How to create and manage Categories and KPIs with BSC Designer
Creating and managing categories and KPIs with BSC Designer
According to the Balanced Scorecard concept each company’s project should contain common elements. Even thinking of the elements to be added might help manager to understand and optimize the business better. The four perspectives should be set in order to start the process of monitoring and optimization. Also the key performance indicators (KPIs) for each perspective should be measured and should fill up the plan. These categories and indicators are the common things and have to be set firstly. Let’s see how to create and manage perspectives and KPIs with BSC Designer software.
Run Balanced Scorecard Designer, click on “File” button on top menu and select “New”, or click “Ctrl” + “N” buttons on your keyboard. A new project will appear. Our task will be to fill it with the basic information and to learn how to change and operate with this data.
Starting a new project
4 perspectives
The four perspectives in BSC concept are:
- Financial perspective;
- Customer perspective;
- Internal process perspective;
- Innovation and learning perspective.
In order to add perspectives to the project we have recently created click on “Strategy Tree” button on the top menu and select “New sub category”. Or you may right click on the “Balanced Scorecard” sign in the tree dialog field and select “New sub category” in pop-up menu. After that the category named “New Category” will appear. Now select this category and you will see the new dialog field in the bottom. Delete the text “New Category” and type or paste “Financial perspective” instead. Congratulations one of the perspectives has been set! Now repeat the procedure three more times to add other perspectives into the project’s tree.
Creating a new sub category
Key performance indicators
Very important things to be added to the project are KPIs. Those indicators play significant role in the project future management. According to the Balanced Scorecard concept KPIs have to be determined by the organization’s strategy. That is why there are no one-fits-all indicators to be named in this article neither in an example project coming with the BSC Designer.
To add KPIs select any category (for example “Financial perspective”) and click on “Strategy Tree” button on the top menu and choose “New indicator”. A new indicator will be added under the chosen category. To change the name of the indicator select it and type your name instead of “New indicator”. Repeat the procedure until all the indicators for your company are placed under its category.
Creating a new indicator
Weights
Weights are special metrics in the theory of Balanced Scorecard. Each category has its own weight in the interval from 1 till 10. These numbers mean the importance of the category. KPIs have its weights as well but those parameters compare only within the category indicators had been placed under. Certainly each company assigns its metrics according to its business strategy and plans.
In order to set up such metrics as weights select the category or indicator (for example “Customer perspective”) and find “weight” field in the bottom dialog field. Choose the number you need by clicking on arrows, or by typing the number on keyboard. Now set weights for every category and indicator in the project tree.
Setting weights
Conclusion
Creating and managing such basic parameters as categories and indicators and such metrics as weights is an easy process using BSC Designer. However it is not a full process of optimization and monitoring business using Balanced Scorecard concept. More how-to-articles are coming up soon aiming to help our present and future clients understand the program better.
