Bookshelf v7.7: Overview of Siebel Intelligence Dashboards

Siebel Intelligence Dashboards provide personalized views of corporate and external information. A dashboard consists of one or more pages, which appear as tabs across the top of the dashboard. Pages can display anything that you can access or open with your Web browser, such as saved Siebel Analytics requests, alerts from Siebel Delivers, images, charts, tables, text, and links to Web sites and documents.

The kinds of content that a dashboard can contain are dashboard objects, content that is saved in the Siebel Analytics Web Catalog, and views of folders in the Web Catalog. Users with appropriate permissions can add content to a dashboard by dragging and dropping it from a selection pane onto the dashboard layout page, which consists of columns to align content, and sections inside of columns to hold content. The look of a dashboard, such as background colors and the size of text, is controlled by styles and skins.

Many of the features in Siebel Intelligence Dashboards are self-explanatory, and definitions and how-to information appear on each page. When more information is available than will fit on the page, a Help button appears near the upper right corner. Click the button to see more detailed information.

Dashboard creation is reserved for users with administrative responsibilities. Permission to modify dashboards (personal and shared) is granted to a broader range of users, as determined by a Siebel Analytics administrator. Users with the appropriate permissions and responsibilities can modify a dashboard.

Table 19 provides definitions for common terms in Siebel Intelligence Dashboards.

Table 19. Definitions for Common Terms in Siebel Intelligence Dashboards
Term	Definition
Columns	Columns are used to align content on a dashboard. (Sections within columns hold the actual content.) You can create as many columns on a dashboard page as you need. Every new dashboard page automatically contains one empty column with one empty section in it. The columns used in Siebel Intelligence Dashboards are not related to the columns used in Siebel Answers.
Dashboard Objects	Dashboard objects are items that are used only in a dashboard. Examples of dashboard objects are sections to hold content, navigation links, and embedded content appearing within a frame in a dashboard.
Folders	Folders are organizational constructs that hold content saved in the Web Catalog, such as requests created with Siebel Answers. A folder is similar to a UNIX directory, or a Microsoft Windows folder.
Pages	Pages contain the columns and sections that hold the content of a dashboard. Every dashboard has at least one page. In Siebel Intelligence Dashboards, pages are identified by tabs across the top of the dashboard. Multiple pages are used to organize content. For example, you might have one page to store results from Siebel Answers that you refer to every day, another that contains links to the Web sites of your suppliers, and one that links to your corporate intranet.
Results	Results, also called reports, are the output returned from the Siebel Analytics Server that matches the request criteria specified using Siebel Answers. The default format for viewing results in a dashboard is to show them in a table. (Results can also be shown in other formats, such as charts.) You can examine and analyze results, save or print them, or download them to a spreadsheet.
Sections	Sections appear in columns in the dashboard layout. They hold the content dragged and dropped from the selection pane, and are used to organize content within a column.
Skins	Skins control the way the Siebel Analytics Web interface appears, such as background colors, corporate logos, and the style sheets to use. Skins can be automatically assigned to users when they log on. Siebel Analytics administrators can customize the default Siebel Analytics skin and create new skins. For information about skins used in Siebel Analytics, see Siebel Analytics Web Administration Guide.
Styles	Styles control how dashboards and results are formatted for display, such as the color of text and links, the font and size of text, the borders in tables, the colors and attributes of charts, and so on. Styles are organized into folders that contain Cascading Style Sheets (files with a .css extension), images, and chart templates. Siebel Analytics Web administrators can customize style sheets and create new style sheets. Users can override some elements in the style sheets, such as table borders and text size, when formatting results in Siebel Answers. For information about styles used in Siebel Analytics, see Siebel Analytics Web Administration Guide.
Web Catalog	The Siebel Analytics Web Catalog stores content created with Siebel Answers and Siebel Intelligence Dashboards. Content is organized into folders that are either shared or personal. Types of content that can be stored in the Web Catalog include requests created with Siebel Answers, filters that are applied to results, settings for Siebel Delivers, and information about dashboards. For more information about the Web Catalog, see Siebel Analytics Web Administration Guide.

For information about administering permissions for dashboards, see Siebel Analytics Web Administration Guide. For information about default permissions and responsibilities for users of Siebel Analytics applications, see Siebel Analytics Installation and Configuration Guide.

NOTE: When you use a Siebel operational application, dashboard integration is done using Siebel applications. For information, see Siebel Analytics Installation and Configuration Guide.