Work with Business Indicators

Business indicators provide a way to capture and display business metrics specific to your process. You designate selected data objects as business indicators, then plot them in business analytics dashboards. For example, for a sales quotation application, you might track key values that end users enter into a form, such as opportunity amount and region, then plot them in a chart displaying total opportunity amount by region.

The following image shows sample business indicators defined for an application:

Description of the illustration business-indicators-composer.png

You can create the following types of business indicators. Consider a data object’s type when creating its business indicator.

• Dimension indicators are available to plot as the X axis in charts, as a series and a group. Available dimension types include string, integer, decimal, Boolean, or date/time.

• Measure indicators are available to plot as the Y axis in charts, along with a function such as COUNT, SUM or AVG. They must be numeric (integer or decimal). You can set ranges for your numeric measure indicators.

• Attribute indicators are available to plot as filters in charts. Available attribute types include string, integer, decimal, Boolean, or date/time.

Note:

The X axis, the Y axis and the filters are available in the business analytics section in Dashboards.

After activating the application, you can select business indicators to plot charts or graphs in Dashboards using business analytics options as described in Create and View Business Analytics Dashboards. You must be assigned the Process Owner role, the Administrator role, or the Analytics Viewer role to create and view business analytics in Dashboards. Business analytics options are available in production deployments.

The following image shows a chart plotted using the business indicators defined in the application.

Description of the illustration dashboard-visualization1.png

Create Business Indicators

You can create business indicators to capture key metrics for use in custom visualizations, as described in Creating and Viewing Business Analytics Dashboard. You can create them using the Indicators pane or using data objects options in the process editor.

To create a business indicator from the Indicators pane:

1. Go to the Application Home tab and select Indicators on the left pane.
   
   Description of the illustration business-indicator-home-page.png
   
2. Click Create and select a business indicator type to add.
   • Attribute: acts as a filter
   • Dimension: acts as the X axis
   • Measure: acts as the Y axis

   Note:

   The X axis, the Y axis and the filters are available in the business analytics section in Dashboards.
3. Complete fields in the Attribute, Dimension, or Measure dialog box. In addition to entering a name for the indicator that will display in charts, identify the data object whose value will be captured.

Create Business Indicators from the Process Editor

To add business indicators from the process editor:

1. Go to the Application Home tab, click Processes on the left pane, and then select a process.
2. On the process editor, click Data Objects.
3. In the Data Objects dialog box, expand the process and select a data object. Click Indicator and select a business indicator type to add.
4. Select the business indicator type, and enter a name (without spaces) in the Name field for the indicator, or leave the default name, and then click OK. The Type, Process, and Data Object fields are filled in by default. Click Close to close the data object dialog.

Deploy and Test the Indicators

To deploy and test the business indicators in runtime:

1. Deploy the application.
   You must deploy the application to a production environment to create business analytics reports. Business analytics options aren’t available in test deployments.
2. Run multiple process instances defined in your application.
3. Sign in as an administrator or process owner or the analytics viewer.
4. Click Dashboards in the navigation pane, then select the Business Analytics tab.
5. Create charts or graphs that use the business indicators, as described in Create and View Business Analytics Dashboards.

Add Dimension Business Indicators

Create dimension indicators to identify data objects whose values you want to display in business analytics dashboards.

Use dimension-type business indicators to capture values that can be grouped for display. Dimension indicators are plotted as the X axis in business analytics charts. You apply them as a series and a group in charts. You can also define ranges for numeric dimensions with continuous values.

1. In the Dimension dialog box, enter a name (without spaces) in the Name field for the indicator, or leave the default name. This name displays in charts and graphs, appended with BI.
   The Type and the Process gets selected by default. Unless the application contains multiple processes, only one process is available.
2. In the Data Object field, browse and select the object whose data you want to capture in the indicator, and click OK. Note that only when you select the data objects, the type gets displayed.
3. Optionally, define range entries for a dimension indicator with a type of decimal or integer.
   For example, for a dimension indicator that displays loan amounts, you might create multiple ranges such as the following:

   Name	StartPoint	Range
   High	50,000	>=50,000
   Medium	25,000	25,000 … 50,000
   Low	0	0 … 25,000

4. Deploy and test indicators, as described in Create Business Indicators.

Add Measure Business Indicators

Create measure indicators to identify numeric data objects whose values you want to display in business analytics dashboards.

Use measure-type business indicators to capture numeric values that can be measured, such as amounts or counts in a loan approval process. Measure indicators are plotted as the Y axis in business analytics charts. You apply standard aggregation functions to them, such as COUNT, SUM, and AVG. They must be integers or decimals.

1. In the Measure dialog box, enter a name (without spaces) in the Name field for the indicator, or leave the default name. This name displays in charts and graphs, appended with BI.
   The Type and the Process gets selected by default. Unless the application contains multiple processes, only one process is available.
2. In the Data Object field, browse and select the object whose data you want to capture in the indicator, and click OK. Note that only when you select the data objects, the type gets displayed.
3. Deploy and test indicators, as described in Create Business Indicators.

Add Attribute Business Indicators

Create attribute indicators to identify data objects whose values you want to use as filters in business analytics dashboards.

Use attribute-type business indicators to capture values that aren’t suited as measure or dimension indicators, such as transaction IDs. You can use them to filter information or refer to other information in the process.

1. In the Attribute dialog box, enter a name (without spaces) in the Name field for the indicator, or leave the default name. This name displays in charts and graphs, appended with BI.
   The Type and the Process gets selected by default. Unless the application contains multiple processes, only one process is available.
2. In the Data Object field, browse and select the object whose data you want to capture in the indicator, and click OK. Note that only when you select the data objects, the type gets displayed.
3. Deploy and test indicators, as described in Create Business Indicators.