The Dashboard Spy

SharePoint is becoming more of a choice as a dashboarding tool. As a collaboration platform, it has the advantage of offering a host of collaboration tools to the enterprise dashboard user. For example, dashboard users may find it very convenient to be able to share documents and post comments to a forum right from their business dashboard.

Microsoft released a series of sharepoint application templates that model how different industries and departments might set up a dashboard with their particular interests and Key Performance Indicators. Examples include Marketing Campaign Tracking Dashboards, Help Desk Dashboard, Project Management Dashboard, Competitive Intelligence Analysis, etc. Dashboards are organized by either industry vertical or by horizontal functional departments.

Here we look at a template suitable for a financial company that originates loans. The SharePoint webparts (mini applications or widgets/portlets that can reside in zones of the sharepoint dashboard) are customized for the loan initiation process. Webparts include Announcements, Client Awareness Survey, Document Library, Forms, Discussion Boards, Calculators and Links.

This example shows a rather generic adoption of the standard Sharepoint webparts for this particular vertical. I would have liked to see webparts with more specific metrics and KPIs. I’ve got a better deal origination dashboard to show up. I just have to dig through the thousands of screenshots that I have!

Homework: Interested in what the industry is thinking about SharePoint?  Take a look at this pdf of the Forrester Evaluation Overview of SharePoint. Want to go right to the source? Here is the best Microsoft Sharepoint url. And if you are brand new to SharePoint, don’t be shy about starting your studies with Microsoft SharePoint 2007 For Dummies.