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212 Part II • Descriptive Analytics

d. What types of dashboards are in the system? Are they step-by-step instructions provided in the assignment, exe-
operational or tactical, or are they actually scorecards? cute the analysis on the SAS Visual Analytics tool (which
Explain. is a Web-enabled system that does not require any local
e. What are the basic benefits provided by Western installation). Answer the questions posed in the assignment.
Digital’s VIS and dashboards? 8. Develop a prototype dashboard to display the financial
f. What sorts of advice can you provide to a com- results of a public company. The prototype can be on
pany that is getting ready to create its own VIS and paper, on Excel, or on a commercial tool. Use data from
dashboards? the 2012 annual plans of two public companies to illus-
4. Go to Stephen Few’s blog “The Perceptual Edge” trate the features of your dashboard.
(perceptualedge.com). Go to the section of “Examples.” team assignments and role-playing projects
In this section, he provides critiques of various dashboard 1. Virtually every BPM/CPM vendor provides case studies
examples. Read a handful of these examples. Now go on their Web sites. As a team, select two of these ven-
to dundas.com. Select the “Gallery” section of the site. dors (you can get their names from the Gartner or AMR
Once there, click the “Digital Dashboard” selection. You lists). Select two case studies from each of these sites. For
will be shown a variety of different dashboard demos. each, summarize the problem the customer was trying to
Run a couple of the demos. address, the applications or solutions implemented, and
a. What sorts of information and metrics are shown on the benefits the customer received from the system.
the demos? What sorts of actions can you take? 2. Go to the Dashboard Spy Web site map for executive dash-
b. Using some of the basic concepts from Few’s boards (enterprise-dashboard.com/sitemap). This site
critiques, describe some of the good design points provides a number of examples of executive dashboards.
and bad design points of the demos. As a team, select a particular industry (e.g., healthcare,
5. Download an information visualization tool, such as banking, airlines). Locate a handful of example dashboards
Tableau, QlikView, or Spotfire. If your school does not for that industry. Describe the types of metrics found on
have an educational agreement with these companies, the dashboards. What types of displays are used to provide
then a trial version would be sufficient for this exercise. the information? Using what you know about dashboard
Use your own data (if you have any) or use one of the design, provide a paper prototype of a dashboard for this
data sets that comes with the tool (they usually have one information.
or more data sets for demonstration purposes). Study 3. Go to teradatauniversitynetwork.com. From there,
the data, come up with a couple of business problems, go to University of Arkansas data sources. Choose one
and use data and visualization to analyze, visualize, and of the large data sets, and download a large number of
potentially solve those problems. records (this may require you to write an SQL statement
6. Go to teradatauniversitynetwork.com. Find the “Tableau that creates the variables that you want to include in the
Software Project.” Read the description, execute the tasks, data set). Come up with at least 10 questions that can be
and answer the questions. addressed with information visualization. Using your favor-
7. Go to teradatauniversitynetwork.com. Find the assign- ite data visualization tool, analyze the data and prepare a
ment for SAS Visual Analytics. Using the information and detail report that includes screenshots and other visuals.

end-of-Chapter Application Case

Smart Business Reporting Helps Healthcare Providers Deliver Better Care
Premier, which serves more than 2,600 U.S. hospitals and These platforms and associated software systems also lacked
84,000-plus other healthcare sites, exists to help its members the scalability required to support the massive transaction
improve the cost and quality of the care they provide the com- volumes that were needed. At the same time, as Premier inte-
munities they serve. Premier also assists its members to prepare grates data in new ways, it needs to ensure that the historic
for and stay ahead of health reform, including accountable care high level of data privacy and security is maintained. Moving
and other new models of care delivery and reimbursement. forward with new technology, Premier had to confirm that
it can isolate each healthcare organization’s information to
challenge continue to meet patient privacy requirements and prevent
unauthorized access to sensitive information.
As Premier executives looked to execute this vision, they
recognized that the company’s existing technical infrastructure
could not support the new model. Over the years, Premier had solution—bridging the information gap
developed a series of “siloed” applications, making it difficult Premier’s “re-platforming” effort represents groundbreaking
for members to connect different data sources and metrics and work to enable the sharing and analysis of data from its thou-
see the “big picture” of how to drive healthcare transformation. sands of member organizations. The new data architecture

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