I originally wrote this during the 2016 Summer Games in Rio, but now that the 2022 Winter Games have rolled around I figured I'd dust it off.
The 2016 Summer Games are here and for the next two weeks the world will be focused on Rio. It got me thinking "What is it that people love about the Games?" If you google that question you'll get responses like patriotism, a sense of belonging, exposure to different events and the compelling back stories of the athletes who've committed the entire lives for this one single moment.
For most of us, we tune in for those singular moments and then return to our lives and forget about the Games for 4 years until they roll around again.
In the business world different events and singular moments present themselves on a more regular basis and in the data driven world that we live having real time access to the necessary information to react to those events is crucial.
Unfortunately, for many of us that access doesn't always exist.
How many of you have ever had to deal with this scenario in the workplace?
"Hey Dan, it's me Joe in the Business Unit. I really like this report you guys have out there I just need something a little bit different. I really could use X instead of Y, and A instead of B, can you help me out?"
Dan's response. "Sure I can help you out. I got about 10 things in my queue but I'll get to it"
Hours, days, weeks pass depending on the organization and Dan finally gets to that request. He probably creates a brand new report that he now has to maintain along with the hundreds, if not thousands of other "one-offs", and then he calls Joe in the Business back and asks "Hey, remember that report you needed?"
Joe's response — "Um, ah, Oh yeah, thanks but I don't need that anymore".
The moment had passed and the opportunity to make a more informed decision was gone.
This is known as "telephone ad hoc" and it exists in most organizations.
At ServiceNow we've added some additional capabilities that eliminate a good portion of the "telephone ad hoc" that exists in organizations today.
The first is Interactive Filters which allow you to filter one or more report widgets on a homepage or dashboard without going into the report directly.
Let's look at how this works using some data I found on the Summer medalists from 1896 to 2008.
We have the number of medals won broken down by country. But let's say someone asks — "Can you tell me which countries have the most medals in women's croquet, tug of war, and table tennis, since the year 2000?"
The business user can now ask and answer that question directly from this screen by using the interactive filters that have been configured on the right hand side.
No need to pick up the phone and call anyone, no need to create yet another report or chart that has to be maintained and managed.
Filters are one thing. But let's say you don't want to look at this medal count information by country. You want to get a completely different breakdown of information.
Guess what? The business user can do that on their own using the dynamic Group by and Sorted by controls below the visualization.
So if someone asks "Can you give me a breakdown of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals won by sport in 1908?" The users can say "Absolutely, give me 3 clicks".
Not just filtering the same content, but completely changing the content.
If you look at this one screen, the business user can not only ask but answer 1000's of questions without having to pick up the phone and call anyone and without having to learn a complex ad hoc reporting tool. The beauty of this is that although the business user now has a lot more flexibility to ask and answer 1000's of questions, behind the scenes IT has only had to create a single report. As a result of no longer dealing with all of those one off reporting requests the team is now freed up to focus on more strategic projects.
For purposes of this Summer Games Medal example we applied the controls to a single report. But you certainly can apply it to as many components on a dashboard or a homepage as you see fit(or your usability team will allow you too).
The Games come and go every 4 years. The demand for information coming from all over your organization is an everyday, all day event. If you can give the business user the ability to rise to the occasion on their own when their event or moment comes along — you'll be the one standing a top the podium with Gold around your neck.
Other Performance Analytics Blog Posts:
Go Beyond the Executive Dashboard with In-Platform Analytics
Performance Analytics "Date Night": Three Overlooked Capabilities
4 Comments
