The latest version of PerformancePoint Services in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 provides many new and improved features to help you monitor and analyze performance in your organization. You can use dashboards that include more sophisticated key performance indicators (KPIs) in scorecards. You can use new reports such as a KPI details report. And you can open a Decomposition Tree from a value in an analytic report or a scorecard. You can also apply value filters, such as a “Top 10” filter, to display more specific information in some types of scorecards and reports.
Improvements to KPIs and scorecards
The new PerformancePoint scorecards include more sophisticated KPIs and other advanced functionality to make it easier to monitor and analyze organizational performance. For example, you can use Drill Down and Drill Up to display lower or higher levels of detail in your scorecards. And you can use scorecards with KPIs in columns. You can also use more advanced scorecards that use time intelligence, calculated metrics, and multiple actuals to measure performance.
SCORECARDS THAT HAVE DRILL DOWN AND DRILL UP CAPABILITIES
Depending on how your scorecard is set up, you can expand or collapse rows in your scorecard to see lower or higher levels of detail.
For example, if you have a scorecard that measures the profitability of product sales across different products in a retail organization, your scorecard might look like the following image:
If you want to see the next level of detail for a specific category, like GAMES & TOYS, you can click the plus sign (+) next to that category and the scorecard will automatically expand to show the next level of detail. Then your scorecard might look like the following image:
You can continue to expand the scorecard until you reach the lowest level of detail. The following image shows the Download Games subcategory expanded to list individual products, which is the lowest level of detail for that specific scorecard.
In the previous example, categories, subcategories, and individual products are dynamically populated. That is, as the data changes, the scorecard stays updated to show the current data.
In addition to clicking the plus sign (+) or minus sign (–) next to an item on the scorecard, you can also use Detailing It is To drill commands as shown in the following image:
to use the To drill or Detailing commands, right-click an item and click To drill or Detailing.
wear To drill to view a higher level of detail.
wear Detailing to view a lower level of detail.
SCORECARDS THAT HAVE KPIS IN THE COLUMNS
You can now have scorecards that include multiple KPIs in columns, allowing you to see more than one set of metrics for each row in your scorecard. A scorecard with KPIs in columns might look like the following image:
In the previous example, the scorecard contains two KPIs in the columns: Sales Performance and Sales Margins.
SCORECARDS WITH MORE SOPHISTICATED KPIS
Now you can use scorecards that contain more advanced KPIs. For example, you might have KPIs that use formulas and calculations to measure performance (these KPIs are said to use calculated metrics). Or you might have KPIs that compare multiple values to a general target (these KPIs are said to use multiple actual values). You might even have KPIs that use special formulas to show information for dynamic time periods, like “Last six months” or “Year to date” (these KPIs are said to use time intelligence). And now you can have KPIs that show how far performance is from a target (these KPIs are said to show variance).
While you can have advanced KPIs on your scorecards, they can remain simple and easy to use. For example, a scorecard that includes these sophisticated KPIs might look like the following image:
Calculated Metrics
In the following image, the Sales Margins KPI is highlighted. This KPI uses calculated metrics to determine whether performance is on or off target.
When calculated metrics are used in KPIs, SharePoint Server applies one or more formulas to the data as it is retrieved from the underlying database(s). This feature also allows the use of multiple data sources within a single KPI.
New types of reports and views
You can now use three new PerformancePoint display types in your dashboards: the KPI Details report, analytical pie charts, and the Decomposition Tree.
KPI DETAILS REPORT
You can use a KPI Details report on your dashboard to display additional information about scorecard KPIs. For example, you can display the following information in a KPI detail report:
- The types of metrics that are used for KPIs
- How performance scores are calculated and what are the thresholds for individual scores
- Comments posted by other scorecard users
A KPI detail report might look like the following image:
A KPI detail report is always accompanied by a scorecard on a dashboard page. That's because all of the information you see in the KPI Details report is determined by what you click on the scorecard. To view the information in a KPI Details report, click on any value in a scorecard. To see how scores are calculated on a scorecard, click on a cell in a target value column.
ANALYTICAL PIE CHARTS
You can now use analytical pie charts in your dashboards. Similar to an analytic line or bar chart, you can use an analytic pie chart to display higher or lower levels of detail. You can also drill down into the data to display a different dimension in the underlying SQL Server Analysis Services data cube.
An analytical pie chart might look like the following image:
DECOMPOSITION TREE
You can open a Decomposition Tree to explore data in some types of scorecards and reports. The Decomposition Tree is available as an action that can be applied to PerformancePoint analytic reports and scorecards that use Analysis Services data.
Typically, you would use a Decomposition Tree to see how an individual value in a report or scorecard can be broken down into its contributing members. The Decomposition Tree automatically sorts the results and applies a built-in Pareto chart to the data, so you can quickly see the top contributors to a given report value. You can also see trends in individual members that contribute to an overall value.
NOT YOU To open and use the Decomposition Tree, you must have Microsoft Silverlight 2 or Silverlight 3 installed on your computer. Also, depending on how a scorecard or analytic view is set up, you might not be able to open the Decomposition Tree.
To open the Decomposition Tree, right-click an individual value, such as a point in a line graph, a bar in a bar graph, a slice in a pie graph, or a cell in a grid, or scorecard. Then you can select Decomposition Tree. The Decomposition Tree opens in a new window where you can drill down to the next level of detail or drill down into the data to view a different dimension in the data cube.
A Decomposition Tree might look like the following image:
Using the Decomposition Tree, you can also view the member properties for a given dimension member, as shown in the following image:
