Saturday, May 4, 2013

Xcelsius Interview Questions


1) Have you ever really worked in a real project with Xcelsius? 
2) Would you prefer QaaWS, Crystal Report Data, Live office or Bex connections or any other and if so why? 
3) What is the difference between a report, a dashboard, an infographic? 
4) Are you familiar with best practices and visual design principles? 
5) Do you know DesignStudio?

Why do I need Xcelsius?




It’s a tough crowd. You have to present business data to your Clients/colleagues, but you know audiences are easily bored by mind-numbing spreadsheets. And traditional charts and graphs aren’t much better—static, staid, and standardized, they’ve all begun to look the same.

One of our clients once asked us to show 5 matrices for 5 competitors and 3 products, this would have required 15 Charts ON 8 SLIDES !!! Imagine going through these slides one by one



Instead, we gave them an Xcelsius dashboard. All the chats were generated on the fly just by changing a drop down. (See some dashboard examples here). The dashboards themselves tell a great deal about this tool.
Crystal Xcelsius makes it easier for us to create engaging, interactive dashboards and business presentations from ordinary spreadsheets- giving our clients greater insights into the data, and ensuring our audiences make smart decisions. The dashboards can easily be exported '.PDF', '.PPT', '.SWF', '.HTM', '.DOC' . The presentation below tells everything that a person, new to this tool, needs to know to get started. (Picked up from the original Xcelsius website- which no longer exists, no copyright infringement intended)

SAMPLE DASHBOARDS IN XCELSIUS



Share and exchange your dashboard design (Xcelsius) knowledge and models with other experts just like you. Learn how you can upload your own content here.

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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 588 KB)
This dashboard uses Drill down feature in xcelsius in combination with Excel VLookup function to pass information from one chart to another chart.08 Sep 2011
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 599 KB)
This Dashboard gives a quick snapshot of sales, profits, market value, number of companies by industry.08 Sep 2011
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Report/Dashboard Sample(ZIP 1 MB)
This zip file includes 4 ZIP files that will work with either SAP Crystal Presentation Design 2011, SAP Crystal Dashboard Design 2011, or SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.x. They include a compensation dashboard, a monthly sales dashboard, a profitability dashboard, and a recruiting dashboard.12 Jun 2011
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 1 MB)
Altek Solutions, Inc. submission to the SCN Winter Olympic Challenge.23 Feb 2011
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Report/Dashboard Sample(ZIP 1 MB)
this is a dashboard of the company's sales performance.13 Oct 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 2 MB)
This is a dashboard recording the data and information of the under going Formula 1 2010 Season. A wonderful present for every F1 Fan. Using this dashboard you can get almost whatever information you want about Teams, Drivers and Races result ! Even you can find players position in every lap of one race.(Some race data is not provided because the data is not found on F1 official website or the race does not happen yet) Enjoy it!29 Sep 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(PDF 714 KB)
analysis Sale of Commercialized Buildings using the data from government web29 Sep 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 788 KB)
With a little Photoshop skills and some Dynamic Visibility, the Chart gets an interesting facelift. You can choose between chart types from the top menu. Also look for the tiny medals tally button to see a snapshot of the medals tally by Country. Tried to keep the charts as clean as possible and added the little sport icons to the charts to give a distinct look.13 Jun 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 494 KB)
Results from the Crystal Dashboard Design (Xcelsius) Challenge - based on Winter Olympics Poll10 Jun 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(PDF 525 KB)
The Xcelsius dashboard is created based on the Winter sports with count of each sports. I have used Column chart and spread sheet,to better understand abt the column chart that I have created.01 Jun 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 1 MB)
Vancouver Winter Olympics Dashboard with SCN poll results and "Medal Analysis".02 May 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 906 KB)
This SWF file is a Dashboard created using Xcelsius on SCN Community Poll Results - What is your favourite Winter Olympics sport to follow?29 Apr 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 2 MB)
This dashboard contains two add-on components from http://xcomponents.blogspot.com and many components and features available in the latest Xcelsius 2008 fix pack.27 Apr 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 497 KB)
Report sample developed a dashboard using a Bar chart and Pie Chart.26 Apr 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 1 MB)
This Xcelsius document was created in Xcelsius 2008 SP2. I tried to use many of the components available in this version for the Xcelsius challenge. I had a lot of fun creating this dashboard for the SCN Winter Olympic Poll Results!22 Apr 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 1 MB)
Dashboard depicting the SCN Winter Olympics Poll Results with some additional Olympic data add-ons. Part of the XCelsius Challenge initiative of learning a BO Dashboarding tool.20 Apr 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 597 KB)
Here goes my contribute to this contest. Had fun using the Xcelsius Dashboard. It contains a major column chart of the poll results with a grid above displaying the results when you pass the mouse over the values. There are also two more column charts of the Top 5 and Bottom 5 poll results controlled by a push button. Also there is a pie chart of the poll results percentage.30 Mar 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 810 KB)
Xcelsius Challenge for Community Poll Results29 Mar 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 687 KB)
Xcelsius Dashboard showing result of community poll, medails per country of winter games 2006 and 2010, tune the votes and some info.29 Mar 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 949 KB)
This is the Xcelsius SCN Winter Olympics Poll 2010 dashboard challenge.24 Mar 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 2 MB)
This dashboard designed by Yunus KALDIRIM for learning how to better use Xcelsius , showcase dashboard design talent and Xcelsius know-how.16 Mar 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 679 KB)
This is a an XCelsius Dashboard that can display the SAP NetWeaver Process Integration landscape information.10 Mar 2010
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Report/Dashboard Sample(ZIP 526 KB)
Did you know that you can embed Flash files into your Crystal Xcelsius dashboards and data presentations? This article shows you how to add some pizzazz to your Crystal Xcelsius models using the Image Component. You'll learn how to find and integrate Flash components into your models — resulting in some exciting effects like dynamic sliders, hidden boxes, menus and more.02 Dec 2008
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Report/Dashboard Sample(ZIP 27 KB)
Using Alerts in a chart is a great way to incorporate conditional formatting, allowing your users to quickly measure performance—good or bad. In Excel, there is no such function as alerts in charts—or conditional formatting for that matter. Before Crystal Xcelsius came along, any conditional formatting had to be done with some clever charting tricks. I've found that because Crystal Xcelsius supports many of the existing functions in Excel, several of my old charting tricks work quite nicely in my dashboards.02 Dec 2008
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Report/Dashboard Sample(ZIP 274 KB)
Support files for the tutorial - Creating a Connected Model Using the Web Services Component in Xcelsius02 Dec 2008
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Report/Dashboard Sample(ZIP 184 KB)
Dynamic Visibility is a feature within Crystal Xcelsius 4.5 that lets the dashboard designer hide or show certain components based on a certain value (i.e. "1" or "0") found in a particular cell. When used in conjunction with selectors—such as the Label Based Menu or Toggle Button—that can insert numbers into a cell, the designer can create a multi-layered dashboard that lets the user quickly open or close various panels within the overall model.02 Dec 2008
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Report/Dashboard Sample(ZIP 320 KB)
Files that accompany the Crystal Xcelsius 4.5 tutorial, Simulating Pivot Table Functionality in Crystal Xcelsius02 Dec 2008
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Report/Dashboard Sample(ZIP 271 KB)
Support files for the tutorial, Using Flash Variables with Crystal Xcelsius 4.502 Dec 2008
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Report/Dashboard Sample(ZIP 1 MB)
This sample application will demonstrates how a user of Crystal Reports can embed and interact with Xcelsius Visualizations directly within their Crystal Reports file. There are a number of scenarios where report designers may desire using Xcelsius visualizations to add interactivity to their Crystal Report files. In this example, we take advantage of the following Xcelsius visualizations for the purpose of navigation.02 Dec 2008
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Report/Dashboard Sample(ZIP 559 KB)
This Xcelsius dashboard is for a hypothetical transportation company that has several different operating companies (ABC, XYZ and Acme), each of which provides transportation and logistics (trucking) in different regions of the country. The focus of the dashboard is on top customers based on revenue for the current week, ranked in a variety of ways.02 Dec 2008
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Report/Dashboard Sample(PDF 739 KB)
In October 2007 Adobe and Business Objects announced a partnership which has lead to a number of exciting new technology features. Xcelsius 2008 ships with a copy of Adobe LiveCycle Data Services. This partner ship makes it easy to create visually compelling dynamic dashboards that connect to real-time data updates. This presentation walks you through how to create a dashboard with access to real-time updates from the server.29 Oct 2008
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Report/Dashboard Sample(PDF 860 KB)
A corporate dashboard is critical for monitoring the daily health of an organization. It gives decision-makers concise, visual access to key performance indicators that drive the business. With Xcelsius|Enterprise XE, the award-winning software from Infommersion, users create and deploy corporate dashboards that make it easier than ever to identify critical data relationships, probe elaborate what-if scenarios, and peer into their company's financial future. By combining critical business data with the features of Macromedia FlashTM, Xcelsius gives users the power to convert data from ordinary Excel spreadsheets and XML-compliant company databases into dynamic dashboards and data presentations for Portals, PowerPoint and the Web. This guide provides a step-by-step guide to connecting Xcelsius|Enterprise XE data presentations to company databases using XML Maps in Excel 2003 for enterprise-wide reporting.26 Mar 2008
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Report/Dashboard Sample(ZIP 211 KB)
By Michael Alexander, author of the "Crystal Xcelsius for Dummies"26 Mar 2008
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Report/Dashboard Sample(ZIP 4 MB)
Mark Logic uses Xcelsius to create interactive performance dashboards leveraging its strong visualization capabilities. These visualization capabilities provide administrators with a succinct performance overview of a MarkLogic Server cluster. From there, an administrator can zero in on any performance related issues quickly and easily. Additionally, Xcelsius’ XML capabilities facilitated rapid integration with MarkLogic. These capabilities also enable creation of Xcelsius generated dashboards that provide insight into content stored in MarkLogic in an intuitive and easy to use fashion and enhance the existing administrative interfaces available with the product. This download (and other open source MarkLogic downloads) is also available at http://developer.marklogic.com.26 Mar 2008
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Report/Dashboard Sample(PDF 367 KB)
This document describes how to set up Web Services to dynamically refresh data (specifically written for version 4.0).26 Mar 2008
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Report/Dashboard Sample(ZIP 6 MB)
This file provides some examples of how to build logic into your Excel spreadsheet that will provide lookup capabilities in Xcelsius.26 Mar 2008
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 356 KB)
Interesting approach to displaying several hundred data points at a glance in an 'index' tree. This is the outcome of a culture survey where employees complete an on-line web survey. See more samples at inverra.com.09 Nov 2007
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 894 KB)
Financial benchmarking dashboard with two sets of metrics - the 'top 15' and 'the next 100'. Allows quick view of the most important financial KPIs while allowing operational managers to drill down. This dashboard was part of a benchmarking project for an association. Each participant received their own custom dashboard. See inverra.com for more dashboard samples.24 Aug 2007
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 303 KB)
Project Management Report and Project Dashboard. This project was designed to demonstrate the use of Crystal Xcelsius for the creation of Project Management reporting tools. This Project Performance Report is for the management of the construction of 5 main offices for Arco Corporation in 5 South American countries. The Project Performance Report is intended to be used as a reporting tool for Arco Corporation at all organizational levels. However, because the Dashboard piece in particular will be used to update Regional Managers in Spanish-speaking countries, Arco Corp. required the Dashboard section of the tool to be written in both English and Spanish and the supporting information included in the report could remain solely in English. In this demonstration, the concept of Earned Value Management is partially presented based on global standards from the Project Management Institute (PMI). Company names and all data are fictitious and were developed for demonstration purposes only.19 Aug 2007
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 1 MB)
Project Management Report and Project Dashboard. This project was designed to demonstrate the use of Crystal Xcelsius for the creation of Project Management reporting tools. This Project Performance Report is for the management of the construction of 5 main offices for Arco Corporation in 5 South American countries. The Project Performance Report is intended to be used as a reporting tool for Arco Corporation at all organizational levels. However, because the Dashboard piece in particular will be used to update Regional Managers in Spanish-speaking countries, Arco Corp. required the Dashboard section of the tool to be written in both English and Spanish and the supporting information included in the report could remain solely in English. In this demonstration, the concept of Earned Value Management is partially presented based on global standards from the Project Management Institute (PMI). Company names and all data are fictitious and were developed for demonstration purposes only.19 Aug 2007
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 342 KB)
Project Management Report and Project Dashboard. This project was designed to demonstrate the use of Crystal Xcelsius for the creation of Project Management reporting tools. This Project Performance Report is for the management of the construction of 5 main offices for Arco Corporation in 5 South American countries. The Project Performance Report is intended to be used as a reporting tool for Arco Corporation at all organizational levels. However, because the Dashboard piece in particular will be used to update Regional Managers in Spanish-speaking countries, Arco Corp. required the Dashboard section of the tool to be written in both English and Spanish and the supporting information included in the report could remain solely in English. In this demonstration, the concept of Earned Value Management is partially presented based on global standards from the Project Management Institute (PMI). Company names and all data are fictitious and were developed for demonstration purposes only.19 Aug 2007
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 453 KB)
Project Management Report and Project Dashboard. This project was designed to demonstrate the use of Crystal Xcelsius for the creation of Project Management reporting tools. This Project Performance Report is for the management of the construction of 5 main offices for Arco Corporation in 5 South American countries. The Project Performance Report is intended to be used as a reporting tool for Arco Corporation at all organizational levels. However, because the Dashboard piece in particular will be used to update Regional Managers in Spanish-speaking countries, Arco Corp. required the Dashboard section of the tool to be written in both English and Spanish and the supporting information included in the report could remain solely in English. In this demonstration, the concept of Earned Value Management is partially presented based on global standards from the Project Management Institute (PMI). Company names and all data are fictitious and were developed for demonstration purposes only.19 Aug 2007
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 363 KB)
Project Management Report and Project Dashboard. This project was designed to demonstrate the use of Crystal Xcelsius for the creation of Project Management reporting tools. This Project Performance Report is for the management of the construction of 5 main offices for Arco Corporation in 5 South American countries. The Project Performance Report is intended to be used as a reporting tool for Arco Corporation at all organizational levels. However, because the Dashboard piece in particular will be used to update Regional Managers in Spanish-speaking countries, Arco Corp. required the Dashboard section of the tool to be written in both English and Spanish and the supporting information included in the report could remain solely in English. In this demonstration, the concept of Earned Value Management is partially presented based on global standards from the Project Management Institute (PMI). Company names and all data are fictitious and were developed for demonstration purposes only.19 Aug 2007
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 357 KB)
Project Management Report and Project Dashboard. This project was designed to demonstrate the use of Crystal Xcelsius for the creation of Project Management reporting tools. This Project Performance Report is for the management of the construction of 5 main offices for Arco Corporation in 5 South American countries. The Project Performance Report is intended to be used as a reporting tool for Arco Corporation at all organizational levels. However, because the Dashboard piece in particular will be used to update Regional Managers in Spanish-speaking countries, Arco Corp. required the Dashboard section of the tool to be written in both English and Spanish and the supporting information included in the report could remain solely in English. In this demonstration, the concept of Earned Value Management is partially presented based on global standards from the Project Management Institute (PMI). Company names and all data are fictitious and were developed for demonstration purposes only.19 Aug 2007
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 789 KB)
Simple dashboard to track in-flight project status. This is intended to be distributed by project manager in advance of steering committee meetngs. Red / Blue to be highlighted verbally by PM in various face-to-face situations. See more samples at www.inverra.com15 Aug 2007
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Report/Dashboard Sample(SWF 973 KB)
Comprehensive human capital dashboard with selector inspired by the iPhone. Click metric name to see detail and click iPhone symbol to change the view to another division. Provided By: Patrick Quirk, Inverra Consulting, Inc. http://www.inverra.com/Dashboards/dashboards.htm02 Aug 2007