Have you ever wanted to be able to see how long it took from the placement of a customer's order until the delivery of the product to their door, each step of the way? Logbook, Know How's latest business information visualisation module now allows businesses to understand their information in the fourth dimension: time.

The two traditional and common pillars of displaying business information have been the tabular spreadsheet, and charts generated from the same kind of data. Both can convey and summarise large amounts of information in a small space and still be understandable. Neither can present data spatially, which has lead to the use of GiS (geospatial information systems), now available to any sized business via Know How's Mapbook module. Both can work with temporal (time aware) data. A spreadsheet can order figures by date and time based charts are very common and usefull. It is unfortunate that most of the time this information can only be accessed by running a report. It isn't just there to be looked at at any time, in real time, nor are spreadsheets and charts it interactive or integrated with the rest of the business intelligence system.

Know How's Logbook module brings temporal data to life. Users can see each step and event of a sequence and be told what it was via the user friendly interface. A chart is static and will generally only show points of importance, with maybe a short annotation at best. Spreadsheets can hold more information but their readability is poor without sacrificing the benefit of the spreadsheet: displayint large amounts of data together so it can be sorted and grouped. Logbook combines the timeline of a temporal chart with the information holding power of a spreadsheet. The best way to explain what really can be done is with some real world examples:

• Trip review: Combined with Mapbook, Logbook can display trip of the travelling Salesman; the path taken and the time spent at each location. A businesses department's can use this information in conjunction with their other data: accounts can ensure that the Salesman's expense claims were correct and tally up the cost of each stage; the Sales Department itself would inspect the performance of the trip, which stops generated more or less sales than expected etc. Trip review and planning would be even more important for Logistics in order to find the quickest and cheapest route from warehouse to customer.

• Process tracking: Each step from when a customer phoned in their order, until its arrival can be measured using PCAM, and displayed in Logbook, from the time it took for the warehouse team to pick and pack the order, how long it took for the shipping company to deliver it. The individual process can be monitored in realtime as each task progresses. As an aggregate of all customer processes, averages and best and worst times can be compared against KPIs to track performance.

• Conferences/events: Acting as a calendar Logbook can display upcoming conferences and notable events, and maintain past events for historic records. Individuals can use Logbook to manage their own affairs and be aware of wider happenings in the NetworkDNA.

• Project planning: Logbook can be used similarly to a gantt chart. By splitting the task of the project into a shorter "now" and broader future-past-present view, its very easy to see what has to be completed in the immediate term, and the scale of what has already been performed and what is to come for a large project.

Like Mapbook, Logbook is an information visualisation aid. Its benefit is to help managers and analysts better understand their information by being able to see it from as many angles as possible as each new angle will bring new insights and ideas for improving short term and strategic plans. Integrated with PCAM and Know How's other visualisation and functional modules, businesses will be able to know "when", not just how.