BusinessObjects™ XI Release 2 for Dummies®

Chapter 17. Using Performance Manager to Set Goals and Track Achievement

In This Chapter

• Fitting metrics and goals into the big picture

• Creating your own metrics and goals

• Adding value through metrics, goals, and analytics

In the two previous chapters, we looked at how reports compare to dashboards, and how charts compare to analytics. In this chapter, we look at the differences between a universe measure and a metric.

Chapter 15 described how to create a dashboard containing a speedometer gauge based on a metric — that’s business-speak for a named value used to evaluate performance — for example, net sales by month for a given time range. To get a handle on this metric, you can use a Speedometer gauge to compare current sales with the previous period’s sales (or other such values) over the time range you specify, comparing the values you get when you run the analytic from time to time.

To get the sales history, we took three general steps:

✓	We defined a specific indicator as a metric: the one showing net sales (based on a universe measure).
✓	We defined as metadata the aggregation function over time, the time range, and the trend.
✓	We stored the values for the specified time range in system tables.

The Performance Management catalog comes with a series of analytics that compare metrics and goals, enabling you to monitor the value of data (both forecast and actual) over time. To access the Performance Management catalog, select the Performance Manager Analytics page from the ...