… and we’re back. How was your summer?

Some weeks ago, before the local real estate market rebounded somewhat and my home (which had been quietly on the market for some months) finally started having more showings than a lottery prize home, before we finally sold it, before I found out that I had less than six weeks to find, purchase and move my family into a new home, and most significantly, before a good friend of over twenty years tragically passed away in a motor vehicle accident, I promised that I’d continue a discussion about enhancing some data related to Chrysler’s dealership closure announcement.

It seems a little distant and perhaps a little irrelevant at this now late date. Instead, let’s catch up on a few events that have transpired over recent weeks, and attempt to get (and keep) the ball rolling on this site once again.

Updates to Monarch for International Users

Datawatch has been busy as they first released the German and then French versions of Monarch v10. The first patch to v10 was published, albeit somewhat quietly, bringing us to v10.01.

Regrettably, the patch seems to have a problem. Monarch forum member Nick Osdale-Popa reported a bug introduced by the application of the patch relating to the COM programming of Monarch, and Datawatch did confirm that the bug was introduced by the patch. At this point however, no other issues with the patch have surfaced publicly.

A New Monarch-Based Tool!

Finally, Datawatch recently announced the release of their latest product, “Datawatch Dashboards”. Check out a fully interactive demonstration of this new software at DatawatchDashboards.com.

Datawatch hosted some online live demonstrations and though I unfortunately wasn’t able to attend the event, I’m told that the product’s drill-through abilities and Monarch style filtering helped to showcase the product well.

The software seems to fit Datawatch’s mantra of their products providing the right information in the right place at the right time in the right format.

But as I say I have yet to see a full demonstration of the software myself, or discuss the software in detail with anyone who has used it or is otherwise informed about it.

You may recognize the name of Wayne Eckerson. He’s the author of the terrific book Performance Dashboards. I thought it very encouraging to read his recent favorable comments about Datawatch Dashboards.

While the functionality of the software seems to be very strong, and past experience with Datawatch’s products says that this shouldn’t be a surprise, I should say that I have some concerns about the implementation of certain of the graphical elements that have been chosen for inclusion in the product. I feel like this might come off as nit-picking, but I feel that it’s worth discussing.

Long time readers of this blog will know that from day one I’ve had a link to Stephen Few’s PerceptualEdge.com included on every page here. That’s because as a student of sorts of Mr. Few’s writings, I’ve had excellent feedback about the visual elements of my production work (which have most definitely been impacted by Mr. Few’s concepts), and based on this I feel that’s important to share his ideas with you.

Many of the visual elements in Datawatch Dashboards are the types of devices that Few rallies against simply because (I believe) he feels that other more effective devices should be used in their place.

Now I’m referring specifically to Mr. Few, but that are many in the field that side with his arguments. Of course, vocalizing his opinions strongly as he does also attracts a number of challengers.

With a product that is as flexible as Datawatch Dashboards seems to be, the inclusion of those specific elements is likely up to the designer/user. Perhaps there are settings that control the appearance of the graphical elements that could mitigate the more arguably detrimental effects somewhat. As I say, I’m not certain.

Graphically, I’m reminded very much of the software product called Xcelsius (a dashboarding product for use exclusively with Excel files) which included a number of options that controlled the appearance of the displayed elements.

As I say, I am as yet not fully versed in the Datawatch Dashboards product, so perhaps these comments could be seen as premature, but the sheer availability of things like 3D perspectives, doughnut and pyramid charts makes the product seem to be open to the same comments that other competitive software has attracted over recent years.

As the field of visual analysis progresses, has the role of the software provider stayed the same, or has it progressed along with the study of the field? That is, should the software provider build what the market expects (rightly or wrongly, based on what it’s familiar with), or should the provider build the product to provide the best tools for visual analysis and summarization regardless of what the market thinks it wants? I’m certainly no expert in the field; I’m only asking the question.

Having included portions on developing dashboards in my presentations at past Datawatch user conferences, I’m honestly thrilled to see Datawatch develop and market a product that helps us build dashboards to assist in managing our enterprises. And the fact that it’s built on Monarch technology like Monarch RMS and Monarch BI Server, makes it even better as it makes your Monarch skills that much more valuable.

School’s Back in Session

The kids have been back in school for a couple of weeks now, and it’s time to get back to the regular routines. For me, that includes writing about what crosses my mind as it relates to discovering how we can make the most of Excel and Monarch to better our organizations, ourselves, and every once in a while (hopefully), the world around us.

Over my “vacation” time I’ve come up with a number of things that I want to share with you, and I’m once again eager to do just that. Even with the unfortunate lack of new content posted here over the last while, the site has had plenty of activity. So thanks for sticking with me and this little journey. I really appreciate your support, and if I may, a special thanks to those who, over the last while, have contacted me via email and to the many who have elected to subscribe to the site updates by email – despite the lack of apparent updates. Your faith is inspirational.

Alright, that’s enough rambling. There’s plenty to do and discuss over the next months, and I’m genuinely looking forward to it. And I hope that you are too, and that you continue to accompany me as together we strive to excel with Monarch.