Having the ability to monitor the outcome of key business processes is a critical factor in determining organizational performance. However, it can be a challenging, time consuming and a costly activity. Many organizations today feel overwhelmed by the vast number of key performance indicators (or metrics) that need to be gathered, tracked and presented.
It can be a huge undertaking managing the collation of this data, its rapid processing and distribution to those who need it in a timely fashion. However, it does not change the fact that organizations must have greater visibility and agility of business performance and to achieve this they depend on accurate information to support decision making.
We provide a means to monitor information in near real-time
Allowing for the manipulation of metrics to create new metrics
Providing both automatic and manual actual and target entry
Linking metrics directly to operational output as described in the strategic plan
Support for mobile
And flexible dashboard reporting
A particular challenge for many organizations is the duplication of metrics and the associated management of data. StrategyBlocks provides a new, innovative and unique solution to this problem with the use of intelligent ‘cascading metrics’ rolling up complex figures in real time for high-level monitoring.
Having the ability to gather data from a wide range of strategic, financial and operational metrics; and combining this complex data into organization-wide dashboards and scorecards gives the executive team, fast and accurate information.
Current Situation
So how do complex companies with complex data respond to this challenge today, what options and alternatives do they have available?
Extracting data directly from an underlying source database, whether it is an ERP, Finance, HR and/or CRM system. It seems like an obvious solution however, every source database is different, and eventually you will be overrun with supporting multiple standalone pipelines of data. To make matters worse it becomes very difficult to blend data to create new insights, for example, actual sales/expenses with data fed from different sources. As the data has not ‘landed’ prior to reporting it makes the task of blending, cleansing and transformation a significant challenge.
The next approach is a significant improvement over the last. Landing the data in a data warehouse will provide a means to pre-process, blend and enhance data prior to presentation. It also reduces the processing load on already taxed source database applications. However, the data warehouse is often not optimized for the rapid throughput of real-time data required to scorecard metrics. Extending the data warehouse to accommodate for this requirement can also be a long and costly undertaking.
When all else fails a spreadsheet or bespoke database is often sought out as the landing area for business data, as it is flexible and data that needs to be added manually can be easily accommodated, often as the source data simply does not exist. However capturing vital business metrics in a spreadsheet opens the door for logic and keying errors. In addition massive complex spreadsheets can also be a challenge to support as the internal logic is largely proprietary, with only a few people in the organization understanding how the process and technology works.
How it Works
What is needed is a specialised data framework optimized for strategic metrics management.
This database offers a prebuilt schema for the organization and management of key metrics data. Its prebuilt structure is standardized, open and extensible.To have true versatility it must bolt-on to numerous business data sources through its prebuilt extractors. Unlike other reporting databases, Metrics Zone is built on a conformed architecture therefore as more metrics are added, a common underlying structure ensures long-term trust in information. StrategyBlocks Metrics Zone delivers exactly this.
StrategyBlocks Metrics Zone has been built for the purpose of providing near real-time executive dashboards and to be deployable within days not weeks. On-premise or in the cloud. Its advantage is its speed of deployment and the flexibility needed to meet each customer’s specific requirements; all built on a modern, proven architecture with a robust structure.
Our Value
StrategyBlocks Metrics Zone fills a specific gap in the information supply chain that is difficult to address with the traditional enterprise data warehouse. It enables organizations to roll out a strategic scorecard, specifically an executive scorecard presenting the key business metrics needed to support a defined strategic outcome. The prebuilt scorecard and the hub itself are designed in such a way to minimise the need for any heavy customization.
Return on Investment
Our goal is to assist our clients to achieve new levels of strategic agility. By providing all the variables required to assess strategic execution performance and if there is the possibility of failure, learning about it sooner rather than later. Overall this means improved strategic execution, efficiency and greater levels of success.
Return on investment can occur in 2 ways:
Gaining competitive advantage quickly through the use (and confidence) of reliable information and being in a position to act on that information quickly.
Recognizing potential failure early and being in a position to change course if needed.
