Business Intelligence Archives

What is SharePoint?

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 | Microsoft Office

SharePoint is a web-based collaborative platform expected to improve the working procedure in large associations and is proposed for a better joint effort of clients, record work process, and automation of operations. You can make a SharePoint portal, including wiki destinations, web journals, and dashboards where you can distribute archives and remarks. The principle highlights of SharePoint are:

The capacity to make a straightforward organisation structure in the digital arrangement.

Improvement of correspondence among department and employees. You can make dashboards to examine ventures and undertakings.

Control of settling errands and control of assignments that are being taken a shot at.

Clients can team up and alter a record shared on the server at the same time, just as trade archives, news, joins and different assets.

Automation of business forms – you don’t have to play out a noteworthy rundown of activities physically, permitting your you team to spare time.

A SharePoint portal permits you to make a corporate site.

The interface of a SharePoint portal permits you to produce reports, inform teams about significant occasions, distribute news, tune business forms with structures, and make client profiles. SharePoint has extensive utility and can be incorporated with other Microsoft Office applications and messengers

What is OneDrive?

Personal Cloud Storage – Microsoft OneDrive

Microsoft OneDrive is a cloud stockpiling administration that permits clients to store records in the Microsoft Cloud. OneDrive was previously known as SkyDrive, FolderShare, Windows Live Office, and LiveMesh. You can access OneDrive with or without an internet browser by introducing the OneDrive application. There are two kinds of OneDrive – OneDrive and OneDrive for Business.

OneDrive for Business (previously known as SkyDrive Pro) is similar to OneDrive yet contains additional highlights planned for business purposes. An association manager oversees OneDrive for business for users in your team to collaborate on records and different documents. The overseer can confine sharing alternatives for users. Users should sign in by utilising a work account, not an individual record so as to utilise OneDrive for Business. Unique maintenance arrangements that are accessible for OneDrive for Business permit executives to recoup documents erased by users. Different users can alter a report at the same time, and record forming is likewise accessible.

OneDrive for Business can be utilised independently (Office 365 Business plan) and with SharePoint Online (Office 365 Business Premium Plan). An organisation’s SharePoint libraries can be synchronized to the nearby PC of a user by utilising OneDrive. OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online can be incorporated with one another. You can consider OneDrive as backend stockpiling and SharePoint can be considered the frontend interface to all the more likely envision how the mix of these two stages is actualised. A connect to documents partook in OneDrive can be utilised as a connection for SharePoint Online.

SharePoint vs OneDrive for Business

ONEDRIVE VS SHAREPOINT AS DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

The following table compares the features of SharePoint vs OneDrive:

OneDrive for Business

SharePoint Online

Available in business as well as consumer variant.

Available only for business use with no specific consumer variant.

Referred to as a storage location

Referred to as a team site

Can be perceived as a cloud version of my documents

Is more or less like a website

Al files are set to private permissions unless specified.

Uses default permissions as set by user

No shared interface

Users access through organisations domain

Appropriate for uploading private documents which are not intended to be shared

Suitable for public documents which need to be shared frequently.

OneDrive cannot include the additional security of a standalone server.

SharePoint can include the supplementary security of a standalone server.

Content In OneDrive can not be published to a webpage

Allows publishing of documents directly to the website

Evolved from SharePoint workspace 2010, which was previously called Groove 2007.

Cloud-based adaptation of the SharePoint service which belongs to the era of Office XP

Similarities between SharePoint and OneDrive for Business

Both of them are a part of Office 365 Business plans

Both are available as a stand-alone service.

The core architecture of both platforms is built on SharePoint.

Both of them manage files/data with versioning and metadata.

Both of them can be accessed by a browser as well as the local folder

CONCLUSION

So the reality, when looking at SharePoint versus OneDrive, is actually about how you intend to utilise it. Picking an answer relies upon the requirements of your organisation. In the event that you have to store records in the virtual storage, or offer documents and at times, alter records together with different users at the same time, you can utilise Microsoft OneDrive for Business. In the event that you have to make a corporate web-based interface for a coordinated effort of a high number of users in your organisation, consider utilising SharePoint Online, which is a discretionary segment of Microsoft Office 365. OneDrive for Business can be incorporated with SharePoint and can be utilised as storage for content transferred to a site dependent on the SharePoint stage. Both OneDrive and SharePoint Online work with the inalienable security of Microsoft items.

The world that we’re living in today, is almost entirely technological. And it is evolving every day with the wonders of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Business Intelligence, BlockChains (like NFT), etc. In order to make people’s lives easier, these smart technologies use complex algorithms and theories to quickly compute and summarize data. This data is then provided to users in the name of ‘useful information’. But a question that needs to be asked here is that what is the point of this data if the users can’t understand it? And if so, they might not even find it beneficial for themselves or their purpose. Hence, this is one of the most important reasons as to why dashboard design has grown significant over the last few years.

One of the first things to understand is that as much as UX of the dashboard is important, so is the UI of the dashboard. They are both equally essential. Before jumping into our main motive, let’s take a quick sneak peak into the most prominent features of a great dashboard:

A good dashboard allows its users to interpret, analyse and present the key pointers, or say insights.
What an efficient dashboard do is present the user with useful information that can be put to use. As well as compile a visual representation of the otherwise complex set of data.
The desired dashboard will always be customizable and it generally is quite intuitive.
As an additional point, they are always organized when it comes to use of space. There might be a lot of data on the dashboard but it won’t seem like a mess that is cluttered all in one little space. Rather it looks neat.

NOW WE’RE AT THE HERE’S HOW SECTION

CONSISTENCY MAKES IT EASY

The dashboard should always be consistent. Considering that the users access the dashboard through different devices that also vary in screen size. It is important that the design looks consistent, whether it’s with respect to the colours, font, style of charts or navigation. The user should not get distracted because of the inconsistency in the dashboard design and so sheer attention should be paid to how the design dashboard looks on multiple screen sizes. The key is to start with smallest screen size and then move up along the way. This way of approaching the design is a golden rule, this helps in creating a visually appealing dashboard, which gives both a great UX and a great UI.

SIGNIFICANT INFORMATION APPEARS FIRST

Let’s talk about the heart of designing a dashboard, ‘content hierarchy’. Although this goal is achieved at the UX stage of designing, but is essentially through visual design that conveys the most important information in the most efficient way. This not only guides the layout but also the design guidelines. A couple of things to note here is that; (a) Centre alignment is the most recommended as found out from the users’ behaviour pattern on the dashboard. They acquire that part of the information in the first place ; (b) Another thing is that 18 pixel font is the maximum to be employed and information should be highlighted through the use of distinctive colours.

COMFORTABLE CUSTOMIZATION

Never use the ‘one size fits all’ approach. There are different users with varying business needs and requirements. Designs should be scalable, so that the user experiences customized dashboard. Now this in turn will empower the users, which is the designers’ ultimate goal. Users should feel that they can adjust their fit in consideration to their individual business requirements. This can be as simple as adding or deleting a column, or even adding a whole new table or sheet. The things to remember here are: (a) Always allow for easy modifications like addition/deletion of modules; (b) Give different yet comfortably usable options for viewing and deleting data separately; (c) And lastly, try using easy drag and drop interaction for the users to experience customizable dashboard design.

CHARTS? LESS IS MORE!

When it comes to presenting data visually, i.e., via pie charts, bar graphs etc., they should always be put in simpler form. Cluttering the charts with heavy tools and representation techniques only hinders the user from understanding and using the said data. Instead of using 3D graphs and animation, using flat-laid charts and graphs makes it a lot more comfortable for the users. Colour differentiation although, is sheerly appreciated, since it allows the users to understand the separate sets of data clearly.

ICONS CATCH THE EYES

What is generally ignored in the process of designing a dashboard UI is the ‘icons’. The best dashboard designs always include icons that are familiar to the users. For example, the pen/pencil icon is usually the edit tool. Likewise, the trash icon is for the option of deleting anything. This way, the user would have less time wasted in processing what the icon means and would have more utilized time in wrapping up their work. Thus, familiar icons help create great UX and UI.

RIGHT FONT REMAINS IMPORTANT

Employing the right style of the font and its size is equally important in both the UX and UI designs. It is advisable that while designing, not more than two fonts shall be employed. This is done in order to maintain a clean dashboard design. Creating a visual hierarchy by employing the inverted pyramid style in all the written content is quite significant. This can be done by putting the most important sets of information in the largest and the not-so-important sets of information in the smaller font, along with a hint of colour differentiation.

FILL COLOURS IN DESIGN AS MUCH AS IN LIVE

The concept of colours is such that, it might seem simple, but it also has a complex side. Different colours signify different things. Just like red colour is usually employed to denote danger and green colour is used to denote ease and agreement. Now, imagine if their use is reversed, won’t it be confusing? Therefore, designers are required to be really mindful whilst working on the colour palette of their designs. Besides, it is best not to go overboard with the colours, even if you’re tempted to do so. A good start would be picking two colours in the initial stage, that too something like contrasting contemporary colours.

MAKING THE FINAL POINTS

All of this would be worthless if you don’t know your users’ preferences. Whatever the studying concept maybe, if you don’t have the emotional connection with your users and if you don’t know their choices and requirements, then the whole work would just remain pointless. Therefore, besides knowing the tips and right ways of employing the tools to create a great dashboard, you should also know your users. Research, understand, analyse and imply your methodologies and tools.

Taking your leave with,

“Graphic design will save the world right after rock and roll does.”

– David Carson

Tag: Business Intelligence

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