Waterfall Chart
Box and Whiskers
Review of Xcelsius Present
by Jon Peltier
Peltier Technical Services, Inc., Copyright © 2008.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
Stephen Few reviews the recent Business Objects release of Xcelsius Present in Xcelsius Present – Fast Track to Nowhere. Like the Xcelsius business intelligence application we’ve come to love, it’s full of flash and glitz, and a remarkable inability to convey information. I’ll leave Stephen to describe Xcelsius Present and the unintelligent BI templates that Business Objects has offered. I’ll summarize with a sample Xcelsius graphic, the ubiquitous pie chart, with either two or three wedges, depending on the strength of the reflection/shadow effect. (I added the legend myself.)
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Posted: Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008 under Dashboards.
Comments: 7
Comments
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Comment from Tony
Time: Wednesday, September 3, 2008, 9:25 pm
I added a few comments to Stephen’s blog. It truly amazes me that they couldn’t or wouldn’t do better…
Comment from Jon Peltier
Time: Wednesday, September 3, 2008, 11:33 pm
Ever use Xcelsius? I did a project a few years back. A couple of things about Xcelsius dragged me down. First, not all Excel functions were recognized in the worksheet Xcelsius imported, so I had a hard time getting the relationships to work properly. Second, and more important, I found the Xcelsius editing interface very difficult to use. You could only edit or format one control at a time, you couldn’t copy or paste formats, there was no Repeat shortcut.
You can make just as effective a display in Excel, though it won’t be quite as flashy. Put some charts and tables, and some data entry cells onto the main sheet, and put your data and formulas on a second sheet. Use ActiveX sliders for immediate feedback, and use dynamic ranges for the charts.
The Flash object created by Xcelsius securely contains your data and algorithms (I guess), while Excel’s security is at most an inconvenience to a hacker. If you want your model on a web page, then Excel can’t handle that (maybe with the new Excel Services?). But for a solution distributed among desktops, Excel beats Xcelsius hands down.
Comment from Tony
Time: Thursday, September 4, 2008, 8:35 am
Jon, I think you hit on two key reasons why a product like Xcelsius is so popular even with its shortcomings. The two are: flashy and web enabled.
I have seen it firsthand where executives are wowed by the glitzy and flashy dashboard, which makes them think its a high end product specifically for dashboards. I agree that Excel can do many of the same things and do them better. Especially with some of the add-on products like MicroCharts.
Pingback from Xcelsius Present Dashboards Bashed
Time: Thursday, September 4, 2008, 2:08 pm
[...] the debate is going on about. Worse yet, as Excel guru and dashboard curmudgeon (just kidding!) Jon Peltier of PTS Blog shows in this pie chart example, the reflections in the slick graphics can interfere with data [...]
Comment from Colin Banfield
Time: Thursday, September 4, 2008, 11:44 pm
Jon, did you read Mike A’s Xcelsius book for Dummies? I think you guys are treading on some sensitive toes here :)
Comment from Jon Peltier
Time: Friday, September 5, 2008, 7:14 am
Colin -
Mike and I are going five rounds in the ring at the Dashboard & Visualization Boot Camp. Ringside seats are going fast.
Comment from Colin Banfield
Time: Friday, September 5, 2008, 9:14 am
Wish I could make it. Would love to rub shoulders with greats in the sport.
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