13. Dynamic Dashboard Filtering
A single dashboard can Administrators cannot
easily be built that displays create a single dashboard
data specific to the user that will show data specific
who is currently viewing it. to the user viewing it.
Commentary
Many reports, such as performance against goals or territory analysis, require that data be
filtered based on the user who is viewing the report. With salesforce’s reports, administrators
must create a report and clone it for each user. This makes making changes to these reports
extremely labor intensive. In addition, SFDC administrators may not make changes to a user’s
account without logging in with their credentials, further belaboring the process.
*Quote from Salesforce.com Customer
“we have now literally hundreds of reports and about 50 dashboards due to this lack of
functionality for a user to see in the common dashboard only his information. this of course
means tons of administrative work with reports.”
*All quotes from salesforce.com customers taken from the salesforce.com “idea exchange”
15. Joining Multiple Tables
Oracle’s reporting allows Reports can only join 3
for easy combination of tables; a “parent” and 2
multiple tables. “children”.
Commentary
For example, a report that shows Account, Contact, Open Opportunities, and Tasks
would not be possible without joining multiple tables. Creating a 360 degree view of
the customer will be very difficult without the ability to combine data from various
tables within the application. This would require export of data with salesforce.
*Quote from Salesforce.com Customer
“…we have been told that we should purchase some other expensive reporting
package, that links with salesforce, in order to run this and other reports. I just don't
see this as an answer either. Why should I have to purchase another package for
something Salesforce should be able to accomplish[?]”
*All quotes from salesforce.com customers taken from the salesforce.com “idea exchange”
17. Pivot Table Reports
Oracle offers Pivot Tables There is no Pivot Table
which let you view data in functionality in
the optimal presentation. salesforce.com.
Commentary
Pivot Tables have are a widely used and understood mechanism for simplifying complex data
sets, and presenting. Pivot Tables are used in reports such as “waterfall” reports, forecast vs.
actual, and territory analysis; and are typically the most widely used report type for Oracle users.
Pivot tables are also helpful in report administration, allowing the creation of a single report that
presents data many ways. Without Pivot Tables, most report producers export data from the
system and use a separate tool for reporting.
*Quote from Salesforce.com Customer
“I personally spend a lot of time taking data out of salesforce only to create a pivot
table with the data due to the limited reporting functionality on the existing
dashboards.”
*All quotes from salesforce.com customers taken from the salesforce.com “idea exchange”
19. Report Drillability
Any report value may be a hyperlink to Reports are static, and do not
anywhere, including other reports,
records in the CRM system, or external include the ability to drill deeper and
URLs; to any number of levels. Can also easily access deeper data. Cannot
drill into multiple locations from a link.
link to the record in the report.
Commentary
A key to user adoption in any application is ease of use an navigation. When viewing a
report, users often need more information and want to go deeper to the source of the
data, which allows them to gain better insight into their business. Without drillability,
reporting will be cumbersome, and user adoption will be significantly diminished.
*Quote from Salesforce.com Customer
“[I would like to be able to] Click on a dashboard chart element to drill to report detail.
This will save time and enhance user experience by drilling down directly to the detail
instead of having to click on the dashboard component and then filtering on the
specific grouping.”
*All quotes from salesforce.com customers taken from the salesforce.com “idea exchange”
21. Exception Reporting
Oracle includes exception Salesforce does not allow
reporting. exception reporting.
Commentary
Exception reporting allows one to identify reported results that deviate from expected results. It
allows one to find performance metrics that fall outside of acceptable metrics, or find sets of
data that do not contain a data type. Without exception reporting, your administrator will have
to export data to third party reporting tools. Example: Red flag when a rep is taking 15 days
average to close their service requests, when the SLA is 12 days.
*Quote from Salesforce.com Customer
“The Holy Grail of Salesforce! If this came about I could *almost* kiss your developers. I spend
roughly 40 hours a month exporting data into Excel files so that I perform joins for major reports
(e.g., follow-up on cases using "Log A Call" and "Emails", and what the frequency of those
responses are).“
*All quotes from salesforce.com customers taken from the salesforce.com “idea exchange”
23. Negative Reporting
Oracle offers negative Salesforce does not allow
reporting. negative reporting.
Commentary
Negative reporting is a type of exception reporting. A typical scenario involves
running a report on “contacts with no activities scheduled”, “accounts with no
opportunities”, or “opportunities without products”.
*Quote from Salesforce.com Customer
“[I Tried] to see if I could formulate a report to view open opportunities without open activities. I
could not; it pulled up opportunities that did not have any activity history. However, any new
opportunities that had a pending activity but no history yet, were included in the report. There
have been several ideas on this in the past and I am surprised that Salesforce has not found a
way to implement exception reporting such as this. I am still having to export to separate reports
and run scripts in FileMaker Pro in order to run the report I need.”
*All quotes from salesforce.com customers taken from the salesforce.com “idea exchange”
24. I want to see Accounts and Opportunity data – even if there are no Opportunities for an Ac
Without “negative” reporting.
With “negative” reporting, data is exposed.
25. Data Warehouse
Oracle stores data in a traditional Salesforce.com stores data in a
data warehouse, where it is transactional reporting system. The only
optimized for reporting and way to trend is to create multiple reports
analytics. and “snapshot” them.
Commentary
Oracle offers a traditional OLAP data warehouse, aggregating data it into a multidimensional
warehouse. SFDC can take a snapshot of a report, which means you must predict accurately your
reporting needs, and update reports when you add new fields or objects. Oracle holds your data
at the ready for historical analysis wihtout any intervention. Finally, performance and storage will
be an issue for SFDC, as they are purposing a transactional database as a data warehouse.
Quote from Salesforce.com Customer
“Hear, hear! It's a nonsense that I can't deliver change-over-time reports on
the opportunity pipeline. “
*All quotes from salesforce.com customers taken from the salesforce.com “idea exchange”
27. Enterprise Grade Dashboards
• Tabbed Dashboarding • No Tabbed Browsing
• Dynamic Guided Navigation • No guided navigation
• Color Control of chart elements • No color control of elements
• Drag & Drop • Clunky arrow based report
creation/administration admin
• Unlimited Components • 20 components only
• Dashboards easily Sum • Dashboards don’t natively Sum
Commentary
A simple user interface for both users and administrators is critical to the adoption of
both reporting and analytics. Oracle allows for tabbing and nesting of dashboards,
more varied chart types and colors, unlimited reports within dashboards, easy
summation, and many other little features that add up to a big difference in actual
report utilization.
28. “Make it easy for me to find what I’m looking for”
•Tabbed dashboard
•Custom Chart Colors
•Drag and Drop Designer
29. Oracle Customer Testimonials
The analytics functionality has dramatically helped our organization. We have
millions of records loaded in the tool, and when [we were previously] using "real-
time" reports, it delayed the sales rep from getting their information at the click of a
button. Since we have built most of our reports in the analytics tables, this provides
the sales force with immediate information to make impactful decisions on key
accounts to close the sale.
–VP Sales Operations, $500mm Software Company
The reporting functionality has helped drive sales productivity because we are
now able to identify areas where we are gaining or churning revenue. Our adoption
rate is 100%, and audit reports we have built ensure that sales reps are utilizing key
reports. We have also built the tool to be "user friendly" so the sales force
understands the value, and how it assists in driving in results. We have pushed the
envelop with Oracle's IT department to create the ultimate CRM tool. I believe we
have accomplished that and our results speak for themselves.
-VP Sales, $2bn Medical Supply Company