Reporting Group

One of the advantages of using IT Analytics is the ability to use an intuitive reporting framework that lets you quickly translate large data volumes with the goal of making informed business decisions. Microsoft SQL Analysis Services leverages this capability through Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs are defined as quantifiable measures that represent a critical success factor in an organization. The emphasis is on the action of quantifying something in the environment. For example, the KPIs must be measurable to successfully be monitored and compared against a given objective. 

In this article we will look at the native capabilities for easily creating a KPIs in the IT Analytics Symantec Endpoint Protection Content Pack. Using the SEP Clients Cube we will create a KPI that will allow for the monitoring of computers that have an active firewall and therefore are at a reduced risk for infections.

To complete this exercise, you should have IT Analytics with the Symantec Endpoint Protection Content Pack already installed. For more information, please refer to the Connect article for installing IT Analytics.

Creating a KPI from a Cube View

1. Launch the Symantec Management Console.
2. Click the Reports menu item and select All Reports.
3. Expand the Reports folder.
4. Expand the IT Analytics folder.
5. Expand the Cubes folder.
6. Select the SEP Clients Cube.
7. Click anywhere in the PivotTable window to display the Field List.  Clicking on this icon   in the toolbar will also cause the field list to be displayed.
8. Drag and drop the Client Count measure into the Totals pane:

9. Drag and drop the Client - Firewall Status attribute into the Rows pane:

10. Right click on the cell in the cube that represents the number of clients with their firewall enabled and select Use as KPI Value.

11. Right click on the cell in the cube that represents Grand Total and select Use as KPI Goal.

12. In the New Key Performance Indicator section, verify that KPI Value and KPI Goal are defined and that the type of goal is set to Dynamic.

13. Click the Create KPI button .

14. In the Key Performance Indicator Window type "Number of SEP Clients with Firewall Enabled" in the KPI Name textbox.

15. Verify that the following boxes are correctly filled out:

• Database Name - This box should be the name of the Analysis Services database that IT Analytics Solution is configured to use.
• Cube Name - This box should already be set to the SEP Clients cube.
• Associated Measure Group - This box should already be set to Client.
• Value Expression - This box should already be populated with the MDX code that represents the measure that was selected for the KPI Value.
• Goal Expression - This box should already be populated with the MDX code that represents the measure that was selected for the KPI Goal.

16. Under Status Expression select Percentage of Goal.
17. Under Status Graphic select Gauge Ascending.
18. Click the Save KPI button.
19. Verify the window returns and displays a message that the KPI has been saved successfully:

20. Click the Close button.
21. Click OK on the Windows Message box to reload the page.

22. Click the Key Performance Indicator item from the left tree navigation.

23. The new KPI should now display in the list with the current value and goal already defined.

Optional - Setting the Status of a KPI (Advanced)

For the purposes of creating a KPI, the Status Expression is defined as a number between 1 and -1. While we defined this as Percentage of Goal in the previous exercise, the most flexible and granular way of defining how these values are populated is through an MDX string. This comes into play when we want to explicitly set an acceptable threshold for a certain metric.

This procedure is an example of enhancing the KPI that was previously created above.

1. On the Key Performance Indicators page, click the Edit link next to the KPI that was already created, “Number of SEP Clients with Firewall Enabled.”
2. In the Value Expression box, change the MDX code to the following listed below. This calculates the percent of computers with firewall enabled and rounds it to two decimal points:

Round((((sum({[Client].[Client - Firewall Status].&[On]}, [Measures].[Client Count])) / ([Measures].[Client Count])) * 100), 2)

3. In the Goal Expression box, enter ‘95’. Do not enter the single quote marks. This sets the acceptable percentage of computers with firewall enabled to 95 percent.
4. In the Status Expression box, click MDX Expression. 
5. In the text area box that pops up, enter the following MDX code below. This will denote that any percentage 95 or higher will be considered acceptable (green), below 50 percent will be unacceptable (red), and anything in between will be neutral (yellow).

Case
When
 ((sum({[Client].[Client - Firewall Status].&[On]},
 [Measures].[Client Count])) / ([Measures].[Client Count])) * 100 >= 95
 Then 1
When
 ((sum({[Client].[Client - Firewall Status].&[On]},
 [Measures].[Client Count])) / ([Measures].[Client Count])) * 100 < 50
 Then -1
 ELSE 0
END

6. For Status Graphic, click Traffic Light. Your KPI edit screen should look like the following:

7. Click Save KPI.
8. Click Close.
9. Refresh the list of KPIs. A stoplight should display under the Status column. It indicates the current status for this KPI.