Purpose & Scope

Life Science Analytics Cloud (LSAC) suite of applications is the leading AI-powered clinical analytics self-serving platform from Saama that seamlessly integrates and processes clinical trial data, delivering more actionable insights for faster decision making. 

Saama’s suite of cloud-based applications in LSAC, offer powerful data aggregation, monitoring, analytics, and collaboration capabilities, so that sponsors and CROs can optimize study planning, enrollment, compliance, productivity, and oversight.

The purpose of this document is to provide the release notes for version 4.3 of LSAC application. The release notes review the latest enhancements/new features of the LSAC application along with addressing known defects and fixed defects. 

This document is intended to leave the business user with an understanding of the features and fixes to the LSAC application when upgrading from subsequent versions.

Release Summary

This release, LSAC v4.3, focuses on the new features/enhancements in LSAC KPI Studio that will aid in providing business users with unique ways to interact with their data and will also help data analysts to drive the best analytical experience for their data-driven business decisions.

The features/enhancements are categorized for better understanding and assimilation.

KPI Studio - Dashboards

New! Canvas Dashboards

The Canvas allows users to design creative dashboards on a flexible free-form canvas. The canvas supports multiple type of content objects such as reports, filters, interactive buttons, images, text, shapes, icons, along with custom coded widgets to incorporate any functionality directly onto the dashboard. User access to dashboards can also be modified.

New! Blueprint Widgets

Blueprint widgets enable users to create a wireframe of dashboard with its design components that would allow multiple users to collaborate on dashboard design securely within the KPI Studio platform. 

New! Quick Charts

Charts widgets, present within Blueprint, can be further configured to create charts directly onto the dashboard without going through the steps in KPI Studio report builder. 

Enhancement! Dashboard Access

The user level access to a published dashboard can be modified directly without the need to go into the Edit mode.

New! Object Menu

An object menu is visible, when an object is selected, in the dashboard canvas in Edit mode so that further operations can be performed on the object. 

New! Report Branching

This option allows multiple charts to be added to the dashboard, from the same report, without running the SQL multiple times.

New! Undo and Redo Dashboard Actions

Changes done to the dashboard canvas can be undone or redone while in Edit mode until the dashboard is published.

Enhancement! Dashboard Filter options

The following two dashboard filter options are available if a filter widget is added to a static container.

Auto run filter option: Reports are run automatically, without having to click Apply, when filter values are changed in the filter widget present in the dashboard.

Auto height filter option: Enable this option so that the filter widget can automatically adjust its height according to the items in it.

New! Quick Chart Filters

Quick charts rendered to the dashboard, via the Blueprint widget, can be configured easily through filters created using the Properties panel.

New! Full Screen Mode

A published dashboard can be seen in full screen mode for better visibility. 

New! Associated Reports

Reports can be added as links (one link = one report) to dashboards and presentations without being displayed in full. Report links aid in navigating the user to additional/supplemental information for further investigations of data.

New! Report Column Sort

Report columns can be sorted in Ascending or Descending order on dashboards that are either in Draft or Published states in Canvas and Static layouts.

New! Action Events

Action events, such as, push and pull data (to and from enterprise apps), custom workflows, internal or external events; can be triggered through Action Buttons, when they are clicked upon, present in the dashboard.

Enhancement! Image Manager supports multiple formats

The Image Manager has been enhanced to support multiple image file formats, such as, GIF, PNG, JPEG, PCX, TIFF, BMP, SGI, SVG, and so on.

Enhancement! Improved visibility of placing Canvas Widgets

The drag-and-drop process of placing a widget onto the dashboard canvas has been improved to provide better visibility of the placement of the widget on the canvas.

New! Horizontal Filter Widget

The horizontal filter widget presents itself as a fresh addition onto dashboards and presentations, to accommodate more flexibility for customized data views. The horizontal filter widget can be added on canvas layout.

Enhancement! Canvas Scrollbars

Canvas scrollbars enable the user to scroll through large size canvas visualizations with scrollbar in Fix layout dashboards.

Enhancement! Improved Dashboard Performance

The dashboard loading time has been considerably reduced with this release. The dashboard takes very less time to load thus increasing its performance.

KPI Studio - Reports

New! Advanced Function – Sparkline Array Analytic

Using this function, metric column data can be transformed into an array of aggregated values and yield a continuous sparkline to better capture the behavior of the metric over a period of time.

New! Format Function – Action Button

Using this function, an action button can be created that is linked to a URL. The column on which it is created, can fetch the returned data that points to the URL. 

Enhancement! Calculated Field Data Type

The resultant data type, when a calculated field is applied, can be selected by the user and the system will not validate it. 

New! Column Formatting Option - Description

The Column Formatting options have been enhanced to include a description box that can be used to clearly state the purpose and usage of the calculated field created. This can aid report writers.

New! Edit Charts in Dashboard Design

Charts, that are part of the reports, can be edited in dashboard design mode both in Fix and Canvas dashboard layouts.

New! Column Formatting option – Image Link Formatter 

Using this column formatting option, an image instead of a URL can be displayed thus effectively providing images within reports.

Enhancement! Totals and Sub Totals Formatting Options 

The aggregated totals, such as section totals, sub totals, grand totals, that are computed to provide the user with a higher understanding of data in a more detailed report, can be styled in color, font type, font size, alignment and so on, to draw immediate attention. The position of the subtotals, totals can be displayed at the start or end of the report table.

New! Column Header Formatting 

Individual column headers, in a report, can be styled to change the background, fonts, alignment and formatting of the text through multiple options.

Enhancement! Basic and Advanced Sub Queries

The Basic and Advanced sub query function has been enhanced to accommodate joins on fields that are not part of the final report but are part of the same view that the report is based upon.

New! Advanced Function – Top/Bottom N Rank

The Top/Bottom N Rank function returns the top N or the bottom N values or ranks of the selected field in a report. The options ‘Non-threshold values’ and ‘Display Type’ provide a better understanding of the function.

New! Advanced Function – Percentage of Segment Function

A new advanced function, Percentage of Segment Function, has been added that calculates the percentage of a subtotal for a dimension segment on selected metric in report tables.

New! Advanced Function – Days between Date with Offset Function

A new advanced function, Days between Date with Offset Function, has been added that returns the number of days between two selected date fields in report tables.

New! Advanced Function – Growth Truncate

A new advanced function, Growth Truncate, has been added to calculate and display the truncated growth between two metric fields as a percentage.

New! Advanced Function – Accumulative Percentage Against Column

A new advanced function, Accumulative Percentage Against Column, has been added to calculate and display the percentage of running total of field against the running total of other fields.

New! Advanced Function – Percentage Against Accumulative Column

A new advanced function, Percentage Against Accumulative Column, has been added to calculate and display the percentage of a selected field against running totals of other fields.

New! Advanced Function – Difference Truncate

A new advanced function, Difference Truncate, has been added to calculate and display the truncated difference of two metric fields.

KPI Studio - Filters

New! Dashboard Property – Filter Reset Control

Application of this property will reset the entire dashboard to its original state irrespective of linked/unlinked filters. It will reset all filters and other dashboard interactions, including drill functions applied by the user.

New! Filter Configuration – Dynamic Filter Values

Application of this filter configuration will automatically select the first filter value of a dimension field if the default filter value is not available, in case of access filter restrictions. 

Enhancement! Filter Settings – Improved Cached Filters

Two options have been added to provide more flexibility in viewing data in Cached filters. These are:

• Ignore Report Filters when loading Cached Values
• Restrict SQL context to Filter Columns only

Enhancement! Improved Dashboard Properties Pane

The addition of the Left Filters toggle key to the Dashboard Properties pane allows the user to show/hide additional filter options, such as Hide Reset link, Auto Run filter, and so on, on the left side of the screen for easy accessibility and application.

Enhancement! Filter Linking Confirmation

The filter linking process has been improved to display a confirmation message on the UI that states the result of the filter linking process.

Enhancement! Global Filters

Global filters can be fixed in place, on the canvas, so that these are always visible as the user scrolls through charts and other components on the dashboard.

KPI Studio - Charts

Enhancement! Chart Gridlines

Chart gridlines can be applied, through the Background tab, from a varied set of options, such as Numeric Axes/Horizontal Axis/ Vertical Axis/All Axes/None.

New! Accumulation Function

The accumulation percentage or the running total value of a total line in a chart, can be seen with the help of a secondary axis and thus draw out a Pareto-like analysis on the chart.

Enhancement! Category Trimming 

Trimming values on bar and column charts can be applied when too many values in a selected dimension field make it difficult to read the chart and using this toggle key would help to trim or cut out values from the chart.

New! Logarithmic option for Numeric Axes 

Using the Logarithmic option resolves a visualization issue that occurs when a few data points are much larger than most of the data points in a dataset and thus prevents the data display from being skewed.

Enhancement! Formatting options for Multi Pie Charts

Multi Pie charts can be sorted through a varied set of sorting options and the labels can be styled through various formatting options such as font formatting and so on.

Enhancement! Axes in smaller charts

Axes titles can be chosen to be displayed for smaller charts through the Show/Hide Axis Title toggle present for both the horizontal and vertical axis.

New! Variance function – Simple Percentage

The variance function, Simple Percentage, displays the difference between two fields, in a chart or table. The variance can be displayed as a calculated value or as a percentage difference.

Enhancement! More functions on Charts

More functions, such as Accumulation, Average, and Trend have been enabled on non-auto Area, Bar, and Column Charts.

Enhancement! Waterfall Chart

Waterfall charts have been enhanced to support dynamic inputs on Start column, to configure column titles for both the start and end columns and to also support custom colors.

KPI Studio - Dashboards & Reports

Enhancement! Report Properties – Hide Report Name

By default, the report name will be hidden on both static and canvas dashboards. The toggle key Hide Report Name allows the user to either show or hide the report name. If the report name is shown, then it will be placed directly above the report and cannot be formatted.

New! Keyboard shortcut 

A keyboard shortcut, namely, ctrl + A, has been supported that allows the user to select all widgets on a draft canvas in one go.

KPI Studio - Export

Enhancement! PDF Export

A PDF export on a dashboard is made possible through the Export PDF option and this has removed the need to specify an external base URL. A varied set of options can be explored for a more refined PDF output.

KPI Studio - Views

Enhancement! View Builder Access

The View Builder has been enhanced with a new navigation menu, providing streamlined data preparation experience for field setting properties, performance, security, and automation configuration.

New! Restricted access to View columns

This features allows specific columns to be shown/hidden to specific users.

KPI Studio - Present

New! Presentation Module

KPI Studio Present is a fully integrated presentation module designed for data-led communications. This module contains functionality similar to the dashboard canvas. A presentation slide supports multiple types of content, images, text, shapes, code widgets, filters, action buttons and so on.

New! Exit button

An exit button has been added to exit from KPI Present full screen mode.

KPI Studio - Others

New! Code Widgets 

This feature enables the user to add code widgets, like Associated Reports, Videos into presentations and into canvas dashboards.