Finally, our second visualization challenge comes to an end. We got a winner.
Background about Zoho Reports Visualization Challenge:
(skip this section if you know what I am going to say)
Back in November, 2009, I have asked the readers to come up with best possible ways to visualize a set of fictitious sales data. The objective is to make a dashboard (or chart) that would,
help a senior manager understand how the sales people have done in the 24 months. [more]
Readers from all corners of earth responded enthusiastically to this challenge and submitted 32 truly outstanding entries. I have compiled all of them in the sales dashboards post and asked you to vote for a winner.
And now we have winners.
Ladies & Gentlemen, the winner of this challenge is,
Option 4 submitted by Alex Kerin
Here is the winning sales dashboard:
click here for a bigger version
Alex Kerin – who writes at Data Driven Consulting, made this dashboard using MS Excel and Fabrice’s free sparklines add-in.
The dashboard clearly shows sales performance summaries at sales person level (a stated objective of this challenge), along with various key metrics. It follows key visualization principles, he used fewer colors, kept things as simple as possible and include headline messages.
Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3
Alex’s entry received 23 votes.
Congratulations Alex. You will receive an 8 GB iPod touch very soon.
The second prize goes to,
Option 7 submitted by Cuboo
Here is the dashboard:
click here for a bigger version
Cuboo – who writes at Open BI, made this dashboard using MS Excel & Palo. Cuboo is not new, he won the previous visualization challenge as well.
Download Source Files: Link 1
Cuboo’s entry received 22 votes.
Congratulations Cuboo. You will receive a copy of project management excel templates.
The third prize goes to,
Option 10 submitted by Esteban
Here is the dashboard:
click here for a bigger version
Esteban, made this dashboard using MS Excel.
Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2
Esteban’s entry received 15 votes.
Congratulations Esteban. You will receive a copy of project management excel templates.
Honorary Mentions
While there are several very good dashboards (and charts) submitted for this challenge, I *personally* liked these dashboards too.
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 |
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| (large) | (large) | (large) | (large) | (large) |
| Option 2 by Ajay | Option 5 by Arti | Option 11 by Hernan | Option 23 by Matt Cloves | Option 30 by Tessaes |
| Good colors, Layout | Interesting design, lots of dynamic stuff | Fewer charts, cool headlines | Rotatable panel chart!!! | Fewer colors, data tables |
| (details) | (details) | (details) | (details) | (details) |
Thanks to Zoho – the contest sponsor
Thanks to Zoho Reports and @aravind for pro-actively approaching me and sponsoring this contest.
Thanks to all the participants and voters
Thanks everyone for your support, participation and enthusiasm. You have made this contest a memorable experience for me as well as countless PHD readers. Thank you.
25 Responses to “Best Sales Dashboards, as Voted by You [Visualization Challenge #2 – Winners]”
Congratulations Alex ... I like your dashboard very much!
Lot's of good ideas to learn from ... the best, cuboo
Fantastic ! Congratulations to all participants and to Chandoo for organizing this !
Such a great gallery, almost all dashboards bring something to learm from !! Can't wait to see the next contest, and jump in.
Alex, Cuboo... I love what you have done w/ Sparklines !! Thanks a lot !
Chandoo, how many votes in total ?
@Fabrice... there were 150 votes in total.
2 of them are test votes by me, 2 duplicate email ids, 4 duplicate users (same email id on various domains).
I am very happy with the voting process (although it is not fool proof, very little gaming of it was done).
Nice works!
Coboo dashboard "Download Source Files" link points to an image. Could you share the xls, please?
Thanks
I publish a post about my solution on my blog http://openbi.info - it's german, I know ... but you can download the whole solution for Excel 2003 even with the palo Database there: http://bit.ly/72Xiq6
Of course you have to download Palo from jedox.com before! Give it a try ...
Would be nice to hear, if it works ... thanx, cuboo
Thank you for voting for mine - I was surprised - there were so many great entries. I think I voted for Cuboo's in the end. As I compare mine to others, it's clear that I need to work on making my work look less Excel-like - I will be drawing inspiration from here..
Thanks to Chandoo and Zoho.
Cuboo: your OpenBI article in translated English - Google does a good enough job:
http://bit.ly/4GFA5W
Alex: Google really does a good job ...
Thank you for your compliment, but the first time I saw your entry, I knew I wouldn't win, because your Dashboard looks "nicer" 😉 ... It's only one vote, but I did some "advertising" on my blog!
On the other hand: I am on the brink of starting a bigger software development project, so I could use the project management tool from chandoo very well.
Thanks again chandoo for this phantastic contest. Looking forward to use your tools.
Lars
Thank you all for providing me the link!
I'll try it together with Palo.
Regards
Congrats to the winners. Enjoyed being part of this challenge 😛
Hello,
Congratulations all winners.
i follow your websites very closely.
Can you help me how to open and understand Alex Kerin s source files. i tried several things to open these xml files. but no success...
thanks for your helps,
Best regards,
Biray
[...] link Leave a Reply [...]
Congrats Chandu, for bringin excel up close and fascinating !!
PHD rocks.
Best
@Biray... they are not XML files, the whole package (.xlsm) is an excel macro file that works in Excel 2007 and above.
@Alex.. Can you post your source files in Excel 2003 format if possible? (by removing CF heatmap etc...) ?
@Rohit.. thank you, that is so *sweet*.
Here's how I opened Alex's file...
(1) save the .zip file somewhere you can get to (i.e. your desktop)
(2) open excel 2007
(3) open (ctrl+O) (3) choose "All Files" from drop down bar
(4) select the .zip file and open, click "Yes" and voila
Congratulations and thanks for the contest
This is an xls (Excel 2003) version of the file. As long as you load the 2003 add-in from Fabrice, it should be fine. Even without the add-in, the charts show, but don't update - hope this helps:
http://bit.ly/6owMD5
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That was a great contest, Chandoo! Congratulations to Alex and the other winners from Zoho Reports!
Alex: Your iPod Touch is on its way. You should be getting it next week 🙂
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[...] November I entered a data visualization challenge on Chandoo’s excellent Excel and charting blog. I was honored to be voted as having the winning entry (by one [...]
Hi,
I saw that a lot of source data was modifed, Alex and Arti.
Can you help me regarding modifying data like Arti did?
Did you use some kind of tools for this or you do it "by hand"?
Thanks for help,
Luka
wow, amazing chandu. you did a great work. salute
Congratulations to all participants! For you interesting, US Sales Report Template presents very detailed visualized data that tell you everything you need. You can track and analyze your activities as a professional in this visual dashboard template. More information check via Someka Website. https://www.someka.net/excel-template/us-sales-report-template/