Analytics+ March 2025 update - Release 4.6

Experience smarter insights and advanced analytics in the newest release of Inforiver Analytics+! The Analytics+ Gantt chart is now fully loaded with features like the Gantt resource for tracking and allocation; support for web URLs for giving direct access to supporting links; and a wider range of timeline customizations providing better flexibility. Other highlights in this release include enhancements to multi-axis charts, KPI cards, and expanded conditional formatting options, bringing you more control over your data visualization.

Discover our latest range of planning, and analytics features that make Analytics+ the best data visualization solution in BI.

1. Gantt

1.1. Gantt resource

Gantt resource charts are an effective tool to track allocation and workload distribution. They visually represent which resources are assigned to a particular project and the allocation duration, making it easier to ensure a balanced workload and efficient resource utilization. Switch to resource allocation mode in Analytics+ by selecting Gantt resource from the chart type dropdown.

Gantt resource

1.2. Planned start and end date

Tracking the planned start and end dates is critical in maintaining deadlines and comparing the progress between the actual and planned dates. The Analytics+ Gantt chart now enables you to manage timelines better with support for planned start and end dates.

In this example, the yellow bar depicts the planned start and end timelines.

Planned start and end dates

1.3. Zoom levels

The Analytics+ Gantt supports detailed planning and tracking with the Zoom option. You can even customize the degree of zoom and tailor it to your data.

• Levels of zoom: You can configure up to 5 levels of zoom. For instance, the highest level could be Year/Qtr/Month and the lowest can be Day/Hour/Minute. In this example, we have defined 3 levels.

• Date/time format: Specify the date or time format. For instance, to display the full month name use "MMMM", for short month use "MMM".

• Interval: Define the interval between 2 consecutive time periods. For instance, to display every day in the timeline, set the interval to 1, or to display alternate months set the interval to 2. In this example, at the lowest level, the timeline will display alternate months, every 3rd week, and every 5th day.

Zoom levels option

Take a look at the Gantt chart rendered at each defined zoom level.

• Level 1: Get a high-level view and overall progress at year-quarter-month level.

• Level 2: Zoom in to track the progress at quarter-month-week level.

• Level 3: Detailed, low-level tracking on a month-week-day basis.

Year-Quarter-Month (level 1)

Quarter-Month-Week (level 2)

Month-Week-Day (level 3)

1.4. Web URL

Access to planning documents or resources is now at your fingertips with support for WebURLs. You can embed links to shared workspaces or ticketing systems like Jira directly in your Gantt. Remember to map the field containing URLs to the Gantt visual parameter. In the pivot data window, the URL field must be assigned to the Display Category bucket.

Web URLs in Gantt charts

1.5. Fill pattern for actual and planned bar

Choose from a large selection of fill styles like checkerboard/ grid/ diagonal lines to highlight your actual and planned bars.

Fill patterns for actual and planned bars

1.6. Search bar

Enable the new search option to locate tasks or sub-tasks faster. You can search for a particular keyword, and all occurrences will be highlighted.

Search bar

1.7. Week level timeline

With the Analytics+ Gantt, you can now track status at a weekly level. Enable the zoom button to zoom in and view progress at a more detailed level. The week number will be displayed in the timeline. Set the Zoom unit to 'Week'.

Week level project tracking

1.8. Track overall progress

Every project involves a number of tasks and subtasks. The Grand Total row option enables you to immediately gauge the overall status of the project - it displays the cumulative progress of all the tasks involved.

Grand total row

1.9. Day off

Capturing holidays and non-working days is essential for proper planning and resource management. The Days Off feature allows you to highlight designated days of the week and custom dates. You can apply a fill pattern and set a color to highlight the non-working days.

Remember to zoom in to the 'days' level to access this feature.

Highlighting specific days in the Gantt

1.10. Milestone icon customizations, row number, duration, and color customizations

Underscore the milestones achieved in your project with custom icons. Navigate to milestone settings and click the Upload Icon option from the icon selection window.

We’ve added color customizations for the bars. You can set uniform fill/track colors for all the parent and child bars or set individual colors for child tasks under each parent task.

You can also display row numbers and the duration (in years/months/quarters/weeks/hours) against each task.

Gantt milestone custom icons

1.11. Fiscal year starting month

Many projects are funded on a fiscal year basis, so tracking tasks and milestones within fiscal periods ensures proper budget and resource allocation. Additionally, stakeholders typically review project progress on a fiscal-quarter basis. You can select the fiscal start month from Canvas settings > General > Fiscal year - starting month dropdown.

Notice how the years and quarters in the timeline are adjusted based on the selected fiscal year start month - March.

Fiscal year starting month

1.12. Week start day

By default, the week starts on Sunday. However, in certain regions like India, Russia, China, and most European countries, the week starts on Monday. You can customize the start of the week by selecting your preferred day from the Week Start Day dropdown. In this example, we've set the start of the week to Friday. The timeline is automatically adjusted according to the chosen day of the week.

Week start day dropdown

2. Charts

2.1. Multi-axis chart enhancements

Accurately analyse data of different magnitudes with additional options for the Multi-axis chart, like individual stacked groups and data label customizations. Analytics and deviation is also supported - you can plot reference lines, reference bands, error bars, and trend lines.

MAC chart enhancements

2.2. Interactive deviation

Users in reading view can interactively plot deviations in just a few clicks. Click on the first bar and as you drag the mouse pointer, you'll notice the deviation being plotted dynamically. Click on the target bar to render the deviation line.

Deviation in reading view

2.3. Series label customizations

Series labels help users quickly relate the dimension or measure series to what is plotted in the chart. We've introduced additional customizations for series labels - set the font style and background color, display connecting lines, and position the series labels to the left or right of the chart. You can also match the series color, making it easier to correlate with the chart. This feature is most useful for stacked column or bar charts.

Series label settings

2.4. Individual stacked group in legend

When multiple measures are plotted in a stacked chart, enable the Individual stacked group color toggle for the legend to display all combinations of the measure and the group category.

Individual stacked group color

2.5. Fill pattern for multi-axis

Choose from a wide range of fill patterns to easily distinguish between various categories in your multi-axis charts, enhancing the readability of your data. In addition to the standard solid, outline, and hatched fills, we support line and shape-based fills, demonstrated in the example below.

Fill patterns for multi-axis charts

2.6. Fill pattern for bubble charts

Distinguish the various categories in your bubble charts with fill patterns. Fill patterns help in increasing the clarity of charts with high data density. Analytics+ now supports solid, outlined, and hatched fill styles. Navigate to Canvas Settings and select the fill style from the dropdown menu.

Setting the fill pattern for Bubble charts

2.7. Negative axis for tornado charts

Negative axes are important to visualize the impact of dimension categories on the actuals. The example shows how the sales for the Tables product is high, but the product still has negative profitability.

Negative axis for tornado charts

2.8. Negative range for linear gauge

The linear gauge now supports negative axis value ranges.

2.9. Reverse y-axis

Enable the Reverse y-axis toggle to change the order in which y-axis labels are displayed. This feature is available for line, area, waterfall, combo, and bullet charts. When it comes to financial charts, reversing the Y-axis can emphasize losses more clearly, making it easier to analyse profits and losses.

Reverse y-axis

3. Conditional formatting

3.1. Conditional formatting for relative time periods

For date-based reports, apply conditional formatting to highlight data for specific time periods - like the past week, past month, next week, or previous day. This helps direct users' focus to recent activity. In the example, we've highlighted the sales measure for the past week with a hatched fill and a different color.

Conditional formatting for recent date periods

3.2. Conditional formatting for insight charts

Highlight trends by applying conditional formatting rules to insight charts. Choose the"Kpi Insight Chart" for the Impacts on option to apply formatting to the insight chart.

Conditional formatting for insight charts

3.3. Conditional formatting based on grand average

Gain depper insights in small multiples mode with the grand average option in conditional formatting. You can apply formatting based on the average values across all panels and highlight categories greater or less than the overall average. As a practical example, we've highlighted regions with profits greater than the grand average across segments.

Conditional formatting based on grand average

3.4. Conditional formatting based on variables

Variable conditional formatting allows you to apply formatting rules to elements that are not directly linked to specific data points. This can include altering the line color, specific parts of your title, x-axis, and y-axis titles. By using variables, you can combine multiple rules and apply them together, enabling more advanced formatting on non-data elements.

A new “CF rules” tab has been added to the color picker for elements like the x-axis title or the line color. You can select the defined conditional formatting variable rule to automatically set the color based on the data.

Variable selection in color picker

Notice how the title, x-axis title and line color changes based on the conditional formatting variable rules.

Variable conditional formatting

4. Cards

4.1. Invert variance color for individual panels

The earlier versions of Analytics+ provided an option to invert the variance colors. For instance, if red implied a negative variance and green implied positive - you could interchange them. You can now use the on-object interaction menu to invert the variance for individual panels. This will impact the sparkline, variance border, accent bar, and KPI metrics as shown in the images.

Invert variance color

4.2. Multi-chart selector for KPI cards

Browse through all the charts belonging to a particular chart family and select the one best suited for each trellis panel.

Multi chart selector for KPI cards

4.3. Data labels for insight charts

Insight charts tell users whether the KPI is declining or improving at a glance. You can now customize the data labels for insight charts with dedicated data label settings.

Data label settings for insight charts

5. Storyboard

5.1. Context awareness for storyboard textboxes

Storyboard textboxes are now context-aware! The content in the text boxes will respond to changes in Inforiver SuperFilter selections. In this example, notice how the summary and the KPI metrics change in response to region selections.

Context awareness for textboxes

6. Other enhancements

• Performance mode is now available in the Storyboard as well. Line, area, and bubble charts with high data volume and a large number of data points can be plotted significantly faster with the performance mode option.

• Users in reading view can use the chart slider and switch between chart types to visualize the data from different perspectives. This can be enabled from the Allowed User Controls menu.

Chart slider in reading view

• While working with integrated variance waterfall charts, enable the Show variance marker in legend settings to display the positive and negative variance colors in the legend.

For report server users:

Analytics+ 4.6 version is supported from Power BI Report Server Desktop September 2024 - Version: 2.136.1202.0