Resource Library
Whitepapers & Articles
Find more in-depth information about performance management dashboards, scorecards, visual analytics, and best practices in data visualization in the publications below.
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Whitepapers
This whitepaper describes how forward-thinking finance departments have figured out how to transform themselves from back-office bookkeepers to strategic advisors. They have learned to partner with the IT department—more specifically, the business intelligence (BI) team—whose job is to manage information and deliver a single version of corporate truth. In so doing, they have liberated themselves from manual data collection and report production processes so they can engage in more value-added activities.
NetCharts Performance Dashboards Architecture
This whitepaper describes NetCharts Performance Dashboards (NCPD), a powerful, dynamic, and interactive dashboard visualization solution designed for business users. NCPD speeds information analysis and enables users to quickly gain insight into their data, and make better and more informed business decisions. It combines sophisticated analysis with ease of use in order to promote end user self sufficiency by putting the power of business intelligence in the hands of the business user.
The Business Case for Advanced Data Visualization
The purpose of this whitepaper is to explore the fundamental reasons why Advanced Data Visualization (ADV) and performance dashboard technologies are so effective and how executives can use these capabilities to realize immediate tangible results while optimizing capital and keeping the organization focused on its core mission.
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.
Getting a Handle on Analytics for Strategic Success - 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. This paper will show healthcare executives how to ensure that their organizations achieve operational and strategic success by:
- Focusing on metrics that are most clearly associated with strategic success.
- Building synergy and management effectiveness into reporting processes by integrating measures for compliance, performance, and risk management.
- Targeting the precise levers within and outside the organization that offer the greatest potential for success at the least cost.
- Reducing time to results and manage risk by implementing frameworks within 90 days.
Internationalization of Data Visualization
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. 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. This paper discusses the standards that provide for global interoperability incorporated in NetCharts.
Best Practices to Chart-Enable Your Web Applications
One of the powerful features of NetCharts Reporting Suite is its tight integration with Microsoft's .NET platform. 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. In this paper we will explore best practices in chart enabling your .NET Web Applications.
Visual Mining is proud to sponsor and offer to you this 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
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 Whitepaper 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.
Understanding NetCharts Server
This document provides a general introduction to the features, benefits, architecture, and system requirements of NetCharts Server.
Articles
Three Dashboards You Can't Live Without
Decision-making has always been a critical art in business. This article discusses the growing sophistication of technology solutions - such as dashboards – and how they can substantially help executives make the best decisions possible by providing accurate, timely and easy to comprehend information to transform mere data into business wisdom.
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. This paper discusses how to closely integrate business goals and processes with the right data visualization 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. 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? This paper explores where the real ROI lies in Corporate Dashboards.