This documentation supports the 22.1 version of BMC Helix ITSM.To view an earlier version, select the version from the Product version menu.

Viewing KPI and ROI indicators in flashboards

A flashboard is a real-time visual monitoring tool that shows you the state of your service operations, warns you about potential problems, and collects and shows trend data. For information about using flashboards, see Adding charts to an application with flashboards in the AR System documentation. 

Related topics

Configuring-ROI-flashboards
Configuring-KPI-flashboards

KPI flashboards

KPI flashboards show how well the various business processes are performing against the application's key performance indicators (KPIs).

The KPI flashboard component collects the data according to the selected customer company. Each KPI flashboard contains two graphs that present the following types of information:

  • Relevant historical data—Use this graph to understand the trends. The most recent historical data displayed in the graph is collected from the previous month. Historical data goes back to a maximum of one year.

    Important

    Historical data only appears in a graph when that historical data exists in the database. Typically, new or recent installations, or upgrades, of the BMC Helix ITSM applications might not have historical data available.

  • Current, or real time data—Use this graph to understand how the business processes are performing at the moment. In most cases, the displayed real time data is collected from the first day of the current month to the current date. You can also view the individual request records that are reported by the real time flashboard graph. For example, you can view all of the incident or change request records that are reported by the Incident Backlog KPI or the Change Backlog KPI flashboard.

To open the KPI flashboards

  1. Select Functions > KPIs.
  2. From the Company list, select the customer company for which you want to view KPI flashboards.

  3. From the Navigation pane, select Process KPIs > KPIflashboardLink.
    KPIflashboardLink is the link to the specific KPI flashboard that you want to see.

    Tip

    To open and close this area of the Navigation pane, click the triangle beside the Process KPI text. 


ROI flashboards

ROI flashboards help you to determine the return on investment (ROI) that your organization achieves from the BMC Helix ITSM implementation. The ROI flashboard provides a platform to compare the baseline costs that were incurred prior to implementing BMC Helix ITSM with the actual costs incurred after installation. The BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk ROI flashboards provides the baseline incident request call-handling and the baseline CI outage costs, while the BMC Helix ITSM: Change Management ROI flashboard provides the cost of failed changes.

Important

In some cases, if the relative difference between the numbers reported in each graph is large enough, the smaller graph might not be displayed on the flashboard. However, a number representing the value of the smaller graph is always visible.

The information displayed in these graphs helps you to determine the ROI that your organization achieves from the BMC Helix ITSM implementation.

Important

To view the ROI console, you must have ROI Viewer or ROI Admin permissions.

The ROI data is collected by the ROI flashboard component according to the following specifications:

  • The customer company that you select in the ROI console
  • The date range that you specify in the ROI console
  • A set of parameters that are configured by someone with ROI admin permissions

For descriptions of what the configured parameters mean, see the BMC Helix ITSM: Service Desk and the BMC Helix ITSM: Change Management documentation.

To open the ROI flashboards

  1. On the IT Home page, select the Return on Investment > ROI Console link.
  2. From the lists at the top of the ROI Console, select the Company, Start Date, and End Date parameters.
    The year of the start date must be 2000 or later.
    • The companies that you see in the Company list are controlled by your access level. The remaining fields are completed automatically by the application and are configurable by the system administrator.
    • Although you can enter a date range that includes a day of the month, only the month and the year are considered and the day of the month is ignored. For purposes of system calculations, the start date is always assumed to be the first day of the selected month and year, and the end date is always assumed to be the last day of the selected month and year. For example, if you enter May 21, 2009 as the Start Date, and July 10, 2009 as the End Date, the system uses May 1, 2009 as the start date and July 31, 2009 as the end date.
  3. In the ROI navigation pane, select the ROI flashboard that you want to view.

    The links to ROI flashboards are based on the BMC Helix ITSM applications that are installed.


Viewing and displaying data

Controls that are available on the open flashboard help you to view and display the data. The actions that you can perform and the procedures that you use to perform them are described in the following table.

Important

Not all of the flashboards support all of these procedures.

Task

Procedure

View specific records that are used to create the real time flashboard data

For example, to view all of the change request records with the Status Reason field set to Successful.

  1. Click anywhere inside the real time graph.
  2. From the search results list, select the record that you want to view.

Zoom a graph

Use the zoom feature to enlarge a section of the graph. You can also use full screen mode to enlarge the entire graph. Closely view each category on the X axis. For example, if the X axis has 5 categories, you can use the zoom functionality to view only 2 categories. The maximum zoom is a single category. The zoom function is disabled for KPI reports with a single category.

  1. Click the arrow in the corner of the graph to expand the control panel.
  2. Click the magnifying glass icon, and then follow the onscreen instructions.

Hide or display the graph legend


  1. Click the arrow in the graph to expand the control panel.
  2. Clear or select the Show Legend check box to either hide or display the legend.

Change the graph style

For example, select a line graph, a bar graph, a stacked bar graph, or an area chart.

  1. Click the arrow in the graph to expand the bottom control panel.
  2. Click the double-arrow button, and then select the graph style you want.

Change the graph titles

Customize the title text that appears on the graphs to suit your organization's needs. You can change the titles of the X and Y axis.

  1. In the graph, click the Titles icon.
  2. Make the required changes to the label text.
  3. Click Apply.

Hide or display active variables

The flashboards use active variables to fetch the data that is used to populate the graphs. If you choose to hide a variable, the part of the graph that uses the variable is hidden. This option gives you the ability to further customize the flashboard's appearance.

  1. In the graph, click the Titles icon.
  2. Select or clear the active variables that you want to display or hide.

View a graph in full screen mode

  1. In the graph, click the Full Screen icon.
  2. When you finish viewing the graph in full screen mode, press ESC to restore regular display mode.

 

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