A SAS
Information Map data source easily aggregates data in such a flexible
manner that a single SAS Information Map can drive several different
dashboard indicators, such as the example shown here:
This example
dashboard contains four indicators:
-
Overall Product Net Profit And
Profit Target shows a single gauge that represents the aggregate of
all profit and profit target data across all product lines and sales
channels.
-
Overall Net Profit And Profit Target
By Product shows three gauges, each of which is a pair of aggregated
values for each product.
-
Net Profit And Profit Target By
Channel shows two gauges, each one representing aggregated profit
and profit target for a specific sales channel.
-
Net Profit By Channel And Country
Vs. Goal shows 120 data values: 60 net profit values for each country
and product, as well as targets for specific sales channels.
This example
demonstrates how a single SAS Information Map can be configured to
drive different indicators by taking advantage of aggregation at the
SAS Intelligent Query Services level. The information map for this
example is a simple relational SAS Information Map that returns approximately
60 rows of data. Here is a sample of the data:
The data
columns Country, Channel, and Product contain data that is repeated.
Repeated data is a great candidate for grouping.
The first
indicator (Overall Product Net Profit And Profit Target) requires
only a single row of data. To specify a single row of data in SAS
Information Map Studio, select the numeric values and specify that
SAS Information Map Studio aggregate them. In the BI Dashboard, the
KPI display type shows one gauge per row of data. To create a single
gauge, you must aggregate the data so that only a single row of data
is returned from the SAS Information Map. The one row of data returns
the value by aggregating the data columns according to the aggregation
method for the data item. In this example the method is average. The
default aggregation method, sum, usually is not desirable for a dashboard,
so you must specify the aggregation method on the
Classification/Formats tab of the Data Item Properties dialog box in SAS Information Map
Studio.
Here are
the settings for the data model that drives the Overall Product Net
Profit And Profit Target indicator:
Notice
that the
Selected list contains only the
numeric data columns.
For the
Overall Net Profit And Profit Target By Product indicator, the data
columns are different. This indicator displays three gauges, one for
each product. For this data model,
Product is selected, but
Channel and
Country are not. (There are also some numeric data columns
concerning market share in this SAS Information Map that are not pertinent
to this discussion.) For each numeric data column,
Product is selected in the
Category label field
so that the gauge is labeled with the appropriate name. Here are the
settings for this data model:
For the
Net Profit And Profit Target By Channel indicator, the data model
uses only the relevant numeric data columns and the Channel data column.
For each numeric data column,
Channel is
selected in the
Category label field so that
the gauge is labeled with the appropriate name.
For the
small-multiples gauged graph Net Profit By Channel And Country Vs.
Goal, all of the details appear in the indicator, including
Product,
Channel, and
Country. Here are the settings for this data model:
Because
the labels for the individual bars in the indicator should denote
the country, the data column selected in the
Category
label field for the numeric data column is
Country Abbrv.