By Amy Gilmore, Performance Management Specialist with the Planning, Evaluation, and Analysis Unit, Michigan Office of Child Support
Have you noticed a change to the “Application Quick Links” on mi-support lately? Need a hint?
The Office of Child Support (OCS) Data, Statistics, and Analytics (DSA) Team is excited to announce the new IV-D Performance Factor Dashboards and Visual Reports (data visualizations). It’s tucked right in there between Business Objects and the Federal Child Support Portal.
Since 2015, OCS had been using Business Objects to provide performance factor and financial dashboards. However, the technology required to maintain the dashboards within Business Objects became obsolete in January 2021, and the dashboards were removed. Knowing this change was coming, the DSA Team spent the last 16 months building new data visualizations in a different application: Microsoft Power BI. Power BI allows the team to create more robust (i.e., cooler!) data visualizations using more current technology.
User benefits of the Power BI data visualizations include:
- Data starting from FY 2015 (Business Objects dashboards provided only the current and previous fiscal years);
- The ability to group counties by size and/or location to compare performance over selected time periods;
- Maps to view and compare county performance around the state;
- A sortable and filterable ranked list; and,
- The ability to export data and visualizations to other applications.
There are more advantages to Power BI data visualizations, but we recommend users see them for themselves.
Access to the Power BI data visualizations is automatic for IV-D staff who have a Business Objects login. IV-D staff who do not have a Business Objects login will need to submit a DHS-393: IV-D Program Request for Computer Access if they wish to use the Power BI data visualizations (do it!).
More information and instructions are in the Email Notification, New Data Visualizations Available published February 16, 2021.
