Description
Business Intelligence technology exists to transform raw data into valuable information used at all levels of any organization.
WHITE PAPER
Maps: An Intro Guide for Business Intelligence Dashboards
Copyright 2010© Centigon Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved 2/3: White paper
Business Intelligence Results
Business Intelligence technology exists to transform raw data into valuable information used at all levels of any organization.
A successful business intelligence implementation relies on a careful balance of process and technology to ensure “intelligent”
business decisions are reached. The speed and effciency that an organization can cultivate real business intelligence can have
a profound effect on the bottom line. While there are multiple layers of software required to execute an end to end business
intelligence solution, user adoption is driven through end user tools including reports, dashboards, and analytic packages.
Driving User Adoption with Dashboards
Dashboards have become an important tool for deploying
business intelligence within an organization. Dashboards make
business intelligence approachable for information consumers
thanks to the interactive web 2.0 user experiences employed
by most software vendors to fuel the expansion of business
intelligence adoption. A successful dashboard deployment
should speed up the information assimilation process, thus
increasing the capacity to consume more information. All
dashboard tools are packaged with controls for navigating and
visualizing information, and may include maps.
Why Maps are Important
Geographic information is critical for organizations to
understand how location impacts business performance. Maps
provide a powerful solution for assimilating the location of
assets (people, customers, products, vehicles, etc) and/or
areas (zones, regions, etc). While geo-spatial visualization
is certainly not a new concept, as the pervasiveness of
GPS, RFID, and location aware wireless devices increase,
organizations require business intelligence to monitor location
based metrics. Most database vendors have made signifcant
investments to produce geo-data base solutions specially
designed to capture, index and deliver this data. The challenge
of transforming geospatial data into meaningful information is
driving BI vendors to enhance their reporting and dashboard
tools to meet the demands for mapping. As operational
business intelligence and mobility become more important to
providing near real time analysis, business users will need to
monitor location based problems and opportunities.
Copyright 2010© Centigon Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved 3/3: White paper
Choosing the Right Map for the Job
While most dashboard solutions are packaged with a library of maps, few address the wide range of business requirements for
monitoring and analyzing geographic metrics. The unlimited business requirements for monitoring and tracking performance have
been addressed using multiple technology approaches, all with their own set of strengths and weaknesses.
SVG and Vector Maps- Most dashboard packages include a library of thematic
maps formatted as vector or SVG images. For organizations that monitor
regional performance based on state/country these are extremely effective yet
infexible for company specifc territories/zones, regardless how large the map
library is.
Web 2.0 Maps- Google, Yahoo, and Bing Maps are widely adopted as the
de facto interface for navigating maps on the web. The fexibility to quickly
navigate any geographic level provides a powerful ability to address a wide
range of visualization requirements. In recent years these consumer technologies
have been repurposed and offered as enterprise “software as a service” solutions.
Gartner recently reported that by 2012, 1/3 of analytic applications applied
to business processes will be delivered through application mashups. Many
organizations are now adopting these powerful APIs to provide exactly what
business users require in an interactive map interface. While Google and Bing
may supply robust platforms for delivering map visualization to business users
they are not equipped to address some of the advanced capabilities facilitated by
GIS Mapping solutions.
GIS Solutions- Geographic Information Systems (GIS) solutions enable
organizations to generate and edit maps or create advanced geographic planning,
and analysis not possible with SVG and Web 2.0 maps. While GIS solutions
provide tremendous power in the breadth and depth of analysis, most business
intelligence dashboards require a small fraction of what GIS solutions are
capable of delivering. Database and BI vendors have flled several capabilities
traditionally managed in GIS, now allowing customers to deploy rich mapping
experiences without any GIS software.
Reaching Information Consumers
As the gap decreases between enterprise and consumer technologies, business will demand more from dashboard and reporting
solutions. The pervasiveness of maps on desktop, mobile, and automotive computing devices has eliminated barriers for end users
to comfortably navigate geospatial information. Providing visualization for locations and regions at multiple geographic levels
(country, state, street) is the key to fulflling a vast majority of mapping requirements in business intelligence dashboards. As
dashboard technologies evolve on premise, in the cloud and on our mobile devices, location-based intelligence is one of the keys to
unlocking the true potential of operational business intelligence.
About the Author
Ryan Goodman is the CEO of Centigon Solutions , author, and expert in dashboard design. With over 7 years of developing
interactive data dashboards with SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (formerly known as Xcelsius), Ryan is currently focused on
developing rich geographic visualization solutions with Centigon Solutions GMaps Plugin.
doc_753969040.pdf
Business Intelligence technology exists to transform raw data into valuable information used at all levels of any organization.
WHITE PAPER
Maps: An Intro Guide for Business Intelligence Dashboards
Copyright 2010© Centigon Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved 2/3: White paper
Business Intelligence Results
Business Intelligence technology exists to transform raw data into valuable information used at all levels of any organization.
A successful business intelligence implementation relies on a careful balance of process and technology to ensure “intelligent”
business decisions are reached. The speed and effciency that an organization can cultivate real business intelligence can have
a profound effect on the bottom line. While there are multiple layers of software required to execute an end to end business
intelligence solution, user adoption is driven through end user tools including reports, dashboards, and analytic packages.
Driving User Adoption with Dashboards
Dashboards have become an important tool for deploying
business intelligence within an organization. Dashboards make
business intelligence approachable for information consumers
thanks to the interactive web 2.0 user experiences employed
by most software vendors to fuel the expansion of business
intelligence adoption. A successful dashboard deployment
should speed up the information assimilation process, thus
increasing the capacity to consume more information. All
dashboard tools are packaged with controls for navigating and
visualizing information, and may include maps.
Why Maps are Important
Geographic information is critical for organizations to
understand how location impacts business performance. Maps
provide a powerful solution for assimilating the location of
assets (people, customers, products, vehicles, etc) and/or
areas (zones, regions, etc). While geo-spatial visualization
is certainly not a new concept, as the pervasiveness of
GPS, RFID, and location aware wireless devices increase,
organizations require business intelligence to monitor location
based metrics. Most database vendors have made signifcant
investments to produce geo-data base solutions specially
designed to capture, index and deliver this data. The challenge
of transforming geospatial data into meaningful information is
driving BI vendors to enhance their reporting and dashboard
tools to meet the demands for mapping. As operational
business intelligence and mobility become more important to
providing near real time analysis, business users will need to
monitor location based problems and opportunities.
Copyright 2010© Centigon Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved 3/3: White paper
Choosing the Right Map for the Job
While most dashboard solutions are packaged with a library of maps, few address the wide range of business requirements for
monitoring and analyzing geographic metrics. The unlimited business requirements for monitoring and tracking performance have
been addressed using multiple technology approaches, all with their own set of strengths and weaknesses.
SVG and Vector Maps- Most dashboard packages include a library of thematic
maps formatted as vector or SVG images. For organizations that monitor
regional performance based on state/country these are extremely effective yet
infexible for company specifc territories/zones, regardless how large the map
library is.
Web 2.0 Maps- Google, Yahoo, and Bing Maps are widely adopted as the
de facto interface for navigating maps on the web. The fexibility to quickly
navigate any geographic level provides a powerful ability to address a wide
range of visualization requirements. In recent years these consumer technologies
have been repurposed and offered as enterprise “software as a service” solutions.
Gartner recently reported that by 2012, 1/3 of analytic applications applied
to business processes will be delivered through application mashups. Many
organizations are now adopting these powerful APIs to provide exactly what
business users require in an interactive map interface. While Google and Bing
may supply robust platforms for delivering map visualization to business users
they are not equipped to address some of the advanced capabilities facilitated by
GIS Mapping solutions.
GIS Solutions- Geographic Information Systems (GIS) solutions enable
organizations to generate and edit maps or create advanced geographic planning,
and analysis not possible with SVG and Web 2.0 maps. While GIS solutions
provide tremendous power in the breadth and depth of analysis, most business
intelligence dashboards require a small fraction of what GIS solutions are
capable of delivering. Database and BI vendors have flled several capabilities
traditionally managed in GIS, now allowing customers to deploy rich mapping
experiences without any GIS software.
Reaching Information Consumers
As the gap decreases between enterprise and consumer technologies, business will demand more from dashboard and reporting
solutions. The pervasiveness of maps on desktop, mobile, and automotive computing devices has eliminated barriers for end users
to comfortably navigate geospatial information. Providing visualization for locations and regions at multiple geographic levels
(country, state, street) is the key to fulflling a vast majority of mapping requirements in business intelligence dashboards. As
dashboard technologies evolve on premise, in the cloud and on our mobile devices, location-based intelligence is one of the keys to
unlocking the true potential of operational business intelligence.
About the Author
Ryan Goodman is the CEO of Centigon Solutions , author, and expert in dashboard design. With over 7 years of developing
interactive data dashboards with SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (formerly known as Xcelsius), Ryan is currently focused on
developing rich geographic visualization solutions with Centigon Solutions GMaps Plugin.
doc_753969040.pdf