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About the Author
Michael D. Lairson began his career in 1993 in Charlotte, North Carolina,
as a technical writer after earning a BA in English at the University of North
Carolina, Charlotte. Mike moved into the instructional design field in 1995
and prepared training materials that ranged from manuals to high-end
multimedia applications for many companies. During this time, Mike
returned to UNC Charlotte to earn an M.Ed. in instructional systems
technology. Continuing to broaden his experience and explore professional
interest in evaluation and analysis led Mike to Siebel Systems, where he
worked as a certification exams developer for several years. In this role he
created the certification exams and the study materials for most of the Siebel
Certification exams and performed a large amount of reporting of exam
data. In the process of writing the CRM On Demand exam, Mike began to
take great interest in the application and moved to the training team as part
of the professional services organization. He has since continued to expand
his knowledge of the application and has established himself as an expert
resource for Oracle CRM On Demand—in particular, the reporting tool.
Mike remained with Oracle after the Siebel merger and played a key role in
the development of the Advanced Analytics Workshop training offered by
Oracle, as well as many other CRM On Demand training classes.
In September 2008, Mike’s first book, Oracle CRM On Demand
Reporting (McGraw-Hill, 2008), was published and immediately became
the definitive source of information on developing reports with Answers
On Demand. Currently working for Intelenex, Mike holds the position of
manager of business intelligence services and regularly develops analytic
reports and dashboards for his customers and offers custom training in
Oracle CRM On Demand reporting. When not working, Mike spends time

MHID: 0-07-174534-3.
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Oracle-Regular / Oracle CRM On Demand Dashboards / Michael D. Lairson / 174 534-3
WHAT IS THE PRIMARY BUSINESS ACTIVITY
OF YOUR FIRM AT THIS LOCATION? (check
one only)
o 01 Aerospace and Defense Manufacturing
o 02 Application Service Provider
o 03 Automotive Manufacturing
o 04 Chemicals
o 05 Media and Entertainment
o 06 Construction/Engineering
o 07 Consumer Sector/Consumer Packaged
Goods
o 08 Education
o 09 Financial Services/Insurance
o 10 Health Care
o 11 High Technology Manufacturing, OEM
o 12 Industrial Manufacturing
o 13 Independent Software Vendor

Staff
o 07 Consulting
o 08 DBA/Systems Administrator
o 09 Education/Training
o 10 Technical Support Director/Manager
o 11 Other Technical Management/Staff
o 98 Other
WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT PRIMARY OPERATING
PLATFORM (check all that apply)
o 01 Digital Equipment Corp UNIX/VAX/VMS
o 02 HP UNIX
o 03 IBM AIX
o 04 IBM UNIX
o 05 Linux (Red Hat)
o 06 Linux (SUSE)
o 07 Linux (Oracle Enterprise)
o 08 Linux (other)
o 09 Macintosh
o 10 MVS
o 11 Netware
o 12 Network Computing
o 13 SCO UNIX
o 14 Sun Solaris/SunOS
o 15 Windows
o 16 Other UNIX
o 98 Other
99
o None of the Above
DO YOU EVALUATE, SPECIFY, RECOMMEND,
OR AUTHORIZE THE PURCHASE OF ANY OF

HARDWARE
o 15 Macintosh
o 16 Mainframe
o 17 Massively Parallel Processing
o 18 Minicomputer
o 19 Intel x86(32)
o 20 Intel x86(64)
o 21 Network Computer
o 22 Symmetric Multiprocessing
o 23 Workstation Services
SERVICES
o 24 Consulting
o 25 Education/Training
o 26 Maintenance
o 27 Online Database
o 28 Support
o 29 Technology-Based Training
o 30 Other
99
o None of the Above
WHAT IS YOUR COMPANY’S SIZE?
(check one only)
o 01 More than 25,000 Employees
o 02 10,001 to 25,000 Employees
o 03 5,001 to 10,000 Employees
o 04 1,001 to 5,000 Employees
o 05 101 to 1,000 Employees
o 06 Fewer than 100 Employees
DURING THE NEXT 12 MONTHS, HOW MUCH
DO YOU ANTICIPATE YOUR ORGANIZATION

WHAT ORACLE PRODUCTS ARE IN USE AT YOUR
SITE? (check all that apply)
ORACLE DATABASE
o 01 Oracle Database 11
g
o 02 Oracle Database 10
g
o 03 Oracle9
i
Database
o 04 Oracle Embedded Database
(Oracle Lite, Times Ten, Berkeley DB)
o 05 Other Oracle Database Release
ORACLE FUSION MIDDLEWARE
o 06 Oracle Application Server
o 07 Oracle Portal
o 08 Oracle Enterprise Manager
o 09 Oracle BPEL Process Manager
o 10 Oracle Identity Management
o 11 Oracle SOA Suite
o 12 Oracle Data Hubs
ORACLE DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
o 13 Oracle JDeveloper
o 14 Oracle Forms
o 15 Oracle Reports
o 16 Oracle Designer
o 17 Oracle Discoverer
o 18 Oracle BI Beans
o 19 Oracle Warehouse Builder
o 20 Oracle WebCenter

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10

Pipeline 9
Sales Effectiveness 11
Customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Marketing Effectiveness 19
The Getting Started with Answers Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Subject Areas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2 Dashboard Design 27
Planning Your Dashboards 28
Why Do You Need a Dashboard? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Easing Access to Information with a Dashboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Using a Dashboard to Cater Information to Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Providing Additional Functionality with a Dashboard 32
How Will the Dashboard Be Used? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Physical Dashboard Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Cognitive Dashboard Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Who Will Use the Dashboard? 35
Oracle-Regular / Oracle CRM On Demand Dashboards / Michael D. Lairson / 174 534-3
ix
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Oracle CRM On Demand Dashboards
Oracle-Regular / Oracle CRM On Demand Dashboards / Michael D. Lairson / 174 534-3
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xi
3 The Manage Dashboard Screen  37
The Dashboard Tab 38

Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Rename 80
Delete 80
Folders 80
Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Rename 81
Delete 82
Guided Navigation Links 82
Properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
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Oracle CRM On Demand Dashboards
Oracle-Regular / Oracle CRM On Demand Dashboards / Michael D. Lairson / 174 534-3
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xi
Rename 86
Delete 86
Summary 87
6 Displaying Reports on the Dashboard 89
Adding and Arranging Reports on a Dashboard 90
Display Results 92
Report Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Show View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Modify Request 96
Rename 96
Delete 97
Property Combinations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Acknowledgments
here are many people I would like to thank as I sit here after having
just penned the final chapter of this book. I am sure I will miss many
specific people if I tried to list them all, but I am compelled to
mention some specific supporters.
The dedication on this book reads “Thanks to Mom and Dad!” I worded the
dedication in this way because it is thanks to them that I am on this little writing
venture. My father taught me the value of a strong work ethic through his actions
and dedication to his work for our benefit over his own. My mother showed me the
power of setting goals and overcoming adversity through her own efforts to pursue a
career that she was denied in her youth. Even when her health tried to stop her, she
never lost sight and has remained ever-positive. The work ethic and dedication that
I learned from them has served me well, and resulted in another book for my Oracle
CRM On Demand friends.
I would be completely negligent if I did not also thank my wife, Susan, and my
boys, Robbie and David, who graciously gave up time that was due them so I could
work on this book.
Others who have shown me support, encouraged me, or challenged me along
the way—I thank you. Listed in no particular order: Jeff H., Noni, Dave and Kit K.,
Doug C., Erin W., Colleen J., Suzanne L., Jared W., Ray G., Greg T., Connie S.,
James O., Kiran, Madhu Prashant, Elizabeth O., Jayd, Binh, Zephrin, Alex N., Robert
D., Louis P., Leslie P., Steve B., Julie G., Greg B.
There are a number of customers who helped me push the envelope by pushing
me. You know who you are, and there are too many to mention individually, but I did
promise Bill T. a mention.
T
xiii
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