As Jason Himmelstein notes in a video tutorial titled PerformancePoint and SQL Server 2012 SP1, despite talk to the contrary, Microsoft® PerformancePoint is not “going away” anytime soon.
This video will be included in a specialized technical training set on the features of SharePoint 2013 for Business Intelligence (BI) applications.
On the topic of PerformancePoint, and needed improvements in its “user-friendly” presentation, Jason explains: ” . . . Microsoft hasn’t been able to replace the functionality delivered by PerformancePoint.” So, the product has been enhanced, with features, as Jason goes onto explain, designed to bring PerformancePoint ” . . . up to date with the rest of the stack. So we get theming here, we actually get the dashboard designer in the ribbon . . . “, etc.
Bottom line, PerformancePoint for the 2013 suite of Office applications is a much more user friendly application. One feature worth special noting is the “effective user name” option, which, per Jason, “makes life a lot simpler” as it is designed to render the Kerberos user authentication system more workable than was the case prior to this update, and less error prone. Finally, and of possible interest to Line of Business (LoB) units in particular, with PerformancePoint 2013 it is now possible to migrate dashboards from the server side, which will eliminate a lot of the manual process required with past versions of this product.
Significantly, Microsoft has improved support for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) environments. iPads can now be used to accomplish more with the PerformancePoint 2013 product. Jason explains it is now possible to ” . . . drill down into decision trees . . .” with an iPad, which should be a ” . . . huge piece of functionality for C level executives . . . ”
This video also includes a description of some other new features of this product.
As is often the case, not everything is perfect with the new version. For example, Dashboard Designer Authentication will likely be ” . . . a lot more trouble on the IT pros . . . ” than used to be case, as Jason Himmelstein explains. But, overall, the user interface for the 2013 version of this product is a lot easier to use.
© Rehmani Consulting, Inc. & Ira Michael Blonder, 2013 All Rights Reserved
