Balanced Scorecard Designer

Theoretical issues

The question on how to measure the success of a management concept does not have the only answer. Basically all the company’s activities have improvement of industrial results and Increase in cost of the company as the long term purposes. But when it is referring to Balanced Scorecard concept it needs some unique measurement indicators and units. Authors of the concept usually report about numbers of examples (world’s famous companies) which had increased their costs and profits thanks to BSC. But those common assessments might be considered groundless while more careful cause and effect analysis proceeded. There are a lot of examples presenting minor aspects to cause a deep satisfaction of realizing some strategy. It also needs to be noticed there are no convincing proofs of many other management and administrative tools (for example management of a portfolio, accounting of costs and so on). R. Kaplan honestly does not consider BSC theory ideal. There is no very important part of concept that referring to theory’s effectiveness measurement. That is why further researches are needed to be preceded.

Practical results of management using BSC concept

While business theorists are looking for any holes in the concept, practitioners are already receiving odds by using Balanced Scorecard as well as facing some problems in this concept.

Advantages

During practice the following advantages of the concept were found and proved:

• Multi-aspect and practical methods allow gaining of stable linking between operational and strategic management;
• The four perspectives (Financial perspective, Customer perspective, Innovation and learning perspective and Internal processes perspective – read more in the article “What is Balanced Scorecard concept: the four perspectives”) make it possible to create overall scheme to direct the strategy from above down through all the hierarchy levels;
• The problems appeared while realizing the strategy can now be solved faster and more effectively. BSC tool called “Strategy map” improves the performance of discussions aimed to solve problems. The question of determination of measure units for indicators allows better understanding of problems reasons and finding the right decisions;
• Balanced Scorecard concept makes it possible to create stable linking process and communications all over the company’s staff. Communications help to solve any appeared problems in groups as well as directing to staff’s persistent educational goals;
• The concept’s integration process into common monitoring systems works perfectly. Also there are no problems with BSC co-ordinations with the management methods aimed to increase the cost f business;
• Others.

Disadvanteges

There also were several problems managers faced with, while using BSC concept. Here is the list of them:

• The manager’s attention focuses on value – based management and some “soft” factors are sometimes being ignored;
• Unambiguity of sheaves like “the purpose – means” and “a strategic map” is not provided;
• Several problems with measurement are still not solved;
• Concept does not provide the methods of the resolution of conflicts.

Summary

The short summary of results of BSC practical usage might sound this way: Balanced Scorecard concept is a tool which allows full-scale to co-ordinate strategy with operational management. Also the system makes it possible for decisions on how to distribute company’s resources to become quite objective.

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Questions of cross word:

1. It is developed with an idea of specifying what the organization wants to be and how it plans to reach its desired goals. Basically it looks at the future and works as a guiding light for the employees of the organization besides affecting the strategic decision making criteria. It clearly states the desired future of the company in a manner and provides a long term agenda. It is also expressed in form of a statement which is often devised carefully to accurately outline the future goals.
2. It is considered as a formal description of the purpose of an organization or company and it is typically expressed in form of a statement. It is developed with an idea to effectively guide the actions of the company and it aims to clearly explain its objectives and provide a way for its stakeholders to follow. It forms the core ideology of an organization and it also acts as a key guiding light for the management and it is known to influence their strategic decisions and goals.  If it is properly expressed it also works as a great motivator for the employees in the organization.
3. In context of management and in specific context of balance scorecards, it is related to relative value a key performance indicator has in the overall evaluation criterion. When one allocates it to one specific indicator, one needs to understand the contribution of the indicator to the success of the process and the degree of its value as compare to other indicators in question. The more critical an indicator is, the more value it receives. Besides being used in management, it shares the same name of a common term used in physical sciences.
4. Motorola originated this business management strategy while it achieved legendary status after it was utilized by GE. It is aimed at improving the output of a process by eliminating the causes of error. The approach is dependent on precise data; the statistical representation of which shows how a process is progressing. Its primary function is to improve the performance and reduce the variation in business and manufacturing. It follows two methodologies-DMAIC and DMADV. The first methodology is used when the process is already in progress and needs to be improved while the latter is used for developing new processes.
5. A widely used software used to created balanced scorecards and it is known for its user friendliness. It allows its users to quickly create categories and indicators according to their need and is highly flexible. It also offers users the option to specify relative weights and can calculate the expected performance within a specified category. This designer tool can also generate html reports, can include subcategories under categories, offers an innovative ‘stop lights’ feature for reviewing scorecards and comes with a ‘time points’ feature that allows for values to change with time.
6. It is a technique used by management information systems to drill down data from a top view to a more detailed view. Often the top level view of a MIS system or even a scorecard has only limited details which may be good for the viewing of a top executive, however if one needs to go down and check the information that is presented to a junior manager, this technique is used. This feature is prominently used in scorecard software where various scorecards are interlinked, at times even external scorecards, for the benefit of the user.
7. They are considered as key performance indicators for any sector or industry and designing them is often a very challenging tasks. They are also be labeled as group of indicators used to specify the ideal conditions expected in any process or task. Most of these are designed as per industry verticals or specific job functions while they can also be developed for personal use. These indicators are also available with many management performance measurement software and can give a pointer to organizations to improve their processes.
8. It is used to specify an end of a stage and it is often marked by an event like completion of a phase or deliverable. It is known to be extensively used by organizations when they execute or plan any project and it is also critical for project scheduling. Typically used to monitor the progress of a task, it can also be used to mark out the completions of critical tasks using techniques such as Critical Path Method while ignoring tasks that are peripheral. Continuous evaluation of most projects lay stress on reaching it on time.
9. In the context of management, is a tool that is used to compile information regarding the performance of the organization or process at one place. In general parlance it is basically utilized in sports as an evaluation tool, that can come in many forms and typically contains a criterion that stakeholders normally use to evaluate the performance of person. Organizations typically use it to collate their performance indicators or metrics at a single place and it is highly valued for the holistic insight it can offer into the prevailing situation of a process.

10. It is a user interface that makes information available in a more defined and precise manner and typically is the first screen that comes into view when one opens any major management information software application. The information is represented in a way that is easy to read and understand. It integrates information from multiple sources and portrays it as one unified screen. It is typically used to display several metrics in a graphical manner for the ease reading of the user. The term is also used in everyday life and represents the control panel located under the windshield of a car.

11. It is an acronym for a business management strategy focusing at spreading awareness of quality in all organizational processes. This has been widely used in manufacturing educational institutions, hospitals, government, and service industries. It describes the customs and behavior of companies that aims to provide its customers products and services that satisfy their needs. It requires that the company maintain quality in all its operations, completing tasks in the stipulated period of time and removing all sorts of defects from the operation. This involves active involvement of all its members while keeping in mind long-term goals through customer satisfaction, and profits to all employees of the organization and to society. Alongside spreading the awareness of quality standard in organizational operation, this management strategy is open to customer feedback and constant improvement.

12. Its objective is to achieve better co-ordination between policies and priorities. It analyses the factors associated with external environment and internal environment thereby enabling the organization to achieve its long term goals. The external factors involve customers and competitors while the internal factors talk about the organization itself and all objects related to the organization. it involves designing the most optimum way to react to the situations of the organization’s environment, whether or not these circumstances are known before hand. Nonprofit organizations on a frequent basis, must respond to aggressive and hostile environments. The process is about planning as it entails deciding goals, and designing a method to achieve those goals. The process is organized as it involves a certain order and pattern of events to keep it focused and productive for an extensive period of time.

13. It is a method of strategic planning and a management technique, adopted by industries and governments, to align the small scale business activities to the large scale operational activities. It aims at the long term interest of the organization by focusing on wide range of parameters including financial outcome as well as operational inputs. Initiated by Dr. Robert Kaplan and Dr. David P. Norton, it was one of the earliest performance management tools used by organizations to boost up the outcome. Achieving it simply includes four simple steps- changing the vision into goals, linking the vision with individual performance, planning the business and then receiving feedback to make adjustments.

14. It is a key measure of performance. It is most widely used and least understood words in business today and varies from organization to organization. Some like a auto major may have it in form as the number of cars produces in a month while a college may make it the percentage of graduates while a ‘investment firm may make it scope profit and other measures. Irrespective of where and how its used, it must be quantifiable, precisely defined and accurately measured. Typically a number of them is used and it should strive to achieve some ideal figures.

15. It is a thing of high value. These are non-monetary assets that comprise copyrights, patents, leverage and collaborative activities, etc. These assets cannot be seen and neither can they be touched; they can only be visualized. These assets cannot be destroyed, lost or stolen and add value to the market value of a product. They are synonyms to intellectual capital and knowledge assets. It has two forms- legal and competitive. Its legal form comes under intellectual property and its competitive form affects the productivity, and therefore all other assets of an organization.

16. It is a diagrammatic representation of the strategy designed by members of an organization. This diagram can illustrate the long term goal, the steps to achieve that goal or the steps to improve its performance. This representation of step by step progress is usually projected using flowcharts with the lower most block representing the start and the top block representing the end. A typical flow chart would consist of the learning and growth perspective, internal perspective, the customer perspective and the financial perspective. It was a more detailed and elaborate method to explain the concept of the balanced score card when it was introduced. These diagrams give the organization’s strategy a ‘macro view’.

17. It is a process of defining an organization’s direction of progress. It decides the vision for the organization shows how to achieve this goal and demonstrates if the company got there or not. It decides which resources are required for this vision and allocates resources based on information. The resources include both capital and people. A variety of approaches and models are used in this process. Discrete business analysis procedures can be used to represent it including SWOT analysis, and PEST analysis, or STEER analysis, and EPISTEL. The way it is developed depends heavily on the leadership of the firm, the nature of the organization, the experience of the planners, the size of the firm, etc. Developing it clearly demarcates the vision of the firm from delusion.

18. It is considered as the process of comparing organizational processes and their efficiency against an industry standard in order to evaluate where the said process stands as compared to its peers in the industry. Some of the areas where measures can be compared include productivity, cycle time, cost and quality to name a few. The technique is widely used and at times helps in organizations setting measurable goals based on what others are achieving. The technique can also be used collaboratively wherein a group of companies in the industry join in an effort to compare their processes against each other.

19. This single word is often behind the success and failure of an organization. Countless management techniques and strategies have been devised to improve it both on an organizational level and on an individual level. There are many factors which can improve it and organizations strive on a continuous basis to work on these factors so that it improves. Measuring it also a challenging task and its proper evaluation can work wonders for an organization. On an individual level, it determines the career growth of an individual and it very necessary for success in any field of life.

20. It is essentially calculated on the basis of output generated per unit input. It represents the performance or the efficiency of a process and all the planning systems used to improve production. Higher the output for a given input, higher it’s value. It can be viewed as a cadence of the abstract efficiency or engineering efficiency of assembling. Generally, it emphasizes on computable metrics of input, and rarely output.  It is different from metrics of both allocative efficiency and profitability. It’s distinction from the cadence of alloc­­­ative frequency lies in the fact that it does not take into consideration the price of what is produced  and neither the price of the input. It also pays no attention to profitability; which takes into consideration revenue generated and cost of input.

21. It is an acronym for a management technique that evaluates key external factors that an organization or industries on a macro scale. These factors includes political climate of a country or region, major economic factors that are existing at a given point of time, the prevailing social climate and its affect on business and finally key technical issues that are confronting the industry at a holistic level. This technique is widely used by organizations while planning a new venture or taking businesses to a new place and its findings are typically considered while drawing out an execution plan.

22. It is a method of strategic planning that analyses four different factors that often responsible for the success and failure of an organization. These include finding out the underlying strong points of an organizations, identifying its key shortcomings, evaluating possible opportunities and becoming aware of possible threats. It specifies the objective of the project/organization and clearly identifies the factors that are both favorable and unfavorable to the project/organization. Strength is a factor that is already available to the organization and along with weakness it forms the internal factors of the organization while opportunity and threats form the external factors.

23. It is the practice that identifies and maps cerebral advantages in the organization in streamlining of knowledge for advantage for the organization and makes a large amount of information available to the organization and its members. Session are also conducted to generate more information while include brain storming, quiz rounds Q&A sessions. Management of this asset is very crucial to the organization that that have intentions of growing on a rapid scale. These assets are unique to the organization and define the organization’s growth opportunities. When combined with other factors, this asset provides the organization with a highly advanced competitive advantage.

24. It involves checking the product, service, or process for certain minimum levels of standards. It ensures that products or services conform to customers’ needs or exceed them. This step involved in the production phase entails a thorough study of products which ensure that all forms of defect are detected at an early stage. If this test is failed the product is ’scrapped’ and may or may not be started afresh. To ensure that the specified standard is maintained, organizations must first specify what standard the product or service must adhere to. These tests also must adhere to the ever changing demands of quality and service.

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Intro

Big company might have lots of data stored in different places; even each department might have its own database. But in order to optimize business processes and improve effectiveness it is highly important to organize the data linking process between all the databases.

If you would like to set BSC Designer as the main control tool it actually is the way to import all the data into it. The program collects the data from wide range of sources via SQL indicators function. This function is a bit harder to set up oppositely to basic functions aiming to create and manage KPIs but in some cases (for example, when the data source is too big to input information manually or if some department has no need to set up BSC tool but operates with its own data source) it is the only way. Also SQL indicators have an advantage – after it set up its no need to manage it somehow – all changes appeared in data source will be presented in manager’s dashboard (BSC Designer’s project) so the only thing is to create SQL indicator and then control and report its performance.

What is SQL?

Structured Query Language (SQL) is the type of database computer language used to manage data in relational database management systems. SQL is most widely used language for relational databases in the world with makes it very useful instrument. One of its important functions is exporting and importing data from different sources (for example charts with logical structure).

What files could be imported to BSC Designer?

Since SQL is universal tool any database source might be imported via SQL indicator function. The only thing is syntax of database should be converted into the format suitable with the software product. The easiest files to be imported are MS Excel and MS Access files. This article will show the example on how to create SQL indicator linking to MS Excel file. As for other database sources it is possible to import them into Balanced Scorecard Designer’s project as well but the algorithm will be a little bit different. That is why we recommend our clients to consult with our support (the support form could be found on this page) about the source which are needed to be imported. Also company’s IT department might find the algorithm for any file to import it using SQL.

Recent update

Now BSC Designer contains SQL query builder! With this tool even non IT professional (those one who does not know SQL computer language) could easily create a proper SQL query and import data. The following instruction on how to create SQL indicator using MS Excel file will work for the new BSC Designer’s version so we recommend users to update the software product. Also we want to inform our users that SQL indicators function is available only in BSC Designer Pro version but not in Standard one.

How to update Balanced Scorecard Designer program

Current users need to download BSC Designer installer and overwrite the software. No system’s reboot is needed. After the installation is done run the program and use all new functions and features!

Not a user yet? Well join us by downloading a full function software product and use it 30 days long for free! After that the program’s license might be bought.

Instruction on how to create SQL indicator linking to MS Excel file

Preparing MS Office Excel file

First of all we will need to be sure MS Excel file (*.xls or *.xlsx) has suitable format. Let’s try to create a simple example to understand the logic of proper structure. Open MS Office Excel and input “Date” into “A1” cell and “Value” into “B1” cell. Then fill the column under “Date” by dates using format of DD.MM.YYYY (let it be 26.12.2009 – 30.12.2009). Also fill the column under Value by random indicators values (as an example let it be 48, 46, 39, 47 and 52). Then name the data by selecting all the cells (including “Date” and “Name”) and inputting “all” into “Name” field just like on the image below. Save the file (for example in C:\tmp category) and close MS Excel. Now we have the source of proper format.

Naming the data in MS Excel file

As for logic of format – it might be other names of “Value” cell (like “indicator 1” or “percentage” and so on) as well as values in this column. By default BSC Designer sets the new indicator’s parameters of “0” as min, “100” as max and maximization direction of optimization but after SQL indicator will be created all those settings could be changed as they are needed to the user so numbers like 48392934 in value cells could fit into the project.

There is also no rule like one indicator for one MS Excel file. Other indicators could be placed as columns under C, D, E, F, G and others. But sure the information each of those columns contains will be exported into different indicators. How to chose proper values to use will be described in the next parts of this article.

Creating SQL indicator

After the source (MS Excel file in our case) is prepared it is time to make an SQL indicator linking to it. Launch BSC Designer Pro and open one of the projects (it might be “default.bsc” file). It is important to select one of the dates in calendar field (read more about calendar in the article “How to manage time points with BSC Designer”) that presented in source file to avoid errors while importing data. Select any category, click on Strategy Tree button on top menu and select New SQL indicator sign. A new dialog window will appear where importing parameters will need to be set. Follow the algorithm below to transport data from *.xls* file into BSC Designer project’s indicator.

Step 1: Click on “Build” button under Set Connection String field;

Step 2: Select “Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers” – the right choice to operate with MS Excel files;

Step 3: Select “Use connection string” and click on “Build” button right near;

Step 4: Select Excel files in new window;

Step 5: Select the file’s path in a new dialog window (C:\tmp\datasource1.xlsx in our example);

Step 6: Try if everything works properly using the “Test Connection” button. No more things are needed to be set in this window. After the test is successful press “OK” button;

Step 7: After connection string is ready let’s move down to SQL query. Click on “Build” button to create statement. A new dialog window will appear;

Step 8: Select the table (the table called “all” in our case). That is why we named the data in MS Excel file. After “all” is selected click on “Next” button;

Step 9: Select resulted field – the right column of values which are needed to be used. If there are several columns in data source (MS Excel file in our case) this step will be the only difference between indicators. So if it’s needed to create indicators for each column the first one might be multiplied (read more on how to multiply the indicators in the first part of the article “How to manage KPIs using BSC Designer’s functions”) and then edited (right click on the indicator -> “Edit SQL Properties”) to show other column as a result field. Also be sure that “value” column is selected but not “date” one;

Step 10: The condition to “Date” field must be set as “=”. Be sure the condition is set for “Date” field but not to “Value” one;

Step 11: After all settings had been built apply the query, try to perform a test (using “Test” button) and click “OK” to create SQL indicator.

That is it

Now new SQL indicator (underlined one) is created and could be managed as well as imported indicator. When any changes appeared in data source (datasource1.xlsx in our case) it also will be viewed and calculated in SQL indicator. We understand that our clients might have some other data sources than MS Excel files so we recommend to consult with our support (the support form could be found on this page) about the source which are needed to be imported. Also company’s IT department might find the algorithm for any file to import it using SQL indicators. Advanced users might create queries and connection strings without BSC Designer’s builder just typing it into proper fields.

Congratulation! New SQL indicator had been created and is ready to be used

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Special action valid only for these who will place order for BSC Designer Standard or Profession versions in year 2009.

• You will have a gift: our popular BSC Designer Toolkit (normal price $210) for free!

Please, note: this special is limited only to year 2009.

In short what is BSC Designer Toolkit:

• In is the set of several presentations, documents, checklists, todo-lists that covers all possible aspects of Balanced Scorecard design and implementation process! Check more here.

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Popularity

Balanced scorecard concept became very popular in a short period of time. It was realized in several thousands of companies. What makes BSC so popular among managers all over the world? Let’s try to find it out.

Balance of company’s activities

One of the most positive moments is proof that the only financial values do not show the overall performance of company. Balanced scorecard concept says that financial measurement is an important part of business performance measurement but just part of it. Those values are not able to show non material resources and investment directions like educational, business process optimization and others. The concept of balanced activities made it possible for managers to pay attention to other very important perspectives of business.

Imbanalced Scorecard

This is the age of information so even industrial companies need to use some other management concept than traditional finance-oriented ones. Companies more connected to information need BSC even more. Also such actions as directing most of company’s resources into financial growth sometimes made it possible for company to succeed in short term period but cause imbalanced scorecard and company’s falling into decay even down to failure in long term period. It becomes more and more useful and sometimes even vital for business to mobilize and use non-material informational resources. That is why much more effective ways of diversifying capital (financial, physical and mental) were realized in companies with BSC concept implemented.

Dashboard logic

Referring to balance of company’s activities the analogy with plane’s pilot could take its place. While piloting a plane all the values in dashboard needs to be under control in order not to crush. Certainly the aim on the front window should also be viewed all the time. The company might be even harder to “drive” thing but using the simple logic of dashboard it might be successfully performed. Always looking at company’s strategic goals management should also pay attention on values of key performance indicators in order to keep the scorecard balanced. Balanced scorecard aims to create such easy to use dashboard with exact up to time values for every panel.

New way of financial measurement

Balanced scorecard concept adds other activity’s directions but still considers financial perspective very important. Indicators for this perspectives was one of the most developed measurement instrument before BSC released but Kaplan and Norton had something to add even here. Their offer is leading indicators usage referring to financial perspective. Definitely leading indicators are indicators in economics and finance used to predict the future. The example of leading indicators could be stock prices (which often improve or worsen before a similar change in the economy) as well as the index of consumer expectations, building permits, money supply and others. Such indicators’ usage improves the role strategic planning and goals statement.

Exact forecasts

Kaplan and Norton researches prove that usage of indicators in all four perspectives might not only improve the company’s performance but also makes is possible to make much more exact forecasts of all the values including financial data. This stands for positive difference between efficiency leading economic indicators and lagging indicators for the period of time. It means that BSC proper usage might help in making better forecasts and manage investors’ waiting.

Strategy setting activity improving

As it is known BSC stands for precise goals statement. According to Kaplan and Norton, company’s strategy is directly linked to the practical tasks. While company implements balanced scorecard concept it faces all weaknesses it had before in the sphere of strategic management. Most of companies even form strategic departments in order to improve this activity. If it seems impossible to form a new department it might be found some other way for strategic problems to be solved. Anyway the success of BSC implementation depends on strategic activity effectiveness. Certainly effective strategic management helps not only to implement BSC but also:

• To understand the customer;
• To predict environmental reaction;
• To improve effectiveness of resource’s usage;
• To organize well performed coordination;
• To obtain senior management commitment;
• To obtain employee commitment;
• To estimate time requirements properly;
• To follow the plan;
• To manage changes;
• To organize regular, uninterrupted communications;

Precise goals

One more BSC advantage is precise goals forming. Having well organized strategic management process it is not so hard to translate the vision into operational goals. When the task is precise it helps specialists to start executing it right away without spending working time to ask any addition questions. Also specialists might cooperate with each other in order to reach some goals both within the only department and using cross departments cooperation. Well formulated goal gives specialist an opportunity to choose some new, original way to execute it and be noticed by management. With nowadays high level of education it might be very effective to give more freedom to employee concerning the way how to execute their tasks.

Long term success

Oppositely to old style industrial companies to which such factors as long term investments and non-material features (like customer relations development, business process optimization and others) were just wasting of money, balanced scorecard concept pays lots of attention to all perspectives. This concept might cause less profit in short term period (than old management theories) but is much more effective in long term.

For example such phenomenon as “brand loyalty” (which consists of a consumer’s commitment to repurchase or otherwise continue using the brand) can not appear without investments into marketing business activity (part of customer perspective in balanced scorecard concept). Also such feature as customer’s love can not be reached in short time – it usually needs years of effective work for customers to choose brand instead of competitor’s ones even if it is more expensive. Much more examples of non-material goods proper usage might be found but the current one is enough to show the logic. Certainly balanced scorecard concept does not consider short time goals unimportant but leaves it up to management to find balance in strategic planning and goals statement.

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The perspectives

Balanced Scorecard concept offers to look at organization’s strategy from the four different points of view (perspectives). Each of them might contain its own sub-perspectives and exact goals that could be measured as well the perspectives. Here is the list of them:

• Financial perspective;
• Customer perspective;
• Innovation and learning perspective;
• Internal process perspective.

Financial perspective

The opportunity of financial data usage is considered important by Kaplan and Norton. Up to date financial information is needed for every company in order to succeed. Managers should pay attention to provide proper financial data in time. The problem here is not to pay too much attention to the financial perspective as it happened to old style industrial companies before. Such actions as directing most of company’s resources into financial growth usually cause imbalanced scorecard and company’s falling into decay even down to failure in the long term.

One more thing to be noticed is that corporate systems (the market in this sphere offers a wide range of software products) might be very helpful to automate financial data collecting and handling. The right choice of corporate system to implement could help reduce cost of data processing and open opportunities to direct company’s resources into other perspectives in order to create balanced scorecard.

Customer perspective

Modern management studies consider client oriented business activities as an important part of company’s strategy. The basis here is customers’ satisfaction – unsatisfied customers will prefer competitor’s product instead. Low performance in this perspective might cause a decay of business even if current financial and other perspectives are well performed. In order to create indicators of customer’s satisfaction special research a needed. For example it could be determination of customers target group for every product company produces or sells, or service it provides. There are lots of ways to execute such research starting with outsourcing marketing services and finishing with own marketing department that could be responsible for customer perspective as a part of company’s scorecard.

Innovation and learning perspective

This company’s activity is referring to staff training and development of corporate culture. The philosophy of such concept is based on every staff member’s high educational level at our modern age of information. Oppositely to old management studies it might be effective to give more freedom to employee concerning the way how to execute their tasks. Also the role of relationships between employees became much more important than in it was considered by old style industrial companies. Psychological researches of business define corporate culture as “the character of an organization” with its unique ethical norms and managerial behaviors. Much work needs to be executed to form and support such culture.

One more thing to be noticed is extremely high speed of information technology’s perfection at our time. Sure in terms of competitive activity it becomes very important for the staff to develop their skills up to date with IT tools (both software and hardware) perfection. Producers of information technology tools are trying to create easier to use products but still it needs employees to be ready to study something absolutely new and realize it in order to rich better performance values and improve money spend on IT novelties’ implementation. All this makes innovation and learning perspective a fundamental activity for business to succeed in long term.

Internal processes perspective

Internal processes activity aims to form the tree of business process in order to monitor and optimize company’s performance. It helps to improve such characteristic as return on resources. There are several techniques of modeling business process but it is recommended to use specialists in this sphere who also clearly understand company’s structure to succeed in optimization.

Internal process perspective seems the most sophisticated activity for lots of companies’ CEOs. That is why IT market referring to business is developing so fast. With nowadays quality of services information technology market could offer to business, it seems not so hard to succeed in such activity as internal process perspective. Certainly it needs investment in such non material thing as well as employee’s skills to operate new tools.

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History and standings

In the beginning of 1990th Harvard Business School professor Dr. Robert S. Kaplan and business consulting specialist David P. Norton began reporting their research materials referring to absolutely new business concept. Their theory called Balanced Scorecard (BSC).

Actually BSC is not just a new logic of measurement but it is a control and executive corporate system which allows company to perform precise planning as well as to create clear strategy. It also provides linking between internal business processes and company’s environmental characteristics which is needed to rich advanced strategic effectiveness and the whole company’s success. According to Balanced Scorecard the business needs to turn strategic planning process into one of the key functions. A precise theory that turns into exact measured values – that is what BSC concept stands for.

New concept for a new age

Kaplan and Norton proved that those traditional financial measures as return on investment and the period of return could not show the overall business performance image. According to BSC concept traditional finance measures presented an old and incomplete sight of view what caused incorrect business planning and strategy in long time period. Revealing weaknesses and uncertain details of previous concepts for company’s management authors had offered to create more characteristics that could measure performance not only in financial sphere but in some other options. They believe those characteristics could help to gain balance in overall activity of the company.

According to Kaplan and Norton balanced scorecard concept considers financial values as an important part of business performance measure but just part of it. Financial parameters only reflect a course of previous events. It might be enough for old style industrial companies to which such factors as long term investments and non-material features (like customer relations development, business process optimization and others) were just wasting of money. But now when industrial century had been changed by information technology age it becomes impossible to clearly measure current companies. Today’s companies understand the meaning of long time investments into such “abstract” perspectives as customers, suppliers, staff, business processes, technologies and innovations. As a result Kaplan and Norton offered to add more characteristics referring to the new perspectives that could satisfy the aims of company from the age of information.

Balanced Scorecard consept’s methodology

Balanced Scorecard methodology stands for basic factors referring to company’s activities. Those directions and perspectives as customers’ satisfaction, executive and financial activities are presented as the list of measures. Managers receive and analyze those measures in order to understand the dynamics of values comparing to the plan and strategic goals. Fully implemented system realizes data to be input and controlled step by step starting with the lowest position and finishing with the highest. Ideal systems means that every staff member has their own clearly formulated goal he or she is responsible for in order to rich the whole company’s strategic goals.

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What exporting functions allowed in BSC Designer

Continuing articles referring to reports with BCS Designer program more types are to be described. Previous article “Reports with BSC Designer” presented common HTLM reports but there are also several ways to export BSC project’s information in order to keep it or present it to someone.

The following functions referring to reports will be described in this article:

• Overview report function;
• Dashboard report function;
• Dashboard report for selected item function;

Overview report

Oppositely to common “HTML report” function overview report does not show any values. Its aim is to visualize project’s tree with descriptions for every element. Overview HTML document presents easy to understand diagram with all tree’s elements noticed and described. Description for elements might be input by the user (read more about descriptions in the article “How to manage KPIs using BSC Designer’s functions”). Overview report might be useful to gain overall knowledge on what the balanced scorecard project stands for, how to operate with it. Executive managers performing overall monitoring as well as shareholders and investors could find this type of report very helpful.

Note! How to change the whole project’s description

It is known from our previous articles where to fild description field for such items as categories and indicators. But the way to change description for the whole project is different. In order to do it click on “File” button on the top menu and  select “Document properties” sign. New dialog window will appear with the following fields. Find “Description” field and type or paste the project’s information. Aslo “Author” field might be filled with project’s creator’s name and position and “Name” field might be overwrited in order to change project’s name in tree and reports. After that press “OK” button to save changes.

Document’s properties dialog field

It does not matter for “Overview report” function what element is actually selected in a tree because it works with the whole project. In order to perform create this type of report click on “Report” button of the top menu and choose “Overview report” sign. The document appeared as a result of this function’s performing is not sophisticated so no program’s settings dialog window will appear. System’s dialog window will ask you to select the file’s path. It is recommended to use names written in English in order to prevent any errors, for example: “overview.html”. After the file is saved it might be opened by any web browser or sent to anyone via email. Pay attention to send web page’s source folder along with *.html file itself for all images to be viewed correctly.

The whole project’s overview HTML report

Dashboard report

Dashboard report is an alternative to common HTML report (described in previous article “Reports with BSC Designer”). It is also based on hyper text format language and could be viewed and sent the same way as HTML report but has some differences inside. One of the main differences is “Diamond” diagram usage instead of “Time” chart. As it was noticed in the article “How to visualize data with BSC Designer: diagrams and charts (Part2)” diamond chart works only with elements that contain at least 3 sub elements inside. That is why if any category does not have at least three indicators inside the following sign will appear in the report: “Diamond type chart is available for 3 and more sub items”. It does not mean the report will not be created but it will just not be able to show diagram’s image for those elements.

Not enough sub categories sign

Dashboard report might be used in the same cases as common HTML reports. It could be sent to a higher manager to show the current working progress as well as to investors and shareholders to present current company’s performance values. Surely it is up to program’s user what type of report needs to be used in different situations and for different purposes. While common HTML report aims to present the performance’s dynamics which might be interesting for shareholders dashboard report is referring to the current project’s performance values which might suite better for executive officer.

In order to perform dashboard reporting function click on “Reports” button in the top menu and select “Dashboard report” sign. Then select the date to report in new dialog window appeared. After that system’s dialog window will appear asking to select the file’s path. When the file is saved it might be opened by any web browser or sent to anyone via email as well as any other HTML based report.

Dashboard HTML report for the whole project (part of it)

Dashboard report for selected item

Dashboard reports are able to present not only overall project but one of the items selected in a tree as well. Any sub category could be selected and reported using “Dashboard report for selected item” function. Dashboard report does not work for indicators because of “Diamond” diagram usage in it. This function might be used in order to report any performance values but not the whole project. For example dashboard report for the “Financial perspective” category will present textual data and graphs for this category and for every element it includes.

In order to perform dashboard reporting for selected item function click on “Report” button of the top menu and choose “Dashboard report for selected item” sign. The second step is to select the date to be reported in new dialog window appeared. Then select file’s path in system’s dialog window appeared. After that the report will be created and ready to be viewed or sent to anyone.

Dashboard HTML report for one of the categories (part of it)

Other report types

To fill the list of reports available with BSC Designer software product several more reporting functions are to be noticed. There are common HTML reports among them that were described in previous articles as well as some other types that are going to be described in coming soon how to articles. It is certain that the range of reports using BSC Designer is really wide.

The full list of other reporting functions is:

• Export to HTML function;
• HTML report for selected item function;
• Export to MS Excel function;
• Export to MS Power Point function;
• Strategy map report function.

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We are happy to present a new diagram in BSC Designer program called “Gauge”. It is now available in diagrams and charts dialog field. Learn more about diagrams and charts in the article “How to visualize data with BSC Designer: diagrams and charts” (First part, Second part).
Also now the current “Time” diagram is filled with basic colors showing the performance rate’s level.

What Gauge diagram shows

Gauge diagram shows the percentage of performance value for any item in the tree (indicators, sub categories and the whole project). The hand shows current performance values at the moment comparing to “min” (the left starting point) and “max” (the right finishing point) values.

To select gauge diagram turn all diagrams on at first. In order to perform this run BSC Designer and click on “Chart Options” button right under chats dialog field. After a new dialog window appears mark every diagram type. Now click “OK” button to save changes. Now when all the diagrams had been turned on select “Gauge” tab in chats dialog field.

Gauge diagram for one of the indicators

Red, yellow and green colors mean the same as stop lights’ colors. Read more about stop lights in the article “How to visualize data with BSC Designer: signal icons“. As for colors’ borders it could be changed the same way as stop lights’ colors intervals. In order to manage color intervals click on “Tools” -> “Stop lights” and select “Options” sign. A new dialog window will appear with two lines – one for Red light and one for Green. Drag sliders in both lines until the needed interval is chosen.

Colors’ intervals management dialog field

“Time” chart is now colorized too!

Such tool and “Time” chart is now colorized using three basic colors. This update aims to make the graph easier to understand and monitor. Since color’s borders are set by the user it is now so easy to notice when some indicator or category does not suit company’s plan. For example the critical percentage value could be set on 50 percent. Now all the values under this border will be red colored so it will help manager to notice what exact indicators or categories for what exact dates he or she is not satisfied with. Oppositely green color might help manager to notice what specialists had made great job in some period of time and need to be awarded.

“Time” chart’s new look

HTML reports’ new look

HTML reports is a common type of reports in BSC Designer. Read more about HTML reports is the article “Reports with BSC Designer“. Advanced HTML reports now present not only “Time” chart but also “Gauge” diagram. This diagram’s usage in reports might help for better understanding presented information by visualizing not only time progress but also current values comparing to minimal and maximal borders. Colorized visualization might be especially useful while presenting reports to persons without special knowledge about balanced scorecard and Business Intelligence concepts like shareholders and investors.

HTML reports’ new look (the first part of it)

HTML reports’ new look (the second part of it)

How to update Balanced ScoreCard Designer program

Current users need to download BSC Designer installer and overwrite the software. No system’s reboot is needed. After the installation is done run the program and use all new functions and features!

Not a user yet? Well join us by downloading a full function software product and use it 30 days long for free! After that the program’s license might be bought.

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AKS-Labs provides priority support service by email for its customers. The support duration is one year. The price for the priority support is specified on the ordering page of the product.

• The priority support service is provided by email.
• Your support request will be placed above other requests in the queue.
• Your feature requests will be carefully considered for development with higher priority.

Purchase Priority Email Support:

For BSC Designer Standard
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