The following sections include information about WebSphere® Business Monitor dashboard
views, and how they can be used for business performance monitoring.
Business monitoring concepts
Business measures, metrics, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and business measures models are key concepts to model, monitor, analyze, and improve the performance of your business.
Dashboards and views
Dashboards and views are components that present information to monitor and manage business operations and systems.
Dashboards portal application
Upon installing the Dashboard Client component by the WebSphere Business Monitor Launchpad, a new portlet application named WebSphere Business Monitor v6.0 - Dashboard Client Concrete Application is added to the WebSphere Portal portlet applications list. This application is the container of several portlets so that each portlet in the application represents a specific WebSphere Business Monitor dashboard view.
Dashboards access control
As you monitor the performance of your organization, ensuring the security and integrity of the dashboards and views is paramount. Using the security features in WebSphere Portal, the dashboard administrator can control users' access to and interaction with dashboards and views.
View modes
Dashboard views are available in three modes: configure, edit, and view. Users can prepare, change, and use dashboards to best suit their needs.
Cooperative views
Views are cooperative when they can interact with each other or be updated, based on an action done in one view. The views become cooperative when a wire (connection) is created between a source view and a target view, using the WebSphere Portal administrative capabilities.
Globalization considerations
The visual appearance of the dashboards represents the national and cultural differences of its users. The design of WebSphere Business Monitor dashboard views addresses such differences as language, calendar, and time in different countries and regions, and supports organizations that work in multicultural environments.
Administering dashboards and views
Dashboards and views are the components of WebSphere Business Monitor that businesses use to monitor their processes. Administering dashboards and views includes creating, configuring, and managing them to suit the particular needs of a business.
Monitoring KPIs with Scorecards view
On the Scorecards view, you can select the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to display on the view, and you can customize the perspectives to suit your needs.
Monitoring KPIs with Gauges view
On the Gauges view, you can select the KPIs to display on the view, and you can change the visual appearance of the view.
Monitoring business measures with Reports view
You can modify the Reports view to select the business measures and the report intervals to display on the view. You can also change other settings on this view.
Monitoring business measures with Dimensions view
On the Dimensions view, you can select the dimensions to display in the view, change the layout of the dimensions, and change other configuration settings.
Managing alerts with Alerts view
You can configure the Alerts view to select alert properties, like colors, refresh rate, and alerts per page.
Retrieving organization structure from user registry
On the Organizations view, you can retrieve and display employees by name, department , and organization. You configure the view to access a user registry so that you can retrieve employee names.
Exporting actual values
You can export the averages of values of processes that were calculated in a business measures model. They are saved in an XML file for import into WebSphere Business Modeler.
Tutorials
The tutorials included in IBM® WebSphere Business Monitor are designed to introduce you to the basic functions and capabilities available to you from the WebSphere Business Monitor dashboards and to show how you can quickly build dashboards with views that can help you to streamline your business.