Creating Dashboards with Performance Point 2007

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.

To summarize, Performance Point is not required to construct a dashboard for CRM—if funds are limited, you can build one with just Windows SharePoint Services 3.0. However, Performance Point will simplify the process, make your dashboard layout better looking, and make your dashboard easier to manage.