For business leaders and managers, having access to current business data and being able to view that data in reports and charts can have a tremendous impact on critical business decision making.
Tools and systems that provide managers with the systems and data needed to manage the performance of an organization are referred to as Corporate Performance Management (CPM) or as Business Intelligence (BI). These systems aim to collect all relevant business data, track key performance indicators, provide data analysis in the form of charts and track data through real-time dashboards.
Management metrics can be established and tracked on electronic balanced scorecards, monitoring actual business performance as compared to goals set. All business-critical information is presented in a quick overview format, enabling managers to have a continual understanding of business performance. Access to information can be made available to all persons that are involved, increasing knowledge and accountability throughout an organization.
The overriding goal is to integrate business intelligence data into a single system for the purpose of providing improved insight to senior management who can use this system to manage business strategy on an ongoing basis.
Business areas that are included in management systems can include the following:
Human Resource Performance
- Employee productivity and performance
- Compensation management
- Recruitment and retention
- Job phasing
Sales Force Performance
- Sales forecast analysis
- Leads to sales conversion
- Sales pipeline monitoring
- Ranking of sales executives
- Order entry
- Quote tracking analysis
- Estimating
Financial Performance
- Real-time departmental expense and revenue
- Data analysis from operational and data warehouse systems
- GAAP compliant reports
- Transactional details, scorecards, trends analysis
- Plan and budget creation, what-if scenarios
- Consolidation of reports
- Cash flow liquidity analysis
- Ratio analysis
- Dynamic break even analysis
Supply Chain Management
- Customer commitment management
- Inventory control
- Supplier performance tracking
- Logistics management
- Manufacturing/procurement tracking
- Multiple-location monitoring
- Shelf life tracking
- Work flow analysis
Marketing
- Customer and prospect relationship and satisfaction management
- Customer preference, buying behaviour and profitability analyses
- Tracking of marketing initiative effectiveness
- Customer segmentation
- Monitoring of lifetime values
- Web traffic and ad campaign analysis
Customer Service
- Service level management
- Tracking of service cost
- Tracking of customer satisfaction
Implementation
Tools to manage business performance can have a tremendously positive effect on a business as managers become empowered to make decisions on real-time data. However, implementation must be planned carefully.
For one thing, a business intelligence system must integrate with all departments of an organization, requiring extensive support, buy-in and organization-wide co-operation while the system is being planned and implemented.
Another critical factor is for an organization to determine what needs to be measured. Management must be clear on what critical data is needed to run the business effectively, how it is to be collected, where it will come from and what metrics they need to achieve on an ongoing basis.
Additional Resources
Corporate Performance Management (CPM): What is it and how is it different from traditional approaches? - This article describes CPM through text and visual diagrams. It also includes technology information and vendor comparisons.
The Top 10 Critical Challenges for Business Intelligence Success - This white paper provides information on challenges and tips on implementing a business intelligence system.
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