Dashboard and Data Visualization Sessions

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Rajesh Ponnurangam, InfoSol Inc.

SAP BusinessObjects dashboards (Xcelsius) has been one of the most popular dashboarding tool for over a decade.  None of the other SAP tools could compete with Xcelsius in the dashboard space and Xcelsius remained the superior tool.  But SAP Design Studio has created a lot of buzz among customers with its advent. Does SAP Design Studio compete with Xcelsius? Who are the target customers for Design Studio?  Which tool should I choose for dashboarding?  What would happen to all the dashboards created using Xcelsius?

This session will address all of the above issues, and more, in detail.  The attendees will get a glimpse of Design Studio’s features and capabilities and how it is different from Xcelsius.  The pros and cons of using Xcelsius over Design Studio will be analyzed to demonstrate Xcelsius will still be the preeminent tool for dashboarding.  A step by step guide to recreate an Xcelsius dashboard using Design Studio will be demonstrated.

Mico Yuk, BI Dashboard Formula

This insightful session will show you how to develop a data visualization roadmap that will help to convert your ‘report focused’ team into ‘visual enthusiast!’

With the rise of big data and use of mobility, organizations are seeing the need to become more visual making it a critical part of their Business Intelligence journey. This session will put you ahead of the curve by helping you to establish a realistic roadmap for your organization.

The session will cover the following:

• What is a Data Visualization Roadmap?
• Why does your organization need one to create a more ‘visual thinking’ environment?
• Who should be involved in the process?
• What does a successful Data Visualization Roadmap look like?
• Three steps your organization can take to get started today!

Session Take-Away: A free data visualization roadmap template to jump-start the visual thinking process in your own organization

Gopal Krishnamurthy, Visual BI

Learn what modern day executives desire in dashboards in terms of functionality and design and how could we achieve them with minimalistic design but with high performance.  Learn best practices in designing executive dashboards and over 10 samples of dashboards functionalities that you would have never thought was possible.

Amy O’Neel, InfoSol Inc.

Dashboards and Web Intelligence reports are two of the most popular SAP BI products; it is only obvious that they need to interact with each other as part of several BI solutions. There are different business requirements to make this happen and the nature of this integration changes accordingly. Web Intelligence reports can be opened as a detail progression of data analysis from a summary dashboard. It can serve as source to feed data to Xcelsius dashboards via certain standard out-of-box methods or via add-ons to enhance performance and efficiency. The session will cover overview of the implementation steps but more importantly will discuss various business cases to be best addressed with each method.

Mel Sheppard, InfoSol Ltd.

You may or may not be aware, but you are slowly being weaned off skeuomorphism right now (and a large number of us didn’t even know we were hooked).  Last year we saw a shift in the design world which led to cleaner, ‘flatter’ user interfaces and, as this trend pervades, it will start to become the norm for dashboards too.

In this session we will discuss what skeuomorphism is.  We will look at the advantages and disadvantages of the two design styles and identify the components and themes that best lend themselves to a ‘flatter’ dashboard design.  Takeaways from this session include:

• Understanding the difference between Skeuomorphic and Flat design
• Pro’s and Con’s of Flat design
• Tips and Tricks for a flatter UI

Amy O’Neel , InfoSol Inc.

The challenge of Xcelsius handling large volumes of data has been a concern for years with no easy or out-of-the-box answers.  Looking beyond software limitations, many of our customers have built dashboards with large amounts of data using intelligent caching offered by InfoBurst.  This session will highlight the features of the product that enables voluminous data consumption by Xcelsius and how to reap the benefits of data residing in your warehouse to create visualization not limited by performance or data size.

Amy O’Neel, InfoSol Inc.

Query Browser is the newest connectivity option shipped with SAP Dashboards 4.0 and higher.  This design method is embedded within the dashboard.  Whether this is going to be your choice of connectivity for final deployment or not, it is definitely a handy tool to exploit to build a connected prototype.  This session iexplores how to use the tool, connect to the data source, design the queries, format the data coming from queries, directly bind the data to components, and how to utilize the tool to rapidly build a mockup dashboard without worrying and spending too much time to get sample data.

Rajesh Ponnurangam, InfoSol Inc.

With rapidly rising use of mobile devices in business, long awaited mobility feature with Xcelsius dashboards was finally introduced by SAP in the version SAP Dashboards 4.0 SP5; allowing visualizations built with Dashboards 4.0(aka Xcelsius) to be rendered with html5 in iOS tablets.  However, the release came with the dire need of serious considerations of performance, usability and best practices.  This session will focus on the process to build and implement, design best practices and limitations of the software.  Insight into 3rd-party offerings available for mobility and how to convert existing dashboards to deploy on mobile will also be provided.

Amy O’Neel, InfoSol Inc.

Though modern dashboards have evolved into highly complex visualizations, there is still a place for simple dashboards – for many valid and good business reasons.  While it is true that complex dashboards demand serious and detailed attention to design best practices, the same is also true of simple dashboards in order to impart the best value of the data to users.  Just because there are fewer visual components does not mean there is no room for improvement.  On the contrary, it is challenging to deliver an effective solution when there is less to work with.  In this session, you will experience how to create large impact with a few, but careful, modifications to your visualization.

Rich Harvey,  InfoSol Ltd.

Infographics have been around for a long time, however, recently there has been a surge in their popularity.  You can find infographics on everything from the history of the internet to the colours mentioned most in famous books.  Love them or loathe them, infographics are designed to present complex information quickly and clearly, making them ideal for certain dashboards scenarios.  This session will show you how to use standard SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards components to quickly and easily create some of the more common infographic elements.

Mel Sheppard,  InfoSol Ltd.

Anyone can build a dashboard. There are plenty of tools on the market that enable you to connect to virtually any data source, and with just a few clicks present information inside one or more data visualizations. However, in order to really effectively communicate information in this way, it pays to understand the important role that design plays in our ability to interpret this information.

During this session, we will look at examples of good and bad information design and discuss how attributes such as colour, weight, scale and grouping affect our perception.  We will also cover the importance of selecting the right chart and equip you with the skills/tools you need to pick the right chart/visualization for your dashboard.

Mel Sheppard, InfoSol Ltd.

A look at Query Browser, BI Web services and XDC connectivity options for your dashboards.  This session is ideal for anyone wishing to know more about any of these options and how they compare.  No need to have experience building connected dashboards as we will show you how it’s done.  [expand title=”continue reading…” alt=”continue reading…” swaptitle=”collapse”]

We will also examine the factors that may help you to choose one over the other.  This session includes quick demo of each of the options and a discussion around the benefits and limitations of each.[/expand]

Rich Harvey, InfoSol Ltd.

As dashboard designers we are accustomed to showing or hiding components based on user interaction (dynamic visability).  We are also acutely aware of how precious each pixel of screen real estate can be, and what if we want a component to appear to move?  Well, then, we need multiple versions of that component. Or do we?

A sliding menu can free up screen real estate and add a modern design feel to a dashboard.  In this session we will show you how to create a sliding menu both using traditional means and then using the new X, Y position properties available in Dashboards 4.1.

You will learn how to:

• Build a slide out menu
• Auto-hide a menu after selection
• Add breadcrumbs to your dashboard
• Dynamically move components at run time (Dashboards 4.1)

Ryan Goodman, Centigon Solutions

After learning basic dashboard design techniques, there are steps you need to take to master SAP Dashboards. In this session you will learn the top ten lessons learned from hundreds of dashboards built over 10 years. With a blue print how to master SAP Dashboards you can ensure you have everything you need to call yourself an SAP Dashboard Guru!

Teresa Scott,  InfoSol Inc.

The most difficult task when designing dashboards is choosing the appropriate layout, graphs, colors and graphics that will properly convey the story. Color and graphics plays a vital role in communicating information about data. This seminar will explore the effects of color in data visualizations and techniques to choose the appropriate colors for the job, methods to avoid “chart junk” and processes to select graphics that successfully contribute to the narrative.

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