Whitepapers and Articles

Find more in-depth information about performance management dashboards, visual analytics, and best practices in data visualization in the publications below.

• Getting a Handle on Analytics for Strategic Success (registration required) - originally published in HFM (Healthcare Financial Management)
  
  In the current economy, it is more crucial than ever for healthcare financial executives to identify and manage the metrics that determine strategic success.
  

  AT A GLANCE
  To ensure that their organizations achieve operational and strategic success, healthcare CFOs should:

  • Focus on metrics that are most clearly associated with strategic success.
  • Build synergy and management effectiveness into reporting processes by integrating measures for compliance, performance, and risk management.
  • Target the precise levers within and outside the organization that offer the greatest potential for success at the least cost.
  • Reduce time to results and manage risk by
    implementing frameworks within 90 days.
• A Dashboard Data Methodology (registration required)
  Dashboards are only as good as the data that supports them. No matter which graphical or textual visualizations are used, drilldown capabilities exposed, or personalization features available, the success and long-term end-user adoption of a dashboard is dependent on the accuracy, quality, and flexibility of the underlying data. It is critical that dashboard projects consider and arrange data properly for maximum utility.
  
  This paper describes a simple, systematic approach for understanding and configuring data sources for use in both small and mid-sized dashboard projects. It does not require months of data consultants or the implementation of complex multidimensional OLAP tools – virtually any contemporary database will be able to support the ROLAP-like methodology used here. Our approach also addresses the need for changing data requirements without refactoring the dashboard or underlying data structures. It works best using non-aggregated data.

  Mike MacDonald, CEO, Founder and industry-recognized expert on building dashboards, has authored a white paper entitled, "A Dashboard Data Methodology", that highlights the five key steps to properly organizing data for a dashboard project.

• Internationalization of Data Visualization (registration required)
  Innovations in information and communications technologies have changed the way enterprise companies work, communicate, and transact business. Businesses are using operational tools to access global markets and forge closer relationships with their vendors and customers.

  Today's international high-technology marketplace has created a need for global applications and Web-delivered data visualization. As more companies attempt to measure, manage, and analyze their vendor's and subsidiary's performance, the challenges of managing the technology and data are emerging.

  NetCharts introduces innovations that make the creation of world-ready data visualization easier. The list of features for globalization and localization for this new generation of dashboard requirements is, as follows:

  • Ability to render charts, tabular data and page content using virtually any language, date/time convention, or currency presentation
  • Support for internationalized data inputs within the NetCharts Designer design tool
  • Ability to load data from multi-byte sources
  • Support for Internationalized text to be used as conditional drill-down tags
  • Internationalization support in the ASP/.NET and JSP toolkits.

  Whether you are a developer seeking the software product to start internationalizing your performance dashboard projects or a project manager seeking the tool that will enable your team to work more efficiently and effectively, you will find what you are looking for in NetCharts. Register below to download this whitepaper and discover the standards that provide for global interoperability incorporated in NetCharts.

• Best Practices to Chart-Enable Your Web Applications (registration required)
  

  One of the powerful features of NetCharts Reporting Suite is its tight integration with Microsoft’s .NET platform. In this product briefing we will explore best practices in chart enabling your .NET Web Applications.

  • Demonstrate coexistence between NetCharts Designer and .NET Visual Studio
  • Leverage NetCharts Designer’s code generation

  Like most of our clients, you probably already have an existing infrastructure and you want to leverage work that has already been completed. Additionally, you may be more comfortable working with .NET’s Visual Studio or Visual Web Developer to create your Web pages and you don’t want to have to rely on yet another tool for dashboard or report design. With Visual Mining’s .NET toolkit, you can continue to create your page layouts and drilldowns in .NET while leveraging NetCharts Designer for chart, table and Named Data Set development. Let Visual Mining do the “heavy lifting” in presenting your
  dashboards in the .NET environment.

• Best Practices Deploying Dashboards and Scorecards: A special report from The Data Warehouse Institute (TDWI) (registration required)
  Visual Mining is proud to sponsor and offer to you a complimentary special report compiled by The Data Warehouse Institute (TDWI). This report provides valuable guidelines when planning and deploying dashboard and scorecard projects. The report includes hundreds of survey responses that show you the best practices used in enterprises throughout the world.
Download this report to learn:

• The three types of dashboards and which ones are right for your needs;
• How best to utilize dashboards and scorecards;
• Trends and challenges in implementing dashboards;
• Best practices for developing effective metrics.

• The Art of Analysis: Improving Reports through Visual Analytics - A Beagle Research Group Whitepaper (registration required)
  Business analytics have transformed the way we manage our businesses in ways that we could not have predicted even a few years ago. Every new innovation comes with unintended consequences, because people often use an innovation in ways that the originators may not have intended or they simply apply it incorrectly leading to sub-optimal results.

  The unintended consequence of modern reporting is that the tools have become so easy to use that novices can put together reports with little thought to the relevance of the information they contain. This Beagle Research Group Executive White Paper examines some of the obvious ways analytics can be misapplied and shows how much more information can be obtained when the right tools are used for the right jobs.

• Dashboards: Another Look at Data Visualization
  Data visualization applications have traditionally shown poor ROI but are finally starting to show real value in dashboard applications. The key is closely integrating business goals and processes with the right technology.

• Corporate Dashboards: Real ROI?
  Every 18 months or so, information technology industry analysts and vendors busily engage in hyping the "Next-Big-Software-Thing™" (N.B.S.T.) for managing businesses. Analysts write all kinds of articles trumpeting the benefits; vendors come to market with new products; the technical press writes thousands of pages on the topic. Tradeshows with knowledgeable speakers, outrageous displays and clever tchotchkies complete the picture of an up and coming technology that's avoided only at your business's peril.

  Today's N.B.S.T. is Corporate Dashboards. Are they just more of the same recycled Business Intelligence (BI) hype or do they produce real value? How much do they cost? Are they worth the money?