Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Adding a New Dashboard
a dashboard is unique from company to company and from function to function, and
it is acceptable to have different dashboards for different objectives. given that, provid-
ing fixed, preset dashboards is rarely of much value beyond making the tool look good.
(glitter!) The dashboard should be delivered blank, forcing you to set it up from the
ground up. as with out-of-the-box reports, the blank dashboards are great starting
points for something bigger.
You have to make your dashboard actionable (otherwise, it is
not
a dashboard).
if you cannot compare data or generally put it in context, there is little reason for pre-
senting the data to begin with.
Yahoo! allows you to compare data columns and define what is to be perceived
as success and what is perceived as failure. success or failure can be gauged by visual-
izing a conversion rate for a given segment where you determine that a visit-to-sale con-
version below 4 percent should be marked.
To add a new dashboard, select reports
>
Dashboards
>
Manage Dashboards, as
shown in Figure 9.4.
227
Figure 9.4
Manage Dashboards
The Manage Dashboards screen shows a list of your existing dashboards, but
you are also allowed to perform the following functions from this screen:
a
•
dd a Dashboard
•
e
dit an existing Dashboard
C
•
opy a Dashboard
M
•
ake a Dashboard the Default report
The add a Dashboard function is perhaps not as grand as you would expect; all
it does is create an empty shell with a name and description, as Figure 9.5 shows.
