ITO

Assignment 2 : Building of a dashboard

Assignment 2:
Construction and Use of a Dashboard
In past classes we learned that decision support is one of the major benefits offered by
organizational IT. In particular, such technologies as dashboards can greatly support the
decision making process by highlighting critical information in real time. Knowing the
importance of decision making, it is necessary for you to learn how to create dashboards
and how to use them for effective decision making. Consequently, this assignment asks you
to create a dashboard, to learn how to use it (during the class 12 simulation), and to
subsequently reflect on how the dashboard you created helped you make better decisions.
Consequently, the goals of this assignment are to:
1. Learn how to recognize the elements of a structured approach for developing an
information system (e.g., the waterfall model, agile methodologies, which were first
introduced in class 6);
2. Become familiar with the dashboard concept first introduced in class 6 and learn how to
use it effectively (in a business simulation);
3. Acquire knowledge of MS Excel’s most powerful functions for supporting effective decision
making (e.g., pivot table manipulation, conditional formatting, and charts/graphs
creation).

This assignment will be done in the teams. The teams correspond to the Assignment 1 /
ERPsim teams already formed.

A corporate dashboard is a strategic tool displaying a set of key indicators to support

decision-making and to monitor the performance and the realization of key business tasks.
Its role is to provide a better understanding of managing a firm.

For Assignment 2, please follow these three steps:

1. First, please think through the business problem your dashboard is supposed to help you
with, that is, profit maximization. This first step yields the conceptual design of your
dashboard, including three dashboard’s sub-objectives, indicators relevant to those sub-
objectives, and relevant targets, alerts, and action plans for those indicators.
2. Secondly, please implement the dashboard in Microsoft Excel so that you can use it
during our SAP simulation in Class 12.
3. Finally, please critically reflect on the processes involved in both the creation and the use
of your dashboard.

Please remember that it is important for dashboards and related indicators/targets/alerts

to be actionable – you should be able to act upon the information they provide you with.
Hence, please recall the parameters that you can act upon (change) in the SAP simulation.
These parameters are sales price, product availability (for example, you control purchase
quantities and stock transfer), warehousing cost that arise if you have in inventory stock in
excess of 4000 boxes across all warehouses, logistics-related cost for stock transfer, and the
level of purchase order costs that are incurred (depending on how often you order goods).
First hand-in: the final report
You will need to complete an answer form (see Assignment 2 final report to
complete.docx) which asks you questions regarding 1) the conceptual design of your
dashboard, 2) how this design was implemented in Excel, and 3) some reflections on the
process. Save the file using your team letter and group code.

The file Assignment 2 final report to complete.docx presents further instructions on how
to complete each section.

Second hand-in: the dashboard

You will need to create an Excel file containing a dashboard / decision support tool.
Depending on your chosen sub-goals, it could consist of three elements: (i) a section used to
support key business decisions, (ii) a section used for alerts, and (iii) a section used to
assess past performance. The Excel file should contain tables and graphs described in
sections 2 to 4 of the final report.

The Excel file CUBE ERPSIM DAIRY.xlsx already contains the connection to the 4 pre-
configured queries. Please download this file and modify it; you can find this file on
ZoneCours (see section “Constructing a Dashboard for the ERP Dairy Company (Chapter
E7C)” on ZoneCours).

Assignment Hand-In: (two days after the session 12).

Please hand in the following documents using the hand-in tool in ZoneCours:
 File Assignment 2 final report to complete docx (with your team letter $ and
group code $$$) with the completed sections.
 The Excel file Assignment2_TEAM_$-GR-&&&.xlsx docx (with your team letter $
and group code &&&) used during the Class-12 business simulation.

Evaluation (15 points)

Final report
 Part 1 Design of the dashboard: 5 points, consistency between the different sections
will also be assessed.
 Part 2 Realization and implementation of the dashboard with Excel: 2 points
 Part 3 Evaluation of the development process and performance: 3 points
Dashboard
 5 points: consistency of the dashboard with the final report, representation of
indicators/choice of graphs or tables and presentation efforts (the form)

Resources
The website of the class (zone cours) contains many useful resources on how to construct a
dashboard for the ERPsim Dairy simulation.

Preventing errors in Excel file for Assignment 2

1. Use the correct file with the right connection properties
• “CUBE ERPSIM DAIRY.xlsx” posted on ZoneCours

2. To prevent errors when creating your dashboard:

• Use the latest version of Excel on a Windows computer
• The dashboard will not work if you create it in the Mac version of Excel

TECH10704A Assignment 2
 • Do not copy worksheets from one file to another
• Do not modify the excel file within a shared folder (e.g., Dropbox or OneDrive)
• Do not edit/manipulate the hidden worksheets
• Refreshing the data to ensure the connection to the database server still functions.
A couple of days before sessions 11 and 12 [we will warn you], the database servers
will be reset - after that, you will get an error message if you try to refresh.

3. To prevent errors when connecting your dashboard to the simulation:

• Use the latest version of Excel on a Windows computer
• Make sure that you have the correct client number and team letter when logging in

4. For any error messages encountered when connecting the Excel file to the simulation,
please contact erpsim@hec.ca.

TECH10704A Assignment 2