Sharepoint Dashboard

A sharepoint dashboard is a collection of data and information published using microsoft sharepoint. Microsoft sharepoint is software that allows companies to create collaboration and information portals leveraging Microsoft tools like Excel, Powerpoint and Word. A sharepoint dashboard can also be leveraged by buisness intelligence tools like EMANIO's Context! to publish charts and reports to sharepoint users.

Sharepoint Dashboard Variations

There are a number of different types of sharepoint dashboards; a sharepoint project dashboard could be used to track the status of a project and as a collection point for project related data. A sharepoint services dashboard on the other hand might be used to collect information on company services like IT projects etc. Regardless of the sharepoint dashboard implemented the system will require the use of a sharepoint server in order to publish the sharepoint dashboard to a broad audience.

Business Intelligence and Sharepoint Dashboard

A sharepoint dashboard can be used as an information portal, a collection of documents and data that business users see and interact with daily. To this extent the sharepoint dashboard is a collection repository and a presentation engine for a business intelligence platform. While it is possible to use sharepoint dashboard as a BI tool with Microsoft products the process is time consuming and relatively difficult. New business intelligence platforms like EMANIO Context!, however, are making using a sharepoint dashboard as a BI tool easier and significantly more flexible. Because a sharepoint dashboard can contain data collected using web services, if the BI platform can publish charts and reports with web services, the sharepoint dashboard portal can be used to display them.

Advantages of a Sharepoint Dashboard

One of the single biggest advantages of a sharepoint dashboard is affordability. The software required to create a sharepoint dashboard is in fact given away for free with specific versions of MS SQL Server. This has allowed the sharepoint dashboard to become an easy to deploy, easy to use portal software especially in departmental deployments and in mid-sized organizations. The sharepoint dashboard is quickly becoming a very popular tool replacing legacy "intranets" or other antiquated tools for portal design that may no longer suit the company.

Disadvantages of a Sharepoint Dashboard

While the sharepoint dashboard offers a number of advantages, it also comes with significant drawbacks, especially for BI. The biggest challenge of using a sharepoint dashboard for business intelligence is that creating charts and publishing the in a sharepoint dashboard is not very intuitive or easy. This is because Microsoft's business intelligence tools have not yet been integrated with the sharepoint dashboard and force users to work outside the system in a multitude of software products.