Managing Business Intelligence --
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and Business Scorecards. What is your
target?
--by Sheryl Hall, IPMA Professional Development Co-Chair
Performance measurement has become an integral part of Washington State
efforts to enhance overall efficiency and effectiveness of government. The
Balanced Scorecard http://www.balancedscorecard.org/basics/bsc1.html was
introduced as a method to identify business goals, align goals with resources,
track progress and report results and achievements.
This year, Governor Gregoire introduced Government Management Accountability
and Performance (GMAP). Along with performance reviews, this is a program
intended to provide a clear and concise view of how government programs are
working and whether constituents are receiving value for their tax dollars
http://www.governor.wa.gov/gmap/default.htm
With increased requirements for Business Intelligence and GMAP reporting, the
"manual" method of gathering information is just not a good long-term solution.
Hence, organizations including state government agencies continue to seek
efficient and effective methods to consolidate data and turn it into useful
information.
Software technology solutions enable us to pull data from diverse, structured
data sources including live operational systems, data warehouses/data stores,
external data-feeds, and flat files (spreadsheets/other). Making this happen is
not without challenges, however. It is complex to organize data, analyze it, and
to develop meaningful performance metrics that match the business goals and
objectives.
The IPMA Professional Development committee dedicated a seminar to this
topic. The purpose of the seminar was to see examples of what agencies are
currently doing and to consider new options. We saw examples from the
Transportation Improvement Board (TIB), Employment Security Department (ESD),
the Office of Financial Management (OFM), and the Legislative Evaluation and
Accountability Program (LEAP). These samples ranged from manual spreadsheet
displays of agency data to live data feeds displaying organization project
status and key measurements. Microsoft and Netdesk were also invited to
demonstrate the benefits of integrating the Microsoft SharePoint Server and
Microsoft Office to build, manage, and use dashboards (a user interface), and
see a glimpse of the new Scorecard Manager product.
The intent of the seminar was to share lessons learned and insights from the
business objectives perspective. Then, to demonstrate how some software tools
can assist and determine what skills are needed to master the job.
Some outcomes which start with business planning, in the early stage:
- Align Actions with Strategy –
- Know what key performance indicators (KPIs)
you are tracking and reporting against. Take the time to identify quantifiable
goals that can be validated.
- Establish clear starting baselines of what you
want to track and/or measure.
- Keep it simple. Do not try to track too many KPIs or measurements. Too many measurements can backfire and cause an
organization to lose sight of what is primary or vital. It can also cause you to
lose quality control and give the appearance of being ‘just another requirement
from management.”
- KPIs should align with the business strategy and daily
operations such as “reduce application development errors by 5 percent.” Or,
“increase customer satisfaction to a score of 4.8 (out of 5) by June 2006.”
- Include, share, and inform employees. Is the measure understood across the
organization? Employees need to know what they are striving to reach, and how
their performance and activities contribute and align.
- Use measurements and/or
benchmarks existing in the industry if possible. This gives you meaningful
comparisons to strive for and/or to exceed.
- Besides aligning daily operations,
projects should also be aligned with the KPIs and objectives.
- Continue to
monitor and analyze the data to ensure you are collecting and tracking what you
intended to track. Adjust where and when needed.
- Resources (Data and People)-
- Organizations have an abundance of data and
data sources to draw from. It is critical that you start your design using a
framework which will help you transform the data into the identified core
business intelligence, KPIs, and Scorecards.
- Dedicate ample time, training,
and testing. The data must be timely and accurate or you will quickly lose
interest and credibility.
- Ensure enterprise buy-in is present to support the
ongoing efforts to collect and track the data.
- Eventually, integrate the data
with graphics and visuals, and add alerts, reporting mechanisms, query
possibilities, and analytical models.
In terms of the software tools available and skills needed, we were only able
to scratch the surface during the seminar. Todd Shelton, Netdesk President, said
the seminar format worked well--moving from current examples to Microsoft's
lessons learned, to how to do the project. The Microsoft and Netdesk
presentations were really about the Scorecard server and there was some
disconnect in the flow of the seminar from the generalities of the first part to
the product-specific second and third parts.
Overall, the topic was timely and well received. It's clear that GMAP is
driving a lot of interest and desire to learn more about "how to get it done.”
Areas for seminar improvement include:
- Adding an architecture slide that
shows the components. This should be referenced at appropriate places in the
presentation, and would provide a conceptual framework for the different parts
of the program.
- Being clearer about what will be covered. The Scorecard Server
demo was well received, but it needed more elaboration about how to do the
integration, mining, and delivery components for best comprehension.
This seminar was an introduction to see what agencies are currently doing and
to explore future possibilities. The more we move in the direction of statewide
initiatives and cross-agency collaboration, the more important it becomes to get
data clearly defined and organized.
A library of terms and definitions has also been included to clarify terms
used during the seminar.
Terms and Definitions (Resources primarily from Internet.com Webopedia)
Balanced Scorecard
- The balanced scorecard is a management system (not only a
measurement system) that enables organizations to clarify their vision and
strategy and translate them into action. It provides feedback around both the
internal business processes and external outcomes in order to continuously
improve strategic performance and results. When fully deployed, the balanced
scorecard transforms strategic planning from an academic exercise into the nerve
center of an enterprise. (Definition from: Drs. Robert Kaplan (Harvard Business
School) and David Norton).
Business Intelligence
- Most companies/organizations
collect a large amount of data from their business operations. Generally these
systems will illustrate business intelligence in the areas of customer
profiling, client registers, employee data, customer support, market research,
market segmentation, product profitability, statistical analysis, and inventory
and distribution analysis to name a few. Typically, this information is stored
in the form software programs such as Excel, Access and different database
applications for various departments throughout their organization. Using
multiple software programs makes it difficult to retrieve information in a
timely manner and to perform analysis of the data. The term Business
Intelligence (BI) represents the tools and systems that play a key role in the
strategic planning process of the corporation. These systems allow a company to
gather, store, access and analyze corporate data to aid in decision-making.
Digital Dashboard
- In information technology, a dashboard is a user interface that, somewhat
resembling an automobile's dashboard, organizes and presents information in a
way that is easy to read. However, a computer dashboard is more likely to be
interactive than an automobile dashboard (unless it is also computer-based). To
some extent, most graphical user interfaces (GUIs) resemble a dashboard.
However, some product developers consciously employ this metaphor (and sometimes
the term) so that the user instantly recognizes the similarity. (Definition from
online Websters Dictionary).
- Some products that aim to integrate information from multiple components
into a unified display refer to themselves as dashboards. For example, a product
might obtain information from the local operating system in a computer, from one
or more applications that may be running, and from one or more remote sites on
the Web and present it as though it all came from the same source. Hewlett
Packard developed the first such product, which began as a tool for customizing
Windows desktops. Called Dashboard, the HP product was subsequently acquired by
Borland and then a company called Starfish. Microsoft's Digital Dashboard tool
incorporates Web-based elements (such as news, stock quotes, and so on) and
corporate elements (such as e-mail, applications, and so on) into Outlook.
Dashboards may be customized in a multitude of ways and named accordingly,
generally, for example as a general corporate or enterprise dashboard, or more
specifically, as a CIO or CEO dashboard. (Definition from online Webster's
Dictionary).
Key Performance Indicators
- A significant measure used on its own, or in
combination with other key performance indicators, to monitor how well a
business is achieving its quantifiable objectives. Indicators are used to
provide measurements of the defined priority and key success factors of a
project or system. Or, a regular measurement based on data which indicates the
performance of a process or a business line. Performance indicators may allow
for a trend analysis over time and could incorporate escalation procedures once
a particular threshold or trigger level has been exceeded.
Scorecards
- An application or custom user interface that helps manage an
organization’s performance by optimizing and aligning organizational units,
business processes and individuals. It should also provide internal and industry
benchmarks, as well as goals and targets that help individuals understand their
contributions to the organization. The use of scorecards spans the operational,
tactical and strategic aspects of the business and its decisions.
Windows SharePoint Services Overview -
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/techinfo/sharepoint/overview.mspx
- Windows SharePoint Services allows teams to create Web sites for information
sharing and document collaboration, benefits that help increase individual and
team productivity. Windows SharePoint Services is a component of the Windows
Server 2003 information worker infrastructure and provides team services and
sites to Microsoft Office System and other desktop programs. It also serves as a
platform for application development. Including such IT resources as portals,
team workspaces, e-mail, presence awareness, and Web-based conferencing, Windows
SharePoint Services enables users to locate distributed information quickly and
efficiently, as well as connect to and work with others more productively.
Windows Scorecard Manager (Beta 1) – Microsoft’s new server based business
performance management scorecard application
http://msdn.microsoft.com/isv/technology/bss/default.aspx
Resources and References: For more information about this Professional
Development seminar, refer to the IPMA Website:
http://www.ipma-wa.com/prodev/2005/business_intelligence_20051019.htm
Return to Top
Dennis Jones Retires
Dennis Jones, a long-time leader in Washington's IT
community and the Information Processing Management Association, is retiring this
month after a very distinguished career. Sadie Rodriguez-Hawkins, a colleague at the Office of Financial
Management, wrote the following in an e-mail announcement of Dennis' retirement:
The time has come to announce the retirement of an individual who has done
much to promote excellence, professionalism and integrity in his career as a
public servant.
As I pondered Dennis Jones' retirement, the words of Harry S. Truman rang
true, "I studied the lives of great men and famous women, and I found that the
men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand,
with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work." These words
speak to the legacy Dennis Jones is leaving behind after many years of dedicated
service to the State of Washington.
Information about his retirement celebration is available at
http://www.ipma-wa.com/news/2005/dennis_jones_retirement.pdf. Please join
us as we wish Dennis a fond farewell.
Return to Top
News from the Past
5 Years Ago -- November 2000 IPMA Newsletter
10 Years Ago -- November 1995 IPMA Newsletter
15 Years Ago -- November 1990 IPMA Newsletter (not available at this time)
20 Years Ago -- November 1985 Association of Data Processing Managers Newsletter (not available at this time)
25 Years Ago -- November 1980 Association of Data Processing Managers Newsletter
(not available at this time)
30 Years Ago -- November 1975 Association of Data Processing Managers Newsletter (not available at this time)
Return to Top
Summary of October 13, 2005 IPMA Board Meeting
Members Present: Jim Albert, Mary Ellen Bradley, Thomas Bynum, Phil
Grigg, Sheryl Hall, Dennis Laine, Andy Marcelia, Christy Ridout, Darrel Riffe
and Shelagh Taylor. Phil Coates, CFO, Jim Andersen, Forum Events Manager and
Virginia J. McCarty of McCarty & Associates were also present.
Thomas Bynum, IPMA Chair, opened the October 2005 meeting of the IPMA Board
of Directors at 7:30 a.m.
Approval of Minutes: The minutes from the August 2005 Board meeting
were approved.
Secretary/Treasurer’s Report: The Board approved the August/September
2005 financial status and activities reports.
Committee Reports:
Forum: Jim Andersen presented a summary of the results from the
Corporate Sponsor Appreciation Lunch. The luncheon attendees included twenty
four of twenty seven corporate sponsors, nine of twelve IPMA board members and
six other vendor representatives.
Corporate Sponsor Appreciation Lunch
- Move the luncheon to February-March time frame so local sales
representatives can use the meeting to convince their management about the
benefits of being a sponsor.
- Be sure to include district or regional managers in addition to local
sales representatives.
- Encourage all Board members to attend and to recognize the value of the
sponsors support and contributions.
Forum
- Corporate booths
- Use color of drapes to distinguish corporate sponsor booths from
vendor booths, red for one, blue for the other, for example.
- Keep corporate sponsors in a cluster near front of Pavilion.
- Allow sponsors to not use their booths or if they choose to assign
them to their strategic partners.
- Need better sales pitch to convince sponsors to use their booth.
- IPMA booth
- Put the IPMA booth at the back of the room since it was by far the
most popular booth at the event and it generates a lot of traffic.
- Breakout sessions
- Definitely keep the 20 Corporate Sponsor breakout sessions. They
like them very much. They want to choose what they’ll talk about in
their sessions. (There may be issues with this if their topics conflict
with IPMA Planning Committee topics.)
- Consider doing a Forum breakfast for a conversational "birds of a
feather" discussion.
- Have some discussion rooms for "birds of a feather" / community of
interest groups. The sponsors would be there just to facilitate
conversation, not to do a presentation.
- Keep focus of breakout sessions on state IT issues.
- Use four quarter rooms in the Worthington Center and avoid use of
the Cheney Room.
- Promote the Forum
- Find out what sponsors do to promote their trade shows and see if
there’s something we can emulate.
- There seemed to be no consensus on whether the IPMA should actively
recruit city and/or county participation or just focus on state
employees.
- Mailing lists
- Issue with sharing attendee e-mail list. Consider having an
"opt-in/opt-out" process where attendees indicate areas of interest for
vendor contacts.
- Ask attendees if they are willing to approve of the distribution of
their e-mail addresses.
- Forum attractions
- Keep people at Forum by offering additional luncheon choices.
- Do something on the showroom floor to bring people in. Serve ice
cream bars, have a raffle, and/or provide some entertainment.
- Miscellaneous
- It’s not broken. The corporate sponsors feel that the IPMA does an
outstanding job presenting the Forum, Executive Seminar and the other
events - especially for our size. They encourage us to keep enhancing.
- No states in the sales regions of our corporate sponsors have
anything close to Forum (we are the best they have seen and they want it
to continue.)
- The number of sales leads a Corporate Sponsor gets depends on how
energetic they are in or around the booth. CISCO claimed to have gained
30 leads at the Forum.
- Replace the red carpet.
- Suggested topics
- Breakout sessions that would help sponsors to understand what
projects are planned for the next two years.
- Sessions on Interoperability (radio/networks)
- Homeland Security (Grants, who is doing what)
- Agency spotlights (Who is doing something cool)
- Executive Lunch
- Put more emphasis on Luncheon as a separate event from the Forum.
- Encourage more program managers to attend the luncheon.
- Forum Planning Committee
- Three to four additional sponsors want to participate on the
planning committee.
Communications: Christy Ridout reported that the current issue of the
IPMA News will contain a recap of this year’s Executive Seminar. An article on
business continuity is coming and will be in the IPMA News either this month or
next.
Shelagh Taylor and Christy plan to explore making some changes to the format
of the newsletter. They will bring a proposal back to the board for review when
the details are worked out.
Professional Development: Sheryl Hall presented the Professional
Development status report.
- The August, Neal Whitten event was a huge success! We met our
registration cut-off of 250 people plus we had a waiting list. On the day of
the event, 247 attended.
- The registration process needs improvement and we are starting to
address this across the board.
- Here are some specific statistics:
- 96% said the course met their expectations; 96% said the
presentation information/materials met their expectations; 99% said
they'd be able to apply some or all of what they learned from Neal in
their current position. 156 surveys were turned in (roughly 64% of
registrants, a good response rate). Of those 156, nearly ALL indicated
that the session met their expectations! There were a few who marked
"Somewhat" and no one marked "NO"...
- There were 14 surveys (about 9%) that had some comment about the
session not being 100% perfect - those comments were: Room was too cold
(3) - no one complained about it being too hot, which is what was
expected.
- The set-up with rounds was not good (4) - one person asked for all
chairs to face the front; one person complained about back-to-speaker;
one person just said, "don't like rounds" and the last person didn't
give details (one person said the room set-up was ok, although noted
"glad Neal walked around the auditorium.")
- Three noted that the location was not convenient, however, two of
those were from Seattle, the other did not provide details.
- One person noted that the time was not good and would have preferred
morning when they were not so tired.
- October PD event is going to be held on Wednesday, Oct. 19th. To date,
87 have registered. The topic is Managing Business Intelligence - What's in
your Dashboard." Presenters include the Transportation Improvement Board,
Employment Security, the Office of Financial Management and LEAP. We are
trying a different room configuration with "U" shaped configuration and
several chairs located behind the table as well. The idea is that others
that want to participate will have the opportunity to sit at the table and
engage more directly.
- 2006: We have six dates planned for PD events in 2006. Two of these
events, we will partner with DOP and PMI. DOP and PMI will be responsible
for coming up with a topic and a speaker/presenter. IPMA will review and
give the final approval for the topic. IPMA will also support by providing
the room, help with handouts, and also provide the food/beverages, etc.
- Outsourcing: Sheryl also reported on the idea of increasing outsourcing
PD tasks to Wildflower. This idea fits in nicely with the Marketing plan
which the board is looking into now. The PD seminars require a lot of
attention to detail and activities throughout the entire year. Hence, it is
time consuming and in light of sustaining the quality and high-level of
presenters and panel members, the PD staff can use help. Thus, we are
proposing to increase outsourcing help. A Statement of Work is going to be
completed and proposed to the board.
Executive Seminar 2005: Phil Grigg and Darrel Riffe reported that this
year’s Executive Seminar was an unqualified success. Phil presented a couple of
charts that substantiated this claim. The charts showed the following:
- Conference Location - on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 the worst and 5 the
best, 43% rated it 5, 48% rated it 4 and 9% rated it 3.
- Lodging - on a scale of 1 to 5, 43% - 5, 45% - 4, 9% - 3 and 2% - 2.
- Meals - on a scale of 1 to 5 , 25% - 5, 38% - 4, 31% - 3, 7% - 2.
- The seminar speakers were rated from highest to lowest:
- Paul Farnsworth - 4.39
- Martin Reynolds - 4.08
- Deborah Bryant - 4.07
- Josetta Bull - 3.98
- Gary Robinson - 3.96
- Greg Weeks - 3.88
- Linda Villegas Bremer - 3.75
- Sadie Rodriguez-Hawkins - 3.73
- Dave Hamrick - 3.70
- Kelly Calhoun - 3.60
- Lee Marriott - 3.58
- Eric Bruno - 3.24
- Victor Szalvay - 2.74
IT Leadership Development Program: Jim Albert reported that 24
students have begun the three day module 1 at the U of W Talaris Center. The
kickoff meeting was held at the Olympia Phoenix Inn. IPMA Chair Thomas Bynum
made opening remarks.
The program is off to a great start. The committee is anxious to hear student
assessments of the program after the completion of the first module.
It appears that the University is fronting the startup costs that the IPMA
had been expecting to fund.
All the Capstone projects will be related to the state Enterprise Initiative.
Other Business:
Business Plan/Marketing Plan: Virginia McCarty of McCarty Associates
presented her review of IPMA’s October 5th board workshop that she had
facilitated. The purpose of the workshop was to develop ideas for an IPMA
business plan and eventually a marketing plan. In the discussion following the
presentation, it was recognized that achieving these goals will require
significant changes in the way initiatives are accomplished and will require the
board to give considerable thought to how that might be done. Thomas recommended
that action items be identified and worked prior to the annual board planning
session which is traditionally held in January or February of each year. It was
agreed that a board workshop be held November 3 to flesh out the action items
and make the appropriate assignments.
IPMA Corporate Sponsor Partnership Agreement: Andy Marcelia and Jim
Andersen presented the final draft of the Corporate Sponsor Partnership
Agreement to the board. The board approved the agreement as presented. Jim
Andersen will distribute it to all current Corporate Sponsors.
Next Meeting:
Board Workshop at Mercato Ristorante November 3rd from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
November board meeting, Shipwreck Café November 10th 7:30 a.m.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 a.m.
Return to Top
IPMA, P.O. Box 1943, Olympia, WA 98507-1943
