Balanced Scorecard Designer

Good News!

BSC Designer updated so it now supports Portuguese language! All the menu functions are now available on  Portuguese as well as on:

Czech

German

English

French

Spanish

Russian

We would be happy to offer our software product to Brazil market which is the world’s tenth largest economy at market exchange rates as well as  Portugal with its highly developed of the high-tech and other economy sectors.

How to update the 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.

How to select the language

In order to select language run BSC Designer and click on “Tools” button in the top menu. Now select “Language” sign and choose the language from the list. As an example  Portuguese will be chosen as program’s language. Now Balanced Scorecard Designer became much more convenient and easy-to-operate for Portuguese-speaking users!

Tools -> Language -> Portuguese (PT)

Program’s new look: “File” menu

Program’s new look: bottom dashboard

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This is the second part of the article “How to manage categories and KPIs using BSC Designer’s functions”. The beginning might be found here.
The following part will describe how to:

• Add new measure units into the indicators’ value parameter;
• Fill up the project with additional information about every category and indicator;
• Use file’s attachment function;
• Find elements in the project’s tree.

Adding new measure units

In the article “How to manage indicators and performance values with BSC Designer” KPIs values were mentioned. Also the difference of Score and Percentage value units were described using examples. Default BSC Designer’s settings allow to use only those two values’ measure units but what if the KPI cannot be measured neither by score nor by percents? “Cash flow” KPI in “Financial perspective” category could be a good example. It is much more convenient to use USD as a measure unit for this indicator.

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”. After that set maximum amount by typing for example “3000” in “Max” field and set “Min” field as “-1000”. Let the “Value” be “1500”. Well done! The new measure unit had been added and is already in use in one of KPIs.

File -> Properties

Adding new measure unit named USD

Selecting “USD” as measure unit for the new KPI

Descriptions

To continue filling up the project indicators’ and categories’ descriptions are to be added. Descriptions’ fields are located in bottom properties fields of each tree element. Describing categories and indicators might help all the managers and specialists understand the purposes of it and find out the most perspective way to execute task. It also plays a role of database in BSC project.

In order to add description select any category or indicator and find the “Description” field and the “Target Description” field (for indicators only). Type the information in the fields and click anywhere on the tree dialog to apply changes.

Adding description

Files’ Attachment

Sometimes it is not enough to write descriptions. More complex data like charts, long text files, multimedia files (images, sounds, videos) could be needed to be linked with any indicator or category. That is why BSC Designer has a files’ attachment function. Using this function any specific documents like orders, multiplex charts and schemes could be added as well as video and audio instructions and descriptions to any category or indicator. Also a great advantage could be gained of multiple-edition web documents usage (for example Google Documents service). The attached file could locate on local hard disc or in the internet.
In order 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!

“Initiatives” button

“Attachment” field

“Find” function

BSC project might grow up to a huge tree and it could be useful to find whatever indicator or category is needed in a short time. The best way to find the element is to use “Find” function that is realized in BSC Designer. Just few letters of any word used in the name of sought-for element might help to find it.

Let’s use this function to find “Number of products manufactured monthly” KPI. Click on “Edit” button in the top menu and select “Find …” sign. Now enter of the unique words or part of it. Let it be “manu” – the part of “manufactured” word press “OK”. Congratulations! BSC Designer’s just found the needed KPI.

Edit -> Find …

“Find” function dialog field

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Intro

Finishing KPIs management’s description a few more functions are to be noticed. Most of them are used for user’s convenience purpose rather than the program proper work. We understand that company’s management process sometimes is an extremely complex thing to do so BSC Designer aims to be a perfect tool even not only referring to Balanced Scorecard concept but also to linking the database objects among the organization’s strategy tree and to other helpful features.

This part of the article will show how to:

• Move elements up and down;
• Execute undo and redo functions;
• Copy, cut and paste elements.

Up and down movement

Moving categories and indicators could help the program’s user to structure the project’s tree according to any logic direction. One of the reasons to reconstruct the tree could be categories’ weights. Let’s open the project in BSC Designer and reconstruct the tree using the way of moving categories with bigger weight values upper than categories with less weight values. In order to do make movement select particular category or indicator and click on “Move up” or “Move down” buttons with arrows images in the toolbar right above the tree dialog field. After the movement is finished the project’s tree becomes sorted like on the screenshot below.

Movement arrows

Undo and Redo functions

Like many other programs BSC Designer has such very useful functions as Undo and Redo. Specifically Undo is a command to erase the last change done to the project reverting it to an older state. Oppositely Redo is a command reverses the undo or advances the buffer to a more current situation. Referring to the current BSC Designer project let’s pretend the accident deleting of “Internal process perspective” category! In spite of the pop-up dialog window like “Are you sure want to delete category?” such an accident could happen in real as well as some other unexpected action. In order to revert the project’s state click on “Undo” button in the central line on top toolbar. Congratulations! “Internal process perspective” category is back!

Ooops! The category is missing

The category is back thx to Undo function!

Copy, cut and paste functions

Besides a “copy as text” function BSC Designer has a function of copying, cutting and pasting such elements as categories and indicators including all the values, statements and descriptions included. Referring to Balanced Scorecard project copying, cutting and pasting could be used to create new elements with parameters alike. Also cutting an element like category or indicator and then pasting it to the same place might help to analyze its role in the project by viewing the performance’s values while it is absent. It could be some other reasons to use “copy”, “cut” and “paste” functions.

To copy the particular element into buffer select it and then click on “Copy element” button in the central line of top toolbar or push “Ctrl” + “C” buttons on the keyboard. The button for cutting element locates right near the “Copy” one or the hotkey “Ctrl” + “X” could be used to cut the selected category or indicator. In order to paste the copied or cut element from the buffer first some area in the tree needs to be selected. After that click on “Paste element” button in the central line of top toolbar or push “Ctrl” + “V” buttons on the keyboard. As an example of copy-paste functions usage the “Complains number” KPI in the “Customer perspective” category will be multiplied.

Copy, cut and paste functions testing

Click here to read the second part of this article

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