KPIs – 3 of 3 – KPI Trends

In this third in the three part series on KPIs, we will review how to setup KPIs to track trends over time. This valuable feature provides an insightful view of historical trends, allowing you to view the data by different time periods (daily, weekly or monthly). In the following example, average daily work order volume is viewed for the first half of the year, providing valuable insight into fluctuations and trends.

Ensure KPI Trending is Scheduled

Prior to designating any KPIs for trending, customers with onsite installations must ensure that KPI History is being “stored” on a nightly basis. To ensure that KPI historical data is being tracked, the DB Scheduler must be used to run a nightly “job” that executes the “mc_writekpihistory” procedure. If the job has been set up, it will appear as follows in the DB Scheduler:

Contact Maintenance Connection Support if you need assistance in scheduling this job. Hosted customers do not need to take any additional steps to ensure that “KPI History” is being tracked.

Set Up KPI for Trending

Each KPI on which historical trending is desired must be set up for trending. To specify that trend data should be maintained, click the Edit Link directly below the KPI:

Ensure the “Trend?” dropdown on the right side of the Edit KPI Dialog is set to “Yes”.

View KPI Trends

Once sufficient historical data has been stored, you can view the trends for all KPIs designated to track KPIs, using the Trend Option on the KPI Toolbar:

All KPIs designated for trending should be listed in the Measurement dropdown in the upper left of the Trend KPI Dialog. Select the desired KPI from this dropdown and use the controls on the right side of the dialog to specify the historical period to view. The KPI trend for the first half of this year, shown at the top of this blog, was created using the following settings:

After clicking Apply, the graph will display in the lower half of the dialog. To view the source data that was used to calculate the graph, click the Data Link just above the graph area:

For more information on setting up KPI trending, contact Maintenance Connection Support.