Uncover the Advantages of Incorporating Excel Dashboards into Your Business Intelligence Strategies

Introduction

Business Intelligence (BI) is a set of strategies, processes, applications, and technologies that help a business acquire and analyze data to gain insight and make better decisions. The use of BI solutions to support corporate decision-making has become increasingly popular in the digital landscape of today. Integrating Excel Dashboards into your BI platform can provide your business with immense benefits, giving easier access and control to data, allowing for an optimized and customized display of information, and improved data sharing and communication. This post will provide an overview of the process of integrating Excel Dashboards with your Business Intelligence platform.

Definition of Business Intelligence (BI)

Business Intelligence (BI) is the combination of data, tools, and techniques that enable businesses to make informed decisions. It is a collection of processes, used in the aggregation, analysis and evaluation of data, to support the decision-making process of a business or organization.

Benefits of Integrating Excel Dashboards

Easier Access and Control to Data
Optimized and Customized Display of Information
Improved Data Sharing and Communication

Overview of the Integration Process

Technology Used to Integrate Excel Dashboards into BI Platforms

Integrating Excel dashboards into business intelligence platforms allows an organization to optimize the usage of their platform as well as gain insights on their data faster. There are a number of technologies that can be used for integration, such as Microsoft PowerPivot, Microsoft Analysis Services, and Complex Event Processing (CEP) systems.

Microsoft PowerPivot

Microsoft PowerPivot is a business intelligence tool that allows for fast and secure import, manipulation, and consolidation of data from several sources and create powerful Excel dashboards. It enables organizations to quickly combine and analyze data from multiple sources such as relational databases, spreadsheets, and text files. PowerPivot also offers a comprehensive set of features such as advanced filters, sorting options, drill-down capabilities, and integration with Microsoft PowerBI.

Microsoft Analysis Services

Microsoft Analysis Services is an analytical processing engine that helps businesses analyze and manage large volumes of data. It can scale data across multiple servers and connect to sources such as Microsoft Excel, Access, and SQL Server. Analysis Services provides easy-to-use tools and offers a wide range of customizations like creating dimensions, cubes, roles, and partitioning. It also allows users to create multidimensional OLAP cubes, which makes it one of the most popular tools for integrating Excel dashboards with BI platforms.

Complex Event Processing (CEP) System

A Complex Event Processing system is an event-driven software application allows for analyzing condition-based patterns in large volumes of data. It’s a powerful tool for finding correlations and extracting real-time insights from structured and unstructured data sources. By integrating a CEP system with a BI platform, organizations can analyze streaming data and detect any changes in data patterns in real-time. This will enable them to make better decisions and improve their overall efficiency.

Visualization Components

Software such as Excel can provide the framework required to create dynamic, interactive dashboards. Combining dashboards with business intelligence can enable organizations to gain actionable insights from their data. Visualization components such as charts and graphs are used to present data in a way that facilitates quick analysis and decision-making. Let’s take a closer look at the different types of charts and graphs, the role of automation in presentation, and examples of dynamic dashboard features.

Different Types of Charts and Graphs

Charts and graphs are essential features of any dashboard. They make data more visually appealing and engaging. Both charts and graphs use different types of variables such as numerical values, labels, and categories to present information. Depending on the type of data, there are various types of charts and graphs that can be used. The most common chart types are line graphs, bar graphs, and pie charts. Other chart types such as scatter plots and heat maps are also used to present data. Graphs can also be divided into categories such as histograms, box plots, and timelines.

Role of Automation in Presentation

Automation of data presentation can help to make the process more efficient. Automation can help to generate graphs, tables, and other visualizations more quickly and accurately. Automation tools such as spreadsheets and programs can also be used to create dynamic reports and dashboards with real-time updates. Automated dashboards can be used to monitor and track data over time and make adjustments as needed. Automated dashboards can also help to make presentations more engaging with interactive visuals, graphs, and charts.

Examples of Dynamic Dashboard Features

Dynamic dashboards can provide a range of features and capabilities. Examples of such features include drill-down capabilities, interactive filtering, annotations and notes, and mobile access. Drill-down capabilities allow users to access deeper levels of data for further analysis. Interactive filtering can help users to find specific data points and examine patterns in data more easily. Annotations and notes can be used to capture insights and correlations that may otherwise be missed. Mobile access can make data accessible anytime, anywhere, allowing users to monitor and react to key data points on the go.

Line graphs
Bar graphs
Pie charts
Scatter plots
Histograms
Box plots
Timelines
Heat maps
Drill-down capabilities
Interactive filtering
Annotations and notes
Mobile access

Integrating Excel Dashboards with Your Business Intelligence Platform

Exchange of Data

When integrating Excel-based dashboards with your business intelligence platform (BI), one of the key considerations is the exchange of data between the systems. The type of data to exchange, as well as the frequency, format, and performance SLAs should all be outlined with your BI provider in order to ensure seamless integration. For example, you may need to frequently transfer large amounts of data that is in a certain format in order to instantly respond to changes in your dashboard. Alternately, you may need to only transfer small bits of data at more sporadic intervals.

Extent of Automation

The level of automation required to integrate the dashboard with your BI platform is also important to consider. Depending on the complexity of your dashboard and its data sources, it may be beneficial to set up a level of automatic data exchange to ensure up-to-date dashboards. Automation also reduces the possibility of human errors, such as typos or incorrect values.

Some BI providers offer automated setup as part of their platform, such as scheduling regular data exchange or automatically importing new files to the platform. If your BI system does not have automated setup, however, you may need to develop your own system for data exchange or hire a data integration specialist to do the job for you.

Error Handling Protocols

Additionally, Excel-based dashboards and your business intelligence platform should be equipped with a protocol for addressing errors and unexpected issues. This will help to avoid discrepancies in data, reduce the likelihood of data loss, and make it easier to resolve technical issues in a timely manner.

Common error handling protocols include log audit trails, alerts, and report replay. Log audit trails provide records of each action taken on the dashboard, which can then be used to investigate technical issues. Alerts are other tools that can be used to instantly notify the team of unexpected issues, such as data discrepancies or errors in the dashboard. Lastly, report replay allows for the replay of any reports that were generated or created during a data integration request.

Security Considerations

Integrating excel dashboards with your business intelligence platform requires special attention to security. This section outlines the critical security considerations that must be taken into account.

User Access Control

The most important factor to consider when integrating excel dashboards with your business intelligence platform is user access control. It is essential to ensure that only authorized users have access to the data. This can be done through authentication and authorization protocols that limit access based on user roles and associated permissions. Furthermore, it is important to audit the user access log to ensure that only those with the right credentials are accessing the data.

Encryption of Sensitive Data

Another security measure that must be taken when integrating excel dashboards with your business intelligence platform is encryption of sensitive data. Encryption can be used to protect data from unauthorized access and ensure only authorized personnel have access to the data. Furthermore, it is recommended to employ encryption protocols that meet industry standards for data security and data privacy.

Data Governance Policies

Finally, it is also important to develop and enforce data governance policies. These policies should outline the acceptable use of data, access control protocols, and protocols for encryption of sensitive data. By developing and enforcing data governance policies, organizations can ensure that data is secure and remains confidential.

Financial Implications

Dashboards are displays of important metrics along with visualizations that can give real-time insight into your business operations. Adapting the latest technology such as Excel to your dashboards can be a labor-intensive process, and it is important to carefully consider the financial implications before executing a successful integration. In this chapter, we will discuss the key financial implications associated with integrating Excel dashboards with your business intelligence platform, including cost of integration, savings on resource allocation, and budgeting strategies.

Cost of Integration

The cost of integration depends on the complexity of your Excel dashboard and the cost of data platform integration. For a basic integration setup with minimal customizations, the cost can start at several hundred dollars. If you are creating a complex application requiring complex coding and substantial customizations, the cost can easily rise into the thousands. The actual cost of integration will depend on the needs of your project, but it’s an important factor to consider when developing a budget for your dashboard.

Savings on Resource Allocation

One of the key advantages of integrating Excel dashboards with a business intelligence platform is the potential savings on resource allocation. A standardized platform can reduce the amount of time and effort required to maintain the dashboard and ensure that the data used is always up to date. This can result in significant savings in terms of resources needed to manage the dashboard and keep it running smoothly.

Budgeting Strategies

When budgeting for a dashboard integration, it is important to take into account all potential costs, including the direct costs associated with the process as well as any potential future costs associated with maintenance or expansion. It is also important to factor in potential cost savings associated with resource allocation, as the long-term savings of using an automated system can be substantial. Additionally, consider the cost of any additional tools or services you may need to get the most out of the system, such as data cleansing or reporting.

Cost of integration
Savings on resource allocation
Budgeting strategies

Conclusion

Excel dashboards have long been seen as a vital part of business intelligence platforms. Integrating them offers numerous benefits, from increased flexibility and agility to improved performance and scalability. After a detailed look at how to integrate Excel dashboards with your business intelligence platform, let’s conclude with a brief summary of the integration process, the key benefits it offers, and strategies for optimizing it for the long term.

Summary of Integration Process

Integrating an Excel dashboard with your business intelligence platform involves a few essential steps: ensure the database connections are secure and correctly configured, create an Excel template for the dashboard and connect it to the database, create copy of the database and the dashboard, and modify the Excel spreadsheet to include all the necessary components.