Balanced Scorecard Designer

BSC Designer - balanced scorecard, KPI and metrics software.

Balanced Scorecard Designer (BSC Designer) is a set of software and web-service solutions that makes it easy to measure, control and improve business performance.
BSC Designer is available in 3 editions:

• BSC Designer Standard [Download | Buy Now]
• BSC Designer PRO [Download | Buy Now]
• BSC Designer Online [Home page | Log-in | Sign up with account]

Why use Balanced Scorecard Designer

• BSC Designer helps to improve business performance by applying BSC concept;
• BSC concept is used by more than 50% of Fortune companies;
• CEOs and top-managers use BSC Designer to measure and improve business productivity;

The most powerful desktop edition of BSC Designer is BSC Designer PRO, both desktop editions use the same file format (*.bsc file), so they are fully compatible. Web-based service has similar interface, *.bsc files created with any of desktop editions can be imported in to the online system. Learn more about the difference between editions, BSC Designer FAQ.

Interface Overview

Balanced Scorecard Designer software.

Balanced Scorecard Designer has a plain, easy to use interface, which provides user with:

• The Possibility to create a scorecard, e.g. create categories, indicators;
• Balancing function, e.g. lets user specify relative weights;
• Time Points, allow to specify weight, score, mix/max and other values specific for certain dates.
• Ability to connect several scorecards into one using data obtained from the web or local network. It also can import information using SQL indicators.
• Performance measurement and calculation functions, e.g. calculates the performance within category and total performance;
• Results of work can be exported into easy, readable html reports with charts.

Balanced Scorecard Designer provides wide range of reporting and dashboarding

The results of the design can be saved into BSC native format (.bsc file type) or exported to MS Excel for further usage. The Export feature is very important as the Balanced Scorecard exported to MS Excel can be used to connect the data from company ERP system with performance measurement. Starting in version 1.3, exporting is also available with command line interface.

The newest version of Balanced Scorecard Designer displays performance indicators values grouped by date, the visualization in the form of performance charts is also now available. The performance chart provides user with date-by-date performance changes dynamics.

Balanced Scorecard Designer functions in details

When you run the Balanced Scorecard Designer the default project will be opened. You will be able to start with design process immediately.

Using toolbar buttons, you will be able to add more categories and indicators, move items or run the balancing function. Also, with tool bar “Report” button you will be able to export results into a MS Excel file.

The special toolbar was designed to manage concurrently with time points. With time points, the user can specify different performance and weight values for different dates.

In Balanced Scorecard Designer you will work with strategy tree. The strategy tree includes:

• Root element. It has the same name as your Balanced Scorecard project. If you need to change project name, please, choose “Properties” option in File menu.
• Category elements. These elements are containers for indicator elements.
• Indicator element, also called metric or performance indicator, is an item with name (for instance “Response Time”), relative weights on 1..10 scale and optimization direction.

You can click on any item (Category or Indicators) and you will see the information about that item below. The information includes:

• The name of the category or indicator;
• The relative weight of the category or indicator;
• The description of the category or indicator;

If it is necessary to specify more detailed description for the indicator use attachments.

Please, note: you can change the values right now and the changes will be immediately processed and shown at strategy tree. BSC Designer will automatically recalculate the performance values.

The indicator item, also known as metric or goal has some addition parameters. Indicator has:

• Value. It is the current value, the current score or performance level within this metric.
• Measure. Measure value specified the measurement units, can be “Score” or “%” or some custom measure units.
• Min and Max values determine the scale for the metric. If the value is highlighted with bold (for instance, “max”) then your target within this metric is to improve the current value and achieve max value.
• Optimization drop-box determines your optimization strategy. If your goal is to make the current value higher then use the “Maximize” option, if your goal is to lower the current value (for instance to lower the number of defects), then use the “Minimize” option).
• Target Description is an optional field, you can put here any additional notes that will explain how you are going to measure your business alignment indicators, measurement units that you are going to use.

Subcategories in Balanced Scorecard Designer

Balanced Scorecard Designer has many more useful features than Strategy2Act. The significant difference is the ability to create sub-categories.

For instance, in Balanced Scorecard Designer one can create a global category “Customers”, with metrics “Response Time”, “On-time delivery”, “Support Quality”, but at the same time the “Support Quality” might be a category itself, e.g. contains more specific metrics, such as “Response script quality”, “Response value measure”, “Customer satisfaction” measures.