Pivot Table

August 25th, 2010 | Comments Off

Let say you have your data in the following format

The column represents the year. Let us not concern about the other columns for now.

How can we represent the data above as below which shows the data grouped by the year where the current row year is added to only the next row year. Every row, looks ahead , get the next year value and sums it up and shows as a unique row.

So the end result should be a pivot table that has 2008 and 2009 values summed up, 2009 and 2010 summed up.

Assuming there is no direct relationship between 2008 and 2009 we will try to derive algebric relation and see if we can get the desired result.

The solution assumes that there will be a starting year provided as a seed value. so in this case we will consider 2001 as the seed value.

On the dashboard, we can create a parameter so that we don’t have to hard code the value 2001

Take a look at the below screenshot

The different columns are mod calculations to derive the final relation on how the alternative rows can be related.

Once we get a common value or the relation value, we can easily sum them up in the SQL

The first mod operation between Year and 2001 (fixed value or seed value) gives us sequential numbers

The second mod operation on top of the first mod gives us 010101 sequence.

So now looking at the pattern, if we subtract the second mod operation value from the first mod value, we get the column Diff

So now, 2001 and 2002 are related because their calculated diff value is 0, so are 2003 and 2004

But we also need rows that represent the sum between 2002 and 2003, 2004 and 2005 and so on. The above logic is missing those.

In our calculation if we add the two mods, we get below

Now, we have years (2002,2003), (2004,2005), (2006,2007) related.

So in our query, if we join the two SQL using union then we can expect to see all the row combinations

Now let us implement it on the dashboard.

The sample excel file is as shown below

We will connect to this excel file and pull this table on the dashboard (Check this tutorial how to connect excel file)

here is the screenshot of the excel file on the dashboard

Next we split the date column into year and month columns

We select the year and month columns (need to scroll down when selecting month)

So we get the table (qlet) as below

NOTE: We can manually change the month format to remove the first two digits. for e.g 01-Jan to just “Jan”. We edit the query and update the following line format(”some_date”,’mmm’) as “so_Mth_Disp”, (we just added an extra m and remove the other format)

We also add the following columns mod1, mod2, related field, r1 and r2 which are explained below

<code>

select
“some_date”,
year(”some_date”) as “so_Year”,
“so_Year” – 2001 as “mod1″ ,
mod1 – fix(mod1/2)*2 as mod2,
mod1 – mod2 as “related_field”,
related_field + 2001 as r1,
related_field + 2001 + 1 as r2,

</code>

Since Excel odbc does not support the mod function, we use division and multiplication to arrive at the mod value

We have hard coded the value to 2001 but we can always replace this with the parameter from the dashboard which we will do it at the very end.

Having all the related columns derived based on our excel model earlier now it is time to work on the month columns. Since all the dates are rows, we need to somehow show them as columns.

First step is we use the switch statement to separate each month into a column.

here is the SQL with the switch statement

<code>

select “so_Year”, r1&’ — ‘&r2 as yr
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Jan’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Jan’,0) as “m1″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Feb’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Feb’,0) as “m2″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Mar’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Mar’,0) as “m3″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Apr’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Apr’,0) as “m4″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘May’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘May’,0) as “m5″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Jun’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Jun’,0) as “m6″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Jul’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Jul’,0) as “m7″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Aug’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Aug’,0) as “m8″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Sep’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Sep’,0) as “m9″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Oct’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Oct’,0) as “m10″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Nov’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Nov’,0) as “m11″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Dec’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Dec’,0) as “m12″

from
(
select
“some_date”,
year(”some_date”) as “so_Year”,
“so_Year” – 2001 as “mod1″ ,
mod1 – fix(mod1/2)*2 as mod2,
mod1 – mod2 as “related_field”,
related_field + 2001 as r1,
related_field + 2001 + 1 as r2,

</code>

here is the resulting table

If you notice we concatenated r1 and r2 to create a single new column and we named it as ‘Yr’

Finally we sum all the month columns and group by the new ‘Yr’ column

select yr,
sum(m1) as jan,
sum(m2) as feb,
sum(m3) as Mar,
sum(m4) as apr,
sum(m5) as may,
sum(m6) as jun,
sum(m7) as jul,
sum(m8) as aug,
sum(m9) as sep,
sum(m10) as oct,
sum(m11) as nov,
sum(m12) as dec
from
(
select “so_Year”, r1&’ — ‘&r2 as yr
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Jan’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Jan’,0) as “m1″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Feb’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Feb’,0) as “m2″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Mar’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Mar’,0) as “m3″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Apr’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Apr’,0) as “m4″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘May’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘May’,0) as “m5″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Jun’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Jun’,0) as “m6″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Jul’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Jul’,0) as “m7″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Aug’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Aug’,0) as “m8″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Sep’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Sep’,0) as “m9″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Oct’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Oct’,0) as “m10″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Nov’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Nov’,0) as “m11″
,switch(so_mth_disp = ‘Dec’, some_amount, so_mth_disp <> ‘Dec’,0) as “m12″

Result

This almost looks like what we needed but it is missing the rows 2002 — 2003, 2004 — 2005 etc

We simply edit the SQL, duplicate it and append to the same SQL as a union query. The only difference would for the bottom union is that the related_field would be the addition of mod1 and mod2

from
(
(
select
“some_date”,
year(”some_date”) as “so_Year”,
“so_Year” – 2001 as “mod1″ ,
mod1 – fix(mod1/2)*2 as mod2,
mod1 – mod2 as “related_field”,
related_field + 2001 as r1,
related_field + 2001 + 1 as r2,

format(”some_date”,’mmm’) as “so_Mth_Disp”,
format(”some_date”,’yyyy-mm(mmm)’) as “so_Yr_Mth_NN”,
format(”some_date”,’q’) as “so_Qtr”,
format(”some_date”,’yyyy-ww’) as “so_Yr_wk”,
datepart(’y’,”some_date”) as “so_Yr_Dy” ,
“some_amount”
From (
Select
she.”some_date” ,
she.”some_amount”
From
[Sheet1$] she
)
as dateColsx
union
select
“some_date”,
year(”some_date”) as “so_Year”,
“so_Year” – 2001 as “mod1″ ,
mod1 – fix(mod1/2)*2 as mod2,
mod1 + mod2 -1 as “related_field”,
related_field + 2001 as r1,
related_field + 2001 + 1 as r2,

)
)

)
group by yr

For more information visit Pivot Table

Filed under: Dashboard, Excel Dashboard, Excel Dashboard Software

Pivot Table

August 25th, 2010 | Comments Off

Let say you have your data in the following format

The column represents the year. Let us not concern about the other columns for now.

So the end result should be a pivot table that has 2008 and 2009 values summed up, 2009 and 2010 summed up.

Assuming there is no direct relationship between 2008 and 2009 we will try to derive algebric relation and see if we can get the desired result.

The solution assumes that there will be a starting year provided as a seed value. so in this case we will consider 2001 as the seed value.

On the dashboard, we can create a parameter so that we don’t have to hard code the value 2001

Take a look at the below screenshot

The different columns are mod calculations to derive the final relation on how the alternative rows can be related.

Once we get a common value or the relation value, we can easily sum them up in the SQL

The first mod operation between Year and 2001 (fixed value or seed value) gives us sequential numbers

The second mod operation on top of the first mod gives us 010101 sequence.

So now looking at the pattern, if we subtract the second mod operation value from the first mod value, we get the column Diff

So now, 2001 and 2002 are related because their calculated diff value is 0, so are 2003 and 2004

But we also need rows that represent the sum between 2002 and 2003, 2004 and 2005 and so on. The above logic is missing those.

In our calculation if we add the two mods, we get below

Now, we have years (2002,2003), (2004,2005), (2006,2007) related.

So in our query, if we join the two SQL using union then we can expect to see all the row combinations

Now let us implement it on the dashboard.

The sample excel file is as shown below

We will connect to this excel file and pull this table on the dashboard (Check this tutorial how to connect excel file)

here is the screenshot of the excel file on the dashboard

Next we split the date column into year and month columns

We select the year and month columns (need to scroll down when selecting month)

So we get the table (qlet) as below

We also add the following columns mod1, mod2, related field, r1 and r2 which are explained below

<code>

</code>

Since Excel odbc does not support the mod function, we use division and multiplication to arrive at the mod value

We have hard coded the value to 2001 but we can always replace this with the parameter from the dashboard which we will do it at the very end.

Having all the related columns derived based on our excel model earlier now it is time to work on the month columns. Since all the dates are rows, we need to somehow show them as columns.

First step is we use the switch statement to separate each month into a column.

here is the SQL with the switch statement

<code>

</code>

here is the resulting table

If you notice we concatenated r1 and r2 to create a single new column and we named it as ‘Yr’

Finally we sum all the month columns and group by the new ‘Yr’ column

Result

This almost looks like what we needed but it is missing the rows 2002 — 2003, 2004 — 2005 etc

We simply edit the SQL, duplicate it and append to the same SQL as a union query. The only difference would for the bottom union is that the related_field would be the addition of mod1 and mod2

)
)

)
group by yr

For more information visit Pivot Table

Filed under: Dashboard, Excel Dashboard, Excel Dashboard Software

Create Dials and Speedometer Scorecard

August 25th, 2010 | Comments Off

In this article we will take an Excel source containing scorecard information and convert into dials and speedometer charts.

We will also create few bar trending charts.

Consider the below sample data

Source File: You can download the excel file here

The above excel file tracks few metrics such as safety, quality and revenue. This is just a sample data and may not make sense in actual world but just imagine a manufacturing company that wants to track its overall safety and quality score and also track its total revenue. Now the company may use its own method at deriving the individual safety and quality scores.

They may have a dedicated team to collect safety violations and product defects and then use some formulae to convert those data into final score for any given month. We are not concerned with any of the methods on how those scores are generated. You are the dashboard person and the company has provided you the metrics by each month and now your job is produce a nice dashboard that shows relevant charts for the given data.

Since the data is tracked for each month, it makes sense to show a line or bar chart trending for the metrics.

Dials and Speedometers are relevant when we need to show performance of a single value. So in this case, since we have 12 month data, how do we show single value on the meter chart?

One solution is to show an ‘Average’ value for the safety and Quality metrics or we could show a dial that shows the current month values.

So the GOAL for this exercise is: Show bar chart for Safety trending 12 months and show average and current month value on the dial chart.

Dial chart requirement: For the dial chart, we are measuring the performance, whether we are on track or missed the goal. In order to achieve that, we create three new columns for safety such as ’safety_bad’, ’safety_ok’, safety_good’. These values need to be decided by the company management. If you are not sure, then look at previous year data and decide what should be good and bad values. The dials are used to guide the company to perform better or atleast improve that portion of the company operation represented by the metric.

First let us create the date hierarchy columns from the Period column. You need to make sure that the Period column is an actual Excel date column, else the hierarchy will not be generated

Right click on the period column, select Create -> Add Year, Quarter, Month columns

As you see we added the year and month columns. We may not use all of the above columns but having them ready gives us the option during the chart building.

Now right click on the “Name” and select ‘Create Chart”

We selected the ‘Bar’ chart type

For the x-axis we select the month column and for the y – axis we select the Safety metric

Next, we click on the “Create Chart” button

This action takes us to the below dialog

We rename the chart to ‘Safety’ and then click on ‘Fully Apply’

This action create the below chart (You may need to move the screens and dialog around to see the chart behind)

Now having the chart wizard open, we change the selection to ‘Dial’ chart

Check the Dial chart options below

We modify the options as below

You can type the low and high range values for each range on the dial.
In our case, we have defined the safety bad, ok and good values in our spreadsheet so when our goals change, we just change the spreadsheet and the dials will automatically take care. Also, what if we needed different goals for each month so rather than hard coding the range in the chart, we get them from the excel file

We first change the label sequence for the “Region Name” from “Bad” -> “Warning” -> to “Good”. For the dial chart the labels are not used so make sure that the colors are selected appropriately.

You may click on the color icon to change the colors of your choice

Next, we select the range boundary values

The safety_bad value from our spreadsheet represents the lower boundary of our bad region, “safety_ok” represents the upper boundary of our bad region, similarly ’safety_ok’ is the lower bound for our ‘ok’ region and so on. For the ‘Good’ upper bound we simply typed a value but as general practice we should have one more column for the upper bound of the final region. In our case the final region is ‘Safety Good’.

Next, for the pointer value, select the column that you want to show on the dial chart. In our case we select ‘Safety’ and aggregation as ‘Avg’

Next, we click on “Create chart”. This action shows the dialog below

We change the chart title to ‘Average Safety’

NOTE: remove the double quotes in the SQL statement for the group by. This will cause an error.

Click on ‘Fully Apply’

Here is our final Dial Chart

Next, create a dial chart to show current month value

We will change some conditions on the main Qlet. Right click on the “Name” and select ‘Duplicate’

It creates an exact copy of the qlet table. We change the name to ‘Current Month’

Right click on the ‘Period’ column and select ‘Create’ -> Create Date Filter

This action shows a dialog as shown below

First change the operator to ‘Between’

Next select ‘First Day of Month’ for the from and ‘Last Day of Month’ for the To val.

Click on ‘Use This Filter’

This action applies the filter to the Qlet and it shows only currrent month row

Next, right click on ‘Current Month’ and select ‘Create Chart’

All of the settings remain the same except the ‘Aggregation’, make sure to select ‘NONE’

Once all the three charts are done, we arrange them as below

Similarly, you may create the charts for “Quality” and “Revenue”

For more information visit Create Dials and Speedometer Scorecard

Filed under: Dashboard, Excel Dashboard, Excel Dashboard Software

Free Dashboard Development and Consultation

June 8th, 2010 | Comments Off

Download a Dashboard Tool and then what?

You have been researching Dashboard and reporting tools and there are so many options available on the market.

Some tools are just PDF tutorials that tell you to build Excel templates and use Excel as dashboarding tool and some tools are way too expensive.

You don’t want tools, you need solution for your current problem

In order to better facilitate and break the inertia of learning any dashboard tool, we are offering “Free Dashboard development and Consultation”

Free Dashboard development and Consultation

For very limited time, when you make a purchase you get free 60 mins of dashboard development/consultation. Once you request for the meeting, we will schedule a time and send you a webex or Gotomeeting invitation to join the meeting. We want to make sure you really get started building your dashboard.
So Act Now

For more information visit Free Dashboard Development and Consultation

Filed under: Dashboard, Excel Dashboard, Excel Dashboard Software

Excel Dashboards – Fiscal Quarter, Fiscal Month

May 19th, 2010 | Comments Off

When you use the Add Date hierarchy columns for any date, by default it brings all calendar quarter and calendar month.

How do you get Fiscal Quarter

Let say your fiscal year begins from 1st July then

First Quarter = { 7 , 8 , 9}

Second Quarter = { 10, 11, 12}

Third Quarter = {1, 2, 3}

Fourth Quarter = { 4, 5, 6 }

So with the above logic let us create a formula

Right click on the date column
Select “Create Calculation”
Type the following formula
switch(
month(”Order Date”) in (7,8,9) , ‘Qtr1′ ,
month(”Order Date”) in (10,11,12) , ‘Qtr2′ ,
month(”Order Date”) in (1,2,3) , ‘Qtr3′ ,
month(”Order Date”) in (4,5,6) , ‘Qtr4′
)
Click on ‘Use This Formula’

Here is the Fiscal Quarter

Note: You can change the Quarter text to anything like ‘Q1′ instead of ‘Qtr1′

Fiscal Month

Similarly, if you need fiscal month, we can use the following formula

switch(
month(”Order Date”) >= 7 , month(”Order Date”)-6 ,
month(”Order Date”) < 7 , month(”Order Date”) + 6
)

Fiscal Year

switch(
month(”Order Date”) >= 7 , year(”Order Date”) ,
month(”Order Date”) < 7 , year(”Order Date”) – 1
)

If you have a different Fiscal year begining then replace the numbers accordingly.

For more information visit Excel Dashboards – Fiscal Quarter, Fiscal Month

Filed under: Dashboard, Excel Dashboard, Excel Dashboard Software

Excel Dashboards – Fiscal Quarter, Fiscal Month

May 19th, 2010 | Comments Off

When you use the Add Date hierarchy columns for any date, by default it brings all calendar quarter and calendar month.

How do you get Fiscal Quarter

Let say your fiscal year begins from 1st July then

First Quarter = { 7 , 8 , 9}

Second Quarter = { 10, 11, 12}

Third Quarter = {1, 2, 3}

Fourth Quarter = { 4, 5, 6 }

So with the above logic let us create a formula

Right click on the date column
Select “Create Calculation”
Type the following formula
switch(
month(”Order Date”) in (7,8,9) , ‘Qtr1′ ,
month(”Order Date”) in (10,11,12) , ‘Qtr2′ ,
month(”Order Date”) in (1,2,3) , ‘Qtr3′ ,
month(”Order Date”) in (4,5,6) , ‘Qtr4′
)
Click on ‘Use This Formula’

Here is the Fiscal Quarter

Note: You can change the Quarter text to anything like ‘Q1′ instead of ‘Qtr1′

Fiscal Month

Similarly, if you need fiscal month, we can use the following formula

switch(
month(”Order Date”) >= 7 , month(”Order Date”)-6 ,
month(”Order Date”) < 7 , month(”Order Date”) + 6
)

Fiscal Year

switch(
month(”Order Date”) >= 7 , year(”Order Date”) ,
month(”Order Date”) < 7 , year(”Order Date”) – 1
)

If you have a different Fiscal year begining then replace the numbers accordingly.

For more information visit Excel Dashboards – Fiscal Quarter, Fiscal Month

Filed under: Dashboard, Excel Dashboard, Excel Dashboard Software

Is this Dashboard Tool right for you?

May 19th, 2010 | Comments Off

If it is the right Dashboard tool, are YOU prepared to make the time commitment?

Excel Dashboard Desinger is a versatile tool and here is a brief summary of all the things you can do.

Do you want your Dashboard Software to perform the following basic things?

Build dashboard from multiple Excel files
Build Tables, Pivots
Build Drop down parameters
Build Charts
Drill Down into details
Export Dashboards to PDF and send it as email attachments

NOTE: When you connect to any Excel file, each worksheet in the Excel file is available as individual table and you can pull information from any worksheet.

Do not take our word, Check out individual Dashboard Examples

or How about doing the following things?

Connect to multiple Excel Files
Build Dials, Gauges, Speedometers and Thermometers
Customize the look and feel of tables and charts

Example:

Customize Bar chart colors based on value. If the value is less than 10 then make it red, if it is above 100 then make it Green

Auto-Refresh

Lot of our customers build dashboards connected to live data feeds and then display the dashboards on huge TV displays. They set the dashboard to refresh automatically every few seconds.

Are you up for more Advanced stuff?

Build Dashboard from multiple Excel and Microsoft Access files (.xls and .mdb
Auto-Refresh
Export to Static HTML

Benefits of using Dashboard Designer

Your dashboard or presenation layer is independent – Dashboard definition is stored separately
Increased productivity – When you have fresh data just refresh the dashboard, no redevelopment needed
No Messy Excel Macros or coding knowledge required – Just drag and drop tables and visually build Tables, Charts, Speedometer, Gauges, Dials, Thermometers and more charts
Simplified Distribution and Presentation – You can Export the Dashboard to PDF or HTML and just send them as attachments
Save Time – Just build the dashboard presentation layer only once and automate the refreshes.

Would you like to hear what some of our lovely customers say?

I bought this software but as things usually go, never really got time to work with it. After over a month, launched it and took the courage to go through the online tutorials and began experimenting things as mentioned in the documents and video tutorials. I was simply amazed by the ease of which I could produce the tables, drop down parameters and beautiful gauges. Vow! truly simple and easy software to build dashboards

- Kelly Greb,CA

After trying the Excel templates and spending on various video tutorials learning how to build dashboards in Excel using Macros and Excel stuff, never really got anywhere. Decided to try out InfoCaptor and Tableau. Although Tableau offers lot more visualization options, it is way beyond our dashboarding need and it is incredibly expensive. Excel dashboard designer worked out pretty good for our organization both cost wise and feature wise. After 15 days our company got few more viewer licenses. Currently we are evaluating the web based version of the dashboards.

- Martin Piro, GA

This is the best dashboard software for its price. One good thing we did was to hire their consulting services to build few dashboard prototypes and provide some quick dashboard training.

- Terry Seal, IL

We evaluated Xcelsius and Qlikview and the cost for organization to implement dashboards was quoted over 10,000 USD. For fraction of the above quoted price, we were able to buy the licenses for the web based software and get some free training. This is truly a dashboard software for small businesses like us.

- (Name not disclosed) IT Manager of a Trucking company, OH

I have been using Excel Dashboards for past 4 days. This has literally shaved 30 hrs per month that I used to spent every month. It was pretty easy to create the dashboards. Was able to generate a presentable PDF in just few hours (under 3 hrs to be precise). My plan of action from now on is to get an updated Excel file and refresh the dashboard,generate the PDf and send it to my Department manager, all done in 10 minutes. For $50, its a no brainer.

- John Mc

It isn’t often you find a product that has the two cardinal virtues: a price that is an order-of-magnitude below the big players in the field, and a development team that really listens and responds to customer feedback and requests. “InfoCaptor is such a product”. Dashboard design and use has swept through the Fortune 500 companies, but until recently it was too expensive and required too much technical knowledge for mid-size companies to embrace. InfoCaptor has brought the benefits of dashboards to any organization with as few as one trained IT person on staff. The real strength of InfoCaptor, however, is the dedication of the development team. InfoCaptor staff worked to try and create additions to the current product in order to fit our specific needs. There was no reluctance to help, none of the normal “We’re very busy right now?” excuses; instead there were dozens of emails, remote assistance, and new beta components on virtually a daily basis. I am a big fan, and look to InfoCaptor with eager anticipation of what features will be added next. The current product does what products costing 10 times as much do.I can’t wait to see what this kind of drive, energy, and obvious love of the project on the part of those developing it, will bring to the table next.

- Elliot Apter
CIO, Atpac Logistics

My monthly routine is to spend 2-3 days on creating Excel reports and submitting it to my boss. Out of frustration I stumbled across InfoCaptor and approached Nilesh for help in getting a sample dashboard created. Having submitted all the raw data, InfoCaptor team came up with a nice looking dashboard that was much more efficient with the use of parameters. For e.g I used to have seperate metrics for Year, Quarter and for each months. The supplied dashboard had parameters that allowed to switch between year,quarter or month view instantly. This is saving me a lot of time. The only thing remaining is to feed the dashboard directly from the ODBC source. Right now I just extract the raw data into Excel and let InfoCaptor feed from it but having direct ODBC link will give me real time views. Thank you very much for a wonderful job and the product.

- Bob Jacobs

So, who else is using this Dashboard Software?

Excel Dashboard Software (InfoCaptor family) is used by following group of people

used by individuals who are single business owners
used by small businesses who have under 5 employees
used by growing businesses who have around 10-20 employees
used by medium businesses who have revenues in the range of 30-50 million
we do have few big corporations using them (Alcoa, Bank of Canada, Siemens etc)

Our majority of customer base is small and medium businesses because our product is very easy to use and priced perfectly for the small business owner.

Dashboards Provide the needed clarity!

Implementing Dashboards is the best thing you will do for yourself and your business. YOU can make a difference in your company and get noticed.

Dashboards provide unique window to your Business, Why put this off?

Maybe you think that this might be too much work. Maybe it seems like drudgery to use a dashboard or business intelligence software.

It is not true. Building dashboard is a fun process and you will definitely add a shining star in your resume. You initiate the dashboard project in your company and you will become the “Dashboard Guy” or “The Dashboard Person” everyone will look towards to.

There is No Risk, Your Satisfaction is Guaranteed

You might ask how?

We provide risk free, unconditional money back guarantee within 30 days of Your purchase.

Absolutely Free: 60 minutes of Dashboard Consultation and Service

For a limited time, we will provide 1 free web session to help you get started and build the dashboard. This one hour dashboard consultation is worth $100 but we are offering this absolutely free of cost and with no strings attached.

Why give free Consulting Service?

No matter how good the software you have, there is always “Fear of learning new thing” and if you add a little procastination then the software may never get used. Our mission is for you to use our software and gain insights into your Business. If you just have the software and not using it then we are not doing a good job.

So when you purchase the license for the dashboard designer, you have the option to avail our free web session where we send you the Gotomeeting invitiation and then one of our team member walks you through the basics and helps you build the dashboard objects.

How do you get the free 60 minutes of consulting?

Once you make a purchase, we send you link to download the software
You can walk through our tutorial section and watch our videos
If you still feel that you may need a little hand holding send us an email at contact “AT” infocaptor.com (replace “AT” with @)
Once we receive your request, we will arrange for a schedule on when to setup the web meeting.

So Do you agree with the following equation?

Risk Free Purchase + 100% Satisfaction + Free consultation =? Happy Dashboard User

Our original InfoCaptor Dashboard Designer is priced at $297. But often the small business user works with Excel and Ms Access database.

Considering this, we have created this special License for Excel that enables you to work with Excel files but with the same original powerful Dashboard Designer.

Excel Dashboard Software is same as InfoCaptor Dashboard Designer but enables you to work exclusively with Excel and it is priced at ~~$297~~ a very economical price of $47.

InfoCaptor Dashboard Designer lets you work with SQL databases of all kind but if your requirement is to just work with Excel or Access then this price of $47 is a perfect entry point and you can add components and upgrade anytime.

So How about the following equation

$47 + Risk Free Purchase + 100% Satisfaction + Free consultation == Happy Dashboard User

Do you agree with the above equation?

Commit yourself to building the Dashboard

Excel Dashboard Builder – single user $47

Build Unlimited Dashboards
Visual Query Builder
Merge multiple Excel files on one dashboard
Build Charts and Tables
Build Parameters – Drop down selectable list
Export to PDF
Auto-refresh
10 Free Dashboard Viewing licenses for dynamic viewing. (you can share your dashboard definitions with others)

+ For limited time you get 60 minutes of Free Dashboard Consulting service worth $100 (zero cost to you)

For more information visit Is this Dashboard Tool right for you?

Filed under: Dashboard, Excel Dashboard, Excel Dashboard Software

Performance Dashboard Presentation ways

April 13th, 2010 | Comments Off

Dashboards present information in two broad ways. First, some of the data presented is averaged or summarized. To get to the details of performance, the user must click repeatedly to access detailed information. This is know as “drilling down” and the user might need to drill down through several layers in order to discover the culprit transaction or data that was skewing the averaged summary statistic on the dashboard.

The second way many dashboards present data is by visual status –- most often using the stop lights colors of red, yellow and green to signal status. Once again, the details are missing and the user must drill down to uncover the underlying issues.

With Excel Dashboards, you connect to your raw data which may be residing in multiple excel files or any other database such as Access or SQL database. Information can be averaged or summarized in the dashboard. So it provides a natural path to the detailed information for drililng straight to the raw transactions.

For more information visit Performance Dashboard Presentation ways

Filed under: Dashboard, Excel Dashboard, Excel Dashboard Software

Excel Dashboards for Web

April 4th, 2010 | Comments Off

Put your Excel Dashboards on the web

Create your excel dashboards on Desktop and then easily put them on the web or intranet.

Download the web dashboard files

Web Dashboard Documentation

The documentation is a complete printable reference guide for converting desktop to web dashboard and has a reference section for chart properties to create advanced charts.

Download web dashboard software

The link to the web dashboard software is provided within the above documentation link.
download web dashboard software

For more information visit Excel Dashboards for Web

Filed under: Dashboard, Excel Dashboard, Excel Dashboard Software

Excel ODBC – Access ODBC

March 29th, 2010 | Comments Off

>Alternative Video Tutorial or Follow the steps below

Sometimes, due to some improper setup of Microsoft Excel or incomplete components for Microsoft Office, direct connection to Excel files may not be possible.

This tutorial provides an alternative method to connect to the Excel Files. This method also applies to any new format of Excel Files or Microsoft Access databases (ie. mdb or .accdb)

Steps to Create DSN for ODBC connection

1. Click on the Start menu and click on the Control Panel