Description
This demonstration focuses on one aspect of QAD Business Intelligence.
QAD Business Intelligence – Dashboards
Demonstration Guide
May 2015
BI 3.11
Overview
This demonstration focuses on one aspect of QAD Business Intelligence – Business
Intelligence Dashboards– and shows how this functionality supports the vision of the
Effective Enterprise; where every business process is working at peak efficiency and
perfectly aligned to the company’s strategic goals.
Business Intelligence Dashboards
QAD Business Intelligence
Key Points
• Enabling the Effective Enterprise
Related Metrics
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) define what the Effective Enterprise means to your
company, mapping your company’s vision, strategy and goals to specific
measurements that will help you drive efficiency and identify improvements in the
business process.
Business Intelligence Dashboards highlight performance information, helping you to
make better decisions by presenting just the information you need, the way you need it
– confident you are always looking at complete, up-to-date information.
QAD provides a set of dashboards to track a pre-defined set of metrics in ten key areas.
Additional metrics and the relative importance of each one will depend on your
definition of the Effective Enterprise. You can easily change Business Intelligence
Dashboards to include your metrics and priorities.
Related Metrics
Business Intelligence Dashboards
KPI Metrics
Days Sales Outstanding
Days Payables Outstanding
Financial reporting person days
Operating cash flow / sales ratio
Dashboard
Key Points
• Pre-built Dashboards
• Add / change dashboards to monitor company-specific metrics
• Standard metrics
• Importance varies by company
Enabling Solution
Business Intelligence provides a set of pre-defined dashboards for each of the main
modules of QAD functionality - using the QAD Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
framework as a guide.
You can use these dashboards, or create your own custom dashboards to view trends
and monitor performance against key metrics. Using Business Intelligence Dashboards
each of your decision-makers can create and re-use secure dashboard components to
achieve unique views into the data, summarized and presented in graphical or grid
format, with the ability to drill-down into all supporting details.
Unlike off-line spreadsheets, dashboards take data directly from the Data Warehouse,
using data optimized for fast access and ensuring you are always making decisions
based on complete and up-to-date information.
You can easily access the information you need, and you can do this yourself, without
having to wait for assistance.
• Pre-defined dashboards
• Customized by user
- Graphs, charts, grids
- Drill-down to details
• Access data from Data Warehouse
- Up-to-date, complete information
- Optimized data access
Enabling Solution
Business Intelligence Dashboards
Key Points
• Pre-defined dashboards
o Customized by user (usually a power user)
o Graphs, charts, grids, messages, links, graphics
o Drill-down to detail
• Mobile support for iPad and Android; same data as you see on Web browser
• Leverage information assets from data warehouse
Demonstration Summary
In this demonstration, you will see how Business Intelligence Dashboards support the
measurement, data gathering and analysis steps in the closed-loop decision-making
process; drawing on the wealth of data in the Data Warehouse and presenting it in a
view customized to your needs – exposing trends, and supporting fact-based decisions
and continuous improvement.
First, you will see how easy it is to interact with the standard dashboards provided with
the application, then see how quickly and easily you can customize these dashboards.
Unlike creating a custom spreadsheet with charts, these dashboards access up-to-date
information from your data warehouse – ensuring you are always basing decisions on
the most current data, gathered from across your global enterprise.
• Interacting with dashboards
• Customizing dashboards
• Creating unique data views
• Creating new dashboards
• Interactive editing tools
Demonstration Summary
Business Intelligence Dashboards
Implement
Measure
Business
State
Model
Gather Data
Collaborate
Analysis
Key Points
• Using, changing, customizing dashboards, visual objects and queries
• Note: Data is up-to-date, based on the frequency that you refresh the Data
Warehouse data from the transactional systems
• Support decision-making process
• Measure, gather, analyze
How QAD supports decisions with real-time analytical
information
Graphical Dashboards
Here is an example of a dashboard. This one shows critical metrics that your general
manager might want to monitor – inventory turns, DIFOT, OEE – along with links to
related reports and websites.
Each user or role can have access to have any number of dashboards, and can switch
easily from one to another – for example, moving from this metrics overview to a more
detailed inventory management dashboard.
QAD Business Intelligence comes pre-loaded with a variety of dashboards, pre-
configured for the QAD modules – Enterprise Asset Management, Financials,
Operations, Order Management and Transportation Management – monitoring Key
Performance Metrics for different areas of your business.
Dashboards can contain a variety of different visual items – graphs and charts, data
presented in a grid format, text messages and links. Other items may also be included –
logos and graphics, the date/time, list of reports, actions, collaboration forum news and
more.
Demo
1. Highlight Dashboard > Demo
2. Select Dashboard > Demo > General Manager
3. Highlight Dashboard > QAD Standard > Operations
4. Select Inventory Management
Key Points
• Multiple dashboards per user or role
• Dashboards include multiple visual items
o Graphs, bar charts, pie charts, grids
o Text – messages/reminders, Links, Actions (like a Go To), Forum News
How QAD provides just the information you need
Drill down
The Inventory Management dashboard shows an example of bar and donut charts.
Hover over any area to see the data value, and click on any value to drill down into
more detail – here offering multiple drill downs, to another bar chart, then to a detailed
grid view.
Quickly return to any level simply by clicking the arrow icon, or change the data by
entering a different selection – for example, choosing data for your Canadian division.
You can review all of this summarized information, or if you want to look more closely at
any one of these charts, just click Maximize.
All of the QAD standard dashboards offer these options and you can easily build your
own dashboards using any or all of these constructs.
Demo
1. In Inventory OH by Site, click Ultrasound Mfg Site bar to drill-down
2. Click Purchased-Ext Supplier
3. At Arrow icon, click drop-down
4. Select Inventory OH by Site
5. Select Domain 11CAN
6. Click Refresh
7. (Optionally) On Inventory Turns by Site, click Maximize icon
8. Scroll right, click Minimize icon
Note: if you click Close the window will close and you will see a box
at the bottom of the dashboard you can click to refresh.
Key Points
• Drill-down or drill-out for more detail
• Click Back Arrow to return to any level
• Parameters to select data
• Any number of selection parameters – for example, domain, year, month,
product, customer, region
• Parameters can affect any or all of the visual items, depends on the
underlying query
• Maximize any visual item
• Minimize to return to dashboard view
How QAD saves time
Dashboard Designer
You can use any web browser to change these dashboards, or to design your own,
without the need for a programmer.
For example, to add a new dashboard, you just drag and drop items on to your
dashboard – custom or standard graphs or charts, with the appropriate selection
parameters, free form text, the date, lists of reports, or links to external websites.
Save it, optionally restricting access to certain roles or groups, then access it from the
dashboard menu.
It’s just that simple!
Demo
1. Select Designer > Dashboard
2. Click New
3. Click icon to expand Visual Items >QAD Standard >Order Management
4. Drag & drop Bookings by Financial Year and Month to dashboard
5. Click icon to expand QAD Standard
6. Click icon to expand Utilities
7. Drag & drop Domain, Year, Month Parameter Bar to dashboard
8. Resize
9. Drag & Drop Gross Margin by Domain, Financial Year and Month Grid to
dashboard
10. Resize the graph and grid
11. Right-click Bookings by Financial Year and Month
12. Select Parameters
13. Click Year(Domain, Year, Month Parameter Bar)
14. Right-click Gross Margin by Domain, Financial Year and Month Grid, select
Parameters
15. Select Domain Domain (Domain, Year, Month Parameter Bar, Year Year (Domain,
Year, Month Parameter Bar)
16. Select Year 2013
17. Click Refresh
18. Drag & Drop Booking Reports to dashboard
19. Page down
20. Drag and drop Sales Reports to dashboard
21. Resize both
22. Drag & drop Text Area icon to blank dashboard on right
23. Enter My Sample Dashboard (Bold, Size 14)
24. Enter Link to our website: QAD
25. Highlight QAD
26. In http:// enter www.qad.com
27. Click QAD
28. Close tab
29. Resize text box smaller
30. Drag & drop Date icon to dashboard
31. Resize
32. Click Save As
33. Click icon to expand Dashboards
34. Click icon to expand Demo
35. Enter Item Name My Sample Dashboard
36. Click Security tab
37. Click Save
38. Click Close All
39. If you accessed BI from a browser, click Refresh
40. Highlight Dashboard > Demo
41. Select Dashboard > Demo > My Sample Dashboard
Key Points
• Browser-based design tool
• No need for a programmer
o Drag and drop from list
o Enter text, links, date
o Use standard reports and ad hoc reporting
o Set security – who can access and edit, by role
• Roles pre-determined by administrator
How QAD reduces customization
Customized Query
There may be situations where you want to look at information that isn’t currently
available in any of the existing dashboards. In this case, you can easily set up a query
that will access just this data.
Let’s say you want to look at a unique view of invoice history – displaying average,
minimum and maximum gross margin for a certain product line, by year.
To add a new query, first you select your area of interest – in this case, Order
Management Invoices.
Add columns to this query by selecting the information you want to display. This is stored
in Fact Tables, for example, Transaction Gross Margin. J ust drag and drop the data
items you want to display onto the Column selection.
You can choose from several different margin values. That is because you might be
operating in different currencies. Trans Gross Margin maintains the original currency of
the transaction. Base Gross Margin is the value converted to the local currency of the
site. Corp Gross Margin is the value expressed in the corporate currency – letting you
compare numbers for any of your global operations, expressed in one currency. QAD
Modules manage all this, so you do not have to!
You can retrieve this transaction information based on different dimensions – for
example, you can look at gross margin values by year and product line, perhaps sorted
by year.
You can also select a filter – for example, choosing to review margin for only finished
goods, that is product line 22. Filters can be fixed, or you can set them up as
parameters, letting you can select the product line dynamically whenever you run the
query.
If you click Test Run, this will show you a sample of the data your query will produce so
that you can verify and refine your selections. Once you have exactly what you want,
you can run the query to retrieve all the data matching the selection criteria and
optionally save the query so that you can access it again.
Demo
1. Highlight Designer
2. Select Designer > Query
3. Click New
4. In Query Area drop-down, select OM Order Invoices
5. Scroll down
6. Click icon to expand Fact Table Trans Gross Margin
7. Drag & drop Average Trans Gross Margin Trans to Selected Columns
8. Drag & drop Min Trans Gross Margin Trans to Selected Columns
9. Drag & drop Max Trans Gross Margin Trans to Selected Columns
10. Click icon to expand Dimension Item-Site Dimension
11. Scroll down
12. Drag & drop Product Line to Selected Columns
13. Click icon to expand Dimension Effective Date Dimension
14. Scroll down
15. Drag & drop Effective Fin Year to Columns
16. In Selected Columns, highlight name Effective Fin Year
17. Click Sort Type
18. In drop-down, click Asc
19. Drag & drop Product Line to Detail tab, just below AND
20. Highlight Product Line
21. Click Parameter tab
22. Enter IN
23. Enter Prompt Text Product Line, Default Value 22
24. Click Test Run
25. (Optionally) Resize columns
26. Click Save As
27. Click icon to expand Queries
28. Click icon to expand Demo Examples
29. Enter My Sample Query – Gross Margin
30. Click Save
31. Click Close All
Key Points
• Terminology
o Query – defines what data you would like to see
o Query area – identifies the functional area; either a QAD Module or other
data source
o Fact Tables – the facts, usually numeric, you are looking up; for example
bookings
o Dimensions – the way you want to look at the facts; for example, bookings
by item or date
o Selected Columns – any number of data items can be displayed
o Filters – define a subset of data; for example, filtering out zero values
o Parameters – let you create dynamic filters with default values; for
example, selecting the year each time you run the query
• Multiple Currency
o QAD Modules are pre-defined to handle multiple currencies
o Transaction currency – original currency from the transaction
o Base currency – currency for the site
o Corporate currency – standard currency you choose to use with BI
• Query selects data directly from Data Warehouse
o Live-connection; not a copy
o Provides the data to feed the Visual item
• Test Run – returns sample of data
• Run – returns entire result set
How QAD improves decision-making
Visual Item Design
You can use this query to create a report, or you can create a visual item – like a chart
or a graph – that you can put on a dashboard.
J ust enter the name of your query and select the type of chart you want – bar chart,
pie chart, heat map – one or two-dimensional?
Take the query you defined and create a bar chart showing just the average gross
margin by year.
Demo
1. Select Designer > Visual Item
2. Click New
3. In Visual Item Types, click Chart
4. Click Column 2D
5. In Query, click Browse
6. Click icon to expand Queries
7. Click icon to expand Demo Examples
8. Highlight My Sample Query – Gross Margin
9. Click Open
10. Click Chart Columns
11. In Levels, check Effective Fin Year
12. Uncheck Product Line
13. In Measures, check Average Trans Gross Margin
14. Uncheck Min Trans Gross Margin, Max Trans Gross Margin
15. Click Labels
16. Enter Title Avg Gross Margin by Year
17. Click Options
18. Enter Decimal Display 2
19. Click Save As
20. Click icon to expand Visual Items
21. Click icon to expand Demo Examples
22. Enter Avg Margin by Year for Product Line
23. Click Save
Key Points
• Associate Query with Visual Item; Define Visual Item Properties – columns,
labels, options
• Query – selects the data, Changes immediately affect visual item display
• Uses data directly from Data Warehouse
How QAD supports root cause analysis
Create Drill-Down
The chart you just created shows summarized information, but what if you want to drill-
down into more detail? This can be easily set up here – just click Actions and set up the
links.
For example, you might want to click on one of the bars and get a graph showing
average gross margin by month for this product line.
To do this, all you need to do is associate another visual item to this chart, and define
the parameter that you want to pass so that the query will display the desired
information. In this example, you pass the value for product line and year.
Demo
1. Click Actions
2. Click Add New
3. In Action Type, check Drill-In
4. Click Next
5. In Action Binding, check Bound to Selected Item, Average Trans Gross Margin
6. Click Next
7. In Action Target Item, check Link to Library Item
8. Click Browse
9. Click icon to expand Visual Items
10. Click icon to expand Demo Examples
11. Highlight Avg Margin by Month for Product Line Year
12. Click Open
13. In Parameter Binding From line 1 (Year), click Use Default
14. Click From Effective Fin Year
15. In Parameter Binding From line 2 (Product Line), click Use Default
16. From Product Line
17. Click OK
18. Click Save
19. Click Close All
Key Points
• Actions tab defines drill-downs
• Link to another query, passes clicked-on data as a parameter to this query
• Terminology
• Breadcrumbs – this remembers where you came from so that you can return
to the original chart simply by pressing the Back Arrow at the top left
corner of the graph
How QAD focuses attention
Add New Dashboard
Now put your new visual item – the bar chart – on a Dashboard. You could add it to an
existing dashboard or create a new one, by itself or in combination with any number of
other visual items. J ust drag-and-drop the visual items on to the new dashboard, then
save it.
Now you can access your new visual item, including the associated drill down to detail.
Access this dashboard, or others, from your terminal or from a mobile device like an
iPad.
Demo
1. Select Designer > Dashboard
2. Click icon to expand Dashboards
3. Click icon to expand Demo
4. Highlight My Sample Dashboard
5. Click Open
6. Right-click Bookings by Financial Year and Month chart
7. Select Delete this item
8. Click icon to expand Demo Examples
9. Drag & drop Avg Margin by Year for Product Line to My Sample Dashboard
10. Resize
11. In Avg Margin by Year for Product Line, click 2011 to drill-down
12. Click Save
13. Click Close
14. Click New
15. Click icon to expand Demo Examples
16. Drag-and-drop Avg Margin by Month for Product Line to blank dashboard
17. Maximize
18. Click Save As
19. Click icon to expand Dashboards
20. Click icon to expand Demo
21. Enter Item Name Margin
22. Click Save
23. Click Close All
24. If you accessed BI from a browser, click Refresh
25. Highlight Dashboard > Demo
26. Select Margin
27. (Optionally) On iPad, tap Refresh
28. Tap Demo
29. Tap Margin
Key Points
• Add visual item to new or existing dashboard; Simple drag & drop
• Set display options (re-size), add text, date, graphics, parameter bar
• Optionally access dashboards on mobile device
How QAD reduces on-going maintenance cost
Interactive Editing
You can directly edit components right from the dashboard designer. No more looking
around or trying to remember what you called something. J ust right-click and choose
edit If you want to change something.
This takes you directly to the Visual Item Designer where you can change the chart
type, columns, labels and display options. You can even edit the query right here -
perhaps changing the search criteria to retrieve a slightly different subset of the data.
Everything is accessible.
Demo
1. On Desktop, click Designer > Dashboard
2. Click icon to expand Dashboard
3. Click icon to expand Demo
4. Highlight Margin
5. Click Open
6. Right-click Avg Margin by Month for Product Line title bar
7. Select Edit Item
8. Click Line
9. Click Options
10. Check Show Value Labels
11. Click Save
12. Click OK
13. Click Close All
Key Points
• Usually used by designers & power users
• Direct edit for visual items and queries; Increased efficiency
• Don’t need to remember the name, or where you put it!
Where-Used
When changing a query, report, or visual item, you need to know where it is accessed
so that you don’t make changes that will negatively impact something else.
For example, on the visual item that you just changed, all you need to do is look at the
Referenced tab. This shows you everywhere it is used: in the sample visual item you
created and on which dashboards. This tells you immediately if your changes will affect
anyone else.
If you want to edit an item, you can select it right here. Fast and simple!
Demo
1. In Designer > Visual Item, click icon to expand Demo Examples
2. Highlight Avg Margin by Month by Product Line Year
3. Click Referenced by tab
4. Right-click My Sample Dashboard
5. (Optionally) Click Edit Item
Key Points
• Applies to query, report or visual item
• Displays hierarchical view of all usage
• Click any item in hierarchy to edit
• Easy way to manage change process
Closing
In closing, QAD Business Intelligence Dashboards will help you improve performance
against your critical metrics and make better decisions by presenting just the
information you need, the way you need it.
Dashboards take information directly from the Data Warehouse, ensuring you are
making fact-based decisions based on the most complete, up-to-date information.
QAD: Enabling the Effective Enterprise!
• Customizable dashboards
- Monitor critical metrics
- Present up-to-date, complete information
- Support fact-based decision-making
Closing
Business Intelligence Dashboards
Enabling the Effective Enterprise!
Key Points
• Enabling the Effective Enterprise
• Monitor critical metrics
• Easily customized by business users (no need for a programmer)
• Data from Data Warehouse (not a copy in a spreadsheet)
• Fact-based decisions
doc_845100900.pdf
This demonstration focuses on one aspect of QAD Business Intelligence.
QAD Business Intelligence – Dashboards
Demonstration Guide
May 2015
BI 3.11
Overview
This demonstration focuses on one aspect of QAD Business Intelligence – Business
Intelligence Dashboards– and shows how this functionality supports the vision of the
Effective Enterprise; where every business process is working at peak efficiency and
perfectly aligned to the company’s strategic goals.
Business Intelligence Dashboards
QAD Business Intelligence
Key Points
• Enabling the Effective Enterprise
Related Metrics
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) define what the Effective Enterprise means to your
company, mapping your company’s vision, strategy and goals to specific
measurements that will help you drive efficiency and identify improvements in the
business process.
Business Intelligence Dashboards highlight performance information, helping you to
make better decisions by presenting just the information you need, the way you need it
– confident you are always looking at complete, up-to-date information.
QAD provides a set of dashboards to track a pre-defined set of metrics in ten key areas.
Additional metrics and the relative importance of each one will depend on your
definition of the Effective Enterprise. You can easily change Business Intelligence
Dashboards to include your metrics and priorities.
Related Metrics
Business Intelligence Dashboards
KPI Metrics
Days Sales Outstanding
Days Payables Outstanding
Financial reporting person days
Operating cash flow / sales ratio
Dashboard
Key Points
• Pre-built Dashboards
• Add / change dashboards to monitor company-specific metrics
• Standard metrics
• Importance varies by company
Enabling Solution
Business Intelligence provides a set of pre-defined dashboards for each of the main
modules of QAD functionality - using the QAD Key Performance Indicator (KPI)
framework as a guide.
You can use these dashboards, or create your own custom dashboards to view trends
and monitor performance against key metrics. Using Business Intelligence Dashboards
each of your decision-makers can create and re-use secure dashboard components to
achieve unique views into the data, summarized and presented in graphical or grid
format, with the ability to drill-down into all supporting details.
Unlike off-line spreadsheets, dashboards take data directly from the Data Warehouse,
using data optimized for fast access and ensuring you are always making decisions
based on complete and up-to-date information.
You can easily access the information you need, and you can do this yourself, without
having to wait for assistance.
• Pre-defined dashboards
• Customized by user
- Graphs, charts, grids
- Drill-down to details
• Access data from Data Warehouse
- Up-to-date, complete information
- Optimized data access
Enabling Solution
Business Intelligence Dashboards
Key Points
• Pre-defined dashboards
o Customized by user (usually a power user)
o Graphs, charts, grids, messages, links, graphics
o Drill-down to detail
• Mobile support for iPad and Android; same data as you see on Web browser
• Leverage information assets from data warehouse
Demonstration Summary
In this demonstration, you will see how Business Intelligence Dashboards support the
measurement, data gathering and analysis steps in the closed-loop decision-making
process; drawing on the wealth of data in the Data Warehouse and presenting it in a
view customized to your needs – exposing trends, and supporting fact-based decisions
and continuous improvement.
First, you will see how easy it is to interact with the standard dashboards provided with
the application, then see how quickly and easily you can customize these dashboards.
Unlike creating a custom spreadsheet with charts, these dashboards access up-to-date
information from your data warehouse – ensuring you are always basing decisions on
the most current data, gathered from across your global enterprise.
• Interacting with dashboards
• Customizing dashboards
• Creating unique data views
• Creating new dashboards
• Interactive editing tools
Demonstration Summary
Business Intelligence Dashboards
Implement
Measure
Business
State
Model
Gather Data
Collaborate
Analysis
Key Points
• Using, changing, customizing dashboards, visual objects and queries
• Note: Data is up-to-date, based on the frequency that you refresh the Data
Warehouse data from the transactional systems
• Support decision-making process
• Measure, gather, analyze
How QAD supports decisions with real-time analytical
information
Graphical Dashboards
Here is an example of a dashboard. This one shows critical metrics that your general
manager might want to monitor – inventory turns, DIFOT, OEE – along with links to
related reports and websites.
Each user or role can have access to have any number of dashboards, and can switch
easily from one to another – for example, moving from this metrics overview to a more
detailed inventory management dashboard.
QAD Business Intelligence comes pre-loaded with a variety of dashboards, pre-
configured for the QAD modules – Enterprise Asset Management, Financials,
Operations, Order Management and Transportation Management – monitoring Key
Performance Metrics for different areas of your business.
Dashboards can contain a variety of different visual items – graphs and charts, data
presented in a grid format, text messages and links. Other items may also be included –
logos and graphics, the date/time, list of reports, actions, collaboration forum news and
more.
Demo
1. Highlight Dashboard > Demo
2. Select Dashboard > Demo > General Manager
3. Highlight Dashboard > QAD Standard > Operations
4. Select Inventory Management
Key Points
• Multiple dashboards per user or role
• Dashboards include multiple visual items
o Graphs, bar charts, pie charts, grids
o Text – messages/reminders, Links, Actions (like a Go To), Forum News
How QAD provides just the information you need
Drill down
The Inventory Management dashboard shows an example of bar and donut charts.
Hover over any area to see the data value, and click on any value to drill down into
more detail – here offering multiple drill downs, to another bar chart, then to a detailed
grid view.
Quickly return to any level simply by clicking the arrow icon, or change the data by
entering a different selection – for example, choosing data for your Canadian division.
You can review all of this summarized information, or if you want to look more closely at
any one of these charts, just click Maximize.
All of the QAD standard dashboards offer these options and you can easily build your
own dashboards using any or all of these constructs.
Demo
1. In Inventory OH by Site, click Ultrasound Mfg Site bar to drill-down
2. Click Purchased-Ext Supplier
3. At Arrow icon, click drop-down
4. Select Inventory OH by Site
5. Select Domain 11CAN
6. Click Refresh
7. (Optionally) On Inventory Turns by Site, click Maximize icon
8. Scroll right, click Minimize icon
Note: if you click Close the window will close and you will see a box
at the bottom of the dashboard you can click to refresh.
Key Points
• Drill-down or drill-out for more detail
• Click Back Arrow to return to any level
• Parameters to select data
• Any number of selection parameters – for example, domain, year, month,
product, customer, region
• Parameters can affect any or all of the visual items, depends on the
underlying query
• Maximize any visual item
• Minimize to return to dashboard view
How QAD saves time
Dashboard Designer
You can use any web browser to change these dashboards, or to design your own,
without the need for a programmer.
For example, to add a new dashboard, you just drag and drop items on to your
dashboard – custom or standard graphs or charts, with the appropriate selection
parameters, free form text, the date, lists of reports, or links to external websites.
Save it, optionally restricting access to certain roles or groups, then access it from the
dashboard menu.
It’s just that simple!
Demo
1. Select Designer > Dashboard
2. Click New
3. Click icon to expand Visual Items >QAD Standard >Order Management
4. Drag & drop Bookings by Financial Year and Month to dashboard
5. Click icon to expand QAD Standard
6. Click icon to expand Utilities
7. Drag & drop Domain, Year, Month Parameter Bar to dashboard
8. Resize
9. Drag & Drop Gross Margin by Domain, Financial Year and Month Grid to
dashboard
10. Resize the graph and grid
11. Right-click Bookings by Financial Year and Month
12. Select Parameters
13. Click Year(Domain, Year, Month Parameter Bar)
14. Right-click Gross Margin by Domain, Financial Year and Month Grid, select
Parameters
15. Select Domain Domain (Domain, Year, Month Parameter Bar, Year Year (Domain,
Year, Month Parameter Bar)
16. Select Year 2013
17. Click Refresh
18. Drag & Drop Booking Reports to dashboard
19. Page down
20. Drag and drop Sales Reports to dashboard
21. Resize both
22. Drag & drop Text Area icon to blank dashboard on right
23. Enter My Sample Dashboard (Bold, Size 14)
24. Enter Link to our website: QAD
25. Highlight QAD
26. In http:// enter www.qad.com
27. Click QAD
28. Close tab
29. Resize text box smaller
30. Drag & drop Date icon to dashboard
31. Resize
32. Click Save As
33. Click icon to expand Dashboards
34. Click icon to expand Demo
35. Enter Item Name My Sample Dashboard
36. Click Security tab
37. Click Save
38. Click Close All
39. If you accessed BI from a browser, click Refresh
40. Highlight Dashboard > Demo
41. Select Dashboard > Demo > My Sample Dashboard
Key Points
• Browser-based design tool
• No need for a programmer
o Drag and drop from list
o Enter text, links, date
o Use standard reports and ad hoc reporting
o Set security – who can access and edit, by role
• Roles pre-determined by administrator
How QAD reduces customization
Customized Query
There may be situations where you want to look at information that isn’t currently
available in any of the existing dashboards. In this case, you can easily set up a query
that will access just this data.
Let’s say you want to look at a unique view of invoice history – displaying average,
minimum and maximum gross margin for a certain product line, by year.
To add a new query, first you select your area of interest – in this case, Order
Management Invoices.
Add columns to this query by selecting the information you want to display. This is stored
in Fact Tables, for example, Transaction Gross Margin. J ust drag and drop the data
items you want to display onto the Column selection.
You can choose from several different margin values. That is because you might be
operating in different currencies. Trans Gross Margin maintains the original currency of
the transaction. Base Gross Margin is the value converted to the local currency of the
site. Corp Gross Margin is the value expressed in the corporate currency – letting you
compare numbers for any of your global operations, expressed in one currency. QAD
Modules manage all this, so you do not have to!
You can retrieve this transaction information based on different dimensions – for
example, you can look at gross margin values by year and product line, perhaps sorted
by year.
You can also select a filter – for example, choosing to review margin for only finished
goods, that is product line 22. Filters can be fixed, or you can set them up as
parameters, letting you can select the product line dynamically whenever you run the
query.
If you click Test Run, this will show you a sample of the data your query will produce so
that you can verify and refine your selections. Once you have exactly what you want,
you can run the query to retrieve all the data matching the selection criteria and
optionally save the query so that you can access it again.
Demo
1. Highlight Designer
2. Select Designer > Query
3. Click New
4. In Query Area drop-down, select OM Order Invoices
5. Scroll down
6. Click icon to expand Fact Table Trans Gross Margin
7. Drag & drop Average Trans Gross Margin Trans to Selected Columns
8. Drag & drop Min Trans Gross Margin Trans to Selected Columns
9. Drag & drop Max Trans Gross Margin Trans to Selected Columns
10. Click icon to expand Dimension Item-Site Dimension
11. Scroll down
12. Drag & drop Product Line to Selected Columns
13. Click icon to expand Dimension Effective Date Dimension
14. Scroll down
15. Drag & drop Effective Fin Year to Columns
16. In Selected Columns, highlight name Effective Fin Year
17. Click Sort Type
18. In drop-down, click Asc
19. Drag & drop Product Line to Detail tab, just below AND
20. Highlight Product Line
21. Click Parameter tab
22. Enter IN
23. Enter Prompt Text Product Line, Default Value 22
24. Click Test Run
25. (Optionally) Resize columns
26. Click Save As
27. Click icon to expand Queries
28. Click icon to expand Demo Examples
29. Enter My Sample Query – Gross Margin
30. Click Save
31. Click Close All
Key Points
• Terminology
o Query – defines what data you would like to see
o Query area – identifies the functional area; either a QAD Module or other
data source
o Fact Tables – the facts, usually numeric, you are looking up; for example
bookings
o Dimensions – the way you want to look at the facts; for example, bookings
by item or date
o Selected Columns – any number of data items can be displayed
o Filters – define a subset of data; for example, filtering out zero values
o Parameters – let you create dynamic filters with default values; for
example, selecting the year each time you run the query
• Multiple Currency
o QAD Modules are pre-defined to handle multiple currencies
o Transaction currency – original currency from the transaction
o Base currency – currency for the site
o Corporate currency – standard currency you choose to use with BI
• Query selects data directly from Data Warehouse
o Live-connection; not a copy
o Provides the data to feed the Visual item
• Test Run – returns sample of data
• Run – returns entire result set
How QAD improves decision-making
Visual Item Design
You can use this query to create a report, or you can create a visual item – like a chart
or a graph – that you can put on a dashboard.
J ust enter the name of your query and select the type of chart you want – bar chart,
pie chart, heat map – one or two-dimensional?
Take the query you defined and create a bar chart showing just the average gross
margin by year.
Demo
1. Select Designer > Visual Item
2. Click New
3. In Visual Item Types, click Chart
4. Click Column 2D
5. In Query, click Browse
6. Click icon to expand Queries
7. Click icon to expand Demo Examples
8. Highlight My Sample Query – Gross Margin
9. Click Open
10. Click Chart Columns
11. In Levels, check Effective Fin Year
12. Uncheck Product Line
13. In Measures, check Average Trans Gross Margin
14. Uncheck Min Trans Gross Margin, Max Trans Gross Margin
15. Click Labels
16. Enter Title Avg Gross Margin by Year
17. Click Options
18. Enter Decimal Display 2
19. Click Save As
20. Click icon to expand Visual Items
21. Click icon to expand Demo Examples
22. Enter Avg Margin by Year for Product Line
23. Click Save
Key Points
• Associate Query with Visual Item; Define Visual Item Properties – columns,
labels, options
• Query – selects the data, Changes immediately affect visual item display
• Uses data directly from Data Warehouse
How QAD supports root cause analysis
Create Drill-Down
The chart you just created shows summarized information, but what if you want to drill-
down into more detail? This can be easily set up here – just click Actions and set up the
links.
For example, you might want to click on one of the bars and get a graph showing
average gross margin by month for this product line.
To do this, all you need to do is associate another visual item to this chart, and define
the parameter that you want to pass so that the query will display the desired
information. In this example, you pass the value for product line and year.
Demo
1. Click Actions
2. Click Add New
3. In Action Type, check Drill-In
4. Click Next
5. In Action Binding, check Bound to Selected Item, Average Trans Gross Margin
6. Click Next
7. In Action Target Item, check Link to Library Item
8. Click Browse
9. Click icon to expand Visual Items
10. Click icon to expand Demo Examples
11. Highlight Avg Margin by Month for Product Line Year
12. Click Open
13. In Parameter Binding From line 1 (Year), click Use Default
14. Click From Effective Fin Year
15. In Parameter Binding From line 2 (Product Line), click Use Default
16. From Product Line
17. Click OK
18. Click Save
19. Click Close All
Key Points
• Actions tab defines drill-downs
• Link to another query, passes clicked-on data as a parameter to this query
• Terminology
• Breadcrumbs – this remembers where you came from so that you can return
to the original chart simply by pressing the Back Arrow at the top left
corner of the graph
How QAD focuses attention
Add New Dashboard
Now put your new visual item – the bar chart – on a Dashboard. You could add it to an
existing dashboard or create a new one, by itself or in combination with any number of
other visual items. J ust drag-and-drop the visual items on to the new dashboard, then
save it.
Now you can access your new visual item, including the associated drill down to detail.
Access this dashboard, or others, from your terminal or from a mobile device like an
iPad.
Demo
1. Select Designer > Dashboard
2. Click icon to expand Dashboards
3. Click icon to expand Demo
4. Highlight My Sample Dashboard
5. Click Open
6. Right-click Bookings by Financial Year and Month chart
7. Select Delete this item
8. Click icon to expand Demo Examples
9. Drag & drop Avg Margin by Year for Product Line to My Sample Dashboard
10. Resize
11. In Avg Margin by Year for Product Line, click 2011 to drill-down
12. Click Save
13. Click Close
14. Click New
15. Click icon to expand Demo Examples
16. Drag-and-drop Avg Margin by Month for Product Line to blank dashboard
17. Maximize
18. Click Save As
19. Click icon to expand Dashboards
20. Click icon to expand Demo
21. Enter Item Name Margin
22. Click Save
23. Click Close All
24. If you accessed BI from a browser, click Refresh
25. Highlight Dashboard > Demo
26. Select Margin
27. (Optionally) On iPad, tap Refresh
28. Tap Demo
29. Tap Margin
Key Points
• Add visual item to new or existing dashboard; Simple drag & drop
• Set display options (re-size), add text, date, graphics, parameter bar
• Optionally access dashboards on mobile device
How QAD reduces on-going maintenance cost
Interactive Editing
You can directly edit components right from the dashboard designer. No more looking
around or trying to remember what you called something. J ust right-click and choose
edit If you want to change something.
This takes you directly to the Visual Item Designer where you can change the chart
type, columns, labels and display options. You can even edit the query right here -
perhaps changing the search criteria to retrieve a slightly different subset of the data.
Everything is accessible.
Demo
1. On Desktop, click Designer > Dashboard
2. Click icon to expand Dashboard
3. Click icon to expand Demo
4. Highlight Margin
5. Click Open
6. Right-click Avg Margin by Month for Product Line title bar
7. Select Edit Item
8. Click Line
9. Click Options
10. Check Show Value Labels
11. Click Save
12. Click OK
13. Click Close All
Key Points
• Usually used by designers & power users
• Direct edit for visual items and queries; Increased efficiency
• Don’t need to remember the name, or where you put it!
Where-Used
When changing a query, report, or visual item, you need to know where it is accessed
so that you don’t make changes that will negatively impact something else.
For example, on the visual item that you just changed, all you need to do is look at the
Referenced tab. This shows you everywhere it is used: in the sample visual item you
created and on which dashboards. This tells you immediately if your changes will affect
anyone else.
If you want to edit an item, you can select it right here. Fast and simple!
Demo
1. In Designer > Visual Item, click icon to expand Demo Examples
2. Highlight Avg Margin by Month by Product Line Year
3. Click Referenced by tab
4. Right-click My Sample Dashboard
5. (Optionally) Click Edit Item
Key Points
• Applies to query, report or visual item
• Displays hierarchical view of all usage
• Click any item in hierarchy to edit
• Easy way to manage change process
Closing
In closing, QAD Business Intelligence Dashboards will help you improve performance
against your critical metrics and make better decisions by presenting just the
information you need, the way you need it.
Dashboards take information directly from the Data Warehouse, ensuring you are
making fact-based decisions based on the most complete, up-to-date information.
QAD: Enabling the Effective Enterprise!
• Customizable dashboards
- Monitor critical metrics
- Present up-to-date, complete information
- Support fact-based decision-making
Closing
Business Intelligence Dashboards
Enabling the Effective Enterprise!
Key Points
• Enabling the Effective Enterprise
• Monitor critical metrics
• Easily customized by business users (no need for a programmer)
• Data from Data Warehouse (not a copy in a spreadsheet)
• Fact-based decisions
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