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I've been experimenting with Microsoft Performance Point 2007 for a project,
specifically the Dashboard Designer, and it has been interesting to look at
what this could mean for CRM dashboard creation.
Traditionally we have used SharePoint with web parts to display SRS reports and
other web parts to build a dashboard and then embedded the SRS site into CRM.
It is a great way to provide a one stop executive view of the metrics that
matter fed from CRM data.
Performance Point Dashboard Designer (DD) takes this to the next level. DD
provides a Microsoft Office drag and drop interface for assembling dashboards.
These dashboards can then be deployed to Sharepoint document libraries.
Here are the seven best reasons to consider using Performance Point to design
and manage your dashboards for CRM:
1. DD reduces complexity in configuring dashboard sites—no need to make sure
that a bunch of different web parts are installed properly on the SharePoint
site—Just drag and drop in DD and click a button to deploy.
2. DD give more control over page layouts. When we add web parts to a
SharePoint site, if one report in a column is wider than the rest, it resizes
the width of the entire column. DD allows more intuitive layout choices,
including the ability to split columns and have different widths.
3. DD has more intuitive security control. You can specify the security roles
for each part of the dashboard.
4. DD has extensive revision control. If you are on version 20 of your
dashboard, you can roll it back to version 15.
5. DD makes it easier to bring together parts from different sources. It can
display SharePoint reports, Excel pivot tables, scorecards from manually
entered data, or from AS cubes.
6. DD is more intuitive than SharePoint Report Viewer web parts. For example
when you Specify the URL of your Report Server, you can browse the report
files. In SharePoint Report Viewer web part, you have to manually type the
folder path and report name. This can be frustrating if you have some complex
report names.
7. DD would make it more feasible for users who are not SharePoint
administrators to manage dashboards. Anyone who can use Microsoft Office could
use Dashboard Designer.
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