Lighting up “Fermidash” – Fermilab’s Executive Dashboard

NLIT

2012

Agenda• Explain the background, purpose, and objectives related

to the Executive Dashboard (“FermiDash”)• Review a high level overview of the architecture and

tools being used• Describe the approach for completing the project• Highlight the dashboard features and functions• Share lessons learned• Present the future phases and what they will deliver

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About “FermiDash”• Background

• Fermi Research Alliance (FRA), Fermilab’s prime contractor, committed to providing an Executive Dashboard (“FermiDash”) in its contract with the Department of Energy.  Over the past year, a team of Fermilab’s staff and contractors implemented the first phase of FermiDash.

• Purpose• The purpose of this project is to display crucial information in a

clear and concise manner for making key decisions. The primary audience is Fermilab’s senior management, the Department of Energy, and the FRA board.

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About “FermiDash”• Objectives

• To meet the contractual obligation for a management decision dashboard. We met this object ive by completing Phase 1 by the end of CY 2011

• To provide a visualization of the lab’s key performance indicators (KPIs). This is an ongoing process, but there is much progress and momentum

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Architecture• Primarily based on Microsoft (MS) Platforms• MS SharePoint Enterprise Edition

• PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer• Excel Services• Visio Services• Integrated Reporting Services• Site Collections to aggregate dashboards and KPIs into

“FermiDash”

• MS SQLServer Database• Provides data storage for cubes and data marts• SQLServer Reporting Services (SSRS) – Displays data via

reports and KPIs• SQLServer Integration Services – Moves data from source data

stores to data mart for use in Dashboards, KPIs, and Reports• SQLServer Analysis Services(SSAS) - Delivers online

analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining functionality

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Architecture• A wide array of back end data stores that contain source

data• Oracle databases of Financial, HR, Safety data• SharePoint lists containing data that was not already available

in databases• Excel spreadsheets that had been used prior to the Dashboard

being available• Web Pages

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Approach• Wanted to leverage existing SharePoint and SQL Server

platforms• Bring in business intelligence experts with Microsoft

specific skill sets to accelerate the project• Provide a solid infrastructure• Work on “low-hanging fruit” dashboards. Meaning

dashboards that can be derived from existing data sources and/or manually created reports.

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There are eleven management system areas

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1. Business Operations

2. Communications

3. Corporate Governance

4. Engineering

5. ES&H

6. Finance

7. Information Technology

8. Performance Planning

9. Quality

10. Science

11. Stakeholder Relations

FermiDash – Welcome Page

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FermiDash – Business Operations (1)

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Fermidash – Bus. Ops. – HR - Balanced Score Card(1.1)

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FermiDash – Communications (2)

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FermiDash – Corporate Governance (3)

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FermiDash – Engineering (4)

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FermiDash – ES&H (5)

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FermiDash – ES&H – Traffic (5.1)

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FermiDash – Finance (6)

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FermiDash – Information Technology (7)

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FermiDash – Performance Planning (8)

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FermiDash – Quality (9)

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FermiDash – Science (10)

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Fermilab – Science – Detector Performance (10.1)

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FermiDash – Stakeholder Relations (11)

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“Baseball Card” Display• These are used to provide a visual menu to the various

dashboards available. They make finding information quicker and easier.

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Lessons Learned• Leveraging a full service consulting firm seems to

provide greater value and less risk than relying on a single expert

• Reports that appear to have been generated based on existing data, may not be based on the data, and/or may need to have extra processing to achieve desired format or message.

• Needed to provide structure to capture and store data that was only available in documents, presentations, or spreadsheets.

• Data owners needed reassurance that providing the data and support for the system was not going to come back to haunt them.

• Changing peoples frame of reference from Reports to Dashboards can differ based on each person.

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Future Direction• More Automation• Better systems for collection, storing data• Migrate reports and basic dashboards to dashboards

using more advanced dashboard capabilities• Provide more granular levels of role based security• Add more content (dashboards, KPIs, Reports, etc.)• Provide ability to analyze data• Provide data, KPIs, reports to lower level managers

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Conclusion

Questions

Comments

Discussion

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