INTRODUCTION
As more organizations are storing their business information via web services, Executive Dashboards are becoming a
popular way for C‐Level executives to manage information and programs across an enterprise. With its ability to
instantly report data from a variety of sources, allow formatting based on business rules, and provide interactivefunctions Executive Dashboards are quickly becoming the an important tool for executives to obtain information andmetrics on their organization.
An Executive Dashboard is a customized web‐interface that is accessible only by the executive that is authorized to seeor manage particular organizational data and information. Whether it is just a single page or a gateway to an entire siteof reports that support the executive’s needs, these sites provide a dynamic way to see the state of an enterprise,program or department. They allow their owners immediate access to information and reports without the need to issue
RFIs or visit multiple sources to obtain information.
Executive Dashboards often function like the eyes and ears of an enterprise. They serve as a secure website of websitesthat is the single gateway which unifies access to all enterprise information and applications for that individual. It distills
the complexity and variety of information and services available to a user into a single interface targeted to that user's
needs and access rights. Focused on delivering timely and relevant information based on business rules, Executive
Dashboards are custom manifestation of an enterprise portal that has the ability to aggregate real‐time data from bothinternal and external sources.

Project Review Dashboard

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IMPLEMENTATIONS & PROPERTIES OF EFFECTIVE DASHBOARDS
To report actionable data, there must first reside a structure of supporting reporting applications, tools, and sites thatthe enterprise uses on a recurring basis. Without this critical component, an executive dashboard becomes little morethan an expensive news reader.
The most valuable dashboards operate at a summit‐level in an organization and often leverage enterprise‐classframeworks such as SharePoint Portal Server. Deployments created by impulse often are short lived due to the lack ofstrategy and the integrity of their data sources. Dashboards are usually implemented in the tail end of an initiative oncesome level of Integrated Managed Services has been established across the enterprise. Once there is a common
framework of sites and applications, and a system that treat users as first‐class objects, information and data can bepackaged up to a dashboard for reporting.
The technology alone is not enough to produce a good executive dashboard. Many COTS products offer them as part oftheir product to increase their web services visibility. However, they are not usually positioned to provide leadership,
workflow, or intelligence services and rather are listed as a possible scenario for the product. Additionally, it is notadvised to be influenced by the format, style, or layout of a potential portal/dashboard product. Any product can beswitched to look like another with an Extensible Style Sheet (.xsl) and some clever graphics.
The bottom line is that the determining factor is not what a dashboard does, but how it does it. There are six coredashboards principles, regardless of what the system reports it will be effective if it employs a majority of the following
six properties:
Consolidation

Aggregates business data from a variety of internal and external sources

ElevationElevates information that is important or critical to the owner

Reporting

Reports quantitative information regarding the status of projects, performers, and initiatives

Metering

Supplies metrics based on organizational standards or business rules

Formatting

Utilizes conditional formatting to direct the user’s attention to important items

Interchange

Has the ability to pass information between web parts to display correlating and supporting
information

ROLES & UTILIZATIONS OF EXECUTIVE DASHBOARDSCan you remember the last time you were in a meeting and were able to pull up the organization’s roll‐call on your PDA,provide real‐time project status without an RFI, or provide performance metrics? Executive dashboards can often
eliminate the fact finding process and empower decision making information on the fly. Once established, they canprovide visibility and transparency into business operations and deliver real‐time information to decision makers.
Additionally, their value is enhanced when historical information is displayed along real‐time information, when alerts
are issued upon reaching established thresholds, and when reviewing, managing and delegating organizational items.
Although not limited to the following, the below scenarios are commonly used when establishing an executive
dashboard:
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Project Reporting
Business Scorecards
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Risk Management
Treat Modeling
Revenue Management
Return on Investment Reports (ROIs)
Roll Call & Staffing
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FUNCTIONAL BREAKDOWN & COMPONENTSEnterprises are organic in nature; it is common that the aggregated information is contributed by hundreds or possibly
thousands of users. Dashboards most commonly reside in an exclusive area of an enterprise portal which not onlyprovides restricted access, but it allows the dashboard to render data and content in native form from within the sameenvironment. Additionally, it ensures that this information will be deliverable to a variety of different platforms andlocations such as your desktop and laptop, your home and work computers, and even a PDA device. Many CIOs even set
their dashboard as their home page so that upon opening a browser it displays the current state of their organization orprogram.
The Portal Server functions as a keystone that integrates other data sources and line‐of‐business applications fromacross the enterprise and packages them for display on a dashboard. Beyond the organization, a dashboard can query
data from a variety of external sources as well. Custom trusts can be established between a portal dashboard and othersecure systems thus making it your Single Sign‐On (SSO) gateway to collect and report information.
From a technical view, each web part has a defined query that it makes against a database, library, or application. Theview of the resultant data depends on the business rules, criteria, and reporting preference of the executive. Charts andgraphs are always helpful for presentation, but advances in application technologies provide more interactive reportingexperiences. Each web part may query a different source; however several web parts will be reporting information thatcan be correlated against other web parts. In this scenario, drilling down into one web parts forces the others to provide
the supporting information.
*For an example of web part connections please view the dashboard sample titled "Project Review Dashboard".

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SAMPLES OF EXECUTIVE DASHBOARDS
Project Review Dashboard
A project management dashboard provides a user real‐time visibility into business operations. This is helpful withtracking multiple projects across departments as the dashboard can correlate key information against departments andstaff. This dashboard employs web part connections that instantly pass and pull data from other web parts on the page
to display correlating information.
Usage Outline:
1.
2.

Upon clicking a department from the Department List the department’s catalog of projects is displayed in theDepartmental Project List web part.
The Departmental Project List displays all projects for that department grouped by the status of the project.
Additionally, key metrics about the funding are displayed across the columns for each project.

Upon clicking a particular project’s detail link, the right two web parts call the corresponding Project Manager’s profile
and a list of their projects as well as displaying the conditionally formatted status.

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Business Intelligence & Decision Support
Business intelligence and decision support dashboards are designed to consolidate access to content, applications andreports through a single interface. In the below example, a user can review and drill down through Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs) in a single interface. The top web part shows the status of 10 key indicators and whether each market isin a positive status. By clicking each Market in the top web part, the bottom web part displays the top risks for thatmarket. Additionally, each risk can be extrapolated to forecast charts directly from the web part for more detailed review
of how the risk will affect business.

Related Resources
VIDEO: Robust Reporting Portal on Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

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