By David Chernicoff
TechNet Virtual Lab: Microsoft Office Performance Point Server 2007: Excel Dashboards is one of a series of “Virtual labs” designed to walk the user through the actual process of using Performance Point Server tools, in this case the Dashboard Designer, to build tools linking to Excel data.
These labs don’t give you an overview of the components that you will be working with; they jump right into actually using the component tools directly from the Designer Workspace. The Excel Dashboard creation task is very straightforward. Starting with creating the Excel 2007 Data source, the lab works through creating the Excel 2007 Scorecard and editing your existing Scorecard, each as its own exercise in the accompanying lab manual, using the actual Dashboard Designer tools for these processes.
While there are some wizards involved at different points in the process, using the lab manual is essential to getting the most from the lab and making sure you reach the necessary points in the lab to move onto the next step. You can open a PDF version of the lab manual or work with the manual that appears on the right side of the virtual console. I found that the lab manual download for this lab was corrupted, but that doesn’t make the lab unusable. The manual that appears in the task pane on the right side of the screen is sufficient to work through this lab.
The lab only creates very simple dashboards and barely touches on the surface of what can be done with dashboards and the Performance Point Server. It does give the user a good hands-on introduction to the administrator in using the Dashboard Designer to develop dashboard applications that can deliver real and useful data to them that they can use in their daily routine.
Five quick report types can be added to the dashboard you’ve created, along with a selection of custom reports and web pages. These reports can make it possible to see, at a glance, the data you’ve designed the Dashboard to report on.
The information presented in TechNet Virtual Lab: Microsoft Office Performance Point Server 2007: Excel Dashboards is very specific to a very simple, basic task. It makes an excellent starting point for the administrator looking for tools that can give them easier access to data that is stored in Excel data files.
TIP: If you don't have Adobe Acrobat installed on the computer the lab is being run from, you can click on the Internet Explorer icon in the manual task pane to download an HTML version of the lab manual.