Manthan
Services, an India-based developer, noticed the opportunity to build on
the dashboard and business information systems it was providing
corporate customers and developed a research-friendly package called Qi
(as in “chi” or energy). An online platform for creating advanced
dashboards based on survey data, Qi delivers an online environment for
data exploration, review and collaboration. It is a tool for building
dashboards and an environment in which end-users can then access those
dashboards, share, collaborate and even, if allowed to, create their own
analyses and dashboards.
Dashboards tend to be among the most advanced and also
the most treacherous of deliverables for research companies to provide.
Tucked away at the end of an RFP, an innocuous-sounding request for
“dashboard-style reporting for managers and team leaders across the
enterprise, with drill-down capabilities for self-service problem
solving” will almost certainly mean something vastly more sprawling and
costly to provide than anyone imagined.
Dashboard delivery can be a trap for the unwary. Many an
online dashboard has become the constantly-leaking plughole in the
project budget through which profits keep draining away.
What makes them difficult to control is they are usually
tackled as custom developments, built using tools developed for
corporate database systems and business intelligence (BI) tools. Any
custom development is both costly and unpredictable and research
companies often don’t have the skills in-house to manage a software
development project effectively. Worse than that, survey data is
difficult to handle with these BI tools. They aren’t designed to
function smoothly with monthly waves of data, with new questions added
or weighting or percentages that need to add to a constant respondent
base. It’s not just a matter of generating the number of records
returned from a SQL query.
It is very smart software that aims to find the middle
ground between typical BI dashboard tools like SAP Crystal Dashboard
Design (the new name for Xcelsius) and Tableau, where the possibilities
are infinite, given enough time and money, and the fairly restrictive
kinds of online dashboard creation capabilities found in some of the
more up-to-date MR analysis tools. If you really want to produce any
kind of dashboard, or have a client that is highly prescriptive about
presentation, then you may find Qi is just not flexible enough.
On the other hand, you may be able to use the horizons
as a useful limiting factor in what you do provide to your client, as it
is likely to do 99 percent of what they need – just not necessarily in
the first way they thought of it. For the real advantage of using this
product is that you really can produce portals packed with data with
relatively little effort and no programming expertise required.
Furthermore, when you add new waves of data, all of their derivative
reports will be updated too.
There are also built-in modules within the Qi
environment to set up different kinds of dashboards or portals for
certain applications. There is one for employee research, for example,
and another for mystery shopping, with reporting at an individual case
level. In addition, there are models provided for performance
management, scorecarding and benchmarking. There is also a tool for
building an organization hierarchy and this can then ensure each user is
given the relevant view of the data when they log in. These can be tied
to “group filters" which reflect the organization’s hierarchical
structure in the actual data that get displayed.
There is an integrated alerts publisher and a user’s
portals can be configured with an alerts area or tab. You then define
the exceptions or thresholds where alerts should be generated. These are
then recalculated for each individual user’s view of the data so they
are only alerted on what is relevant to them.
Elegant concepts
There are some very elegant concepts at the
heart of Qi which help to give your work shape. Everything you create is
based on one of three “assets” based on data: charts, dashboards and
tables. Dashboards come in a variety of shapes with placeholders for you
to populate with charts or tables. There is also the concept of a
“portlet,” which can house a report, an alert, a chart, favorites or
messages. You can then arrange your portlets into pages or publish them
on their own.
There is a reasonable though not especially exotic
selection of charts – pretty much what you might find in Excel. There
are, however, some nice multidimensional bubble charts.
Behind the scenes is a SQL Server database. It can be
loaded with survey data using the survey metadata provided by either
SPSS or Triple-S. If you want to work with other kinds of data – which
is possible – you may need to get help from Manthan Services in setting
up an appropriate database schema, however, and also help with the
database load process.
A particular snare to be found in many RFPs asking for
dashboards is the request for drill-down capabilities. There is often an
assumption that deciding what to drill down to is a trivial, automatic
choice. It is not – there is often more than one level of detail a user
is likely to want to see when a particular KPI turns red or a trend
chart shows a worrying dip. In Qi, you have two tools to satisfy this: a
drill-down tool that lets the user trace the antecedents or components
of any item of data and a drill-across tool which lets you move up and
across in your hierarchy of reporting.
End users are provided with a lot of options out of the
box to personalize their dashboards – they can create favorites, apply
sticky notes, customize the view of the data, create their own portlets
(if you allow this) and republish or share these with others. It can
make for a highly collaborative environment both within the enterprise,
and equally, between enterprise and research agency.
Overall, this is an industrial-strength platform for
research companies to use to create portals and dashboard systems with a
dizzying array of functionality to pick from. The documentation could
be made a lot more comprehensive – it is cryptic in places and tends to
gloss over some quite advanced capabilities. I also experienced some
issues viewing the portals I was given access to on any browser on IE8
or IE9, though Manthan claims it works with different browsers and
tablets.
Same set of tools
Max Zeller is head of the retail insights
division for a large global research company in Europe. (His name has
been changed at the request of his employer.) His division introduced a
white-label version of Qi last year, which it presents to its customers
as one of its own branded services. “Many of our clients today require
online reporting,” he says. “As a global company we wanted to offer the
same set of tools to all clients and also leverage on the one investment
across all our companies and for most of our studies. We also wanted
something that you could implement quite quickly locally, to create
portals and dashboards, which did not require any programming or special
skills to run it. Also we wanted a tool that both researchers and users
could modify and even create their own views or dashboards for
themselves.
“We looked at many different products but eventually
chose one from Manthan Services. On all criteria they were on top and
they understood market research, which was very important.”
Though the software is very extensive, with quite a lot
to learn, he says, in practice his firm’s research and DP teams have
found it well within their capabilities to deploy it. “The people in
contact with the client – the project managers supported by DP staff –
do the technical and setup work. You need someone in the team that
champions the product who can translate the requirements of the client
in terms of how the software is going to work. Then it can be more
junior DP people who do the implementation, because it is all
menu-driven – which gives them a new opportunity as well.”
Zeller estimates that setting up a new portal for a
client demonstration, comprising 25 different charts and allowing
different levels of access, can be achieved in a day or so by his local
teams – a pace that was new for the company. “Before this we had to go
though IT and the process was not just longer but so much more
expensive. It would have taken several days to a week with what we had
before. We need to be as lean, as quick and as close to the client as
possible – and that’s exactly what we have here. You can give the specs
from the client directly to the team – you don’t really have to
translate the requirements into a technical specification and that is
what saves the time and delay.”
Zeller strongly advises allowing adequate time to learn
to use the software, however. “This is not something you can jump into
in an hour – it does take two intensive days of training. But overall, I
think the trade-off between functionality and ease of use is good. Once
you are accustomed to the software it is easy and productive to use.”
He also stresses that everyone, especially those setting
client expectations, must be aware that this is a packaged solution. In
other words, not all client requests may be achievable. “[When speaking
with clients] you need to be aware of what you can and can’t do. Even
though it is very flexible, it is working to a standardized framework.
There are many things you find you have not thought of first and when
you try, you discover there is a way to do it. But it is not fully
customizable so there are some areas you cannot change.”
However, in these cost-conscious times, some imposed
limits can be an advantage, as Zeller points out: “It is very difficult
for research companies to earn money from these portals if what you are
doing fully customized.”
Overall, he concludes, “We are quite happy with this
software – and I am working with people who have a lot of experience. We
think it is a good solution.” more information at visit Qi Macros.
By : Tim Macer
Editor : Repost
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