Balanced Scorecard Designer

Balanced Scorecard is a concept used by more than 50% of Fortune companies, about 10% of our customers are from Finance industry. Companies from banks and insurance companies to financial advisers and accounting small businesses use BSC Designer and KPI products to measure and improve business performance.

Balanced Scorecard for finance companies: case studies, ready-to-use KPIs and guides on balanced scorecard

Case studies:

• BSC Designer helped Financial Institution to improve the strategic and control efficiency
• Balanced Scorecard helps insurance companies;

Products for financial industry:

• BSC Designer – software for balanced scorecard design
• Ready-to-use KPI pack: Finance and Accounting Management
• BSC Toolkit – guide that covers all aspects of BSC development and implementation

BSC Designer is used for:

• Risk management;
• Strategy visualization with strategy maps;
• Improving control efficiency;

Some of our customers from Finance industry:

• Afrisia Management Services, LLC – Afrisia Management Services, LLC provides lifecycle accounting, contract and tax expertise to government agencies and entrepreneurial companies who contract with the government. Afrisia Management Services, LLC bring an educational approach to help you plan for the future, uncover efficiencies, and improve performance. And we’ll continue to meet your evolving needs as you become more successful. Our team possesses extensive firsthand experience in government contracts accounting, and we use this expertise to empower small businesses to attain certifications, remain compliant and uncover new opportunities with their federal and state customers.
• Ahli United Bank – Ahli United Bank B.S.C. (AUB) reported a net profit of US$ 183.7 million for the nine month period ended 30 September 2009, compared to US$ 280.1 million for the same period in 2008. The net profit for the third quarter ended September 2009 was US$ 40.1 million (Q3/2008 – US$ 68.4 million).
• American Fidelity Assurance – The Oklahoma City-based company serves more than one million customers in 49 states and 23 countries. American Fidelity has been ranked among Fortune magazine’s 100 best companies to work for in the United States each year since 2004, and has been the highest ranked insurance company on the list all five years. Since 1982, AFA has consistently been rated “A+” by A. M. Best Company*, one of the leading insurance company rating services in America.
• Aviva – Aviva is the world’s fifth-largest insurance group and the largest insurance services provider in the UK. We are the leading provider of life and pension products in Europe and are actively growing our long-term savings businesses in Asian markets, Australia and the USA. Our main activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance*. We have premium income and investment sales of ?51.4 billion and ?381 billion of funds under management. We have 54,000 employees serving over 50 million customers in 28 countries around the world.
• BizCare LLC – Full Service Accounting, Payroll, Payroll Reports Small Business Start Up, 15 Years Experience, Income Taxes, Sales Tax Reporting, Quarterly Taxes, Estimated taxes,Sole proprietor, LLC, Corporation, Non Profit, New Product And Service Analysis, New Business Analysis, Irs Audits, Business plans
• Citco Fund Services (Dublin) Ltd – A financial services group comprised of international banks, trust and fund companies offering its clients a broad range of corporate, fiduciary, financial, and fund services.
• Deloitte – “Deloitte” is the brand under which tens of thousands of dedicated professionals in independent firms throughout the world collaborate to provide audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management, and tax services to selected clients. These firms are members of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT), a Swiss Verein.
• DNBNOR – DnB NOR is Norways largest financial services group with total combined assets of NOK 1 600 billion. The Group consists of strong brands such as DnB NOR, Vital, Nordlandsbanken, Cresco, Postbanken, DnB NORD and Carlson.
• Ernst & Young – Ernst & Young is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction, advisory services and strategic growth markets. We aim to have a positive impact on businesses and markets, as well as on society as a whole.
• FBL Financial Group – FBL Financial Group, headquartered in West Des Moines, Iowa, is a holding company whose primary operating subsidiaries are Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company and EquiTrust Life Insurance Company. FBL currently underwrites, markets and distributes life insurance, annuities and mutual funds to individuals and small businesses.
• FGB – As one of the leading banks in the UAE, First Gulf Bank (FGB) has Shareholder Equity at AED22 billion making it one of the largest equity based bank in the UAE. Established in 1979 and headquartered in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, the bank provides financial services in various business and industrial areas with a wide network of branches across the Emirates. Under a visionary leadership, expert management and a professional, committed and talented team the bank maintains a strong flexible synergy that fosters sustained growth.
• First Merchants Corporation – First Merchants Corporation is the largest financial services holding company located in Central Indiana. With the addition of Lincoln Bank, First Merchants Corporation will have 80 locations in 24 Indiana counties and 3 Ohio counties. We provide our customers with broad financial services delivered locally by bankers who are known and trusted in their communities. We offer consumer banking, mortgage banking, business banking, cash management services, wealth management and insurance.
• GROUPAMA ZASTRAHOVANE – Firmly embedded in the French economic and social fabric, the Group makes its products and services available to private individuals, professionals, SMEs and institutions under two major brand names, GROUPAMA, distributed by the Groupama Regional Mutuals and GAN, distributed by networks of intermediaries.
• LAC Associates – LAC Associates, LLC. is a full service tax, accounting, consulting and financial services firm. We provide exceptional financial services that are individually tailored to meet each client’s specific needs. Our mission at LAC Associates is to provide world class tax, accounting, consulting and financial services in conjunction with building mutually beneficial long-term relationships with our clients.
• M&T Bank – M&T Bank Corporation, one of the 20 largest independent bank holding companies in the U.S., with assets of more than $69 billion and more than 800 branches, 1,800 ATMs and 15,000 employees located in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, West Virginia and Delaware.
• M&T Bank – Established in 1856 as Manufacturers and Traders Bank, today we’re the M&T Bank Corporation, one of the 20 largest independent bank holding companies in the U.S., with assets of more than $69 billion and more than 800 branches, 1,800 ATMs and 15,000 employees located in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington D.C., Virginia, West Virginia and Delaware.
• Standard & Poor’s – Standard and Poor’s 500 equity stock trading system provides individual stock analysis and a free stock analyzer.
• SustainLINK – SustainLINK is an independent research and scorecarding firm that profiles and monitors only eco-intelligent banks and credit unions.
• The World Bank Group – The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world.
• WOMEN’S WORLD BANKING – WWB is a global network of 40 microfinance providers and banks, working in 28 countries to bring financial services and information to low-income entrepreneurs. The network serves 20 million micro-entrepreneurs.

admin Official banking, finance, insurance

Balanced Scorecard helps UNUM Insurance to Manage New Operational Complexities and Diverse Stakeholder Groups

Summary

UNUM Insurance was growing exponentially in size and complexity.  They had reached and outgrown their five-year financial goal, and needed to set new goals capable of directing and motivating their organization to engage employees, optimize operations and meet the expectations of a range of stakeholders.  The Balanced Scorecard helped them set appropriate goals that employees could understand and use to increase customer service and company profitability.

Introduction

UNUM is a Fortune 500 company and a market leader in disability, group life, long term care and voluntary benefits.  In 1998, when the company first implemented a Balanced Scorecard approach, it had 7,200 employees; today it has more than 10,000 staffing operations in the US, Canada, the UK, the Pacific Rim, Europe, Bermuda and Latin America.

The Challenge

UNUM was coming out of a period of rapid growth and acquisition that had resulted in a much more complex organization.  Although from 1986 to 1992, the company had achieved its stated five-year goal of earning six dollars a share with a 15 per cent return on equity, it now needed to set its next-phase goals.  For this next five-year period, an exclusive focus on financial results would no longer serve the best interests of the corporation or adequately direct and motivate its employees.

UNUM needed to set new goals that would be relevant to the organization in all its complexity and meaningful to all employees.  After pursuing a narrowly focused and easily measurable goal for five years, the challenge would be to develop new goals appropriate to the business’ growing complexity while ensuring that they were still tangible, measurable and understood by everyone in the company. Most importantly, all goals needed to support excellent shareholder returns and represent the interests of all UNUM’s stakeholder groups: customers, shareholders and employees.

The Solution

UNUM adopted the Balanced Scorecard approach to help them set and balance a number of targets related to financial, customer, employee and productivity goals.

A team of senior managers who represented different areas of the corporation was assigned to develop these targets and the corresponding Scorecard areas.  Subcommittees wee appointed for each focus area, and employees were co-opted to provide input and test the draft goals and measures.  Participants were charged with developing a Scorecard that supported the corporate vision: “We will achieve leadership in our businesses.”  The corporate vision is internally understood to mean a focus on special risk-relieving products that meet customers’ needs and establish and sustain profitability for the company.

The UNUM Balanced Scorecard was developed with four perspectives that covered all stakeholder groups: 1) UNUM people; 2) operating effectiveness; 3) customer satisfaction; and 4) shareholder value.  Next, they identified time-limited and quantifiable achievements in each perspective area.

The UNUM people perspective was intended to instill the “mind of a customer, pride of an owner” into all employees.  A set of employee expectations and aspirations was developed, and a new 360-degree performance review process engaged all employees in thinking strategically about their own performance and that of others organizationally above and below them. A benchmark survey was implemented as a tool for gauging progress. The company also implemented a ‘1998 Goals Stock Option Plan’.Each UNUM employee was provided with a stock option grant to purchase 300 UNUM shares once the grant was vested, a move that fostered a true sense of ownership among employees.

The operating effectiveness perspective was supported by an commitment toincrease customer value by rethinking, improving and streamlining UNUM’sbusiness processes, with a clear goal of keeping operating costs at no more than one-half the rate of the top line.

For the customer satisfaction perspective, each UNUM area with an external customer chain was charged with developing a customer value measurement tool that would help the company determine its customers’ assessment of the overall value of our products and services.

The shareholder value perspective was expressed through “Money Machine,” an easy-to-understand presentation designed for employees.  The presentation walks the audience through the whole organization’s process, from sales to customers to the issuing of shareholder dividends, allowing everyone to clearly see how their individual efforts affect shareholder value.  UNUM also made superior long-term value to shareholders a formal goal, measurable in terms of dividends plus share price appreciation.

The Result

Using the Balanced Scorecard approach to manage new business complexities brought UNUM closer to its ultimate goal of world leadership in disability and special risk insurance.

The company improved its operating cost structure by 22 per cent over a 1992 base year, and was on its way to achieving the 1998 target of 33 per cent.

UNUM exceeded its people-focused goals, and won a raft of top employer awards from Fortune, Working Mother, BusinessWeek and Equal Opportunity magazines. The new sense of “ownership” among employees was also evident in initiatives such as the “trust workshop” developed by employees at UNUM America.  The workshop explored trust barriers between employees and managers, and key findings from the workshop were shared throughout the organization.

By making Shareholder Value a goal, they have given investors, stockbrokers and financial analysts a ‘yardstick’ by which UNUM’s progress toward its other stated goals can be measured. Their attitude is that companies that meet their goals win favour with investors and therefore enjoy a more favourable capital position.

And although UNUM did not reach their aggressive goal of reaching top-quartile performance of the Standard & Poor’s 500 at 1997 year-end, the company did make the second quartile, and delivered annualized returns of 30.2 per cent.  This excellent performance helped rank the company 39^th of the 457 current Standard & Poor 500 companies with 10-year stock histories.

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admin Case Studies BSC, Case Studies, insurance