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1.
Edit the scorecard that contains the initiative or objective.
2.
Navigate to the initiative or objective as follows:
■
For an initiative, in the Initiatives pane
, double-click the initiative.
■
For an objective, in the Strategy pane
, double-click the objective.
3.
In the Action Link area in the Analytics pane
, click the Edit Row button.
The Action Link dialog
is displayed.
4. Make the changes that you want and click OK in the Action Link dialog.
5.
Save the objective or initiative.
Saving Inline Actions in Analyses to the Catalog
To save an inline action in an analysis: 1.
Edit the analysis to which the action has been added.
2. Move the mouse pointer over the Options menu for the column or hierarchy level
to which the action has been added and select Column Properties or Hierarchy Level Properties
. The
Column Properties dialog is displayed.
3.
Click the Column Properties dialog: Interaction tab
.
4. In the Action Links area, select the action to save and click the Edit Action Link
button. The Edit Action Link dialog
is displayed.
5. Click the More button and select Save Action As to display the
Save As dialog to
specify the save criteria.
6. Specify the save criteria and click OK.
7. Click OK in the Edit Action Link dialog.
8. Click OK in the Column Properties dialog.
Saving Inline Actions in Dashboards to the Catalog
To save an inline action in a dashboard to the catalog: 1.
Edit the dashboard page.
2.
If the action and action link are associated with and action link menu:
a. Click the Properties button for the Action Link Menu object. The
Action Link Menu Properties dialog
is displayed.
b.
Make the appropriate changes to the menu label and caption.
c. In the Action Links area, select the action to edit and click the Edit button.
The Action Link Properties dialog
is displayed.
3. If the action and action link are standalone, then click the Properties button for the
Action Link object to which the action is associated. The Action Link Properties
dialog is displayed.
Tip: To replace the reference to the current action with the saved
action, then select the Replace current action with a reference to the saved action
box.
Working with Actions 10-23
4. Click the More button and select Save Action As. The
Save As dialog is
displayed.
5. Edit the action and click OK.
6. Click OK in the Action Link Properties dialog, and then in the Action Link Menu
Properties dialog if displayed.
7. Click Save to save the dashboard.
8. Click the More button and select Save Action As to display the dialog to specify
the save criteria.
9. Specify the save criteria and click OK.
10. Click OK in the Action Link Properties dialog, and then in the Action Link Menu
Properties dialog if displayed.
11. Click Save to save the dashboard.
Executing a Named Action to Test It
After creating a named action, you can test it to ensure that it executes properly.
To execute a named action to test it: 1.
Navigate to the named action in the catalog.
2. Click the Execute link.
3.
Respond to any request for more information or any confirmation prompt that is displayed.
Tip: To replace the reference to the current action with the saved
action, then select the Replace current action with a reference to the saved action
box.
Note: A successful invocation message indicates only that the action
itself ran successfully. It does not indicate that the process or operation that the action represents ran successfully.
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11
Using KPIs and KPI Watchlists 11-1
11
Using KPIs and KPI Watchlists
This chapter explains Key Performance Indicators KPIs and KPI watchlists and how to create and use them. It contains the following topics:
■
What Are KPIs?
■
How Are KPIs Evaluated?
■
How Can I Use KPIs?
■
What Are Dimensions and Pinned Dimension Values?
■
Opening KPIs for Editing
■
Creating or Editing KPIs
■
Generating an Analysis from a KPI
■
Creating an Agent From a KPI
■
Contacting the Business Owner of a KPI
■
About Overriding the Status of a KPI
■
About Adding Comments to a KPI
■
What Are KPI Watchlists?
■
Creating or Editing KPI Watchlists
What Are KPIs?
KPIs are measurements that define and track specific business goals and objectives that often roll up into larger organizational strategies that require monitoring,
improvement, and evaluation. KPIs have measurable values that usually vary with time, have targets to determine a score and performance status, include dimensions to
allow for more specific analysis, and can be compared over time for trending purposes and to identify performance patterns.
See the following list of specific uses for KPIs in Oracle BI EE:
■
Evaluate metrics against their targets and alert the appropriate users through agents when targets are not met.
■
Create an analysis from a KPI and add that analysis to a dashboard. An analysis that is created from a KPI can allow the user to drill into different levels of details
based on the KPI’s dimensions.
For example, to a KPI called Product Sales, you can add the Region and Fiscal Time dimensions to view Product Sales figures by region and time periods such as
financial quarters. This addition enables you to gather multi-dimensional subsets
11-2 Oracle Fusion Middleware Users Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
of data and evaluate the performance of objectives and initiatives that the KPI measures against the different target values of the dimensional metrics.
■
In Oracle Scorecard and Strategy Management, use KPIs to evaluate and monitor the performance of the objectives that form the strategy and the initiatives tasks
or projects that are needed to meet your objectives. For information about scorecards and how to create them, see
Chapter 12, Scorecarding. For example, use KPIs for Average Customer Satisfaction Survey Score and
Repeat Orders to measure the performance of an Improved Customer Satisfaction objective.
How Are KPIs Evaluated?
A KPI’s status and score are determined by comparing its actual value against the thresholds that you define. The performance status of a KPI is represented by the
status icon that you assign to each range.
For example, for a product sales KPI in which high values are desirable, you can define the ranges that are described in
Table 11–1 . Thresholds are the numeric values
that separate the ranges.
How Can I Use KPIs?
KPIs are created with the KPI Editor, which can be accessed as a standalone editor or within the
Scorecard editor . After you create and save KPIs, you can use them in the
following ways:
■
Building blocks of scorecards
— You can create and assign KPIs to measure the progress and performance of your organization’s strategies. Within a scorecard,
you can define the objectives goals such as Decreased Operational Costs and initiatives processes or tasks such as Form Cost Minimization Team to which
you assign KPIs to measure progress and performance. For information about objectives, see
What Are Objectives? . For information about initiatives, see
What Are Initiatives?
■
As an analysis
— You can generate an analysis from a KPI. When you do so, Oracle BI EE saves the analysis to the catalog. You can include the analysis on a
dashboard or as a related document in a scorecard, KPI watchlist, or KPI. Any dimension values that you pinned to the KPI before you output it as an analysis
are included in the analysis. Drill-down is available on the analysis. Oracle BI EE refreshes the data for the analysis every time a user opens the analysis.
Table 11–1 Sample Evaluation
Evaluation Range Rule Threshold
Name Status Icon
Values exceeding 125 125 x indicate ideal performance
126 and above Ideal Blue square
Values between 100 and 125 100 x = 125 indicate good performance
125 Good
Green square Values between 80 and 100 80 x =
100 indicate acceptable performance 100
Acceptable Yellow square
Values between 50 and 80 50 x = 80 indicate a warning of poor
performance 80
Warning Light red square
Values less than 50 x = 50 indicate critical performance
50 and below Critical
Dark red square
Using KPIs and KPI Watchlists 11-3
■
Included in KPI watchlists — You can create a watchlist that contains a group of
KPIs or to present one KPI several times with dimension values that are pinned to it. After you save the watchlist, it is available as a catalog object that you can add
to dashboards or scorecards. When users access the watchlist, they can change the dimension values for the KPIs that are included in the watchlist.
■
Facilitate user interaction — If KPIs were added to a KPI watchlist or if they were
added to objectives or initiatives inside a scorecard, then you can post comments to a KPI and read and reply to other users’ comments. You can also contact the
KPI’s business owner with questions or comments about the KPI. And, if you are the business owner, you can override a KPI’s status.
■
Initiate actions — You can add an action link that when clicked in the KPI runs an
associated action. For example, if the performance of a KPI for Internal Spending is too high, indicating excessive spending, then you could create an action link that
when clicked, sends an email to the appropriate employees.
■
Trigger agents — You can use a KPI’s values, performance levels, and status to
trigger a condition that initiates an agent alert. For example, you can define an agent that notifies you when the value of a Internal Costs KPI exceeds a certain
dollar amount.
What Are Dimensions and Pinned Dimension Values?
Dimensions are categorizations of data, and the categorizations reflect how a business analyst wants to analyze data. When analysts say they want to see numbers by
something or over something, they are identifying the dimensions of the data. Common dimensions are geography, product, customer, and time.
For KPIs, you can select any attribute column from the subject area as a dimension. When you design the KPI, you can either pin a specific data value to one or more
dimensions for example, Region = Central, or you can specify that you want all or some dimension values pinned when the KPI is added to a watchlist or scorecard.
Pinning filters the data that the user sees, and after a value is pinned by the designer, the user cannot change the value.
When adding a KPI without a pre-pinned value to a watchlist, the designer can pin a specific value or specify a session or repository variable to set the dimension’s value. If
the designer does not pin a value to a dimension, then the KPI user can select a value at run time from the point of view area in either the KPI watchlist, from the scorecard
that contains the KPI, or from the variable prompt on a dashboard.
If a KPI with dimensions is output to an analysis, then the dimensions are displayed as columns and drills. If the dimension values are pinned, then the analysis is limited to
the data that is determined by the pinned values.
Opening KPIs for Editing
Use the following procedures to open a saved KPI in the KPI editor
. KPIs are stored in the catalog, but can be added to watchlists, scorecards, and dashboards. When you
edit and save a KPI, the changes propagate to wherever the KPI is displayed. For information about creating a KPI, see
Creating or Editing KPIs .
Opening KPIs in the Catalog
Use the following procedure to open a KPI in the catalog.
To open a KPI in the Catalog:
11-4 Oracle Fusion Middleware Users Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
1. In the global header, click Catalog. The
