Today we released Bold BI^® Enterprise and Embedded v3.2. It’s a huge release since it delivers many much-awaited features, enhancements, and improvements. We’ll look at each of them in this post.

You can download the latest version of Bold BI from your account page. If you are new to Bold BI Enterprise, sign up for a free trial on our website. New users to Bold BI may download one from this page.

New dashboard widgets

In a text widget, you can replace the existing label widget with rich text editing functionalities such as font, paragraph, links, tables, and embedded code.

The spline area chart widget comes as an alternative for the area chart widget. It has smooth curves connecting data points instead of straight lines.

A period-over-period widget lets you compare two different date ranges and show the comparative data in charts.

New data connectors

The Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), with any of its database engines (Amazon Aurora (MySQL, PostgreSQL), PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, Oracle Database, and SQL Server), can be connected using Bold BI.

Also, Google Ads, ProofHub, Gmail, and RavenDB can now be connected.

Pinboards

Pin visualization widgets from any of your dashboards into a pinboard comprising one-column, two-column, and three-column layouts.

Open query mode for stored procedures

SQL Server Stored Procedures’ query execution can be improved now by enabling open query mode. This mode is not applicable for Azure SQL Database (other than managed instances) or Azure Synapse Analytics (SQL DW).

Live mode for Web API data connector

The Web API data connector now supports live mode. So, it is not mandatory to configure an intermediate data store for data processing that takes place in cached mode.

Custom widget

A custom widget can be configured in Bold BI. It can be any user-defined JavaScript component, Syncfusion Essential JS 2 component, or D3 component.

Dashboard parameters

Define parameters based on a literal, a list, or a data source and use them for dynamic querying of REST API endpoints in a web data source, SQL-type databases in code view, and calculated field expressions.

Data source preview

Preview the data directly from the data sources’ listing view in the Bold BI server.

Reusing dashboard widgets

Reuse widgets from your other dashboards. Instead of creating them from scratch, you can import an already created widget along with its bounded data connection from another dashboard into your current dashboard. Doing so will create a new copy in the current dashboard.

Tabbed dashboard

Create a story linking related Bold BI dashboards organized as separate tabs and share them with your team.

JS component for embedding

This release offers a new JavaScript SDK  a native, client-side component for embedding dashboards in your website or web application. The SDK also includes embedded APIs for passing filters as parameters to the dashboard URL, theming, and more.

Row-level security

Enable row-level security based on login emails and full names to restrict data access at the data source modeling level.

Setting filtered view as default

A dashboard setting has been added to define a filtered view as the default view. So, opening that dashboard anytime will render the set default view.

Autosaving view

An automatic save option has been added to enable you to save any changes in a dashboard that occur with dynamic user interactions automatically.

Other usability improvements

Asana and Infusionsoft data connectors were improved to generate URLs based on the endpoint chosen.

We hope this post is helpful to you in learning about the new features and improvements in Bold BI^® Enterprise and Embedded v3.2. If you have any questions, please use the comments section available below. You can also contact us by submitting your questions on the Bold BI contact page or, if you already have an account, you can log in to submit your support question. 

This release covers in-demand features, from major additions like new data connections, to smaller ones like improved usability in widgets. Let’s briefly discuss the new features and enhancements included in Bold BI^® with this update.

Feature summary

New data connections

Connect Microsoft SSAS, Google BigQuery, and Podio with Bold BI using new built-in connectors.

64-bit driver support in ODBC connector

You can now use 64-bit ODBC drivers to create an ODBC data source with the Bold BI ODBC connector. To use this, you have to run Bold BI in 64-bit mode.

PostgreSQL as metadata storage

PostgreSQL can now be used as a metadata store. This overcomes the SQL Server requirement for handling files and web data sources.

SSO support for embedding

Now your application can share authentication with the embedded dashboard through Single Sign-On functionality.

Paging for REST-based web data

Data paging is now supported for the following data sources:

• Outlook Calendar
• Infusionsoft
• YouTube
• Keen
• LiveAgent
• Nicereply

Custom identity providers for authentication and authorization

You can now configure OAuth and OpenID based custom identity providers in Bold BI for authentication and authorization.

Color customization

The number card widget supports conditional formatting now. You can customize the colors in the number card based on conditions you specify.

In the heatmap widget, color customization can be done across the table row-wise or column-wise based on conditions.

Display column binding

You can now bind a display column to the list box and combo box widgets. This lets you show the row value of a display column when referencing the row value of the underlying value column.

Indicator positioning and placement

The ability to define the KPI symbol position and placement has been added to the KPI card widget.

Field-based sorting in pivot grid

In the pivot grid, sorting can be applied based on different fields.

Hidden column support in pivot grid

In the pivot grid, a column can be bound in hidden mode such that all other operations like sorting can be handled in the display view based on these columns.

Conclusion

We hope this article reveals new features and improvements you’re excited about in Bold BI^® Enterprise 3.1. Get started with Bold BI by signing up for a free trial and create more interactive business intelligence dashboards.

If you have any questions or need clarification, please use the comments section available below. You can also contact us by submitting your questions on the Bold BI contact page, or if you already have an account, you can log in to submit your support question.

Business intelligence (BI) refers to the set of processes and technologies in collecting and transforming raw data into useful information that a company can use to guide strategic business decisions. BI helps executives, managers, and other business end users identify new business opportunities and any process inefficiencies through tools and technologies such as dashboards and ad hoc reports.

BI has numerous benefits in businesses, regardless of industry or department. It can be used in diverse domains such as retail, sales, manufacturing, supply chain, and many more. In this blog post, we will discuss the top five benefits of BI that help drive businesses and increase their value. According to BI-Survey.com, the top five potential benefits of business intelligence systems are:

• Faster reporting, analysis, or planning.
• More accurate reporting, analysis, or planning.
• Better business decisions.
• Improved data quality.
• Improved employee satisfaction.

Faster reporting, analysis, or planning

For a finance department, keeping track of revenue, income, assets, and liabilities, and using that data to make positive changes in the business is impossible without BI. Financial reporting needs to be generated on the spot to avoid overwhelming data processing work at the last minute. With BI in place, you can generate accounts receivable and accounts payable reports and track balance sheet key metrics simultaneously through ad hoc reporting and dashboards.

More accurate reporting, analysis, or planning

Business data should be accurate for proper analysis results, and the reports being generated should also be accurate. Particularly, if a company makes important decisions based only on those reports, the reports must be managed effectively. Manual generation of reports is subject to errors as it depends on human efficiency and accuracy, which are influenced by time constraints and other external factors. Using a BI tool helps overcome this problem by providing consistent results, increasing productivity, and saving you time and money.

Better business decisions

A business should operate with a clear strategy, and any business processes should be aligned with that strategy. Focusing only on what matters and keeping track of what is going on in related domains helps executives and managers make better business decisions. With BI and its illumination of useful insights through data visualizations, executives can discover processes that can be streamlined, and managers can define better strategies to improve them. In a marketing company, executives can make better decisions that optimize their marketing strategies, and help them achieve a better return on investment.

Improved data quality

Data quality can be determined by its accuracy, consistency, uniqueness, and timeliness. Data may come from single source or multiple data stores. Good quality data should be accurate to the point that it is consistent across various data stores, unique (i.e. no data redundancy), and synchronized in a timely fashion from different stores. A BI data management tool can easily ensure these data quality characteristics and maintain that quality for processing. Based on a business’ data and security needs, we can set up a data warehouse from which all data can be read into a dashboard for business analysis.

Improved employee satisfaction

Employee productivity analysis lets you identify how satisfied employees are with their job. Keeping employees satisfied motivates them to achieve higher productivity, focus on the best leads, improve their operational efficiency, and do their part to increase business profits. A human resources department can benefit from a BI implementation that provides payroll tracking, employee productivity analysis, and employee satisfaction data.

Conclusion

BI plays a significant role in today’s business processes and helps companies grow their business value. Bold BI^® is business intelligence dashboard software by Syncfusion that empowers you to transform your data into actionable insights. If you have any questions on this blog, please feel free to post them in the following comment section. Get started with Bold BI by signing up for a free trial and create more interactive business intelligence dashboards. You can also contact us by submitting your questions through the Bold BI website or, if you already have an account, you can log in to submit your support question.

In this first update (v2.8.14) since its launch in August 2019, Bold BI^® Enterprise has expanded with a rich set of features and improvements. Also, this update puts the Enterprise version on equal footing with the features supported in the Cloud version. In this blog post, we will briefly discuss the new features and enhancements included in this update of Bold BI Enterprise.

Key features

Dashboard Designer enhancements

Add more rows in the dashboard layout to hold more widgets

Add more rows in your dashboard layout to accommodate more widgets. Then, view the entire dashboard dynamically through scrolling mode.

Improved loading performance

Initial rendering of dashboard has been improved 2x times faster than before.

Synchronize data extracts with the latest updates through advanced refresh settings

You can synchronize extract-mode-type data sources with the latest updates through advanced refresh settings such as recurring time interval, recurring type (hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly), and refresh start and end dates.

Embed dashboard and data source designers with less effort

Embed Bold BI dashboard and data source designers in your application with just a URL in an iframe. This doesn’t require any complex development or code knowledge.

Dynamic binding of data sources

Connecting a dashboard to different data sources of the same schema can be configured through the embedded URL API endpoints hosted in an application.

New API endpoints for dashboard views

REST API endpoints have been introduced to manage (retrieve, add, update, and delete) dashboard views.

New sample dashboards in demo gallery

Sample dashboards for the retail industry and human resources departments have been added:

• Retail Stores Performance Dashboard
• Retail Inventory Management Dashboard
• HR Recruitment Dashboard
• Workforce Performance Dashboard

Data source enhancements

New data connectors

Connect Presto, ODBC, and Google Sheets data sources through new built-in connectors.

Background paging for REST-based web data

Paging is now supported for some REST-based web data sources, enabling fetch for up to 10,000 records in background.

Windows authentication in Microsoft SQL

The Microsoft SQL connector now supports Windows authentication too.

Widget enhancements

New widgets available

Four new widgets have been added to the Dashboard Designer toolbox. The card widget has been split into two based on functional aspects: KPI card and number card. The other two new widgets are radar polar chart and range navigator.

Color customization options

Customize radial gauge elements like the range pointer, actual value, needle pointer, target pointer, and title color based on conditional formatting.

Customize pivot grid header colors and grouping panel background.

Apply the monochromatic color in map, tree map, and heat map widgets.

Use conditional formatting in map markers.

Drill down in Map widget

Drill down in map regions to successive levels in a hierarchy. For example, continent > country > state/counties.

View underlying data

Visualize the raw data associated with a widget at runtime.

Tooltip customization

Customize tooltip display items through column configuration across all chart and map widgets. Also for maps, configure tooltips for latitude and longitude markers. By default, the maps widget doesn’t have tooltips configured.

Other improvements

You can now define row height in the grid widget explicitly. 

You can also display labels over map regions.

Conclusion

We hope this article reveals new features and improvements you’re excited about in Bold BI^® Enterprise v2.8. Get started with Bold BI by signing up for a free trial and create more interactive business intelligence dashboards.

If you have any questions or need clarification, please use the comments section available below. You can also contact us by submitting your questions on the Bold BI contact page, or if you already have an account, you can log in to submit your support question.

Since Syncfusion’ launch of the new Bold BI^® Cloud dashboard solution three months ago, we have been working on fulfilling some highly demanded features, such as for widgets and data sources. Now, it’s time to reveal them. We are excited to announce our latest update to Bold BI Cloud rolled out today.

Feature summary

This release update comes with a remarkable set of new features and improvements:

• Map widget enhancements
• New KPI Card and Combo Chart widgets
• Color customization improvements
• Forecasting support
• Usability improvement in Smartsheet data connection

Map widget enhancements

Bubble maps and choropleth maps are now available as one map in the toolbox, with property settings added to switch between these types.

Users can also configure tooltips for any data column(s) whose value needs to be displayed.

Bind the latitude and longitude data columns as locations in maps that are highlighted by markers enabled by default.

Map regions can be drilled down to next level in the hierarchy. For example, continent -> country -> state/counties. Currently, this will work for all continent maps until country level, for U.S. and India maps until state and county levels.

Map data is available for the following countries: Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, Republic of Korea, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Austria, Brazil, Greece, Hong Kong, Israel, Singapore, Switzerland, and all states of India.

New widgets

KPI Card is a new widget replacing the existing card widget in the toolbox. This widget is preferable when there is a need to compare actual and target values. You can configure the tile image and background image as either static images or through an image-bound data column. Also, there are sparkline and customizing options, such as font size and color, that can be enabled for each of the elements.

Combo Chart is another new widget allowing you to configure measure values in two different axes (primary and secondary y-axis). You can change each of the measures’ chart types to some other relevant chart type.

Color customization improvements

Now you can bind colors to widget elements bound with one metric based on another metric.

Distinguish values that lie within a range better through gradient coloring. Also, rule-based conditional formatting now supports a percentage-value type.

Define each category in a tree map with individual colors.

Conditionally display different icons as part of a column value in a grid widget.

In general, most of the color customization options differ based on the widgets.

Forecasting with time-series data

Forecasting time-series data using an exponential smoothing technique is now supported in line and spline charts.

Usability improvement in Smartsheet connector

Now frame the URL endpoint automatically by navigating to the required report or sheet in Smartsheet using a new file browser wizard.

Conclusion

This blog article gives you a brief summary on each of the feature included in this update.

Now, Bold BI^® offers solutions for the  Oil and Gas and Pharmaceutical industries, too. Get started with Bold BI by signing up for a free trial and create more interactive business intelligence dashboards. Bold BI also offers enterprise and embedded dashboard solutions. Read this blog post for more detail.

If you have any questions or need clarification, please use the comments section available below. You can also contact us by submitting your questions on the Bold BI contact page, or if you already have an account, you can log in to submit your support question.

These days, businesses are moving to the cloud for more accessibility and security without the hassle of infrastructure maintenance. Applications are being hosted in the cloud and offered as SaaS. However, based on the nature of their business, some companies prefer complete control over their data and application host infrastructure, which an enterprise solution can accomplish.

With the release on Aug. 29, 2019, Syncfusion adds two new variants to its business intelligence dashboard platform, Bold BI^®, which already comprises a cloud solution: Enterprise and Embedded. Let’s see the key features each of these new variants comes with.

Bold BI Enterprise

Bold BI lets you have full control over your company’s dashboard experience by keeping your data on your servers. It includes:

• Multi-tenant mode for SaaS applications and similar use cases.
• An integrated, web-based designer that is easy to deploy and use.
• Complete support for custom branding.
• Multi-factor authentication with Active Directory and Office 365 integration.
• Support for 150+ data sources including Salesforce, SQL Server, Amazon Redshift, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, and PostgreSQL.
• Deployment on AWS GovCloud or Azure Government.
• Cost-effective pricing plans with no per-server fees.
• All prominent features of the Bold BI Cloud solution that are enterprise-compliant.

Bold BI Embedded

Bold BI lets you integrate Bold BI dashboards into your business applications directly. It includes:

• Deployment in any form that suits your needs with no development effort.
• Complete support for custom branding.
• Multi-factor authentication with Active Directory and Office 365 integration.
• Cost-effective distribution pricing models. One flat, monthly price per application for distribution and embedding. No extra charges per customer, per server, etc.

Conclusion

More development will come soon. You can track it through the release history page. Get started with Bold BI^® by signing up for a free trial and create more interactive business intelligence dashboards. If you have any questions on this blog, please feel free to post them in the following comment section. You can also contact us by submitting your questions through the Bold BI website or, if you already have an account, you can log in to submit your support question.

QuickBooks is accounting software offering tools for small businesses, accountants and individuals. QuickBooks doesn’t require its users to be accounting experts, thereby keeping everything simplified and easily accessible. You can track income, expenses, invoiced and accepted payments, sales, sales tax, inventory, and bills with metrics from your QuickBooks account. This blog article will walk through you how to integrate QuickBooks Online data with Bold BI dashboards and create a tracking dashboard.

If you are new to Bold BI Dashboards, sign up for a free 30-day trial on our website. At the end of the registration process, you will reach the following page view.

Before getting into the data fetch process, ensure you have a QuickBooks Online account with your company or client details to analyze.

Getting QuickBooks Online data

The QuickBooks Online Accounting API is a RESTful API through which QuickBooks companies can be accessed.

Its format looks like the following.

Defining required metrics for dashboard

To track income, expenses, customer receivables and vendor payables, the following metrics will be useful to showcase in the dashboard:

• Invoice – Unpaid
• Invoice – Unpaid – Due
• Sales Receipt – Paid
• Invoice – Unpaid – Overdue
• Invoice – Paid
• Accounts Receivables (A/R) Balance with due days split
• Accounts Payables (A/P) Balance with due days split
• A/R Balance by customer
• A/P Balance by vendor

In the previous list, Invoice and Sales Receipt need to be considered different modes of income.

Connecting to QuickBooks Online

1. As you are already on the homepage, click the Create Data Source button under the Data Sources icon as highlighted below. 

   

   Consequently, the supported data connectors get listed like in the following.

   

2. Furthermore, in the Categories drop-down list at the top, choose the category Finance.

   

3. Likewise, choose the QuickBooks Online connector. As a result, the Accounts dialog window opens. Consequently, window shows a list of the QuickBooks accounts in the drop-down that are already configured by you.

   

4. Furthermore, choose one from the list and click Continue. Certainly, if you haven’t yet, click Connect a new account and register your QuickBooks Online account to access its data from the Bold BI Dashboards application.

   

   

   As a result, Create Data Source window opens like the following.

   

Likewise, for tracking metrics, the following lists the data sources that need to be created and what for.

Creating a QuickBooks Online data source

1. Name the data source BillData.
2. In the URL section, fill the following API endpoint URL (replace the company ID in the placeholder) and click Preview & Connect.
   

   https://quickbooks.api.intuit.com/v3/company/<:company_id>/query?query=select%20%2a%20from%20bill

   

3. Therefore, the Choose Table(s) window opens. Furthermore, select the required columns and click Connect.

   

4. Consequently, the data source window opens in the dashboard designer. Also, drag and drop the table on the left to the table design view. Finally, click Save and Exit on the top right corner menu.

   

5. As a result, the data sources list window opens. Furthermore, click Create Data Source and create the other data sources listed previously. Also, the names and URLs for those data sources are listed in the following table.
   

   Data source	URL
   InvoiceData	https://quickbooks.api.intuit.com/v3/company/<:company_id>/query?query=select%20%2a%20from%20invoice
   PurchasedData	https://quickbooks.api.intuit.com/v3/company/<:company_id>/query?query=select%20%2a%20from%20purchase
   SalesRecData	https://quickbooks.api.intuit.com/v3/company/<:company_id>/query?query=select%20%2a%20from%20salesreceipt
   CustomerData	https://quickbooks.api.intuit.com/v3/company/<:company_id>/query?query=select%20%2a%20from%20customer

   

Creating a dashboard

1. Click the Home icon on the left to navigate to the homepage.

   

2. Select the New Dashboard tile. As a result, a blank dashboard is created and opened.

   

3. Select the data source icon on the right. As a result, the data source panel expands as shown in the following.

   

4. Furthermore, select Use Existing to open the existing data source listing in the same panel.

   

5. Also, choose the data sources we created in the beginning one at a time and select ADD. Finally, all five data sources get added to the dashboard and listed in the DATA SOURCES panel like in the following. 

   

6. Similarly, in the dashboard design view, drag these listed widgets from the toolbox to showcase required metrics.

   Metric	Widget Type
   Invoice – Unpaid	Card
   Overdue Amount	Card
   Due Amount	Card
   Invoice – Paid	Card
   Sales Receipt – Paid	Card
   Expenses	Card
   A/R Balance (by days past due)	Column Chart
   A/P Balance (by days past due)	Column Chart
   Customer Balance Overview	Grid
   Vendor Balance Overview	Grid

7. Finally, select Publish in the Save drop-down menu at the top-left to save and publish the dashboard to the server.

Editing a data source

Some of the data sources need to be edited to shape the data before showcasing it in widgets.

Editing BillData data source

1. To start with, click the edit icon near the data source BillData listed in the DATA SOURCES panel. As a result, the data source design view page opens like in the following.

   

2. Furthermore, select the fx icon in the toolbar to open the expression designer.
3. Also, enter the name Due Split and an expression like in the following. Consequently, this expression column is required to show the A/P to vendors split by different ranges of due days to prioritize your focus.

   IF(DAYDIFF(TODAY(),[DueDate])>=’0′,’0 or less’,IF(DAYDIFF([DueDate],TODAY()) < 31,’1 ~ 30′,IF(DAYDIFF([DueDate],TODAY()) < 61,’31 ~ 60′,IF(DAYDIFF([DueDate],TODAY()) < 91,’61 ~ 90′,’Over 90′))))

   

4. Furthermore, click Save in the expression designer.
5. Finally, click Save in the data design page to save the expression update with the data source.

Editing InvoiceData data source

1. Similarly, click the edit icon near the data source InvoiceData listed in the DATA SOURCES panel.
2. Likewise, in the data source design view page, select the filter icon in the toolbar to open the Query Filters dialog window.
3. Furthermore, select + ADD at the top-right corner. Also, from the new row item added below it, choose the DetailType (QueryResponse_Invoice_Line) column.

   

4. Also, in the third drop-down list showing values, check only the SalesItemLineDetail value and uncheck all others. Click Apply.
5. Hence, click OK in the window to save the filter created.
6. In addition, select the fx icon in the toolbar, to open the expression designer.
7. Create four expression columns listed in the following table with their respective reasons. Hence, click Save for each.

   Name	Expression	Reason
   Paid	[TotalAmt]-[Balance]	To showcase the amount paid by customers from invoices.
   Overdue Amount	IF([DueDate]<TODAY(),[Balance],0)	To showcase in the card the overdue amount from invoices as part of the income.
   Due Amount	IF([DueDate]>=TODAY(),[Balance],0)	To showcase in the card the due amount from invoices as part of the income.
   Due Split	IF(DAYDIFF(TODAY(),[DueDate])>=’0′,’0 or less’,IF(DAYDIFF([DueDate],TODAY()) < 31,’1 ~ 30′,IF(DAYDIFF([DueDate],TODAY()) < 61,’31 ~ 60′,IF(DAYDIFF([DueDate],TODAY()) < 91,’61 ~ 90′,’Over 90′))))	To showcase the A/R from customers split by different ranges of due days to prioritize your focus.

8. Finally, click Save in the data design page to save the expressions update with the data source.

Editing PurchasedData data source

1. Further, open the PurchasedData data source design page like we’ve done for the other data sources.
2. Likewise, click the filter icon in the toolbar to open the Query Filters dialog window.
3. Similarly, select + ADD at the top-right corner. Certainly, from the new row item added below it, choose the DetailType column.
4. After that, in the third drop-down list showing values, check only the AccountBasedExpenseLineDetail value and uncheck all others. Hence, click Apply.
5. Furthermore, click OK in the window to save the filter created.
6. Finally, click Save in the data design page to save the filter update with the data source.

Editing SalesRecData data source

1. Further, open the SalesRecData data source design page like we’ve done for the other data sources.
2. Likewise, click the filter icon in the toolbar to open the Query Filters dialog window.
3. Similarly, select + ADD at the top-right corner. Certainly, from the new row item added below it, choose the DetailType column.
4. After that, in the third drop-down list showing values, check only the SalesItemLineDetail value and uncheck all others. Hence, click Apply.
5. Furthermore, click OK in the window to save the filter created.
6. Finally, select Save in the data design page, to save the filter update with the data source.

Configuring widgets in a dashboard

Configure the widgets in the dashboard with corresponding data sources as described in the following table.

1. To start with, select a widget in the dashboard design area and click the gear icon (Settings) in the top-right corner. As a result, this opens the properties panel on the right.

   

2. Further, navigate to the ASSIGN DATA tab, select the data source in the combo box on the top. Also, start configuring the columns in their proper sections as shown in the previous table.

   

3. In addition, repeat this process for all the widgets placed in the dashboard.
4. Hence, save the dashboard. Finally the dashboard is ready.

   

Sharing the dashboard

Now, share this dashboard with your customers. With their accounts configured to use the Bold BI Dashboard platform, they can start exploring their financial data like this in order to make better decisions. We hope this article helps you build a tracking dashboard with QuickBooks Online data using the Bold BI Dashboard Platform. If you have any questions on this blog, please feel free to post them in the following comment section. Get started with Bold BI by signing up for a free 30-day trial and create more interactive business intelligence dashboards. You can also contact us by submitting your questions through the Bold BI website or, if you already have an account, you can log in to submit your support question.

Zendesk is well-known for its product offerings in customer service and engagement. Since it meets many business needs, it has been adopted by many organizations worldwide. With Zendesk, communicating with customers will be easy and efficient making the customer experience better. For companies doing any kind of business, customer service plays a key role in their success in the market, so it is necessary for them to improve themselves by monitoring their customer service performance. To accomplish this, they can get the support data they need from Zendesk and do the analytics with Bold BI  Dashboards. This article will walk you through building a customer service performance-monitoring dashboard with your Zendesk support data using Bold BI Dashboards.

If you are new to Bold BI Dashboards, sign up for a free 30-day trial on our website. At the end of the registration process, you will reach the following page view.

Defining metrics for support performance monitoring

Support team performance can be measured by customers’ experiences with your support and their level of expectations met. To monitor the support performance of your team, let us consider the following metrics.

• Support tickets created over time.
• Support tickets closed over time.
• Satisfaction score and comment for each closed ticket.
• Tickets handled by priority.
• Tickets by status over a time period.
• Closed tickets ratio by satisfaction score.
• Satisfaction score received by support agent.

Getting Zendesk data

The Zendesk Support API allows you to read, update and create data in Zendesk support instances through API requests.

The base URL format for the Zendesk Support API is,
https://<domainname>.zendesk.com/api/v2/<yourendpoint>

Assuming you have a verified user account, authorize against the Zendesk Support API using basic authentication with your email address and password.

For our demo dashboard data preparation, the tickets and users endpoints need to be utilized as illustrated in the following table.

Creating a dashboard and data sources

Creating a new blank dashboard

1. Select the New Dashboard tile in the homepage of Bold BI Dashboards, hence the Create Dashboard window opens with four options.

   

2. Choose Start from Scratch. As a result, the Dashboard Designer page opens with a new blank dashboard created.

   

Connecting to Zendesk

1. Select the data source icon at the right. As a result, the data source panel will expand as shown in the following.

   

2. Select CREATE NEW in the previous panel. As a result, it shows the list of data connectors like in the following.

   

3. Choose the category Sales & CRM in the Categories drop-down list. As a result, it shows the data connectors available under this category like in the following.

   

4. Choose the Zendesk connector. As a result, the Zendesk data connection window will be displayed in the panel.
    

   

Certainly, for the required metrics, you need to create three data sources using Zendesk connection for specific purposes listed below.

Creating a data source with Zendesk support data

1. First of all, to start with first data source, name it ZendeskSupportTickets in the Name field of the NEW DATA SOURCE window.
2. In the URL section, fill in the users endpoint URL as shown in the following and replace the {domainname} placeholder with your account domain name.
   https://{domainname}.zendesk.com/api/v2/tickets.json
3. Leave the default value GET selected under the Method section. Also, leave the Header(s) section empty.
4. Furthermore, define the refresh settings with an interval. Due to this way, the dashboard can refresh itself with the latest data updates.
5. Let the Data Format be JSON since the Users and Tickets API endpoints return result in JSON format.
6. Set the Authentication Type to Basic Http Authentication.
7. Fill the User Name with the email address of your account and Password with your password like in the following.

   

8. Click Preview & Connect. As a result, a window opens listing the data results, categorized into a table and columns like in the following.

   

9. Choose the desired columnsa and click Connect. As a result, the data source with the selected table and columns is created.
10. Similarly, create the other two data sources ZendeskSupportAgents with the Tickets API and ZendeskTicketUsers with the Users API as shown in the following.
    https://{domainname}.zendesk.com/api/v2/users.json

    

Editing the data source

Certainly, to find out the names of the users who submitted tickets and their attending agents, join the tickets table with the users table. To do so:

1. Furthermore, navigate to the dashboard design page and expand the DATA SOURCES panel at the right.
2. Click the Edit icon near the ZendeskSupportTickets data source to open it. As a result, the data source window opens.
3. To join the users table with tickets table, expand the Shared Tables panel at the bottom of the tree view panel at left like in the following.

   

4. As a result, this panel lists the data sources you created previously or that were shared with you. Scroll down to see the ZendeskTicketUsers data source. Furthermore, expand, select and drag the table usersjson to the table design view. Therefore, the join editor window opens like in the following.

   

5. First, select the requester_id field under ticketsjson table and the id field under usersjson table. Then, click Merge.
6. Therefore, to consolidate the different statuses of closed tickets, like resolved or closed into one to be considered for measurement, two expressions are needed. Hence, open the expression editor from the icon in the toolbar and create the expression columns listed in the following table.

   Name	Expression
   Closed Tickets	IF([status]=’solved’ OR [status]=’closed’,1,0)
   Status Name	IF([status]=’solved’,’closed’,[status])

7. Finally, save the data source.

Edit the ZendeskSupportAgents data source

1. Similarly, edit the ZendeskSupportAgents data source. However, in the join editor window, select assignee_id field under ticketsjson table and id field under usersjson table. Then, click Merge.
2. However, to assess the support agent performance, scores need to be classified as good or bad. Furthermore, two expressions are needed like in the following.
   

   Name	Expression
   Good Score	IF([score]=’good’,1,0)
   Bad Score	IF([score]=’bad’,1,0)

   
   

   

3. Finally, save the data source.

Configuring widgets in the dashboard

Configure the widgets in the dashboard with corresponding data sources as described in the following table. First of all, select the widget in the design canvas to configure using mouse. Consequently, click the Widget Settings icon at the top-right corner of the focused border. As a result, the panel on the right side expands left. After that, choose the ASSIGN DATA tab and finally start configuring the mentioned fields at corresponding sections.

Finally, the Zendesk dashboard is ready.

Sharing the Zendesk dashboard

Now, share this Zendesk dashboard with your customer service team to show them their performance and customers’ experiences with them and so that they can find areas to improve. We hope this article helps you build a support team performance monitoring dashboard with Zendesk data using Bold BI Dashboards. If you have any questions on this blog, please feel free to post them in the following comment section. Get started with Bold BI by signing up for a free 30-day trial and create more interactive business intelligence dashboards. You can also contact us by submitting your questions through the Bold BI website or, if you already have an account, you can log in to submit your support question.

In this business world, secure and automated communication plays a vital role in success. Twilio offers a platform for this. This article will walk you through building an activity dashboard with your Twilio data with which your support team can track phone calls made and received, messages sent and received over time, and their costs using Bold BI Dashboards.

If you are new to Bold BI Dashboards, sign up for a free 30-day trial on our website. At the end of the registration process, you will reach the following page view.

What is Twilio?

Twilio is a cloud communications platform offering communication APIs for developers to make, receive, and control phone calls and messaging from apps, embed live video and audio in apps, and perform authentication. Through these web service APIs, businesses of any size can benefit in terms of marketing campaigns, upcoming announcements, trip scheduling, etc., through secured communication.

Defining metrics for activity tracking

In this blog post, we are going to create a dashboard showcasing calls and SMS activities with your Twilio data to get better insights and make quick decisions for your support team. Hence, the following metrics are needed:

• Number of messages
• Number of calls
• Call prices
• Call durations
• Message prices
• Message breakdown by direction
• Call breakdown by direction
• Messages by status
• Calls by status
• Duration of calls over time

Getting Twilio data

Twilio’s Voice API allows you to make and manage calls programmatically. Likewise, Twilio’s SMS API allows you to send and manage messages programmatically.

The base URL for Twilio REST API is, https://api.twilio.com/2010-04-01.

HTTP requests to the Twilio’s Voice API and SMS API are protected with HTTP Basic authentication. Hence, your Twilio’s AccountSid will be the username and your AuthToken will be the password.

Further, you can find those details in your console. Also this blog walkthrough uses only this form of authentication.

However, the other form of authentication is through creating an API key in your console. Hence, for this case, your API Key’s Sid will be the username and your API Key’s Secret will be the password.

The required Twilio REST API endpoints are illustrated in the following table for reference.

Creating a dashboard and data sources

Firstly, decide the dashboard layout and the widgets needed to visualize the planned metrics. Then, add those widgets from the toolbox to the dashboard layout.

Creating a new blank dashboard

1. Select the New Dashboard tile in the homepage of the Bold BI Dashboards.         

   

2. As a result, the Create Dashboard window opens with four options. 

   

3. Choose Start from Scratch. Finally, the Dashboard Designer page opens with a new blank dashboard created.

   

Connecting to Twilio

1. First, select the data source icon at the right. Consequently, the data source panel will expand as shown in the following.

   

2. Select CREATE NEW in the previous panel. As a result, this shows the list of data connectors like in the following.

   

3. In the Categories drop-down list at the top, choose the category Support. Consequently, it shows the data connectors available under Support category like in the following.

   

4. Choose the Twilio connector. As a result, the Twilio data connection window will be displayed in the panel.
    

   

Creating a Twilio data source

1. Firstly, name the data source as TwilioCallsData.
2. In the URL section, fill the calls endpoint URL as shown in the following and replace the {AccountSid} placeholder with your account Sid.
   https://api.twilio.com/2010-04-01/Accounts/{AccountSid}/Calls.json
3. Leave the default value GET selected under the Method section. Also, leave the Header(s) section empty.
4. In addition, define the refresh settings with the interval. Furthermore, the dashboard can refresh itself with the latest data updates.
5. Let the Data Format be JSON since the Calls and Messages API endpoints return result in JSON format.
6. Set the Authentication Type to Basic Http Authentication since Twilio API supports this authentication type.
7. Enter the User Name with the account Sid and Password with the Auth Token like in the following.

   

8. Click Preview & Connect. As a result, a window opens listing the data results, categorized into a table and columns.

   

9. Finally, choose the desired columns and click Connect. Consequently, the data source with the selected table and columns is created like in the following.

   

Editing the Twilio data source

1. Furthermore, drag the table into the editing window.
2. Select the Expression icon in the toolbar of the table design view like in the following. Consequently, the expression editor opens.

   

3. Create an expression column named Amount with the expression like in the following. This is needed since the REST API returned values are all strings by default and this column value needs to undergo an aggregation process (SUM).

   

4. Also, save and close the expression editor.
5. Click Save to save the data source. Consequently, the data sources panel lists the created data source like in the following.

   

6. Similarly, create a data source named TwilioSMSData with a Messages endpoint URL like in the following and create an Amount expression column like previously discussed.
   https://api.twilio.com/2010-04-01/Accounts/{AccountSid}/Messages.json

Finally, the created data sources will get added in the DATA SOURCES panel like in the following.

Configuring widgets in a dashboard

Configure the widgets in the dashboard with corresponding data sources as described in the following table.

For display-level formatting like currency format, elements visibility in charts such as, legend, value labels, etc., make relevant changes through the Properties tab of individual widgets. Finally, the dashboard is ready.

Sharing your dashboard

Now, share this dashboard with your support team to assess the call and SMS statistics over time and make business decisions quicker. We hope this article helps you build a support tracker dashboard with Twilio data using Bold BI Dashboards.If you have any questions on this blog, please feel free to post them in the following comment section. Get started with Bold BI by signing up for a free 30-day trial and create more interactive business intelligence dashboards. You can also contact us by submitting your questions through the Bold BI website or, if you already have an account, you can log in to submit your support question.

Campaigns play a vital role in promoting a product to customers. Marketing campaigns are not limited to only advertisement. They can be in many forms, such as promotional emails and partnership programs. To monitor campaign performance, you need to have the performance metric defined with benchmarks and targets. This article will walk you through the steps to measure an email campaign’s performance through connecting your Mailchimp and Salesforce CRM data with the Bold BI Dashboards. If you are new to Bold BI, sign up for a free 30-day trial on our website. At the end of the registration process, you will reach the following page view.

What is Mailchimp?

Mailchimp is a marketing platform for growing businesses. It lets you create sophisticated campaigns and gather insights on your successful ones for your next move. Mailchimp gives you the tools to create emails, Facebook ads, Instagram ads, landing pages, Google remarketing ads, signup forms, postcards and to automate your work. Mailchimp also works with e-commerce solutions and web services.

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce is a customer relationship management (CRM) platform. It offers individual CRM applications for sales, service, marketing, and more that can be setup and managed even by non-technical end users. Both small businesses and large-scale enterprises can easily use Salesforce CRM.

How Mailchimp and Salesforce data can be linked

The Email Campaign created in Mailchimp gives you details about the list of members targeted through promotional emails. Also, it helps to identify interested subscribers through the activity data like the number of opens. Marketing people can then convert these qualified leads into contacts, accounts, and opportunities in Salesforce CRM.

Defining metrics to showcase campaign performance

In this blog post, we will be looking at email campaigns and monitoring each of their performances by the lead conversion rate. We will look at the following metrics:

• Mail recipients
• Opens
• Clicks
• Open rate
• Click rate
• Bounces
• Top lead sources
• Leads conversion
• Campaign revenue
• Revenue won

Getting Mailchimp data

Through Mailchimp API 3.0, get the email campaign statistics such as open rate, click rate, and subscriber contacts to estimate the possible conversions. Also, to enable the connection with your Mailchimp account, your username and API key are needed. Furthermore, for API key generation, your account should have an admin or manager role. After that, generate the API key. Therefore, the REST API endpoints needed to get the Mailchimp data are available at https://usX.api.mailchimp.com/3.0/ where, usX should be the last part of your Mailchimp API key.

Firstly, create a data source with this connection endpoint in Bold BI Dashboards. Consequently, this gives you the Mailchimp campaign data required to find the leads and convert them into contacts, accounts and opportunities.

Getting Salesforce data

Further, the next step is to create contacts and leads in Salesforce CRM for marketing people. Certainly, this is needed to estimate the campaign performance with converted leads and opportunities. Note: Assuming the subscribers with the most opens had been considered as criteria for Salesforce CRM entry. Also, that the campaign names are the same in both the Salesforce CRM and Mailchimp campaigns. Also, to enable the connection with your Salesforce account, your username and password are required. Hence, the Salesforce data can be fetched using the SOQL query. The following table showcases the required tables and fields needed to prepare data for the dashboard.

Creating a dashboard and data sources

First, decide the dashboard layout and the widgets needed to visualize the planned views. Consider the following dashboard layout with the required widgets to showcase the campaign performance.

Creating a new blank dashboard

1. To create a new dashboard, select the New Dashboard tile in the homepage of the Bold BI Dashboards.

   

2. As a result, the Create Dashboard window opens with four options.

   

3. Choose Start from Scratch. Finally, the Dashboard Designer page opens with a new blank dashboard created.

   

Connecting to Mailchimp

1. First, select the data source icon at the right. Consequently, the data source panel expands as shown in the following.

   

2. Further, select CREATE NEW in the previous panel. Consequently, the list of data connectors will be shown.

   

3. Likewise, in the Categories drop-down list at the top, choose the category Email Campaign.

   

4. Choose the Mailchimp connector. As a result, the Mailchimp data connection window will be displayed in the panel.

   

Creating a Mailchimp data source

1. Firstly, name the data source MailCampaigns.
2. Also, in the URL section, fill the campaigns endpoint URL.
3. Further, leave the default value GET selected under the Method section.
4. Likewise, under Max Rows section, set the maximum number of rows to be fetched. The default is 10.
5. Leave the Header(s) section empty, if you have your account username and API key to enter. Otherwise, add the authorization header with the corresponding value like in the following. Also, set the Authentication Type to None.

   Header	Value
   Authorization	apikey {your_api_key}

   

6. After that, define the refresh settings with the interval. As a result, the dashboard can refresh itself with the latest data updates.
7. Let the Data Format be JSON since the Mailchimp API endpoint returns result in JSON format.
8. In addition, if the Authentication Type is set to Basic Http Authentication, enter the user name and API key in the corresponding fields.

   

9. Click Preview & Connect. As a result, a window opens listing the data results, categorized into a table and columns.
10. Choose the desired columns. After that, click Connect. Consequently, the data source with the selected table and columns is created.

    

11. Also, drag and drop the table into the editing window.
12. Furthermore, click Save to save the data source.

Finally, the data source has been created. The data sources panel lists the created data source like in the following.

Connecting to Salesforce

1. First, select CREATE NEW in the DATA SOURCES panel. Consequently, it will display the list of data connectors.
2. Furthermore, in the Categories drop-down list at the top, choose the category Sales & CRM.

   
3. Choose the Salesforce connector. As a result, the Accounts window will be displayed to connect to your Salesforce account. Once the account details are configured, click Continue.

   

Finally, the Salesforce data connection window will be displayed in the panel.

Creating Salesforce data sources

For this blog post, create four data sources from the Salesforce connection. Their names and the SOQL queries are as listed in the following table.

Finally, the created data sources will get added in the DATA SOURCES panel like in the following.

Let’s see how to combine data sources from salesforce and MailChimp using shared tables.

Shared tables

For conversion calculation and comparative analysis in a dashboard, you need to join some of these data sources. Therefore, the CampaignLeads data source holding the Lead table needs to be joined with two tables. One is the Campaign table of the SalesforceCampaigns data source and the other is the CampaignMember table of the SalesforceCampaignMember data source. This is needed to associate the campaign name for Lead table access. Similarly, the CampaignOpportunities data source holding the Opportunity table needs to be joined with the Campaign table of the SalesforceCampaigns data source. This is needed to associate the campaign name for Opportunity table access. Hence, click the edit icon near the CampaignOpportunities data source item added in the DATA SOURCES panel.

Now, the editing view of the data source opens. Consequently, in the left panel, the Shared Tables pane is collapsed at the bottom.

Finally, this pane displays the data sources that you have permission to access. By default, the data sources you created before for this or any other dashboard will be listed here.

Joining with shared tables

1. First, choose the data source whose table need to be joined. In our case, the SalesforceCampaigns data source needs to be selected. After that, expand it.
2. Further, drag and drop the Campaign table in the design view.
3. Select the Join icon in the toolbar of the table design view to open the join editor.

   

4. Create a relationship between the two tables through the CampaignId column as shown in the following.

   

5. Likewise, the same needs to be done for the CampaignLeads data source table joining shown in the following.

   

6. Further, select the Expression icon in the toolbar of the table design view. Consequently, the expression editor opens.

   

7. Create three expression columns in the CampaignOpportunities data source with the following listed expressions.
   

   Name	Expression
   Open Opportunities	IF([IsClosed]=’false’,1,0)
   Expected Revenue	IF([IsClosed]=’false’,[Amount],0)
   Revenue Won	IF([IsWon]=’true’,[Amount],0)

Finally, the combined data from multiple data sources are ready to configure with dashboard widgets.

Configuring widgets in dashboard

1. First, configure the widgets in the dashboard with corresponding data sources as described in the following table.
   

   Widget	Data Configuration
   Campaign (Type: Combo Box)	Date source: MailCampaigns Column: Title
   Recipients (Type: Card)	Data source: MailCampaigns Actual Value: Recipients Aggregation Type: Sum
   Opened (Type: Card)	Data source: MailCampaigns Actual Value: Opens Aggregation Type: Sum
   Clicked (Type: Card)	Data source: MailCampaigns Actual Value: Clicked Aggregation Type: Sum
   Open Rate (Type: Card)	Data source: MailCampaigns Actual Value: Open Rate Aggregation Type: Avg
   Click Rate (Type: Card)	Data source: MailCampaigns Actual Value: Click Rate Aggregation Type: Avg
   Revenue Won (Type: Card)	Data source: CampaignOpportunities Actual Value: Revenue Won Aggregation Type: Sum
   Open Opportunities (Type: Card)	Data source: CampaignOpportunities Actual Value: Open Opportunities Aggregation Type: Sum
   Expected Revenue (Type: Card)	Data source: CampaignOpportunities Actual Value: Expected Revenue Aggregation Type: Sum
   Subscribers Conversion (Type: Funnel Chart)	Data source: SalesforceCampaigns Value(s) NumberOfWonOpportunities NumberOfOpportunities NumberOfConvertedLeads NumberOfLeads
   Proportion of Revenue by Lead Sources (Type: Pie Chart)	Data source: CampaignOpportunities Value(s): Revenue Won Column(s): Lead Source
   Revenue won by Campaign (Type: Column Chart)	Data source: CampaignOpportunities Value(s): Revenue Won Column(s): Name
   Conversion Overview (Type: Grid)	Data source: CampaignLeads Column Id FirstName Email LeadSource IsConvertedFirst, configure the widgets in the dashboard with corresponding data sources as described in the following table.

2. After that, define the master-listener configuration to filter across the two different data sources like in the following.

   

3. Also, set Campaign widget as master.
4. Furthermore, make other widgets except Revenue won by Campaign widget as listeners to it.

Finally the dashboard is ready.

Sharing dashboard

You can share this dashboard with your marketing team to assess the campaign performance on the go. We hope this article helps you measure mail campaign performance with the statistical data of Mailchimp and Salesforce CRM. If you have any questions on this blog, please feel free to post them in the following comment section. Get started with Bold BI by signing up for a free 30-day trial and create more interactive business intelligence dashboards. You can also contact us by submitting your questions through the Bold BI website or, if you already have an account, you can log in to submit your support question.