analyze
How QAD supports decisions with real-time analytical information Graphical Dashboards Here is an example of a dashboard. This one shows critical metrics that your general manager might want to monitor inventory turns, DIFOT, OEE along with links to related reports and websites. Each user or role can have access to have any number of dashboards, and can switch easily from one to another for example, moving from this metrics overview to a more detailed inventory management dashboard. QAD Business Intelligence comes pre-loaded with a variety of dashboards, preconfigured for the QAD modules Enterprise Asset Management, Financials, Operations, Order Management and Transportation Management monitoring Key Performance Metrics for different areas of your business. Dashboards can contain a variety of different visual items graphs and charts, data presented in a grid format, text messages and links. Other items may also be included logos and graphics, the date/time, list of reports, actions, collaboration forum news and more. Demo 1. Highlight Dashboard > Demo 2. Select Dashboard > Demo > General Manager
3. Highlight Dashboard > QAD Standard > Operations 4. Select Inventory Management Key Points Multiple dashboards per user or role Dashboards include multiple visual items o Graphs, bar charts, pie charts, grids o Text messages/reminders, Links, Actions (like a Go To), Forum News
How QAD provides just the information you need Drill down The Inventory Management dashboard shows an example of bar and donut charts. Hover over any area to see the data value, and click on any value to drill down into more detail here offering multiple drill downs, to another bar chart, then to a detailed grid view. Quickly return to any level simply by clicking the arrow icon, or change the data by entering a different selection for example, choosing data for your Canadian division. You can review all of this summarized information, or if you want to look more closely at any one of these charts, just click Maximize. All of the QAD standard dashboards offer these options and you can easily build your own dashboards using any or all of these constructs. Demo 1. In Inventory OH by Site, click Ultrasound Mfg Site bar to drill-down 2. Click Purchased-Ext Supplier
3. At Arrow icon, click drop-down 4. Select Inventory OH by Site 5. Select Domain 11CAN
6. Click Refresh 7. (Optionally) On Inventory Turns by Site, click Maximize icon 8. Scroll right, click Minimize icon Note: if you click Close the window will close and you will see a box at the bottom of the dashboard you can click to refresh. Key Points Drill-down or drill-out for more detail Click Back Arrow to return to any level Parameters to select data Any number of selection parameters for example, domain, year, month, product, customer, region Parameters can affect any or all of the visual items, depends on the underlying query Maximize any visual item Minimize to return to dashboard view
How QAD saves time Dashboard Designer You can use any web browser to change these dashboards, or to design your own, without the need for a programmer. For example, to add a new dashboard, you just drag and drop items on to your dashboard custom or standard graphs or charts, with the appropriate selection parameters, free form text, the date, lists of reports, or links to external websites. Save it, optionally restricting access to certain roles or groups, then access it from the dashboard menu. It s just that simple! Demo 1. Select Designer > Dashboard 2. Click New 3. Click icon to expand Visual Items > QAD Standard > Order Management 4. Drag & drop Bookings by Financial Year and Month to dashboard
5. Click icon to expand QAD Standard 6. Click icon to expand Utilities 7. Drag & drop Domain, Year, Month Parameter Bar to dashboard 8. Resize 9. Drag & Drop Gross Margin by Domain, Financial Year and Month Grid to dashboard 10. Resize the graph and grid
11. Right-click Bookings by Financial Year and Month 12. Select Parameters 13. Click Year(Domain, Year, Month Parameter Bar)
14. Right-click Gross Margin by Domain, Financial Year and Month Grid, select Parameters 15. Select Domain Domain (Domain, Year, Month Parameter Bar, Year Year (Domain, Year, Month Parameter Bar) 16. Select Year 2013 17. Click Refresh
18. Drag & Drop Booking Reports to dashboard 19. Page down 20. Drag and drop Sales Reports to dashboard 21. Resize both 22. Drag & drop Text Area icon to blank dashboard on right 23. Enter My Sample Dashboard (Bold, Size 14) 24. Enter Link to our website: QAD 25. Highlight QAD 26. In http:// enter www.qad.com 27. Click QAD
28. Close tab 29. Resize text box smaller 30. Drag & drop Date icon to dashboard 31. Resize 32. Click Save As 33. Click icon to expand Dashboards 34. Click icon to expand Demo 35. Enter Item Name My Sample Dashboard
36. Click Security tab 37. Click Save 38. Click Close All 39. If you accessed BI from a browser, click Refresh 40. Highlight Dashboard > Demo
41. Select Dashboard > Demo > My Sample Dashboard Key Points Browser-based design tool No need for a programmer o Drag and drop from list o Enter text, links, date o Use standard reports and ad hoc reporting o Set security who can access and edit, by role Roles pre-determined by administrator
How QAD reduces customization Customized Query There may be situations where you want to look at information that isn t currently available in any of the existing dashboards. In this case, you can easily set up a query that will access just this data. Let s say you want to look at a unique view of invoice history displaying average, minimum and maximum gross margin for a certain product line, by year. To add a new query, first you select your area of interest in this case, Order Management Invoices. Add columns to this query by selecting the information you want to display. This is stored in Fact Tables, for example, Transaction Gross Margin. Just drag and drop the data items you want to display onto the Column selection. You can choose from several different margin values. That is because you might be operating in different currencies. Trans Gross Margin maintains the original currency of the transaction. Base Gross Margin is the value converted to the local currency of the site. Corp Gross Margin is the value expressed in the corporate currency letting you compare numbers for any of your global operations, expressed in one currency. QAD Modules manage all this, so you do not have to! You can retrieve this transaction information based on different dimensions for example, you can look at gross margin values by year and product line, perhaps sorted by year. You can also select a filter for example, choosing to review margin for only finished goods, that is product line 22. Filters can be fixed, or you can set them up as parameters, letting you can select the product line dynamically whenever you run the query. If you click Test Run, this will show you a sample of the data your query will produce so that you can verify and refine your selections. Once you have exactly what you want, you can run the query to retrieve all the data matching the selection criteria and optionally save the query so that you can access it again. Demo 1. Highlight Designer 2. Select Designer > Query
3. Click New 4. In Query Area drop-down, select OM Order Invoices 5. Scroll down 6. Click icon to expand Fact Table Trans Gross Margin 7. Drag & drop Average Trans Gross Margin Trans to Selected Columns 8. Drag & drop Min Trans Gross Margin Trans to Selected Columns 9. Drag & drop Max Trans Gross Margin Trans to Selected Columns
10. Click icon to expand Dimension Item-Site Dimension 11. Scroll down 12. Drag & drop Product Line to Selected Columns
13. Click icon to expand Dimension Effective Date Dimension 14. Scroll down 15. Drag & drop Effective Fin Year to Columns 16. In Selected Columns, highlight name Effective Fin Year
17. Click Sort Type <blank> 18. In drop-down, click Asc 19. Drag & drop Product Line to Detail tab, just below AND 20. Highlight Product Line 21. Click Parameter tab 22. Enter IN 23. Enter Prompt Text Product Line, Default Value 22 24. Click Test Run 25. (Optionally) Resize columns
26. Click Save As 27. Click icon to expand Queries 28. Click icon to expand Demo Examples 29. Enter My Sample Query Gross Margin 30. Click Save 31. Click Close All
Key Points Terminology o o o o o o o Query defines what data you would like to see Query area identifies the functional area; either a QAD Module or other data source Fact Tables the facts, usually numeric, you are looking up; for example bookings Dimensions the way you want to look at the facts; for example, bookings by item or date Selected Columns any number of data items can be displayed Filters define a subset of data; for example, filtering out zero values Parameters let you create dynamic filters with default values; for example, selecting the year each time you run the query Multiple Currency o QAD Modules are pre-defined to handle multiple currencies o o o Transaction currency original currency from the transaction Base currency currency for the site Corporate currency standard currency you choose to use with BI Query selects data directly from Data Warehouse o o Live-connection; not a copy Provides the data to feed the Visual item Test Run returns sample of data Run returns entire result set
How QAD improves decision-making Visual Item Design You can use this query to create a report, or you can create a visual item like a chart or a graph that you can put on a dashboard. Just enter the name of your query and select the type of chart you want bar chart, pie chart, heat map one or two-dimensional? Take the query you defined and create a bar chart showing just the average gross margin by year. Demo 1. Select Designer > Visual Item 2. Click New 3. In Visual Item Types, click Chart
4. Click Column 2D 5. In Query, click Browse 6. Click icon to expand Queries 7. Click icon to expand Demo Examples 8. Highlight My Sample Query Gross Margin 9. Click Open 10. Click Chart Columns 11. In Levels, check Effective Fin Year 12. Uncheck Product Line 13. In Measures, check Average Trans Gross Margin
14. Uncheck Min Trans Gross Margin, Max Trans Gross Margin 15. Click Labels 16. Enter Title Avg Gross Margin by Year 17. Click Options 18. Enter Decimal Display 2
19. Click Save As 20. Click icon to expand Visual Items 21. Click icon to expand Demo Examples 22. Enter Avg Margin by Year for Product Line 23. Click Save Key Points Associate Query with Visual Item; Define Visual Item Properties columns, labels, options Query selects the data, Changes immediately affect visual item display Uses data directly from Data Warehouse
How QAD supports root cause analysis Create Drill-Down The chart you just created shows summarized information, but what if you want to drilldown into more detail? This can be easily set up here just click Actions and set up the links. For example, you might want to click on one of the bars and get a graph showing average gross margin by month for this product line. To do this, all you need to do is associate another visual item to this chart, and define the parameter that you want to pass so that the query will display the desired information. In this example, you pass the value for product line and year. Demo 1. Click Actions 2. Click Add New 3. In Action Type, check Drill-In 4. Click Next
5. In Action Binding, check Bound to Selected Item, Average Trans Gross Margin 6. Click Next 7. In Action Target Item, check Link to Library Item 8. Click Browse
9. Click icon to expand Visual Items 10. Click icon to expand Demo Examples 11. Highlight Avg Margin by Month for Product Line Year 12. Click Open 13. In Parameter Binding From line 1 (Year), click Use Default
14. Click From Effective Fin Year 15. In Parameter Binding From line 2 (Product Line), click Use Default 16. From Product Line 17. Click OK
18. Click Save 19. Click Close All Key Points Actions tab defines drill-downs Link to another query, passes clicked-on data as a parameter to this query Terminology Breadcrumbs this remembers where you came from so that you can return to the original chart simply by pressing the Back Arrow at the top left corner of the graph
How QAD focuses attention Add New Dashboard Now put your new visual item the bar chart on a Dashboard. You could add it to an existing dashboard or create a new one, by itself or in combination with any number of other visual items. Just drag-and-drop the visual items on to the new dashboard, then save it. Now you can access your new visual item, including the associated drill down to detail. Access this dashboard, or others, from your terminal or from a mobile device like an ipad. Demo 1. Select Designer > Dashboard 2. Click icon to expand Dashboards 3. Click icon to expand Demo 4. Highlight My Sample Dashboard 5. Click Open
6. Right-click Bookings by Financial Year and Month chart 7. Select Delete this item 8. Click icon to expand Demo Examples 9. Drag & drop Avg Margin by Year for Product Line to My Sample Dashboard 10. Resize
11. In Avg Margin by Year for Product Line, click 2011 to drill-down 12. Click Save 13. Click Close 14. Click New 15. Click icon to expand Demo Examples 16. Drag-and-drop Avg Margin by Month for Product Line to blank dashboard 17. Maximize
18. Click Save As 19. Click icon to expand Dashboards 20. Click icon to expand Demo 21. Enter Item Name Margin 22. Click Save 23. Click Close All 24. If you accessed BI from a browser, click Refresh 25. Highlight Dashboard > Demo 26. Select Margin
27. (Optionally) On ipad, tap Refresh 28. Tap Demo 29. Tap Margin
Key Points Add visual item to new or existing dashboard; Simple drag & drop Set display options (re-size), add text, date, graphics, parameter bar Optionally access dashboards on mobile device
How QAD reduces on-going maintenance cost Interactive Editing You can directly edit components right from the dashboard designer. No more looking around or trying to remember what you called something. Just right-click and choose edit If you want to change something. This takes you directly to the Visual Item Designer where you can change the chart type, columns, labels and display options. You can even edit the query right here - perhaps changing the search criteria to retrieve a slightly different subset of the data. Everything is accessible. Demo 1. On Desktop, click Designer > Dashboard 2. Click icon to expand Dashboard 3. Click icon to expand Demo 4. Highlight Margin 5. Click Open
6. Right-click Avg Margin by Month for Product Line title bar 7. Select Edit Item 8. Click Line
9. Click Options 10. Check Show Value Labels 11. Click Save 12. Click OK 13. Click Close All Key Points Usually used by designers & power users Direct edit for visual items and queries; Increased efficiency Don t need to remember the name, or where you put it!
Where-Used When changing a query, report, or visual item, you need to know where it is accessed so that you don t make changes that will negatively impact something else. For example, on the visual item that you just changed, all you need to do is look at the Referenced tab. This shows you everywhere it is used: in the sample visual item you created and on which dashboards. This tells you immediately if your changes will affect anyone else. If you want to edit an item, you can select it right here. Fast and simple! Demo 1. In Designer > Visual Item, click icon to expand Demo Examples 2. Highlight Avg Margin by Month by Product Line Year 3. Click Referenced by tab 4. Right-click My Sample Dashboard 5. (Optionally) Click Edit Item Key Points Applies to query, report or visual item Displays hierarchical view of all usage Click any item in hierarchy to edit Easy way to manage change process
Closing In closing, QAD Business Intelligence Dashboards will help you improve performance against your critical metrics and make better decisions by presenting just the information you need, the way you need it. Dashboards take information directly from the Data Warehouse, ensuring you are making fact-based decisions based on the most complete, up-to-date information. QAD: Enabling the Effective Enterprise! Business Intelligence Dashboards Closing Customizable dashboards - Monitor critical metrics - Present up-to-date, complete information - Support fact-based decision-making Enabling the Effective Enterprise! Key Points Enabling the Effective Enterprise Monitor critical metrics Easily customized by business users (no need for a programmer) Data from Data Warehouse (not a copy in a spreadsheet) Fact-based decisions