Touro University International
Scott G. Sunday
ITM442 – Knowledge Management, Business Intelligence, and Enterprise Systems
Module 2 – Session Long Project
Dr. Elizabeth Warren
Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to continue exploring the business intelligence program Crystal Xcelsius. The assignment for this Session Long Project provides more practice with Crystal Xcelsius through two getting started tutorials. The paper begins with a discussion of the two tutorials – what was expected and what was accomplished. The paper then captures lessons learned throughout the tutorials. The paper closes by providing general thoughts regarding the use of tutorials such as these for learning mechanisms and an overall evaluation of the program as a business tool.
The Tutorials
The first tutorial for this Module, the Visual Decision Support Getting-Started Tutorial, claims to “lead you through creating a visual decision-making tool, in eight basic steps, that allows you to quickly analyze a large volume of data” (Enhance your skills and knowledge in the Xcelsius learning center). The tutorial’s design and instructions were clear, concise and easy to follow. With the trial version of the program already installed, this tutorial jumped straight to creating the visual decision-making tool. The first step was importing the Excel model, the data used in the decision-making process. Next was setting up the map, the navigational component representing the data to display, and the line chart displaying the data values.
The tutorial used comparison charts to facilitate the decision making process. Comparison charts simplify the process of performing detailed analysis during the decision making process. This tutorial used four separate comparison charts to analyze various market criteria. Dynamic visibility, “the capability within Xcelsius to automatically hide or show various components” (Enhance your skills and knowledge in the Xcelsius learning...