While the process of study is being processed “Fill with random values” function could be helpful. It fills the project with random values including time points and performance values.
The project filled with those values could be a good educational supply element to study how to work with BSC Designer. Browsing functions and features of such powerful software it is much easier to perform this simple function instead of filling the project with some values manually.
In order to perform “Fill with random values” function click on “Tools” button of the top menu and select “Fill with random values” sign. Congratulation! We have just filled our project with values!
You will input some data manually, retrieve other data from your corporate database, and import more data from tables and spreadsheets.
On the other hand, you might also need to export some of the data on your Balanced Scorecard to use in another application.
BSC Designer includes all the features you need to import and export your data.
Exporting
Exporting the value of an indicator from BSC Designer to another application is simple. Just right-click on the indicator, and choose “Export Values” to launch the Export Wizard. The wizard will help you to specify exactly what data to export, and what format to use.
Importing
You will usually want to import some of the data for your Balanced Scorecard from external files, like MS Excel spreadsheets. Here is the process to use, step by step.
Here is the source project file:
The source data in MS Excel file
For testing purposes you can download this Excel file.
Step 1 – Select a destination
Where do you want to put the data you’re going to import? Choose an indicator or category on your Balanced Scorecard, right-click on it, and select “Import Values.”
Choose an indicator or category on your Balanced Scorecard, right-click on it, and select “Import Values.”
Step 2 – Select the data source
You can import your data from a MS Excel file, a CSV (Comma-Separate-Value) spreadsheet file, or you can choose “enter source data manually” to copy and paste from your data source. If you do enter your data manually, you can choose some special settings to tell BSC Designer how to interpret the data.
Select the source file with data
Step 3 – Select the type of import
What should BSC Designer do with this data? You can:
Import new data for the category or indicator you chose as your destination—for instance, its name, weight, and description.
Create a new indicator, using the imported data.
Or, import new values for several indicators at once.
Indicator Names
If you choose to import data for several indicators at once, your spreadsheet or other data source should include the name of each indicator and the name of the category in which it belongs.
Import several indicators at once
In this case, you will need to choose between two special options.
The names of the indicator and its category might be in two separate columns on your spreadsheet. If so, you need to select the first option: “Names of parent categories for the indicators are specified in separate column.”
Or, the names of the indicator and its category might be in the same column—for example, in the format, “Category/Indicator.” In this case, you need to choose the second option. And you will also need to specify what character separates the category from the indicator—in our example, a slash.
Associating Columns with Indicator Properties
Once you have chosen your destination, the source of your data, and the type of import to perform, there is one final step. You need to tell BSC Designer how to interpret the columns in the data you are importing.
For instance, column 1 might have the name of the category, column 2 might have the name of the individual indicator, column 3 might have the value of the indicator, and so forth.
If you chose to import data to create a new indicator, you will see a dropdown menu where you can choose which column includes the Name of the indicator.
If you chose to import data for several indicators, and the names of the indicators and their categories are in two separate columns, you will see two dropdown menus. Choose which column includes the Name of the indicator, and which has the name of its Parent category.
Columns in source data need to be associated with properties of indicators.
Importing Dated Values
Finally, you can import data about the value of your indicators on particular dates.
If your spreadsheet includes values from several different dates, you can select which column has the date for each set of values. That way, BSC Designer can associate each set of values with the appropriate date.
If you are importing data about just one date, you can choose that date on the calendar in BSC Designer, and then select the option, “Use current date from calendar.”
Or, you can import the new data as default values for one or more of your indicators, with no reference to any particular date.
Associating columns with indicators' properties. Click to check details.
BSC Designer software will show you the preview of imported data:
Preview expected results of import
When you will finish import process, you will see imported indicators in the BSC Designer. Click on the dates in the calendar to make sure that right data was imported for right dates:
The latest version of BSC Designer has much more useful features. Following requests of our users we have added the specify value – Progress. What is the difference between Progress and Performance?
In the Balanced Scorecard project we have two columns - Performance and Progress. What is the difference?
The indicator “Turnover Rate” has the performance equal to 16% and progress just 3,33%.
The indicator "Turnover Rate" has the performance equal to 16% and progress just 3,33%.
Now we will check the current settings of indicator to understand the difference:
The baseline is 15 and the target value is 45. Current value is 16 that's why the progress is just 3%
Current value is 15
The min value is 0, the max value is 100
The baseline is 15, target is equal to 45
The difference between Performance and Progress
Performance shows how the indicator is performing. Performance doesn’t incorporate the historical values of indicators, it calculates the value using only min value, max value and current value. That is why the performance is 16%
In contrast to performance Progress focuses on baseline and target interval, e.g. progress shows us how good is our project performing according to the starting point that we assigned and end point that is our target. In this case the baseline is 15 and the current value is just 16, so we’ve improved the current value only by 1 point, which is 3% on the interval [baseline; target]
Question: How to create indicators in Balanced Scorecard where “less means better”, e.g. when the decreasing of indicator’s values leads to the incrementation of performance.
Answer: You can do the following:
1. Click on the indicator
2. Change the “Optimization method”:
If you need something more complicated, then you need to check the formula editor.
I need to update the software or to use it on another computer. How do I make sure about safety of the projects I had been working on? How do I make a backup of those projects?
To make sure about safety of the projects you are working on (even in case of the only computer use – the risk to lose the data always remains) please save the *.bsc file(s) into a storage device. In case of computer data crush or working on the new computer, you may install BSC Designer there, open *.bsc file with its help and continue working with your projects.
The only thing is: according to our License Agreement (read the full text on this page) you need as many users’ license as many different computers BSC Designer is installed simultaneously.
Please download the latest version of BSC Designer directly from our
official website (http://www.bscdesigner.com/download) and install it, overwriting the previous version;
OR
Launch BSC Designer and go to “Help” button on the top menu, then select Update the latest version sign. After that follow the update wizard’s instructions.
Please try to use both ways in case one of them is not working for you.
Do you have Mac, Mobile, Pocket PC or Blackberry version of BSC Designer?
Unfortunately, we don’t have a Mac, Mobile, Pocket PC or Blackberry version
of BSC Designer. We are planning to create ones but I’m not sure when
it will be finished.
At the moment we have only PC version of any edition working fine
under Windows platform. Please find the full system requirements on
our download page: http://www.bscdesigner.com/download
to add attachments select any category or indicator. Then right click on it and select “Edit attachment list” in pop-up menu or click on “Initiatives” button on the bottom dialog field. Now click on “Add File” button to attach a file from the local computer or click on “Add Link” button to attach any file in the Internet. Then double click on the selected file will open it using the software installed on the user’s computer. Pay attention not to delete the files! BSC Designer creates links to the files making it available to open files directly from BSC project but it does not save the files somehow! Please read more in the article: “How to manage KPIs using BSC Designer’s functions (Part 2)“.
In order to add new measure units open “File” menu on top and select “Properties”. Then choose the tab “Measure Units” and click on “Add” button. A new measure unit called “New” has been created. Erase the text “New” and type “USD” or whatever unit is needed instead. After that click on “Apply” button to save changes and click on “OK” button to close dialog window. Create the new indicator using the way described in this article. Now go to the new indicator’s properties bottom dialog field and change the “Measure” option, selecting “USD” sign instead of “Score”. Please read more in the article: “How to manage KPIs using BSC Designer’s functions (Part 2)“.
We need a BSC Designer to help us define our strategy, communicate it, align resources and efforts,measure progress and make the necessary adjustments on strategy and/or targets to keep the things on track. Read more about defining and communicating strategy.
Luminita Popescu, Managing Director, Man and Machine RO SRL, Bucharest / Romania
