This entry is part of our Feature Review Series. These short, to the point blogs strive to provide a quick snapshot of information to a user looking for a quick overview of a feature, how it’s managed or configured, some insight into how a business / organization would use it, and provide links to resources or tutorials for a deeper dive.
In an earlier Feature Review blog we touch on “Dataverse Dashboards.” These are great, but Interactive Dashboards bring a whole new level of value to the concept of a Dashboard.
Let’s dive in to learn a bit about what these are all about!
What Is An Interactive Dashboard?
It’s essentially what it sounds like – a dashboard that a user can interact with.
But that begs the question – what’s the big deal, we can drill down on an old school dashboard too? Interactive Dashboards bring a different kind of intractability.
Essentially, the draw here is as you select (read: interact) with the graphs/tags, all of the data within the other components will change. It’s like the aforementioned drill down feature, but a bit more powerful given the other streams of data are updated.
Here is the first view from when I originally opened up my dashboard. (Note the difference on these two screens below.)
The second is when I clicked the “High” in the Case by Priority chart. (Note the other values have all changed form the first view.)
Single Stream vs. Multi-Stream Dashboards
There are two flavors here: Single and Multi-stream.
A Single-Stream dashboard contains the data stream that all of the graphs and tiles are based upon. Have a look at the previous image.
A Multi-Stream dashboard will display the stream of data under a specific interactive component (chart or tags). On a multi-stream dashboard you are presented with multiple data sets, and the data within the related stream will change based on how you interact with the component above it.
At time of writing there are four layout options when creating a new interactive dashboard. You can learn more here.
Global and Timeframe Filtering
Users have the ability to apply filters to the data as well.
You can add filters in two ways using the global filter and the timeframe filter.
Global Filter
The Global filter refers to a fly out pane that can be viewed by clicking “View Global Filter” in the command bar of the dashboard, shown here (in the image below it shows “Hide Global Filter” because it’s currently displayed – if this is clicked, the fly out below disappears until it’s clicked again):
Timeframe Filter
The Timeframe filter refers to the ability to filter based on period of time in the upper right of the dashboard, as shown below:
Filter columns must be configured to appear in the global filter and allow for sorting in the interactive dashboard experience.
These settings are found at the field level, as shown here:
Security Controls
Interactive Dashboards can be aligned with specific security roles, ensuring complete control over which users do and do not see the dashboard. This can be managed in the solution itself within the Maker Portal (make.powerapps.com). Once you select the dashboard you wish to set security roles against, locate the “Enable Security Roles” option. Learn more about this here.
Team Use Cases for Interactive Dashboards
How would these be useful? Oh the ways!
One of the most common uses we encounter for dashboards are when customer service teams strive to find efficiencies for their agents who manage many cases at once.
Interactive dashboards allow users to operate from a dashboard to find the cases they need to be dealing with next by filtering the lists by priority, last contacted date, status, or a myriad of other options.
Furthermore, managers can quickly drill in and out of cases to see overall data about the team and their work, quickly identifying cases that are presenting issues for the team so they can lend support.
To pivot in a different direction, sales teams can use the interactive dashboard experience to review Opportunities and quickly identify the ones that are high priority and need to be fostered along the purchase path. Like the CSR example above, sales managers can use this information to see which opportunities the team is nearing completion on, and see a snapshot of opportunities by probability.
The real key to this experience is the ability to drill in and out of the data to see which records align with the various selections and charts on screen.
In a day and age where time is of the utmost value, dashboards add yet another tool in the chest to be used on a daily basis at your company.
Curious about leveraging this feature in your business but not sure where to start? Get in touch with C5 Insight today by calling 704-895-2500 or Contact Us online.
