Epicor ERP

Epicor Data Discovery Course

10.2.600
Disclaimer
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Epicor Data Discovery Course Contents

Contents
Epicor Data Discovery Course................................................................................................5
Before You Begin....................................................................................................................6
Audience.........................................................................................................................................................6
Prerequisites....................................................................................................................................................6
Environment Setup..........................................................................................................................................7
About Epicor Data Discovery.................................................................................................9
Explore and Discover............................................................................................................10
Workshop - Launch Epicor Data Discovery......................................................................................................10
Home Page....................................................................................................................................................10
Data Discovery Views.....................................................................................................................................12
Add Data Discovery View........................................................................................................................12
Workshop - Create Data Discovery View..........................................................................................12
Design View and Analyze Data...............................................................................................................12
Data Source.....................................................................................................................................13
Measures.................................................................................................................................14
Dimensions..............................................................................................................................14
Visualization Data Mappings............................................................................................................14
Rows and Columns..................................................................................................................14
Categories................................................................................................................................15
Size..........................................................................................................................................16
Animate...................................................................................................................................17
Filters.......................................................................................................................................17
Highlight..................................................................................................................................18
Trendlines........................................................................................................................................18
Workshop - Add Cumulative % Trendline.................................................................................19
Data Visualization Types..................................................................................................................19
Bar...........................................................................................................................................19
Bubble & Dotplot.....................................................................................................................20
Table........................................................................................................................................20
Pie............................................................................................................................................20
Maps and Image Overlays.........................................................................................................20
Save View........................................................................................................................................23
Print View........................................................................................................................................23
Export View.....................................................................................................................................24
Workshop - Add View to Kinetic Home Page...................................................................................24
Data Discovery Dashboards............................................................................................................................25
Workshop - Create Dashboard................................................................................................................25
Widgets..................................................................................................................................................25
Workshop - Add Widgets to Dashboard..........................................................................................26
Shared Dimensions.................................................................................................................................27

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Contents Epicor Data Discovery Course

Filters......................................................................................................................................................27
Workshop - Add Filter to Dashboard................................................................................................27
Import & Export Dashboards and Views.........................................................................................................27
Workshop - Import & Export Views and Dashboards...............................................................................28
Advanced Analysis.........................................................................................................................................29
Custom BAQ Views................................................................................................................................29
Workshop - Days Since Last Invoice View.........................................................................................29
Create Custom BAQ.................................................................................................................29
Add EDD View.........................................................................................................................31
Design View.............................................................................................................................31
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)...........................................................................................................32
Workshop - Using KPIs....................................................................................................................32
Create a KPI.............................................................................................................................32
Adding KPIs to EDD Views........................................................................................................34
Adding KPI Widgets to Dashboards..........................................................................................35
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................37

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Epicor Data Discovery Course Epicor Data Discovery Course

Epicor Data Discovery Course

This course introduces the Epicor Data Discovery business intelligence tool. You will learn how you can use Epicor
Data Discovery to follow changes to your business data as they occur in your Epicor ERP application.
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
• Launch the Epicor Data Discovery Application
• Describe the function of various Epicor Data Discovery home page options
• Create an Epicor Data Discovery View using a system BAQ as a data source
• Define and distinguish between data measures and dimensions
• Define and distinguish between the following data discovery elements:
• rows
• columns
• highlight
• size
• category
• animate
• filter

• Add an Epicor Data Discovery View to the Epicor ERP Homepage

• Create an Epicor Data Discovery view beginning with creating a custom BAQ
• Create Data Discovery Dashboards

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Before You Begin Epicor Data Discovery Course

Before You Begin

Read this topic for information you should know in order to successfully complete this course.

Audience

Specific audiences will benefit from this course.

• Cost Accountant
• CFO/Controller
• AP Clerk
• AR Clerk
• COO/Operations Manager
• Payroll Staff
• Shop Floor Employee
• Shop Floor Manager
• Scheduler
• Shipping and Receiving
• QA Inspector
• Production Manager
• Engineer
• Purchasing Staff/Buyer
• Sales Manager
• Order Entry Staff
• Customer Service Representative
• Sales Engineer/Pre-Sales
• Account Manager
• Sales Representative
• System Administrator

Prerequisites

To complete the workshops in this course, the necessary modules must be licensed and operating in your training
environment. For more information on the modules available, contact your Epicor Customer Account Manager.
It is also important you understand the prerequisite knowledge contained in other valuable courses.
• Business Activity Queries Course - This course introduces the Business Activity Query (BAQ) Designer data
extraction tool. It discusses data location concepts and provides an overview of query building techniques
using the Query Builder, the Criteria Wizard, and the Calculated Field Wizard.

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Epicor Data Discovery Course Before You Begin

Environment Setup

The environment setup steps and potential workshop constraints must be reviewed in order to successfully
complete the workshops in this course.
Your Epicor training environment, in which the Epicor demonstration database is found, enables you to experience
Epicor functionality in action but does not affect data in your live, production environment.
The following steps must be taken to successfully complete the workshops in this course.

1. Verify the following or ask your system administrator to verify for you:
• Your Epicor training icon (or web address if you are using Epicor Web Access) points to your
Epicor training environment with the Epicor demonstration database installed. Do not complete
the course workshops in your live, production environment.
Note It is recommended that multiple Epicor demonstration databases are installed. Contact
Support or Systems Consulting for billable assistance.

• The Epicor demonstration database is at the same version as the Epicor application. The
demonstration database is installed from the Epicor Administration Console using the "Add Demo
Database" command under Database Server. See Epicor ERP installation guides for details. If you are an
Epicor Cloud ERP customer (and have licensed embedded education), the demonstration database is
installed for you.
• Your system administrator restored (refreshed) the Epicor demonstration database prior to
starting this course. The Epicor demonstration database comes standard with parts, customers, sales
orders, and so on, already defined. If the Epicor demonstration database is shared with multiple users
(that is, the database is located on a server and users access the same data, much like your live, production
environment) and is not periodically refreshed, unexpected results can occur. For example, if a course
workshop requires you to ship a sales order that came standard in the Epicor demonstration database,
but a different user already completed this workshop and the Epicor demonstration database was not
restored (refreshed), then you will not be able to ship the sales order. If you are an Epicor Cloud ERP
customer see section below.

2. Log in to the training environment using the credentials epicor/epicor.

If you are asked to log into your training environment with another User ID, for example, 'nancy' or 'bhoward',
on the initial logon, a message appears to inform you the password has expired. Perform the following steps
to set a new password:

1. To the Password Expired message, click Yes.

2. In the Current password field, enter the User ID of the user you are asked to log in as, for example,
'nancy'.

3. In the New password field, enter a new password, for example 'Train123'.
Important In Epicor ERP Cloud environment, the password must not contain user ID, must be
longer than 7 characters and include at least one uppercase letter.

4. In the Confirm new password field, re-enter the same password.

5. Click OK. The Change Password window closes and you are logged on with the new user ID.

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Before You Begin Epicor Data Discovery Course

Note Record the new password. This is important as this will be the password everyone uses
when they log on with this User ID, until the database is refreshed.

3. From the Main menu, select the company Epicor Education (EPIC06).

4. From the Main menu, select the Main Site.

5. Make sure the Epicor Data Discovery (EDD) is installed and fully functional. For more information how to
install EDD, view the Epicor ERP 10 Installation Guide.
Note To access all workshops in this course, the EDD Advanced license should be installed.

6. In Epicor Data Discovery, go to Administration > Role Management and then edit the Admin account.
Verify the manager account is set up with all access under the Admin role. Next go to Administration >
Licenses and edit the license. Manager should be listed as a licensed user.

Epicor Cloud ERP Specific Information

Note If you are an Epicor Cloud ERP customer, then note the following about your Epicor-hosted education
company. All logins referenced in the course (such as manager, or epicor) should be changed to be the
<site ID>-. For example, if your site ID is 98315, then wherever you are instructed to use the login manager,
instead use 98315-manager. The password is 'Train18!'.

Note To refresh your Epicor training data, enter a support ticket in EpicCare and include your site ID.

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Epicor Data Discovery Course About Epicor Data Discovery

About Epicor Data Discovery

Epicor Data Discovery (EDD) is a data visualization tool for Epicor ERP. With EDD, you can use your natural visual
abilities to quickly spot areas of interest in real-time production data that you might have otherwise missed by
just looking at rows and columns of numbers.
Driven by real-time Business Activity Queries (BAQs) in Epicor ERP, EDD complements Epicor Data Analytics
(EDA)—EDD visualizes short-term, up-to-the second enterprise data whereas EDA provides for longer-term data
exploration running in a data warehouse.
EDD is accessible via SmartClient, web browsers, tablets, and modern smartphones. The application is designed
to work as well on low-powered touch devices as it does on a powerful desktop with large screen real estate.
EDD automatically adjusts its layout and behavior to the browser and device accessing it. Resizable data cards
can be animated to cycle through multiple values like a stock ticker, providing a live feed of production data.

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Explore and Discover Epicor Data Discovery Course

Explore and Discover

With little or no training required, you can monitor the status of complex business processes by graphically
displaying performance in a Data Discovery View and simply drag and drop new pieces of data on Views to
analyze them further by drilling into details.

Workshop - Launch Epicor Data Discovery

In this workshop, launch the Epicor Data Discovery application.

1. Launch your web browser. Be sure to use a browser that fully supports EDD, which is either Google Chrome®,
Microsoft Internet Explorer ® 11 or higher, or Mozilla Firefox ®.

2. In the Navigation bar, enter your Epicor Data Discovery URL.

Example Enter http://<your server>/<your site name>/default.aspx where <your server> is the name
you specified as your application server and <your site name> is the name you specified as your Epicor
Data Discovery Site.

3. For User ID, enter epicor and for Password, enter epicor.
If you are in an Epicor Cloud ERP environment, log into the application using <siteID>-epicor; for example
enter 94193-epicor.
Tip If your System Administrator has enabled Single Sign-On (SSO) for Epicor ERP, you are automatically
logged into the Epicor Data Discovery application using the User ID and Password you entered when
you first logged into your Windows ® operating system. The Single Sign On topic in the Epicor ERP
Online Help includes additional information on setting up authentication for SSO to work with Epicor
ERP.

The following topics introduce the main controls you can use in the environment.

Home Page

Learn how to use individual elements and customize the EDD Home Page to best fit your preferences.
The Home page consists of the menu bar and home page tabs with dashboards and views:

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Menu Bar
The menu bar offers to access session-specific options such as administrating Epicor Data Discovery and changing
a user.
The following table lists the available options:

Icon Description
Use this icon to display the EDD Home page.

Use this icon to access procedures and supporting information for Epicor Data Discovery
administrators.
Use this icon to access the Epicor Data Discovery help.

Use this icon to display additional information about Epicor Data Discovery.

Use this icon to terminate your current session.

Tab Bar
Use the tab bar to switch between discovery dashboards and discovery views.

Data Discovery Views

A view is the main building block of the Exploration Views home page tab. The views display charts and graphs
from data created by or related to Epicor created data. This interface displays both individual views and predefined
views that are shipped with Epicor Data Discovery.

To open a view worksheet, either click the view or use the button on the view to select the Open action on
the menu.
To create a new view, click the + icon on the left side of the page.

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Data Discovery Dashboards

You can group views using dashboards and create a Home Page that streamlines your use of the Epicor Data
Discovery. A Data Discovery Dashboard is a collection of Data Discovery views that can tell a data story from
multiple angles. Depending on what you want the dashboard to show or how to behave, you can add different
views, such as key performance indicators, charts, tables. To create a new dashboard, switch to the Dashboards
tab and click the + button on the left side of the page.

Data Discovery Views

In the Data Discovery view, you can set filters and drag and drop measures and dimensions to produce rich
visualizations, a process similar to manipulating a pivot table in a spreadsheet. You can then focus on a data
point or area and drill down into the underlying ERP transactional detail.

Add Data Discovery View

You start by adding a new view to your EDD Home Page. When you create a view, you specify the data source
that contains a business data. Common data sources are sales, purchasing, inventory, and finance, but you may
see different databases depending on your configuration.
The following topics describe how to create a simple Data Discovery view that displays company's sales data.

Workshop - Create Data Discovery View

In this workshop, create a new data discovery view. You will use a system Business Activity Query as your data
source which contains information about customers, orders, order amount, and so on that you can use to identify
key areas for improvement within your company.

1. On the Exploration Views tab, select +.

2. In the Select Data Source window, in the search field, enter zCustt.

3. From the data source list, select zCustTrackerOrders01.

4. Click OK.

Design View and Analyze Data

Once you have created a view, you can start building it and analyzing your data.
Before you start, review the Data Discovery View workspace which has the following features:

1. Visualization Data Mappings - Add measures and dimensions to Rows and Columns to build rich
visualizations. The Highlight, Size, Category and Animate mappings allow you to further tailor the
visualizations.

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2. Visualization Data Types - Use different types of charts to visualize your view such as Circles/Bubbles,
Bars, Lines, Pies, and Pivots.

3. View - This is your data visualization.

• You can focus on a data point or area and drill down into the underlying ERP transactional detail. Simply

click the Transaction Details ( ) button.

•

To reset your view, use the Brush/Reset ( ) button.

4. Filters - Add dimensions and measures to the Filters pane to filter the data on the view. Use this panel to
switch between the Filters, Data Selection, and Options panes.

Data Source

The Epicor Data Discovery views can use the huge amount of business data providing insights into the business
which is easily accessible with little to no IT involvement due to the data extraction process used by Epicor Data
Discovery.
Available data sources are Epicor BAQ, and OData API.
Note To use OData API, the Epicor Data Discovery Advanced license must be installed.

You may see different databases depending on your configuration, such as sales, purchasing, inventory, finance
and so on. Each database is populated with raw data from an ERP system and data is most commonly refreshed
overnight. Administrators can create new databases.
In this course, you build Epicor Data Discovery views using system and custom Business Activity Queries (BAQs)
which you create in the Epicor ERP application. Your analysis does not affect the source data.

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Measures

Measures are aggregate calculations such as Sum, Average, or Minimum used to roll up a numeric value such as
Sales Amount from the data source. They display as buttons down the left of the screen. Depending on the data
source you use, different measures appear. For example, the Sales data source displays Total Sales, Total Costs,
% of Shipments on Time, or Average Order Amount. Measures are grouped by the dimensions, such as Fiscal
Year, Territory, Salesperson, and Product.
You can select single or multiple measures for your view.

Dimensions

Dimensions are groups of data elements used to group, sort, and filter. Examples are Fiscal Calendar, Sales
Territories, Salespeople, and Products. A typical Data Discovery View will use one dimension attribute and one
or more measures to produce a chart such as Total Sales (measure) by Territory (dimension attribute). For example,
Total Sales are calculated for each Territory, and you could display that as separate bars on a bar chart for each
Territory.
Dimensions may contain multiple attributes which are related. For example, a Part dimension may contain Part
Number, Part Class, Part Type, and other ways to group Parts.
Dimensions may optionally have hierarchies which define multiple levels to allow for drill down. For example a
typical Fiscal Calendar Hierarchy is Fiscal Year > Fiscal Period > Date. Another common example is Country >
Province / State > City.

Visualization Data Mappings

You map measures and dimension to rows and columns to show data along the bottom and the side, highlight
dimensions with different colors and change the size to better visualize data in the chart, as well as use filters to
further limit the data on the view.

Rows and Columns

Use the Rows mapping to tailor vertical elements on the view, and the Columns mapping to tailor horizontal
elements on the view.

Workshop - View Order Quantity by Year

In this workshop, you drill into the overall order quantity for the current year to see what your sales figures are
for each month.

1. In the Rows box, click + Add Data.

2. In the search field, find and select the Order Quantity measure.

3. In the Columns box, click the More Results button.

4. In the Edit Columns panel, go to Dimension > Order Head > Order Date, and select the Month Name
dimension.
Epicor Data Discovery generates the chart with sales rolled up as a sum (aggregated). You can see total
aggregated order quantity for each month.

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Categories

Use Categories to further split the data by series.

Workshop - Add Product Group

This chart shows that sales look good. To gain more insight into which products drive overall sales, add product
groups to look at sales totals in a different way.

1. To view order amount by product group, in the Category box, select + Add Data.

2. In the search field, find and select the Product Group measure.
This view shows you overall amount for each part group by month. From this view, you can see that sales
for some product groups are growing faster than sales for others.

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3. To see which items are the big sellers, add the Part dimension to the Category box.

4. Click the Part field in the Category mapping to split the view by part.
Looking at this data might help you gain insights into sales and overall profitability.

5. Switch back to Product Group.

6. You can click the color icon on the Category mapping to select a different color set for your view.

Size

Use Size to assign different sizes to the data fields in the view. The smallest value is assigned the smallest sized
mark and the largest value is represented by the largest mark.

Workshop - Size by Record Count

Currently, you are looking at sales totals for your various product groups. You can see that some products have
consistently low sales, and might be good candidates for reducing sales efforts for those product lines. You decide
to drag the Record Count measure to the Size mapping box to see the number of orders customers placed for
certain product lines.

1. In the Sizes box, select + Add Data.

2. In the search field, find and select the Record Count measure.
As soon as you select the field, you see the bubbles change their size depending on the number order count
placed for different product categories.

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Animate

Use the Animate mapping to visualize an exploratory information graphic where you need to see some of your
data at once to compare.

Workshop - Animate by Country

Looking at your view, you saw that you had some unprofitable product groups, but now you want to see where
these products have been unprofitable. You decide to break up your view by country using animation.

1. In the Animate box, select + Add Data.

2. In the search field, find and select the Country (customer) dimension.

3. View the animation by country. To pause the animation, click the Pause button.

Filters

Use Filters to filter the data on the view. Filters are differentiated from the visualization mappings. While
visualization mappings indicate how you choose data elements that will actually appear on the chart, filters do
not appear on the chart; they are used to limit data only, for example by salespersons, fiscal year, etc.
You can also create a filter from a hierarchy level and query two or more levels from the same hierarchy. The
filter control displays each level of a hierarchy on separate drop-down controls.

Workshop - Filter by Customer ID

You saw the sales figures per different countries, you now want to measure the order amount for each customer.

1. In the Animate box, hover over the County field and click the x icon to remove it.

2. In the Filters pane, click + Add Data.

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3. In the search field, find and select the Cust. ID dimension.

4. In the Filters panel, expand the Cust. ID tree.

5. From the Cust. ID list, select Addison.

The view is limited to display order amount for this particular customer.

Highlight

Use the Highlight mapping to show the distribution of data values in histograms. Histograms are a specialized
type of bar graph used to summarize groups of data to show average values, smaller and larger values, continuous
and outliers.
Example You want to review your team's sales figures, as compared with the quotas, and to monitor
their activities. By dragging the Quotas measure to the Highlight column, the performance histogram
displays, showing the amount of high quotas and low quotas. Additionally, you can set the color scheme
of histogram, so that negative data values map to red and positive to green while average values can be
set to grey.

Trendlines

A trendline is a line added to a chart revealing the overall direction of the data.
Example With trendlines you can compare the sales performance in different countries over the last three
quarters and to project sales for each region in the following three months, assuming past trends.

Epicor Data Discovery supports five types of trendlines:

• Cumulative % - Shows the cumulative % of total from left to right on the visualization.
• Average - A simple flat line showing the average of the set.
• Moving average - Specifies the moving average range.
• Linear - A straight line that most closely approximates the data in the chart.
• Polynomial - Specifies order.

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Workshop - Add Cumulative % Trendline

In this workshop, add a cumulative trendline to your chart to view the cumulative % of total order quantity from
left to right on the visualization.

1. Navigate to the Options panel.

2. From the Trendline drop-down list, select Cumulative %.

The trendline displays on the chart.

3. To remove the trendline, from the Trendline drop-down list, select -off-.

Data Visualization Types

Use the data visualization types to maximize the graphical representation of the data you are exploring.
Each visualization is accompanied by an example of chart, such as Circles/Bubbles, Bars, Lines, Pies, and Pivots.
Click the icon on the types pane to load the full visualization.

Bar

Bar charts show the data distribution or clustering trends and help you spot anomalies or outliers. When you
select a dimension you see a line for each focused item in the dimension.
• Grouped Bar - Represents and compares different categories of two or more groups.
Example You can create a line view showing the sales of a particular product this year compared to
last year. The chart shows whether the selected product is selling better in every month this year
compared to last year.

• Stacked Bar - Places each value for the segment after the previous one. The total value of the bar is all the
segment values added together.

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• 100 % Stacked Bar - A 100% Stacked Bar chart is a great way to compare a percentage that each value
contributes to its total.
Example If you have sales rep sales for three consecutive years, the 100% stacked bar chart will show
you what each sales rep´s percentage breakdown is per year.

• Pareto - A Pareto chart is a dual axis chart that contains both bars and a line graph, where a bar shows values
sorted from largest to smallest, and a line shows the cumulative total % of all the bars up until that point.
Example A Pareto chart is ideal to use if you want to know which set of customers drive most of your
sales.

Bubble & Dotplot

Bubble chart is primarily used for correlation and distribution analysis. It is good for showing the relationship
between different values where one correlates to another.
Example You have a chart showing marketing expenditures vs. revenue vs. profit. A standard scatter plot
might show a positive correlation for marketing costs and revenue (obviously), when a bubble chart could
reveal that an increase in marketing costs decreases profits.

Table

Table creates a cross table view of data and is used to summarize the data.
You can switch between pivot table and grid view.

Pie

Pie charts are not meant to compare individual sections to each other or to represent exact values (you should
use a bar chart for that).
Example You want to show the profit share of three different countries this month. The size of each
segment of the pie matches the total percentage of each focused item in the current dimension. The chart
displays the profit share of each country this month.

Maps and Image Overlays

You can create and manage custom maps in which areas are shaded or patterned in relation to a numeric variable
so that you can analyze data on top of various backgrounds such as floor plans, regional geographic maps,
equipment diagrams, and more.
You may have a wide variety of needs for overlaying data in a custom way on top of an image:
• A custom shop floor map and viewing the status of IoT devices as good/warn/danger marks where they
physically sit on the floor.
• A custom warehouse map with each bin outlined and highlighted by on-hand inventory.
• A diagram or picture of an IoT device with its different readings overlaid onto it where the sensors are located
physically.
• Traditional geographic maps such as heating up sales regions or countries by a measure
Use the Map icon to switch to the Map view.

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Workshop - Using Custom Maps

In this workshop, drill into the overall order quantity to see what your sales figures are in different US States. On
the US map, you will see the high and low sales. Additionally, you will set the color scheme, so that low sales
map to red and high to green while average values will be set to gray

1. On the Exploration Views tab, select the Customer Tracker - Order view you created in the previous
workshops.

2. In the view designer, add the Order Quantity measure to the Highlight bucket and the State/Prov
(customer) dimension to the Category bucket to view the sales figures by states. Remove all other data
from the view.

3. From the chart visualization types, select Map.

4. To add an image to your view, you need to import the image to EDD first. In the Options pane, select
Import New Image.

5. Select a file, and enter a name for it, and then select Import.

6. In the Options pane, select your background image from the drop-down, and then tap Add to view.

7. In the view, select the Edit Map icon and drag the data points to the corresponding states.

8. In the Highlight bucket, select the color icon, and from the range of color schemes, select the Outliers
colors showing that low sales map to red and high to green while average values are set to gray.

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9. Once the color scheme is applied, you can identify low, high, and average sales.

10. Optionally, drag the Order Quantity measure from the Highlight bucket to the Size bucket to visually
size the sales.

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Save View

Determine how and where your view will appear.

1.
In the view editor, on the toolbar, click .
The Save Discovery View dialog box displays.
Note To save a view, make sure you have the Advanced license installed. The Data Discovery Basic
edition limits users to opening views only. For more information, refer to the Licensing Administrative
Overview topic.

2. In the Name field, enter Customer Tracker - Orders.

3. Enter Description for the view.

4. From the Save Folder list, select a folder to store your data discovery view.
The following top-level folders are available:
• Private Views
• Shared Views
Tip To create a new folder within private or shared folders, click the ellipsis icon on the folder, and
from the menu list, select New Folder.

5. Click Save. Your view displays on the Home Page.

Print View

Print views by pressing Crtl + P on the keyboard or select the Options button > Print, and then choose Print. You
can also see what the printed page will look like by selecting Print Preview.
Note In order to print data discovery views, your account must have the Print claim enabled on the
Administration > Roles page.

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Export View

You can export data discovery view in a comma-separated values (CSV) file.
Note In order to export views, your account must have the Export Views as CSV claim enabled on the
Administration > Roles page.

1. On the chart, select one or more data points.

2. In the Data Selection panel, click Export.

The file is uploaded.

Workshop - Add View to Kinetic Home Page

With the application using the Active Home Page interface, you can display your data view in a Data Discovery
widget on the application's Home Page.

1. On your Kinetic Home Page, from the overflow menu (...), select Edit.

2. In the Add Widget panel, select Discovery Chart View.

3. In the following window, from the View drop-down list, select Customer Tracker - Orders.

4. Click OK.

5. On the toolbar, click Save. The widget displays.

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Data Discovery Dashboards

A Data Discovery Dashboard is a collection of several views, that enables you to compare a variety of data
simultaneously. If you have a set of views that you use daily, you can create a dashboard that displays all the
views at once, rather than navigate to separate views.
The visualizations on a dashboard include Discovery Chart Views and Discovery KPI Views.
When you create a dashboard, you have many options for changing the look and default behavior of the views
on that dashboard. You can resize and rearrange views, add filters which run in addition to any filters that already
exist in the view, and use shared dimensions.
Like views, you access dashboards from the Home Page. Use the Application Bar to switch between Discovery
View and Dashboard View.
Dashboards are secure and comply with the user security settings and restrictions.

Workshop - Create Dashboard

Use the following steps to create a new dashboard.

1. On the Tab Bar, select Dashboards.

2. Click + to create a new dashboard.

The dashboard designer page displays.

Widgets

Dashboards can be customized by adding different EDD widgets.

The following widget are available:
• Discovery Chart View - Use this widget to perform comparisons, value analysis, and trend summary of data
from data source.
• Discovery KPI View - Use this widget to provide a snapshot of key metrics and performance indicators for
your organization.
• IoT Widget - Use this widget to view the current status of the IoT (Internet of Things) Devices. Epicor ERP
offers a centralized IoT platform for production-related data, which enables you to review and monitor site
equipment using fully configurable KPIs. You can see at a glance for example areas of the site with most
downtime or lowest utilization. This way issues can be actioned on before they lead to production efficiency
degradation.
Note This feature is only available if the IoT Connector license and the EDD IoT license are installed.

While designing the dashboard, you can rearrange, resize or remove the widgets that you have already added.
Tip Discovery Chart View and Discovery KPI View are also available on the EDD Quick Access Panel
within any configurable Epicor ERP program. To activate the Quick Access Panel in the Epicor program, in
the Menu Bar, click Actions > Toggle Quick Access Panel. For more information about the Quick Access
Panel, refer to the EDD Quick Access Panel topic in the Epicor application help.

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Workshop - Add Widgets to Dashboard

In this workshop, add the Customer Tracker - Orders and Order History views to the dashboard.

1. In the dashboard designer, click + to add a new widget.

2. From the Add Widget drop-down list, select Discovery Chart View.

3. In the Search field, start typing cust, and then select the Customer Tracker - Orders view.

4. In the Search field, start typing order, and then select the Order History view.

5. Move and resize the components as you need.

6. On the toolbar, click Save.

7. In the Name field, enter Customer Orders.

8. Enter Description for the dashboard.

9. From the Save Folder list, select the Shared folder to store your data discovery dashboard.
To create a new folder within private or shared folders, click the ellipsis icon on the folder, and from the
options list, select New Folder.

10. Click OK. Your dashboard displays on the Home Page.

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Shared Dimensions

A shared dimension is a dimension that can be used in more than one data sources.
Example One data source represents transactions and another represents the customers who own the
transactions. These two data sources might have common dimensions such as customer class, broker, and
so on.

Dashboards are designed to automatically define shared relationships. On the dashboard you can include a filter
that uses the shared dimension.

Filters

Dashboard filters make it easy to provide different combinations of data from a single dashboard. These dashboard
filters run in addition to any filters that already exist in the view.

Workshop - Add Filter to Dashboard

In this workshop, filter the views on the dashboard by Open orders.

1. In the dashboard designer, navigate to Filters panel.

2. Click + Add Data.

3. In the search field, find and select the Open (Order Head) dimension.

4. In the Filters panel, expand the Open filter.

5. Select the True option.

The Sales History view shows history for open orders only, while Customer Tracker - Orders displays open order
quantity.

Import & Export Dashboards and Views

You can export and import groups of folders, discovery views, and dashboards so that you may easily copy them
between EDD installations. Use the Export and Import buttons available directly on the toolbar in a view,
dashboard, and the home list view.
Note To use this feature, your account must have the Import/Export claim enabled on the Administration
> Roles page.

The export feature enables you to export a whole folder or folders of dashboards or views, a single view or
dashboard, or an exact list of views or dashboards. On import, you can select the root folder into which all views,
dashboards, or folders will be imported. You can also map sources in the import to sources and cubes that you
have.

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Workshop - Import & Export Views and Dashboards

In this workshop, export and then import the Customer Orders dashboard and the Customer Days Past Due
view. If you have several EDD installations, copy the dashboard and view between them.

1. Verify the Export/Import claim is enabled for your account on the Administration > Roles page.

2. Export the dashboard and view from your EDD application.

a. On the home page, click click the overflow menu (...) and select Export.

b. In the Export window, in the Name field, enter Customer Orders Export.

c. In the Data to Export area, click the folder icon next to the Shared folder to expand it, and then select
the Customer Orders dashboard and the Customer Days Past Due view.

d. Click Export.

3. Log in a different EDD installation, or remain in the current one.

4. Pull the dashboard and view into your EDD application.

a. On the home page, click click the overflow menu (...) and select Import.

b. Click the Select File button, and select to the Customer Orders Export.json file

c. Click Next.

d. In the Import into folder area, select a folder where you want to import the dashboard, and click Next.

e. In the Map To field, verify the corresponding data source displays.

f. Click Import.

5. Return to the Home Page and verify the dashboard and view display.

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Advanced Analysis

Review the following workshops to learn how to build custom BAQ views to analyze your Epicor data.

Custom BAQ Views

Use the Business Activity Query program to create custom BAQs in the Epicor application and select them as a
data source for your Data Discovery views.

Workshop - Days Since Last Invoice View

In this workshop, the Sales Manager has asked to display the days since last invoice for the top five customers.
You create the BAQ to be used as the data source for the Data Discovery view, which allows the Sales Manager
to monitor customer invoice frequency.

Create Custom BAQ

In Epicor ERP, use BAQ Designer to create a custom BAQ.

1. Open BAQ Designer.

Menu Path: System Management > Business Activity Queries > Business Activity Query
Important This program is not available in Epicor Web Access.

2. On the Standard toolbar, click New.

3. In the Query ID field, enter DaysSinceLastInvoice.

4. In the Description field, enter Top 5 Customers days since last invoice.

5. Select the Shared check box to indicate other users within the current company can use this query.

6. Select the All Companies check box to create the BAQ visible across all companies.

Add the Top Five Subquery

1. Navigate to the Query Builder > Phrase Build sheet.

2. Search for and place the OrderHed table on the canvas.

3. In the Display Fields sheet, select the OrderHed.CustNum column for display and select the Group By
check box.

4. Click the Calculated Field Editor button.

5. Enter the following values for the calculated field:

Field Value
Field Name TotalOrderAmt

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Field Value
Data Type decimal
Format ->>,>>9.99
Label TotalOrderAmt
Editor sum( OrderHed.OrderAmt )

6. Save and exit the Calculated Field Editor.

7. In the Sort Order sheet, select Calculated.TotalOrderAmt sorted in descending order.

8. In the SubQuery Options sheet, enter the following:

Field Value
Name TopFiveCustomers
Type InnerSubQuery
Result Set Rows Top
Rows Number 5

Add the Last Invoice Subquery

1. In the SubQuery Options sheet, click Add Subquery.

2. Name the subquery LastInvoice and make sure the type is set to InnerSubQuery.

3. In the Phrase Build sheet, search for and place the InvcHead table on the canvas.

4. In the Display Fields sheet, select InvcHead_CustNum and select the Group By check box.

5. Click the Calculated Field Editor button.

6. Enter the following values for the calculated field:

Field Value
Field Name LastDate
Data Type date
Format {date}
Label LastDate
Editor max( InvcHead.InvoiceDate )

7. Save and exit the Calculated Field Editor.

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Add the Top Level Subquery

1. In the SubQuery Options sheet, click Add Subquery.

2. Name the subquery Customer and select TopLevel as the type.

3. In the Phrase Build sheet, search for and place the Customer table on the canvas.

4. Click the Subquery button and bring the TopFiveCustomers and LastInvoice subqueries onto the canvas.

5. Create a matching rows join between TopFiveCustomers and the Customer table.

6. For table relations add a row joining Customer.CustNum to Order_Hed_CustNum.

7. Create an All rows from Customer join between Customer and LastInvoice.

8. For Table relations, add a row joining InvcHead_Custnum to Customer.CustNum.

9. In the Display Fields sheet, select Customer_Name and LastInvoice.Calculated_LastDate columns and
select the Group By check box for both.

10. Click the Calculated Field Editor button.

11. Enter the following values for the calculated field:

Field Value
Field Name DaysSince
Data Type int
Format ->>,>>>,>>9
Label DaysSince
Editor datediff(day,LastContact.Calculated_LastDate, getdate())

12. Save and exit the Calculated Field Editor.

Add EDD View

Select the created custom BAQ as a datasource for your Data Discovery view.

1. On the Exploration Views tab, click +.

2. In the Select Data Source window, search for and select the select the DaysSinceLastInvoice query.

3. Click OK.

Design View

1. In the Columns box, click + Add Data.

2. In the search field, find and select the DaysSince measure.

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3. In the Rows box, click More Results.

4. In the Edit Rows panel, go to Dimension > Customer, and select Name.

5. Select the bar chart symbol.

6. Save the chart as DaysSinceLastInvoice.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

EDD designers can now define KPI (Key Performance Indicator) metrics enabling EDD viewers to regularly set
goals and track progress with goal vs. actual visualizations so that they can easily create and manage continuous
metric driven performance improvement processes in Data Discovery.
Epicor provides a unified way to set and manage all goals across your business and keep track of performance
in one place. The KPI Engine allows you to create new KPI metrics on any data source, periodically review and
revise goals, and monitor the status of current goals visually using EDD dashboards or embedded everywhere
EDD is available.

Workshop - Using KPIs

In this workshop, create a KPI that helps track outstanding customer invoices. The goal is to get the amount of
past due invoices as low as possible by encouraging clients to pay quickly. If the number is high, it could point
to problems within accounts receivable. For example, if several payments are long overdue, you could be targeting
the wrong customers, or it may indicate that your company is understaffed.
Make sure you have the AR invoices in your ERP database with the Due Date falling within 2020 Q2.

Create a KPI
Create a KPI that tracks the amount of the past due AR invoices for each customer group on a quarterly basis
and establish the threshold that demarcates success from failure.

1. In EDD, on the menu bar, select Administration > Manage Data Sources.

2. Find and select the data source for which you want to create a KPI. In this example, use
zHomepage_ARAgedReceivables. This BAQ pulls in data about outstanding AR invoices.

3. Select + Add New to create a new KPI.

Note To add or modify KPIs, your account must have the Designer / Admin role enabled on the
Administration > Roles page. The KPI Create claim will give new roles permissions to create or modify
the KPI definition.

4. In the KPI Name field, enter Aged Receivables (Customer Group) KPI.

5. Specify the Measure and Dimension. When you connect to a data source, all the data can be split into
measures (numeric values, such as amounts, totals, etc) and dimensions (nonnumeric values). Your goal is
to track the aged invoice amount by a customer group.In this case, the Aged Amount will be your measure,
and the Customer Group - a dimension. You can add build a dimension hierarchy as needed. For example,
along with the Customer Group, you can add the Customer ID.

6. From the Period drop-down select Due Date. This is the date dimension on which the aging calculation is
based.

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7. For Frequency, enter Quarterly. You can establish goals for various periods, such as monthly, quarterly
and yearly.
For KPIs that are not time-period based, keep Period as Blank and select Frequency as None.

8. From the Goal Type drop-down, select Smaller Values are Better and set the threshold that demarcates
success from failure. There are three types of goals:
• Smaller Values are Better - The objective is to minimize the measures.
• Larger Values are Better - The objective is to maximize the measures.
• Closest to Nominal - The objective is to keep measures in a range.
• Threshold Bands will be computed from Goals based on Threshold % entered in KPI Definition. Danger
thresholds should be Greater than Warning thresholds for all Goal Types.
• Smaller Values are Better - Thresholds will be Added to Goals. For example:
If you set Warning (5%) and Danger (10%) on a Goal of 1000, they will equate to below:
Desired (Good) Band < 1050 || 1050 <= Warning Band < 1100 || Danger Band >= 1100
• Larger Values are Better - Thresholds will be subtracted from Goals. For example:
If you set Warning (5%) and Danger (10%) on a Goal of 1000, they will equate to below:
Danger Band <= 900 || 900 < Warning Band <= 950 || Desired (Good) Band > 950
• Closest to Nominal - Enter Positives in Warning High and Danger High; enter Negatives in Warning
Low and Danger Low. For example:
If you set Danger Low (-10%), Warning Low (-5%), Warning High (5%) and Danger High (10%),
they will equate to below:
Danger Low <= 900 || 900 < Warning Low <= 950 || 950 < Desired (Good) Band < 1050 || 1050 >=
Warning High > 1100 || Danger High >= 1100

In the Warning field, enter 10% and for Danger, enter 20%.The application will give you a warning when
the aged amount will be between $10,000 and $11,000. and will signal danger when the amount exceeds
$12,000

9. Save the KPI.

10. In the Data Source panel, select the Manage Goal icon next to Aged Receivables (Customer Group)
KPI to set goals for this KPI.
Note To add or modify Goals, your account must have the Designer / Admin role enabled on the
EDD Administration > Roles page. The Create KPIs / Design Goals claim will give new roles permissions
to create or modify goals.

11. In the Time Period field, enter Q2 and in the Year field, enter 2020.
Note Make sure you have the AR invoices in your ERP database with the Due Date falling within
2020 Q2.

The application uses Calendar Year format. Goals can be set for a period of Current Year and Next Year.

12. Enter the goals for each customer group. To keep the aged amount of invoices under $10,000 for each
customer group, enter 10,000 against each group.

13. Save the KPI.

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14. Optionally, enter goals for the remaining quarters.

Adding KPIs to EDD Views

Create the AR Aged Receivables view that shows the Key Progress Indicators (KPIs) you have just created.

1. On the Exploration Views tab, select + to create a new view.

2. Select the zHomepage_ARAgedReceivables BAQ.

3. Add the Aged Amount measure to the Rows bucket and the Customer Group dimension to the Columns
bucket.

4. Use the Data Panel to select the KPIs you want to add to your view. Add the following KPIs to the Rows
bucket:
• Aged Receivables (Customer Group) KPI Value - The numeric value you're seeking to achieve.
• Aged Receivables (Customer Group) KPI Goal - The goal you established for the KPI.
• Aged Receivables (Customer Group) KPI Status - Shows current status against the defined goal. The
statuses are:
• [-1] - Danger Band
• [0] - Warning Band
• [1] - Desired Band

• Aged Receivables (Customer Group) KPI Perc Progress - Indicator which is calculated based on the
percentage increase or decrease in a KPI value, while taking into consideration the threshold percentage
specified while creating the KPI.
All the 4 KPI elements can be used on any of Discovery View mappings. For example, Perc. Progress or Status
could make sense to be used on Highlight mapping to light up based on selected theme.
KPI Elements of Goal / Status / Perc. Progress are sensitive to Discovery View Filters. If applied filters (either
Dimensions / Measures / Time Periods) do not match with KPI Definition, these marking will display “No
Results” while actual measures will be filtered. Examples when tooltip will display “No Results” for KPIs.
• KPI defined is for Customer Group, but filter applied is on Customer ID
• KPI defined is for Quarterly Due Date time period, but filters applied is for Due Date of Year
• KPI defined is for Quarterly Due Date time period, but filters applied is for Start Date of Quarter

5. Add your KPIs to the Columns, Rows, Highlights or Size buckets to compare Goals vs Actuals in this Discovery
View. You can map KPIs as follows:
• Columns – Customer Group
• Row – KPI Actual + KPI Goal
• Highlight - KPI % Progress

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Let's take a closer look at the KPIs numbers. With the goal for the Automotive customer group set to $10,000,
the chart clearly demonstrates that the payments for this customer group are overdue by a large amount
because we can compare the Goal ($10,000) vs Actual (~$120,000).
To fix issues before they become problems and affect performance, use KPI widgets. Add them to a dashboard
and check the day-to-day processes and outputs of your business to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Adding KPI Widgets to Dashboards

Collect, group and visualize the most important metrics on a dashboard to get a quick overview of your company's
performance.

1. On the Dashboards home tab, select + to add a new dashboard.

2. In the dashboard designer, select + to add a new widget.

3. In the Add Widget panel, select Discovery KPI Card.

4. Find and select the data source for which you created a KPI. In this example, use
zHomepage_ARAgedReceivables.

5. From the KPI drop-down list, select Aged Receivables (Customer Group) KPI.

6. From the Dimension drop-down, select Customer Group.

7. Review your KPI Card.

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8. Use the arrows to cycle between dimension members / time periods.

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Conclusion

Congratulations! You have completed the course.

Please take a moment to let Epicor University know how to serve you better by completing an evaluation at htt
p://www.keysurvey.com/survey/379199/e92f/. Your feedback provides the guidelines for the future direction of
Epicor University offerings.

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 Additional information is available at the Education and
Documentation areas of the EPICweb Customer Portal. To access
this site, you need a Site ID and an EPICweb account. To create an
account, go to http://support.epicor.com.