Overview
While individual users in your organization can source key result data from applications like Excel, Jira, Github, Asana and more by using our built-in connectors, in some cases it makes more sense to create a single org-level integration to your external business data systems.
For example, if multiple users need access to the same data over multiple quarters, having a single integration will save time they would otherwise spend re-enabling their individual integrations each quarter. Likewise, some data may be stored in repositories that are not readily accessible to most users, like SQL or Redshift databases.
For these cases, your organization's technical administrators can set up a data stream to feed the data into Workboard. Once these data streams have been set up, individual users in the organization can easily set them as sources for their own KRs through Workboard’s OKR setup wizard, or display them as KPI charts on Running Business Reviews.
Setting up a data stream is a two-step process. Your organization's technical administrator must first create the data stream through the user interface in Workboard. Next, your admin must configure the data connector that will manage the data flow from your external system into the data stream.
Create the Data Stream
Your organization's technical administrator can create data streams using Workboard’s Administrator Tools, available under the Profile and Settings menu.
The technical admin will need to provide the following information for the data stream:
- Name – a name for the data stream. This will be visible to end users in the OKR setup wizard.
- Frequency – the frequency at which the data stream will be updated: daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
- Category - Data streams can be categorized to make it easier for end users to find them on the OKR setup wizard. Org admins can set up categories with the Workboard Administrator Tools.
- Type – the type of data that the data stream will contain: numbers, currency, or percentage.
- Description – an optional field for admins to provide additional information about the data source.
- Permissions – Org admins can grant data stream access to individual users, teams, or the entire organization
Once the data stream has been created, Workboard will generate the data stream’s unique id and private key. Both will be required for the next step.
Set up the Data Connector
The data connector publishes data from your external business system into Workboard. We handle REST connectors and connectors to systems that do not provide REST APIs.
Your organization's technical administrator can choose one of the following two options for hosting the connector:
- Workboard hosting: Workboard can host the connector and the data logs generated by your data stream. Your technical administrator will be given a configuration file to modify and return to Workboard. The information you will need to provide for the config file will depend on the data source, but in general includes access credentials for the data source, the private key generated by Workboard when the you created the data stream, and either a function call or an API request for pulling the data. For REST connectors, you will also need to provide the URL for the request, headers, query parameters, and an access token. For database connectors, you will need to provide the database location and queries.
- Internal hosting: if your organization’s security rules do not allow you to share data source access credentials with Workboard, or if the data must remain within your organization’s own firewall, you can also host the connector and data logs yourself. In this case, Workboard will provide you with an SDK for building your own connector.
Once the connector has been created and is feeding data into Workboard, the data stream will be marked as “Active” on the Data Streams Workboard Administrator Tools, and it will be available as a source for automatic KR updates.
To set up data stream connectors for your organization, contact your Workboard CSM or submit a request here.