Analytics+ November 2024 update -Release 4.2

1. Charts

1.1. New versatile chart types

Analytics+ is loaded with a wide range of sophisticated and highly customizable visualization options. In the November release, we are broadening our diverse repository with fresh charting options:

Ribbon chart: An engaging and visually appealing visualization tool, the Ribbon chart facilitates comparative analysis. You can compare multiple series/segments and analyze proportional differences within a single chart. The Ribbon chart is ideal for dashboards.

Tornado chart: Best suited for side-by-side analysis, Tornado charts help stakeholders instantly identify the categories that contribute to the overall outcome. The unique shape makes tornado charts a definite eye-catcher.

Parallel coordinates: A powerful solution for plotting multi-variate data, parallel coordinate charts are applied in data exploration, pattern recognition, and outlier detection.

Histogram: Histograms are powerful tools used to visualize data distribution. With Analytics+, you can configure the number of bins (intervals) to explore the data at different granularities, as shown in the example.

Analytics+ offers a range of options for configuring bins:

- Define the number of bins and the interval type (closed/semi-closed/fully closed)

- Define the size or range for each bin

- Plot underflow and overflow bins to group a range of values below or above a specific limit

Packed bubble: Compare proportions across categories with the packed bubble. Packed bubble charts use space efficiently by tightly packing the bubbles, making them ideal for dashboards. If your data is hierarchical, you can enable the cluster option to render the parent and child categories into different groups.

Linear Gauge/Progress bar: Linear gauges offer a minimalistic solution for showing progress toward a goal, such as tracking KPIs or completion percentages. Since they are vertically oriented, they can easily be accommodated in dashboards.

Tip: In this example, we’ve used conditional formatting comparison bands/color scales to emphasize the range within which both the actual and target values lie.

1.2. Chart discoverability

Chart wizard

Analytics+ ships with a vast range of diverse chart types, customization options and configurations. At the same time, it is intended as a self-service tool that empowers casual users to build dashboards. The new Chart Wizard has been designed to help you find the most optimal chart and configure it without requiring an extensive knowledge of the underlying settings.

Navigate to the Chart Type dropdown and select the last tab to open the Chart wizard.

Analytics+ can recommend the chart families that are optimal for your dimension and measure parameters. You can add your go-to chart types to the Favorites section for quick access. Once you've selected a chart, you can toggle chart elements(KPIs, axes, data labels, deviation, etc) on or off and adjust the theme, font, color, and fill style—all without navigating through separate settings.

The chart wizard can help you narrow down chart types based on the axis data (time series or categorical), use case (comparison, deviation, multivariate), visualization type(bars, points, lines) and number of measures. Set up analytics, sorting, and ranking all at once from the advanced tab, without needing to configure each individually.

Scenario-based chart selection

Exploring our vast repository of charts to find the one best suited for your business case can seem overwhelming. We've simplified navigability with scenario-based chart selection. Analytics+ can suggest the charts best aligned for specific scenarios like ranking, distribution, or comparison.

1.3. Analytics

Draw deeper insights from your charts by plotting multiple additional series and trend lines. You can visualize the trend for different measures/variances simultaneously.
You can now plot Moving Averages with Analytics+. Moving averages enable you to smoothen short-term fluctuations, gauge trends, and forecast accurately. Navigate to Data > Analytics > Additional series to plot moving averages.
You can also highlight reference lines by applying a custom background color for the label.

Draw more insights from stacked charts in the latest version. You can plot reference lines, reference bars, total and average bars, and trend lines based on the chart type.

1.4. Fill patterns for conditional formatting

In addition to colors, you can now use fill patterns - Solid/Outlined/Hatched based on custom rules to emphasize your data.

1.5. Data labels - Allow overlap and overflow

Analytics+ automatically adjusts the data labels based on the available canvas size, ensuring maximum, unobstructed visibility. Analytics+ suppresses data labels when the canvas size is too small to accommodate the entire data label.

You can choose to override the default settings and display data labels irrespective of the degree of visibility:

Allow overlap: Displays data labels even if they overlap each other.

Allow overflow: Display data labels even if they exceed the allotted space.

1.6. Logarithmic scale for continuous axis

A logarithmic axis is a powerful tool for visualizing data that grows exponentially or covers a wide range, such as scientific or financial data. In the latest version, a logarithmic scale will be used instead of a linear scale to plot a continuous axis.

1.7. Line border hover color and Line hover cross highlight

Analytics+ allows you to highlight the legend category when you hover over a line chart. You can also set a custom border color to highlight the line.

1.8. Deviation enhancements

Side and top view for deviations

You have the flexibility to plot the deviation label on the side or at the top. Each deviation line has individual customization settings that can be accessed by hovering over the label. Global customizations that apply to all deviation lines in the report can be set from the Deviation side pane.

CAGR – Compound annual growth rate

Plotting the CAGR in charts facilitates comparative analysis. It helps gauge the growth of an investment or business over a year or over a period of time without being distracted by individual fluctuations. You’ll notice a new dedicated tab for CAGR customizations in the Deviation side pane.

1.9. Legend enhancements

Data selection

Legend-based data selection now provides options for including or excluding categories/measures.

When you choose the Include option, Analytics+ plots only the selected data categories. The reverse happens when you choose Exclude.

Show totals and set background

You can choose to display the total contribution of a category or measure by enabling the Show total toggle.

Enabling the Show background toggle allows you to use the category color as the background for the legend label.

You will also notice that the vertical and horizontal alignment options have been changed from dropdowns to user-friendly icons.

2. Cards

In version 4.2, when you switch to card mode, only KPI metrics will be rendered. Insert sparklines by selecting a chart from the menu.

2.1 Advanced KPI customizations

In card mode, you will see that the toolbar has been upgraded. The latest release makes the options to add KPI containers and choose images/text/insight charts more accessible.

Add new containers to the left/right/top/bottom. You can easily re-size and re-arrange containers by dragging/dropping within the KPI section.
Each element type (text, insight chart, and image) also has dedicated customization settings. Hover over the container and click on the pencil icon to open the customization side pane.
When you have overlapping elements, you can send elements to the background or bring elements to the foreground by leveraging the layers option.

2.2. Export/Import KPI presets

Certain organizations or lines of business may mandate a uniform template across all metrics dashboards. With Analytics+, you can create custom KPI card templates and reuse them across reports instead of building them from scratch.

Select the Export Card Preset option to create a JSON config file that can later be imported to use the same layout.

2.3. Flex positioning for KPI elements

Creating composite multi-element KPI cards has never been easier. You can choose between the Flex and Group options to organize your images, inline charts, text data, and metrics. When you work with Flex positioning, you only need to choose the direction (horizontal or vertical) and Analytics+ will automatically handle the alignment and positioning, with consistent gap and fill options.

2.4. New storytelling charts for KPI cards

The lollipop and slope graph have been added to the list of sparkline charts that are supported in KPI cards.

2.5. Neutral variances and accent bars

Accent bars help users assess metrics in an instant, without having to analyze the numbers. You can enable accent bars from the KPI Appearance menu.

You can choose to display neutral variances with a different icon and color. Open the Variance icon menu to customize variances.

2.6. Custom number formatting for fetch values

Different KPI elements need varying types of formatting for enhanced interpretability. The precision, scaling, and prefixes/suffixes would need to change based on the measure. For instance, COGS, variances, and quantity measures have distinct formatting requirements.

Number formatting options for KPI metrics can be accessed from the formula editor and can be applied to values fetched from the measure dropdown.

2.7. KPI presets

A range of single-click presets have been added to capture simple and variance KPIs.

The new Appearance menu for KPIs provides options to easily customize the look and feel of the metrics section. It will be displayed when you click on a KPI element or any part of the KPI section. Leverage the appearance menu to set the background color and opacity, and enable borders, shadows, and accent bars.

3. Tables

3.1. Conditional formatting with borders and classifiers

Emphasize your tabular data with borders and colors.

Conditional formatting – classification

Analytics+ tables now support classification formatting. Classification allows you to group data into distinct categories (e.g., high, medium, low) and apply different formats to each group. This makes it easier to spot trends, patterns, or outliers at a glance, improving the overall readability of your data.

Display classifications as a separate column

4. Storyboard

4.1. Animated annotations

Annotations are a great way to add context and capture perspective in your dashboards. The new animated annotation feature zooms in on each chart and showcases every comment in your storyboard, ensuring that important details are not overlooked.

Enable the Present toggle in the Comments pane configuration to animate your annotations in reading mode.

In storyboard mode, the data management configuration window has specific sections to assign tooltip measures and tooltip text categories.

5. Generic enhancements

5.1 Dynamic ranking

When your report has a numeric field parameter assigned to the Tooltip-Text categories parameter, users can quickly rank their data by adjusting the slider.

Select the numeric field parameter from the Measure dropdown in the TopN interface.

Dynamic ranking for axis categories in action:

You can also rank the trellis group in small multiples mode. Select the field parameter from the Trellis tab as we did for axis categories. The same applies to stacked charts as well.

5.2 Summary Table

For avid Microsoft Excel users, we have good news! We have upgraded the summary table so that you can have an Excel-like experience.

5.3. Row aggregation

With the Aggregation option added to the Data section of the toolbar, you can now apply custom aggregation to your axis categories. In table mode, notice how the total value for the Actuals field changes as you change the aggregation method.

You can see how the total value for each year changes when we change the aggregation method.

5.4. Filter context – axis categories

You can now display filter selections in your axis categories. Remember to enable the Axis label toggle while setting up context awareness. From the new Filter Context settings pane, you can also select the measure and assign the display style.

Notice how the Segment selection is displayed along with the Sales measure in the axis label.

PreviousAnalytics+ January 2025 update - Release 4.3

Last updated 1 year ago

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