Datasheet

Analytical Reporting
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strategic approaches to the way resource investments are planned, managed, and measured. A business
intelligence methodology prescribes the rules and standards for defining business targets and the suc-
cess factors for measuring actual metrics against those targets. Reporting is a big part of that process.
After defining business metrics and the rules for measuring success — and of course, gathering all of
the necessary data, different report types are used to analyze current and historical data to evaluate
correlations and trends.
Analytical reports tend to be more concise and graphical than operational reports. Traditionally, col-
umn and line charts dominated the desktops of business analysts but a new breed of reports plays the
role of BI dashboard components. There are a variety of standard metaphors for indicating goals, sta-
tus, and trends. Sometimes an array of simple pie charts or needle gauges is an effective method to
convey the state of things in the business enterprise. However, as user reporting needs have become
more sophisticated (as have many business users) there is an ever-increasing need to add more useful
information to business reports while keeping reports easy to read and manageable.
Report Types
The style of reports used in a BI solution range from common tabular and chart reports to particu-
lar report styles with graphical indicators, symbols, arrows, and progress bars. BI defines a lot more
than just a style of reports; other types of business data systems can include dashboard and scorecard
report styles.
Dashboards and Scorecards
By definition, a dashboard is a collection of reports or report elements and gauges that convey the state
of related key metrics. At a glance, a dashboard reflects the health of the business. Report actions allow
users to drill down or drill through to more specific details and assess the status of each metric across
different dimensions, such as time periods or geographic regions. A business scorecard is a specific
style of dashboard-type report that helps business leaders measure key performance and success values
relative to goals and business plans. Aside from the style and layout of reports, business scorecards
conform to a standard process for planning business growth and measuring success.
Although dashboards and scorecards may not be limited to business intelligence solutions, the need
for them may suggest that eventually a full BI solution should be developed to support all the business
reporting requirements.
Dashboard design is often a balancing act between simplicity and usability. The goal is to give business
users the information that they need, based on universally understood metrics, measures, and perfor-
mance indicators. That information must be delivered at the right level of detail so the users can make
important decisions and take action on the most critical issues affecting business performance.
Pivot Table and Matrix Reports
Known within different products as a cross-tab, pivot table, or matrix, this type of report groups data
on both the rows and columns axis, showing aggregated values at each intersect point. Pivot reports
are very useful for ad-hoc analysis. For larger volume result sets, drill-down features can allow results
to be aggregated at higher group levels within axis hierarchies and allow users to expand each branch
to expose more detail at lower group levels. See Figure 1-8.