Web Based DSS II:Improving Web Information Organization and Presentation with SAS Version 8

Jeff LeSueur, BMG Direct, with Destiny Corp.

In a previous paper (Web Based DSS, SUGI-25) options andadvantages associated with web based decision support systemswere discussed. This article focused on the advantages ofdynamic information access through a browser, as provided bySAS/IntrNet™ and SAS/WebEIS™. Examples provided werebased on SAS® Version 6.12.

With increased use of the BMG Direct intranet site, expansion ofthe number and complexity of reports, and the introduction of SASVersion 8, new challenges and opportunities arose. For example,as the number of reports increased, the need for some form ofreport description became necessary, as well as a betterorganization of the available information. SAS Version 8introduced much greater sophistication in web publishingcapabilities. This paper examines these challenges and presentsexamples of the solutions which Destiny Corp. developed, as wellas the opportunities for improved information availability andpresentation which Version 8 presented for BMG Direct.

Information managers and end users should find the practicalexamples presented as indicative of the power and flexibility ofweb-based information distribution. For intranet web developers,code solutions to examples are included in the appendix.

INTRODUCTION

As the world’s largest record club, BMG Direct markets CDs andmusic related products to over 11MM members in the US. As adirect marketer, BMG’s success depends on the ability tocommunicate performance of a vast number of promotions alongfour primary channels: traditional direct mail, in the form of 16 to64 page magazines mailed up to 20 times per year, throughtelemarketing to over 100,000 members per month, through itsweb site (www.bmgmusicservice.com), and through the newermedium of ‘direct email’.

BMG Direct’s Intranet web site for company performanceinformation has proven to be an ideal medium for communicationof many thousands of pages of statistics, graphs and writtenmaterial to several hundred business managers in marketing,business planning and finance. During the past year severalchallenges have been met through an improved ‘front end’ whichmore clearly identifies information, including a description of mostreports, and through the significant advancements in presentationoffered by SAS Version 8. This paper introduces many of thesefeatures.

IMPROVING THE SITE TABLE OF CONTENTSOne of the primary complaints from users, particularly uppermanagement, has been the ‘front end’, the top level html pagewhich carried the hot links for most reports. That was part of theproblem: the top level page contained a simple list of reports in aframe. As reports were added, the list became longer. Therewas no differentiation of content according to the audience, forexample marketing users content was listed right along withOperations’ reports.

In addition, titles for hot links were space constrained, limited toabout twenty five characters. To the authors the titles were self-explanatory, to others many of the titles were cryptic. Manyreports continued to be primarily summary tables in text and html,previously referred to as ‘static’ reports in two dimensions.Finally, the reports themselves included very little in the form ofdescriptive information, other than a report title and a few sub-title descriptions. No information was provided to explain fieldssuch as “E-Addr” and No E-Addr”.

All of these issues make reports difficult to find as well as todecipher for new and occasional users, as well as those whoknew exactly what they wanted from the site, but had forgottenthe path to get there. Going a level further, many users requiredfurther explanation of the individual fields in the reportsthemselves. Using a fundamental, simple html hot link sequenceto access simple, static reports left little room for such userfriendly information.

Another weakness in the front end was the inability to groupinformation by logical categories along a second (or third)dimension, such as functional area – Finance, Marketing,Operations. Users readily identified with such groupings forsales, member counts, as well as operational metrics. Somereports could easily find a position in several categories, insteadall reports were simply allocated a single slot in the list of reports.Only in a few cases could users discern the purpose andaudience for a report according to its neighboring reports. Forexample, all web oriented reports were listed together.

The existing Table of Contents was nonetheless easy to maintainand easily modified for new reports and to new presentationforms, such as incorporating a different java applet. Could a morecomplex presentation - while more useful for end users - also beas easy to maintain?

While BMG had previously performed all development internally, itwas decided the website needed a complete re-vamping toaddress these issues. One of the anticipated benefits was theintroduction of new and revised reports utilizing some of the manyfeatures of Version 8 of the SAS system. Destiny Corp., a SASQuality Partner based in Wethersfield, CT, was selected toperform the work for BMG. They had been working for nearly 12months with the latest SAS revisions.

For the front end development, the team from Destiny Corp.considered a variety of forms emphasizing simplicity: Oneapproach with appealing simplicity also had a desired familiarity:the directory form which Microsoft Explorer uses, a tree ofexpanding folders. A java applet was identified which providedthe capability of an expanding tree, and an image of a folder was

Paper 206-26

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added to complete the imagery. In combination, the symbologywas immediately apparent: Folders were created withcorresponding labels for “Marketing”, “Web Site”, “Finance” and“Operations”. Within each folder, additional folders could beadded, to combine similar content, for example information onWeb users.

So far, the presentation seemed ideal for most users. It alsocreated a maintenance issue: the java text was cumbersome andit was difficult to discern the tree structure from within the codeitself. In development, this only became obvious when folders didnot expand to the desired content. Even minor modifications –adding a leaf to one branch – required many lines of code.Structural errors were correspondingly increasingly difficult todebug.

The repetition of the code pattern for the sequence of folderssuggested a macro might be an appropriate technique. After afew false starts, an approach unfolded which also solved themaintenance problem. The macro technique would use as itssource of data a flat text file. This file would contain the foldernames, and a hierarchy index. References to URLs would beanother field in the file. The maintenance issue was solvedbecause it would be easy for non-programmers to maintain thetext file. In addition, the structure of the folder hierarchy waseasily discerned. The Base SAS program which produced thefinal HTML version of the Table of Contents required no ongoingmaintenance for changes to the Table of Contents.

The new table of contents is immediately familiar: it looks a lotlike the ‘Explorer’ feature of Microsoft Windows, based on an

expanding tree structure several layers deep. This has enabledhyper links to the same report to be grouped under differentheadings such as “Marketing” as well as “Finance”.

By utilizing the ‘folder within a folder’ approach, a group of similarreports can be clustered under a sub-heading, such as “Sales

Reporting” or “Telemarketing Performance Reports”, below whicha list of actual reports becomes available. Sales reports, whichare applicable to both Finance and Marketing, can be availableunder sub-headings in both of these operational categories.

Folders Within Folders…

Within Folders

Finally, to provide more information to the user on the report itself,an additional field was added to the flat file, called appropriately“Report Description”. As a free form text field, a large amount ofinformation can be stored here and surfaced to the user, asfollows: as the user’s mouse ‘floats’ over a particular hot link, a‘bubble’ description appears, providing a short description of thereport, based on the content in the flat file. Implementation of thisfeature is in development. Of note, this approach applies equallyto the folder descriptions, providing additional clarity of content forthe user.

A technique for creating more information for the report fieldsthemselves is being considered for future development. A similarapproach is desired, one which would allow the user to float amouse over a field, and generate a ‘bubble’ description of theunderlying column or row.

EXPANDED WEB PUBLISHING CAPABILITIESMost of BMG’s original reports were based on the two HTMLmacros, “TAB2HTM” and “OUT2HTM”. This resulted in reportsconsisting of increasingly long sets of HTML based tables, orrepetitive, difficult to search frequency tables in straight text form.

Enhanced table presentation available through applets within SASWebAF was particularly advantageous for one report, a largeaccounts receiveable liquidation table. With TAB2HTM, this tableof 30 columns would be presented in five sections since the widthwas greater than 175 characters. With java based presentationcapability, the table can be shown in one section on the screen,with greater control over formatting. Greater control andimproved presentation equates to improved communication of theinformation itself.

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SAS WebAF Based Table Presentation

Enhanced information presentation capabilities introduced withSAS Version 8 have also been used extensively to eliminatemuch of the previously awkward presentation forms. ThroughODS a more consistent look and feel has been established. Withthe XML table form, improved graphic renditions of tables andgraphs have been introduced, graphs which also provide for asimulated ‘drill down’ capability, without the invocation of theelaborate applets associated with the more robust, applet drivenversion of SAS/WebEIS.

3 Dimensions in XML

In all, over twenty existing reports have been modified and adozen new reports introduced, covering content for Marketing,Finance as well as Operations. End users have recognized theimprovement in content with a caveat: they want more content,and are willing to sacrifice form in the interest of quickerdevelopment.

Average Order Size Box Plot

The use of an outside firm for the continued development of thewebsite has been frustrating for some BMG developers, who seethe utility of the new features of SAS Version 8 yet do not havethe time to develop their skills and ascend to this new plateau offunctionality.

MDDB and WebEIS for MultiDimensional Views

The compromise on the other hand can be viewed as a good onefor management: who better than internal developers are betterqualified to specify new reporting requirements? In making thismarriage work, management has recognized the strengths thatboth parties bring to the table. In stressing such programs as“Changes and Enhancements, Version 8.0” SAS educators suchas Destiny Corp. are able to make users aware of the newfunctionality, while also providing the development resources formore effective exploitation of the new features. Ideally, templatedexamples developed by outside experts can be used by internaldevelopers to continue development after the contract isconcluded.

NEXT STEPSSome of the weaknesses of existing reports include their ‘onedimensionality’: the reports are static. Expanded use of javaapplets creates a maintenance issue and does not improve speedof execution. By adopting increased use of JSP (Java ServerPages), more dynamic user control of content will becomeavailable, at the same time improving speed of delivery.

Perhaps the most significant step is improving ease of use byadopting the ‘ultimate’ thin client: hand held devices such as thePalm Pilot. By adapting existing material to the more narrowscreen of these much simpler systems, much of the ‘weight’ of afull computer can be eliminated without any serious loss inavailability of information. This makes possible the concept of“information anywhere”, even “what you want, when you want it”provided through dynamic information delivery, requested viawireless connectivity. Initial work in this area has been promising.

CONCLUSIONWhile the attractiveness of the site and itscomprehensive, “one stop” nature forinformation may seem an appealingapproach to distributing information, it mustbe noted that management level users haveresponded much more favorably to emaildelivery of URL tags for reports, generallydistributed when reports are updated over aweekend.

That being said however, it must also benoted that the BMG Direct Website has

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been in continuous development for nearly five years, a clearindication of the merits and long term usefulness of intranetwebsite delivery. Web distribution began with simple directoryreferences to text documents, PDF formatted documents wereadded shortly thereafter. Two years ago dynamic informationaccess was added, via SAS WebEIS and IntrNet, providing moreflexible and deep information access than is possible in twodimensions. Most recently a new front end has been developedand SAS Version 8.0 functionality added. The new developmentsin Java Server Pages promise an even higher level of functionalityin the near future, utilizing the greater horsepower of the server indelivering web based content. BMG Direct has been investing inthe future for some time now.

CONTACT INFORMATIONJeff LeSueurThe SAS InstituteSAS Campus DriveCary, North Carolina919 531 0108

Dana RafieeDestiny Corporation100Wethersfield, Connecticut822 822 8222www.DestinyCorp.com

APPENDIX

Developing the front end to the BMG site

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