Dashboard

Enterprise Dashboard Topic: Where to place the executive dashboard - in the browser (rich internet application), in a fat client (.NET windows software) or on the PC desktop itself (Desktop Widget)?

In a recent Dashboard Spy discussion, we looked at some BI Desktop Widgets from the dashboarding lab over at Business Objects. This is a very exciting idea that effectively addresses one of the 3 Rules of Dashboarding - The Rule of Placement. Both Business Objects and Oracle have been experimenting with placing dashboards closer to the user, that is, right on their PC desktops. The idea is that you don’t even have to launch an application to monitor your KPIs and metrics.

Here is a further look at what Business Objects is doing with widgets. Over at their development site, they have launched a beta of Crystal Xcelsius Business Widgets for Salesforce.com.

Take a look at these dashboard widgets on the desktop:

As they explain in this pdf on the Business Widgets Beta, a business widget for salesforce.com is a mini-application that allows you to access data from salesforce.com without logging in and navigating to various metrics pages.

There are 10 business widgets for the salesforce.com CRM. Let’s take a closer look at the individual dashboard widgets:

The first is the Sales Revenue Tracker. Use it to track expected revenue, pipeline statistics and quarterly revenues achieved to date.

Click for the next business widget:

Here is a helpful widget called the Directory Search. Typical of non-dashboard widgets, it allows you to query contact information. Also you can use it to log a call right from your desktop.

The next desktop widget for us to examine is the Top 10 Open Sales Opportunities where you can see the pipeline opportunities by quarter or month. There is a bar chart which allows for drill down examination of the data.

This business widget focuses on the performance of your sales force. The top five reps and the bottom five performing representatives are listed based on closed opportunities.

This next business widget - Create an Opportunity- is important to me because it demonstrates how you can use a widget for updating and creating data - not just displaying charts, tables or navigation. The dashboard widget lets you create an opportunity right from the desktop. Without launching the application, you can enter a new opportunity, or monitor the pool of opportunities in terms of revenue closed, revenue open and total number of opportunities.

The Neglected Needs Widget focuses on the sales pipeline metrics opportunities that have not received enough follow-up attention.

The Stuck Opps Widget lets you view sales stages and opportunity details. If your sales opportunities tend to stall in certain stages, you will see it surfaced through this dashboard.

This next widget, the Task Manager, is an administration-oriented business widget that allows you to manage your salesforce.com tasks.

The New Lead Alert widget leverages the inherent usefulness of a desktop widget to alert you to new sales leads as they come in. No longer do you have to manually log in to check on the status of your most recent leads.

And finally, the Log Tasks Business Widget allows you to update tasks from your desktop without logging into salesforce.com.

How does it all work?

Regarding salesforce dashboards:

Once you’ve solved the hard problems of corralling all your data with an ERP system like SAP or Oracle, and then making sense of that data with a BI or SFA system like Salesforce.com, the last hurdle to overcome is presenting that pithy information on some kind of obvious Salesforce dashboard.

For more on desktop dashboards, Klipfolio is a compelling solution. Visit Klipfolio.com for a look at their latest Klipfolio Dashboard 5.2. It allows you to place dashboards right on the PC Desktop:

“Klipfolio Dashboard improves data visibility for critical, frequently changing information better than any other dashboard”, says Allan Wille, President and CEO, Klipfolio, Inc. “And now in addition to working with business intelligence applications such as Business Objects and Cognos, we also include the world’s most widely deployed BI tool, Microsoft Excel.”

Klipfolio Dashboard is embraced by departments that demand real-time performance and notification, also know as operational business intelligence. Teams in Sales, Help Desk organizations, and the supply-chain all benefit from the new features contained in version 5.2:

• Microsoft Excel support for accessing data in Excel spreadsheets.

• Improved SQL Query handling for accessing information stored within ODBC databases.

• Share Insight and email important Klipfolio Dashboard metrics to your colleagues.

Here’s what a Klipfolio Desktop Dashboard looks like:

Tags: Xcelsius Dashboard Widgets, Desktop Business Widgets for Salesforce.com, Business Objects Crystal Xcelsius Business Widgets for Salesforce.com Beta, businesswidgets, desktop dashboard

What do you think about this dashboard post? Please leave a comment. Your opinions are valuable to the entire business dashboarding community.  

One Response to “Dashboard Desktop Business Widgets for the Salesforce”

1. Dashboard for Salesforce.com Said on October 19th, 2009 at 11:45 am quote

   Thanks for this post as it provides complete information about the enterprise mashup dashboards. Here you can find out interesting information about dashboards for Salesforce.com

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Last Modified: Thursday, July 30th, 2009 @ 11:29

This business intelligence dashboard blog entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 12:22 pm and is filed under Dashboard Screenshots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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