Viewing Category:
[
clear category selection]
(displaying entries
1 - 20)
ESM5.5, a minor point release is in final beta testing and available at http://beta.executivestrategymanager.com. We plan to go live with this release next week. More details on it are below. Feel free to use the beta site to do your work. It hits the same live production database meaning changes made there will reflect on the live ESM site and vice versa.
This is a seamless transition to end users as all the processes they follow today will be the same in ESM5.5. If initiative KPI management is of interest to your team, we should set up a call where I can show you around that area. The team is still hard at work with ESM6 and I’ll be exposing you to the that new version towards the end of the year.
Enhancements include:
· Dynamic page loading to speed up page load time
· Additional query enhancements beyond the work we did earlier this year to speed up the overall system
· Slight look and feel changes along with some minor functionality enhancements
· Fully flipped Arabic version available by user (go to your profile and select Arabic for your language option). Note, data entered by user remains in language originally entered.
· Initiative summary page listing of initiative KPI names and status indicators
· Initiative detail page listing of associated initiative KPIs with status indicators (KPIs can have unlimited data series).
· Cross browser compliance with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome
[hide extended entry]
Now that the Execution Premium book by Drs. Kaplan and Norton has been out in the market for a number of years, let's take a look at the benefits that can be realized through the XPP implementation in your organizaiton. Let's take it a couple stages at a time. Stage 1 and 2 looked at Develop the Strategy and Translate the Strategy. Now let's look at stages 3 and 4: Align the Organization With the Strategy and 5: Plan Operations. In these stages, the strategy has been clarified with scorecards and strategy maps at the enterprise level so now they need to be cascaded down into the business and support areas to ensure vertical alignment. Individuals might employ personal Balanced Scorecards and development plans to link the performance review process with the strategy. A communication program around the strategy is also paramount. The organization can begin to link strategy to key processes, driver models, and dashboards. Rolling forecasts and dynamic resource allocation are often found around the operational planning step.
STAGE 3: ALIGN THE ORGANIZATION WITH THE STRATEGY
- Defines the corporate role so that organizational units receive strategic guidance & direction
- Cascades strategy maps and scorecards to ensure organizational alignment to the strategy
- Leverages synergies between corporate, SBU, shared services, and other units to ensure alignment
- Communicates the strategy so that everyone understands his/her role in executing it
- Aligns team and individual goals and incentives to ensure the behavioral changes required for success
STAGE 4: PLAN OPERATIONS
- Identifies critical processes required to execute the strategy
- Establishes cross-functional business teams to drive performance across organizational boundaries
- Develops rolling forecasts and dynamic resource allocation to link strategy and operations
- Implements driver based planning to identify the critical levers of performance
- Creates operational dashboards that identify the key performance indicators that drive performance
[hide extended entry]
Balanced Scorecard,
BSC Hall of Fame,
Business Leadership,
Client Success,
Competitive Advantage,
Decision Making,
ESM Development Team,
ESM Features,
ESM General Information,
ESM Tips and Tricks,
Initiative Management,
Innovation,
Operational Reporting,
Personal Balanced Scorecard,
Reporting,
Risk Management,
Software as a Service,
Strategy Maps,
Sustainability
|
Posted
9/7/11
@ 2:25 PM
by ESM Team ESM Team
Organizations, in each of their many dimensions, are fascinating to explore. One of my favorite subject matter experts, Gary Cokins, notes: “[J]ust like our grandmothers each had their own recipe for a holiday fruit cake, organizations are concocting their own customized versions of the performance management framework”.
Recently, I had the pleasure of taking a two-month reprise from Boston’s cold, wet, winter weather to go on assignment in sunny Australia.
The purpose of this trip was to provide technology and consulting support to a new ESM client, alongside a team of colleagues from our APAC region. It was my first trip to the country, and first direct exposure to several other client organizations in that corner of the world.
Each company I worked with had a unique set of ‘ingredients’, but sought the same outcome: success. Despite their specific differences, it’s quite remarkable to find time and time again that organizations across the globe, and in a wide variety of industries, tend to experience similar issues and seek common answers.
After learning more about how each of their programs were being operated, we discussed new ways to embrace and benefit from the software’s capability; helping each to apply its tools the method best suited for their unique situation.
Stay tuned for specific lessons in the next blog post.
[hide extended entry]
Gartner's recent press release says that over the next 5 years organizations will be more rapidly moving into SaaS and PaaS as this space continues to rapidly grow through innovation, partnerships, and acquisitions. ESM was one of those SaaS pioneers when it launched it's first version of the application over 10 years ago.
In a BSR Q&A discussion with technology thought leaders, Frank Buytendijk of BeInformed and Jonathan Hornby of the SAS Institute, we asked them to share their best practices experiences with organizations implementing the Execution Premium Process.
When asked, “What were the common elements in place among successful automation implementations?” Mr. Buytendijk stated, “Success is the result of focus, dedication, endurance, experience. Human characteristics.” Each characteristic is further cultivated through the following success factors:
- Organizing the governance of the initiative center of excellence.
- Abandoning the notion of business-IT divide.
- There should be a clear business case.
- Understanding how measurement drives behavior.
- Designing a well-defined architecture.
- Let the tool guide you.
When asked the same questions, Jonathan Hornby of SAS, reiterated the need for a strong and an experienced project manager to navigate a successful implementation. The top 5 areas this person should focus on are 1) project definition and scope, 2) communications, 3) risk and issues management, 4) change management (in terms of project scope as well as the organization), and (5) acceptance management and training.
I found particular interest in Hornby’s mention of acceptance management. Here he comments that a project delivers only if the users accept and use the technology. To do so, we can draw from the response of Mr. Buytendijk. The most victorious organizations have knocked down the silos between business and IT and have a clearly communicated business case.
Acceptance management can be clearly identified in organizations successfully implementing ESM. Those organizations have multiple users working in the tool to provide analysis and recommendations on a consistent review cycle. This type of review schedule facilitates corporate transparency and communication. Moreover utilizes different skills sets from employees across various business units. Acceptance management is a necessary step on the road to strategy execution. If your organization is struggling in this area, contact your ESM account manager to find out how we can help your team fully utilize the ESM.
To read the full BSR article in ESM, navigate to Resources > Libraries.
[hide extended entry]
Several of our product experts recently returned from Palladium’s 2010 Americas Summit, held this year in La Jolla, CA. It was a great conference – strong attendance, great speakers, and considerable insight to be gained from both the case studies presented, and personal conversation.
As our experts provided attendees with live demos, they recount numerous occurrences of present clients passing by, and joining in to offer first-hand testimonials. Thanks to them, and to all of you, for being such being such strong proponents of ESM. Hearing the stories of your successes is valuable to those looking for more information, and also makes us truly proud to be a supporting part of your strategy management programs.
Recurrent obstacles identified by attendees we spoke with included 1) employee engagement and 2) effective communication of strategy and strategic performance. As indicated in the third step of the XPP, Alignment requires organizations to align business units AND employees alike to the strategy. In doing so, they often times overlook the most critical component of alignment– communication. Communication is paramount in a Strategy-Focused Organization to develop buy-in and commitment to the strategy at an individual level.
Over the last decade, ESM has made addressing this commonly shared weakness a priority. In continually improving the product to support evolving need, two new features were released this month: a second generation release of ESM’s Personal Balanced Scorecard component – PBSC 2.0, as well as a capability for integrating ESM with SharePoint.
[hide extended entry]
The ESM team is hard at work innovating, designing and building ESM 6. This effort began in February 2010 and will continue through to Beta launch in early 2012. Through our recent surveys, direct client requests, and guidance from Drs. Kaplan and Norton and Palladium’s strategy consulting experts, we’ve compiled over 200 potential enhancements to include in this release.
As our developers share these new enhancements with the larger ESM team, we get more and more excited about where the ESM community is pushing the application. After all, it is you, the client, who’s advancing our application as you use it in your organization and provide us with feedback.
Some of the latest features to be built include automatic status indicator roll up across the scorecard. For example, milestone performance status indicator can impact the overall initiative status indicator, which in turn impacts objective performance status indicator. Objective status indicators can also automatically set based off of cascaded objectives and underlying measures. Measure can be automatically set by either data roll up or status color roll up. Objectives then roll up into perspectives and themes and then ultimately into an overall scorecard performance. It will be up to you if you activate this feature and just how far you want automatic status color setting to go in your organization.
We’ve also seen a new measure charting interface, allowing for unlimited data series, data calculations between columns, and multiple charts that can be displayed against the same measure data set. We will enable much more complex data roll up since different underlying measure series can feed into various higher level measures. For example, historically ESM required final calculated numbers such as a target, actual, variance, and forecast. With ESM 6, if desired, those raw data calculations can be done right in ESM or sourced in from data sources or data bases. We will also enable period groups for month to date, quarter to date and year to date summary series. Our measure charting enhancements should remove any restrictions users have felt in the past with complex measure calculations, roll up, and visual charting.
As we continue our development efforts we look forward to sharing our development efforts with you.
[hide extended entry]
I just came across an excellent account of the Balanced Scorecard effort undergone at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. In this paper, BSC champion and strategy director, Alasdair Macnab, along with Chris Carr and Falconer Michell from University of Edinburgh tell the implementation story. They focus their research on how the Balanced Scorecard approach can be successfully adopted for nonprofit businesses. The team also reviews why the Executive Strategy Manager was selected as the preferred solution and how it streamlined the data reporting and presentation while providing leadership and employees froma cross the organization critical line of sight into the strategy.
Key findings cited from the paper include:
Just as strategies are specific to an organisation, the balanced scorecard (BSC)/strategy map can and should be adapted to suit an individual organisation to leverage the full power of the BSC system.
• The effort and commitment required from senior management involved in transforming strategy management processes should not be underestimated as individuals/departments will become more accountable for their actions, particularly in the public sector, and resistance to change may be experienced as a consequence.
• If an effective costing system is developed, such as the one described in this report, management will see how their staff are directing their efforts, particularly important in knowledge based organisations.
• With their intimate knowledge of the organisation, the management accountant is well placed to become very involved or direct the transformation process to manage strategy execution leading to improved effectiveness/profitability of the organisation. In this way the management accountant becomes more of a strategic partner to the business.
• The research relates primarily to the practitioner who should find it helpful as the work is based on research subject to academic rigour but is translated into a pragmatic approach via the case study; thereby demonstrating its usefulness to a real organisation.
See:” Implementation of the balanced scorecard and an alternative costing system at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh,” available at the following link:
Access the full report here
[hide extended entry]
Balanced Scorecard,
BSC Hall of Fame,
Business Leadership,
Client Success,
Competitive Advantage,
Decision Making,
ESM Development Team,
ESM Features,
ESM General Information,
ESM Tips and Tricks,
Initiative Management,
Operational Reporting,
Reporting,
Risk Management,
Software as a Service,
Strategy Maps,
Sustainability
|
Posted
7/22/10
@ 11:43 AM
by ESM Team ESM Team
If you have yet to decide on a software application to help you manage your strategy, we've compiled over a hundred functionality requirements you should consider when evaluating solutions.
Technical and Administrative Requirements:
General Requirements
1. The software must be browser-accessible and work on the firm's Intranet as well as Internet
2. All of the firm's employees must be able to use the software without having to install software on each PC
3. The software must be fully integrated and use the same technological platform
4. The software must be based on recognized standards and open interfaces. The software must not contain any proprietary elements
5. The software must be ready-to-use standard software that is under further development and has a version number
6. The software must be delivered with complete user documentation that describes all the software's possibilities
7. The software should have a separate user-configurable presentation layer and a separate configurable data layer
8. The software should be able to interface with company databases and import data via SQL queries and tab- or comma-delimited file import or the like
9. The software should be able to handle other data than that which belongs to the scorecards
10. The software must be extremely user-friendly and intuitive in use. All parts of the user interface must be in English
11. The software must have flexibility in selecting presentation method
12. It must be possible to present data in tables, graphically or in reports presentation form for each critical measure
14. It must be possible to print out the chosen presentation or export it in PowerPoint and as a PDF
15. It must be possible to build reports and export them in an appropriate Microsoft Office format
16. The software must have intuitive navigation logic
17. It must be simple for the software to present figures for the current period and other defined periods, like year to date
18. The software must be able to store and display archived versions of the scorecards, strategy maps and data
19. The company should be able to configure, without third party assistance, menus and texts in the user interface to use our own terminology
20. It must be possible for the company to define its own help texts in the user interface
User Admin Requirements
21. The software must allow the client administrators to add and manage users
22. The software must allow the client administrators to set user permission levels
23. Each user must be authenticated individually before he/she is granted access to the software
24. User identity must be the key for gaining access to scorecards, critical measures (KPIs), drill- down, reports, strategic initiatives and comments
25. It must be possible to regulate what access each user needs to a data field (read, write, update or delete)
26. The software must have role-based access control, so that defined roles specify which access a user has
27. After an inactive period, the software must perform a new authentication before granting the user access to the software
28. The software must have functionality for logging activity in the software, including logging of user and time when data was changed or deleted
Administrator Requirements
29. Since management of the software will be spread among several people, it is a requirement that the administration tool (to set up and manage the software) be multi-user (simultaneously logged on)
30. It must be possible to grant different access rights to different administrators.
31. It must be possible for employees in the company's various operations to set up and manage the software
32. It must be possible to create a "scorecard template" that can easily be distributed or copied to each operation so that it is only necessary to create all the scorecard logic once
33. It must be easy for the administrator to cut and paste perspectives, strategic objectives and critical measures
34. It must be easy for the administrator to read, update and delete data from the software. It must be possible to limit access to this functionality
35. It must be easy to add, change and delete perspectives, strategic objectives and critical measures (KPIs)
36. The software must have tools for automatically configuring presentation in web format
37. It must be possible for the company to handle maintenance and upgrading to new versions of the software
38. The software must be able to track and report on all update activity by user, scorecard, and by date
39. The software must have the capability to assign shortcut access to specific users or via strategic elements
Functionality Requirements:
Strategy Map and Scorecard Entry
40. The software must conform to the Kaplan-Norton Balanced Scorecard Methodology. It must at least have the following structure: strategy map, scorecard, strategic perspective, strategic themes, strategic objectives, measures and initiatives
41. The software must have no limitations on the number of perspectives, themes, strategic objectives, measures or initiatives that can be used
42. The software must have customizable fields for the storage and reporting of data for each part of the scorecard (strategy map, scorecard, strategic perspective, strategic themes, strategic objectives, measures and initiatives)
43. The software should allow the import of images for use in strategy maps
44. The software should allow for customizable objects on the strategy map
45. The software should have an intuitive user interface for the creation and manipulation of strategy maps that mimics standard presentation software such as MS PowerPoint
46. The software must have functionality for showing strategy maps with cause and effect relationships between strategic objectives
47. The software must have customizable views of the strategy map, objectives, measures, initiatives, themes, performance summaries, alignment matrices and action items
48. The application must have the capability to build theme maps
49. The software must have the ability to have several scorecards for an organization or operation
50. The software must be able to present data for all levels in the organization
51. It must be possible to navigate from the main strategy map to strategy maps for other operations or to underlying data for individual strategic objectives
52. The software must allow for the creation of multi-level cascaded scorecards
53. Free navigation between the different levels in the organization must be possible
54. It must be possible to include an underlying level in the organization in several higher levels
55. The software must have the ability to link objectives, measures and initiatives across strategy maps at different levels of the organization and have the data update automatically
56. The software should provide for Alignment matrices to ensure alignment of objectives, measures and initiatives across scorecards
57. The software must have the ability to link 'child' objectives and measures to 'parent' objectives and measures
58. The software must display the status of each objective, measure and initiative using a 'traffic light' system with parameters that are customizable by the user
59. It should be possible to regulate color coded calculations by using formulas, e.g. 10% improvement over last year, when calculating color code (red, green, yellow)
Data Collection
60. It must be easy to build a presentation of key figures
61. The scorecard must support different time frequencies and periods. A scorecard must be able to contain key figures that are measured in time periods that deviate from the scorecard's reporting frequency
62. The software must have functionality to show trends. The software must have functionality for manual data collection
63. The software must have an alternative for automatic data collection from other data systems
64. The person who sets up a form for manual data collection must be able to specify who (persons and groups) is to answer the form, and notification must be given via e-mail
65. The person who sets up a form must be able to designate another as responsible for data collection (usually the one responsible for the corresponding key figures)
66. The software must be able to present underlying detail data for all key figures
67. The software must contain weighting of key figures in order to give weighted color coded results at all higher levels (strategic objectives and perspectives)
68. It must be simple for the person responsible for data collection to gain an overview over missing response
69. It must be possible to set up automatic reminders via e-mail on missing response
70. It must be possible to set up forms with fixed frequencies (i.e. monthly) for data collection
71. The software should have customizable views so a user can immediately find the data they are responsible for updating
72. When submitted data are registered, critical measure values must be updated automatically
Data Reporting
73. The software must include a reporting function with standard (pre-built, included) reports including overall status reports, theme-based status reports, data exception reports, measures status reports, initiative status reports and alignment matrices
74. The software must allow the creation of customizable reports for the export of data
75. It must be simple to find descriptions of individual critical measures with respect to measuring, responsible person, data source, frequency and measuring levels for red, yellow and green
76. It must be possible to show result attainment for strategic objectives in the strategy map using color codes (red, yellow and green)
77. The software must have functionality for presenting goal attainment for a critical measure by (minimum) presentation of data, goal attainment, tables and graphs
78. The software must have extensive functionality for graphical representation of results
79. The software must have functionality for presenting underlying data in "drill-down" reports
80. It must be possible for the tool to attach relevant reports or documents to each objective, measure and initiative
81. The application must have external link capabilities at the measure level
82. The software must have functionality for calculating and presenting key figures such as budget deviation, and user satisfaction
83. The software must have the ability to create and display multiple types of charts, consistent with basic Excel functionality
84. Reports must be dynamic so that it is possible to navigate from a report to the underlying data or key figures for further details
85. Managers and editors must be able to directly edit their charts and performance reviews from the graphical view of strategy map(s)
86. It must be possible to distribute reports to individuals or groups of employees, or make them accessible from scorecards, perspectives, strategic objectives or critical measures
87. As described above, all reports must be exportable to an appropriate Microsoft Office program and PDF
88. The application must have the ability to display theme maps and analysis views into the strategic theme (with supporting objectives, measures, initiatives)
89. The application must have the ability to show driver measures and manage basic calculations between driver and strategic measures
Initiative Management
90. A strategic initiative must at least contain activities and milestones
91. A strategic initiative must have functionality that allows it to be linked to the strategic objective it supports
92. A strategic initiative must have functionality that allows it to be linked to the theme it supports
93. It must be possible to assign responsibility for a strategic initiative or parts of one to specific persons
94. It must be possible to assign shared initiatives to the business units responsible
95. It must be possible to provide "view only" rights to specific initiatives across the organization
96. It must be possible to track progress against milestones, variance to budget and net benefits realized
97. The software must alert those who are involved in a strategic initiative concerning deadlines and updates via e-mail
98. It must be possible to link comments and documentation to a strategic initiative (e.g. project plans and documents)
99. It must be simple to export data from the software for further follow-up or analysis in other tools
Personal Scorecards
100. The software should allow for the entry of Personal Scorecards for all individuals within the organization
101. These scorecards should link personal objectives, measures and targets to organizational objectives
102. The field names and types in the personal scorecard should be customizable by the organization
103. The software should have a process and tutorial to assist employees in their creation of personal development plans
104. The software should allow for management oversight and approval of personal objectives
105. The software should store an audit trail for all changes
106. The personal scorecard software should allow for performance tracking
107. The software should allow users to set custom reminders with email notification
108. The personal scorecard software should allow for the weighting of objectives in calculating overall performance
[hide extended entry]
For nearly two years now the ESM team has leveraged Akamai's Edge platform to accelerate the speed of the ESM to your organization. I like to describe it as "turning country roads into private highways for the ESM."
While this Blog is more fitting for your IT team, if you experience latency when using the ESM, let's ensure your network is properly configured by passing on the following information to them. From time to time we find that organizations cache the IP address to our servers at their edge proxy or firewall. If this is the case, they will need to remove that relationship to avoid latency issues connecting to www.executivestrategymanager.com. Most of our organizations add a simple rule to avoid any proxy IP caching.
If your organization is still experiencing problems after the above is confirmed, please let your ESM account manager know and we will set up a network trace test through the Akamai support system to dive deeper into the issue.
The ESM team is committed to bringing you a lightening fast strategy management platform.
[hide extended entry]
In July-August Balanced Scorecard Report, the article "The Power of Strategy Execution in Healthcare" tackles the issue of managing the gap between healthcare needs and financial resources. "Can healthcare systems reduce spiraling costs while still maintaining the quality of care?" According to this article the answer is definitively "Yes!" Through a disciplined planning and strategy execution system, healthcare organizations can reconcile the tension between the pressure to reduce costs and the demand for higher-quality health care. Organizations that have a comprehensive strategy process and clearly defined day to day operations can reduce risk, improve financial performance, lower liability costs, and improve clinical care. The ESM aids our healthcare clients in executing on their strategy by taking them step by step through both the construction of, and reporting on, Balanced Scorecards and strategy maps.
The Executive Strategy Manager enables organizations to create and execute such a strategy process. Healthcare organizations such as Abbott GPO, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, Nemours, and Miami Children's Hospital have achieved success in such areas through the implementation of the Executive Strategy Manager. Strategic Objectives can be easily communicated to employees through Strategy Maps and reviewed during strategy meetings. Users are able to measure strategic objectives with Key Performance Indicators, based on data provided and available data sources. Management can thus concentrate on those objectives or targets that are performing sub-optimally and move forward into the development and tracking of strategic initiatives. Executive Strategy Manager not only enables users to visualize the performance of the organization's strategy, but creates a sense of ownership and pride as all employees work toward success.
[hide extended entry]
ESM 5.0 is set to release to all ESM clients on April 27th, 2009. This version represents enhancements compiled from 10 years of end-user feedback, which has created our most user-friendly ESM ever. The latest version of the ESM also offers increased page layout functionality; including measures split screen as well as organization defined custom layouts. The demand for this enhancement came from our end users, who requested more flexibility around the display of measure charts.
We've enabled layouts where measures can be positioned side by side to keep them above the fold. We also have the ability to build custom "portlets" for users who wish to display a variety of strategic information on one page. For example, an organization might like to display an initiative detail grid on an objective detail page. These new data presentation capabilities facilitate a strategy review meeting the way you want. As this feature shows, the ESM team is constantly working with end-users to create the most user-friendly experience possible.
[hide extended entry]
Palladium used to certify software vendors. We had over twenty software vendors that met the minimal BSC standards. A lot has changed since the standards were written. While Palladium no longer runs a software certification program nor updates a public document that lists the minimal standards for BSC software, we have worked with our consultants to identify the top 100 or so requirements you should seriously consider when looking at software. Regardless of if you select the ESM as your strategy management software or something else we want you to be an educated consumer.
We break our requirements list up into several key areas.
Technical and Administrative Requirements:
General Requirements
1. The software must be browser-accessible and work on the firm's Intranet as well as Internet
2. All of the firm's employees must be able to use the software without having to install software on each PC
3. The software must be fully integrated and use the same technological platform
4. The software must be based on recognized standards and open interfaces. The software must not contain any proprietary elements
5. The software must be ready-to-use standard software that is under further development and has a version number
6. The software must be delivered with complete user documentation that describes all the software's possibilities
7. The software should have a separate user-configurable presentation layer and a separate configurable data layer
8. The software should be able to interface with company databases and import data via SQL queries and tab- or comma-delimited file import or the like
9. The software should be able to handle other data than that which belongs to the scorecards
10. The software must be extremely user-friendly and intuitive in use. All parts of the user interface must be in English
11. The software must have flexibility in selecting presentation method
12. It must be possible to present data in tables, graphically or in reports presentation form for each critical measure
14. It must be possible to print out the chosen presentation or export it in PowerPoint and as a PDF
15. It must be possible to build reports and export them in an appropriate Microsoft Office format
16. The software must have intuitive navigation logic
17. It must be simple for the software to present figures for the current period and other defined periods, like year to date
18. The software must be able to store and display archived versions of the scorecards, strategy maps and data
19. The company should be able to configure, without third party assistance, menus and texts in the user interface to use our own terminology
20. It must be possible for the company to define its own help texts in the user interface
User Admin Requirements
21. The software must allow the client administrators to add and manage users
22. The software must allow the client administrators to set user permission levels
23. Each user must be authenticated individually before he/she is granted access to the software
24. User identity must be the key for gaining access to scorecards, critical measures (KPIs), drill- down, reports, strategic initiatives and comments
25. It must be possible to regulate what access each user needs to a data field (read, write, update or delete)
26. The software must have role-based access control, so that defined roles specify which access a user has
27. After an inactive period, the software must perform a new authentication before granting the user access to the software
28. The software must have functionality for logging activity in the software, including logging of user and time when data was changed or deleted
Administrator Requirements
29. Since management of the software will be spread among several people, it is a requirement that the administration tool (to set up and manage the software) be multi-user (simultaneously logged on)
30. It must be possible to grant different access rights to different administrators.
31. It must be possible for employees in the company's various operations to set up and manage the software
32. It must be possible to create a "scorecard template" that can easily be distributed or copied to each operation so that it is only necessary to create all the scorecard logic once
33. It must be easy for the administrator to cut and paste perspectives, strategic objectives and critical measures
34. It must be easy for the administrator to read, update and delete data from the software. It must be possible to limit access to this functionality
35. It must be easy to add, change and delete perspectives, strategic objectives and critical measures (KPIs)
36. The software must have tools for automatically configuring presentation in web format
37. It must be possible for the company to handle maintenance and upgrading to new versions of the software
38. The software must be able to track and report on all update activity by user, scorecard, and by date
39. The software must have the capability to assign shortcut access to specific users or via strategic elements
Functionality Requirements:
Strategy Map and Scorecard Entry
40. The software must conform to the Kaplan-Norton Balanced Scorecard Methodology. It must at least have the following structure: strategy map, scorecard, strategic perspective, strategic themes, strategic objectives, measures and initiatives
41. The software must have no limitations on the number of perspectives, themes, strategic objectives, measures or initiatives that can be used
42. The software must have customizable fields for the storage and reporting of data for each part of the scorecard (strategy map, scorecard, strategic perspective, strategic themes, strategic objectives, measures and initiatives)
43. The software should allow the import of images for use in strategy maps
44. The software should allow for customizable objects on the strategy map
45. The software should have an intuitive user interface for the creation and manipulation of strategy maps that mimics standard presentation software such as MS PowerPoint
46. The software must have functionality for showing strategy maps with cause and effect relationships between strategic objectives
47. The software must have customizable views of the strategy map, objectives, measures, initiatives, themes, performance summaries, alignment matrices and action items
48. The application must have the capability to build theme maps
49. The software must have the ability to have several scorecards for an organization or operation
50. The software must be able to present data for all levels in the organization
51. It must be possible to navigate from the main strategy map to strategy maps for other operations or to underlying data for individual strategic objectives
52. The software must allow for the creation of multi-level cascaded scorecards
53. Free navigation between the different levels in the organization must be possible
54. It must be possible to include an underlying level in the organization in several higher levels
55. The software must have the ability to link objectives, measures and initiatives across strategy maps at different levels of the organization and have the data update automatically
56. The software should provide for Alignment matrices to ensure alignment of objectives, measures and initiatives across scorecards
57. The software must have the ability to link 'child' objectives and measures to 'parent' objectives and measures
58. The software must display the status of each objective, measure and initiative using a 'traffic light' system with parameters that are customizable by the user
59. It should be possible to regulate color coded calculations by using formulas, e.g. 10% improvement over last year, when calculating color code (red, green, yellow)
Data Collection
60. It must be easy to build a presentation of key figures
61. The scorecard must support different time frequencies and periods. A scorecard must be able to contain key figures that are measured in time periods that deviate from the scorecard's reporting frequency
62. The software must have functionality to show trends. The software must have functionality for manual data collection
63. The software must have an alternative for automatic data collection from other data systems
64. The person who sets up a form for manual data collection must be able to specify who (persons and groups) is to answer the form, and notification must be given via e-mail
65. The person who sets up a form must be able to designate another as responsible for data collection (usually the one responsible for the corresponding key figures)
66. The software must be able to present underlying detail data for all key figures
67. The software must contain weighting of key figures in order to give weighted color coded results at all higher levels (strategic objectives and perspectives)
68. It must be simple for the person responsible for data collection to gain an overview over missing response
69. It must be possible to set up automatic reminders via e-mail on missing response
70. It must be possible to set up forms with fixed frequencies (i.e. monthly) for data collection
71. The software should have customizable views so a user can immediately find the data they are responsible for updating
72. When submitted data are registered, critical measure values must be updated automatically
Data Reporting
73. The software must include a reporting function with standard (pre-built, included) reports including overall status reports, theme-based status reports, data exception reports, measures status reports, initiative status reports and alignment matrices
74. The software must allow the creation of customizable reports for the export of data
75. It must be simple to find descriptions of individual critical measures with respect to measuring, responsible person, data source, frequency and measuring levels for red, yellow and green
76. It must be possible to show result attainment for strategic objectives in the strategy map using color codes (red, yellow and green)
77. The software must have functionality for presenting goal attainment for a critical measure by (minimum) presentation of data, goal attainment, tables and graphs
78. The software must have extensive functionality for graphical representation of results
79. The software must have functionality for presenting underlying data in "drill-down" reports
80. It must be possible for the tool to attach relevant reports or documents to each objective, measure and initiative
81. The application must have external link capabilities at the measure level
82. The software must have functionality for calculating and presenting key figures such as budget deviation, and user satisfaction
83. The software must have the ability to create and display multiple types of charts, consistent with basic Excel functionality
84. Reports must be dynamic so that it is possible to navigate from a report to the underlying data or key figures for further details
85. Managers and editors must be able to directly edit their charts and performance reviews from the graphical view of strategy map(s)
86. It must be possible to distribute reports to individuals or groups of employees, or make them accessible from scorecards, perspectives, strategic objectives or critical measures
87. As described above, all reports must be exportable to an appropriate Microsoft Office program and PDF
88. The application must have the ability to display theme maps and analysis views into the strategic theme (with supporting objectives, measures, initiatives)
89. The application must have the ability to show driver measures and manage basic calculations between driver and strategic measures
Initiative Management
90. A strategic initiative must at least contain activities and milestones
91. A strategic initiative must have functionality that allows it to be linked to the strategic objective it supports
92. A strategic initiative must have functionality that allows it to be linked to the theme it supports
93. It must be possible to assign responsibility for a strategic initiative or parts of one to specific persons
94. It must be possible to assign shared initiatives to the business units responsible
95. It must be possible to provide "view only" rights to specific initiatives across the organization
96. It must be possible to track progress against milestones, variance to budget and net benefits realized
97. The software must alert those who are involved in a strategic initiative concerning deadlines and updates via e-mail
98. It must be possible to link comments and documentation to a strategic initiative (e.g. project plans and documents)
99. It must be simple to export data from the software for further follow-up or analysis in other tools
Personal Scorecards
100. The software should allow for the entry of Personal Scorecards for all individuals within the organization
101. These scorecards should link personal objectives, measures and targets to organizational objectives
102. The field names and types in the personal scorecard should be customizable by the organization
103. The software should have a process and tutorial to assist employees in their creation of personal development plans
104. The software should allow for management oversight and approval of personal objectives
105. The software should store an audit trail for all changes
106. The personal scorecard software should allow for performance tracking
107. The software should allow users to set custom reminders with email notification
108. The personal scorecard software should allow for the weighting of objectives in calculating overall performance
[hide extended entry]
In today's economy we see more companies than ever trying to outsource applications once considered mission critical. The Executive Strategy Manger software-as-a-service (SaaS) approach allows today's companies cut the time spent running BSC applications in-house and focus time on managing their strategy.
Check out this compelling article posted on forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/cionetwork/2008/06/29/ingres-data-center-tech-cio-cx_es_0630ingres.html
Performance is big to us. We're constantly striving to enhance the performance of the application in any way that we can, because we know how frustrating it can be trying to use a slow website. That's why we were so excited to finally be perusing a partnership with Akamai to help deliver our application to the far reaches of the globe. Don't get me wrong, we've always had very good performance and very good global coverage, but there are a few spots around the world that saw excessive latency and delays that were out of our control.
As of July 26, our Akamai solution is turned on, and the ESM is on FIRE. We're seeing better than a 50% improvement on latency over the entire globe. Chronic trouble spots like Mexico, Middle East, and Australia are now seeing speeds similar to what we get here in our office - 20 miles away from our datacenter. I've attached the before-and-after performance results from our monitoring service and it's clear that we now have top-notch global presence. Feel free to take a look – it's astounding how uniform world-wide performance is now.
[hide extended entry]
I recently came across a case study, published just last month, titled "Information System Effects on Organizations Balanced Scorecard Work". This study was focused exclusively on the ESM application – something our team believes to be the first of its kind!
The study concluded that the ESM does, in fact, positively impact an organization's rate of successful BSC implementation and utilization. The findings also allude to a correlation between the time of ESM introduction and the avoidance of common pitfalls.
Read at http://biblioteket.ehl.lu.se/olle/papers/0002989.pdf or stay tuned for more!
[hide extended entry]
The ESM has completed the much anticipated partnership with Akamai Technologies to provide a truly global acceleration of the ESM. Over the next few days we anticipate a 50 -80% or greater speed improvement of the ESM suite of tools, allowing us to reach our clients around the globe at record breaking speeds.
Everyone Benefits
Whether you are an Employee in our Lincoln, MA. USA office or a client halfway around the globe the ESM performance is now equally the same. Akamai route optimization and cache servers work 24x7X365 to identify the best route from your laptop to our ESM servers. There will be no more waiting for content to load as one navigates through Measures and Objectives in meeting view.
How it Works The ESM is now 100% globally-distributed using the Akamai EdgePlatform that continuously pulls and caches fresh content onto strategically positioned servers that are closer to our customers. A dynamic mapping system directs user requests for ESM content to an optimal Akamai edge server. Then, through route optimization Akamai identifies the fastest, most reliable path back to your data center to retrieve ESM content. Several connection techniques are in place to optimize communications between the Akamai edge server and the ESM infrastructure to deliver dynamic content to our clients over optimized connections that avoid Internet problem spots.
What to expect
- Much faster ESM performance worldwide.
- Capacity scaling on demand allowing the ESM to meet critical demand.
- Increased availability through uninterrupted service capability.
The quality of the ESM service will not diminish as the ESM continues to rapidly grow it's customer base. The Akamai EdgePlatform scales as the demand increases. That flexibility frees the ESM to allow you to truly execute on the strategy execution premium.
Stay tuned for future enhancements.
Many times when clients ask about the ESM model of offering software as a service, I would say that Salesforce.com does it, and they have 38,000 customers. But if you saw the news today, you would see that there are other prominent believers in the model, including Oracle's Larry Ellison.
Larry Ellison controls 74% of NetSuite, a software company that sells programs accessed in a SaaS model. According to the IPO filing, this company may be valued at $750 Million (and it doesn't make any money yet). Salesforce.com is valued at $6.5 Billion. It certainly appears that there is market acceptance of the model of Software as a Service.
The ESM has always been offered as a service (since 2000), and we've heard many clients tell us that they are happy we manage the application, uptime, and security. I tell them that we are happy to. Let me know what you think.
[hide extended entry]
We run into this problem all the time. Organizations, albeit mostly government, want to manage their strategy in the Executive Strategy Manager (ESM), yet they often forget to think about the steps to truly make this happen. The steps aren't complicated, but they need to be considered before commitment is made.
The ESM is typically delivered as an "application service provider" ASP, meaning that most organizations sign up for the ESM and a few hours later, they are off and running in the application. There is no need for IT support; there is no hardware or software installation. The only conditions are that you need a modern computer, a decent internet connection, MS Internet Explorer, and Adobe Flash. These are on probably 95-98% of computers today when they leave the manufacturer.
While some governments are comfortable using an ASP, some organizations simply cannot due to classified information. This is when we turn to a local installation and offer to physically install the software on their own hardware. If you are considering a local installation, be sure to think through the fact that you need a dedicated server, and will need to manage your own back ups (this is typically incorporated into regularly occurring backups in the organization). The ESM team continues to support the software, but the code actually resides behind the client's firewall, be it in a top secret, classified, or standard environment. Our team has the appropriate clearances to handle these environments.
Reach out to us at esm@thepalladiumgroup.com for more information on the ASP and local installations.
[hide extended entry]
We're currently working on building out a new datacenter to support our global ESM client base. This new, state of the art datacenter will allow us to continue to grow our global presence, increase reliability of the application and increase the speed of the application for people in the farthest reaches of the world.
Why did we decide to move to a new datacenter? Wasn't the current datacenter "good enough?" Well, yes and no. The datacenter is more than adequate for our current needs. But, many of you have been impacted by it -- sometimes in small ways -- like the a page taking a few seconds longer to load -- or sometimes in a larger way -- like a document getting "hung up" in the queue and not generating at all.
Each time something like this happens, we're notified and log the issue. And more and more, we realized that we needed to change -- and the more we looked into it -- and the requirements of you, our customers, for security and availability, the more we realized that a new datacenter was in order.
Some technical content follows in this paragraph. If it makes your eyes glaze over, please just skip to the next paragraph. I apologize. We are designing the new datacenter to be fully SAS70 compliant, to be fully redundant (throughout the stack), in a facility with multiple carrier OC48 and OC192 connections, right on a Sprint POP. The new DR/Failover facility will have full database mirroring and a 5 minute cutover time should we lose the primary for any reason.
What does all that jargon mean? Essentially, we're building a datacenter so that we can scale and support the next 1,000 customers and the next 10,000 users. As the team sits on the floor here in the datacenter, surrounded by cables, boxes, servers, switches, routers, and firewalls, we're excited about the future and sincerely grateful to all of you, our customers.
If you have any specific questions about the new datacenter, or would like to learn more about how we manage our technology infrastructure, please post a comment below or contact your project manager. Thanks!
[hide extended entry]
