Measure business performance with Balanced Scorecard system
How well is your business performing? To answer this question you should not only see your banking account with net revenue. There are numerous factors influencing performance of any business. They are called key performance indicators (KPI). As such, you cannot evaluate your business without measuring KPIs. It does not matter what business you run, since every business has its own KPI which influence performance of the company.
Sometimes it becomes very difficult to understand what hampers the company and what takes it down. Even a minor detail or imperfectness in work can have very serious consequences for the entire company. If one department is not doing OK, you may lose money.
With the development of IT and software technologies managers use special systems to evaluate KPIs of their particular business type. As a businessman, you are aware of factors influencing success. But software developers have done a great job by accumulating all KPIs that might have even the slightest effect on business performance.
Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is known as a very reliable tool to measure KPIs in many business spheres. This system needs a user to enter relevant information and values for BSC to produce results. Balanced Scorecard system will let the management know what the company’s strengths and weaknesses are. Net profit is sometimes a very non-representative value. You may be getting profits, but because of certain problems you are getting less of it. Balanced Scorecard will offer you suggestions as to the areas of your business to be improved.
As said above, every business has own KPIs. It depends on specific character of business activity. Thus, for example, in call centers KPIs are customer satisfaction, cost per call, wait time. HR departments normally focus on cost per employee, turnover rate etc.
Of course, as expert in your business you need to know your KPIs. But Balanced Scorecard system will also offer you the most common and representatives key performance indicators. If you do not want to use some indicators, it is possible to omit them. As a result, Balanced Scorecard will provide you with graphs and figures that will suggest what aspects and areas of your business need to be urgently improved.
Balanced Scorecard will identify root of the problem. Thus you will deal with real causes of your business troubles but not with their consequences. There are no perfect businesses. Some aspects should be developed and improved all the time. If you know your KPIs and Balanced Scorecard says that, for example, you customer support service has some problems, this is where you need to look for roots of overall problems in the company performance.
Balanced Scorecard offers own business metrics which assist managers in evaluation process. There is a universal rule in business – never stop. In order to develop you need to make sure that your company has chosen the right strategy, otherwise, when expand it will face enormous and large scale troubles.
What are your reasons to trust Balanced Scorecard software? Well, first of all, its developers were gathering information about particular business for a long time. Thus, you may feel sure that all major KPIs are represented in the program. Of course, you may use traditional evaluation method: analysis, questionnaires, polls, customers’ ratings etc. But why spend so much time, if Balanced Scorecard will do everything faster. Besides, the results are represented in numbers, percents, graphs etc. These presentation forms are acceptable for managers. In other words, Balanced Scorecard translates your business performance into strategic goals, as you will clearly see on the graph where you need to work harder.
It is a proved fact, that evaluation of business performance with Balanced Scorecard system contributes to personnel discipline and motivation. Sometimes, employees and even heads of department do not know they are doing something wrong. They simply cannot see it on the background of the company’s overall success. Balanced Scorecard motivates personnel to become better, as employees get informed on their drawbacks in work. It is easier to become better if you know what needs to be improved. With Balanced Scorecard you can introduce updated compensation system under which employees receive bonuses for improved indicators. This is the best possible motivation so far.
In most cases big companies need different tools to evaluate overall performance. For instance, Company X may have supply department which needs logistic solutions, customer support service that need to solve customer’s problems, sales department, HR department and so on. As said above, different business areas have different KPIs. But all your departments should woks as one single whole. Thus, if sales department has imperfections, supply department cannot work 100% of its capacity. If HR department spend money inefficiently and cannot find new employees on time, you will suffer losses which will affect the entire company.
Under such conditions, every department or business type should use Balanced Scorecard in its own way in terms of KPIs. Sales department must calculate number of new customers, while contact center is taking care of first resolution rate (number of calls which solve customer’s problem from the first time).
Balanced Scorecard will make you and your employees feel confident as you will be always informed on strengths and weakness of your company. At the same time, Balanced Scorecard will contribute to positive organization climate and help you establish a fair and comprehensive compensation system.
Establish certain evaluation periods (for instance once or twice a month) and call overall meeting of the company with representatives of different department. Using Balanced Scorecard you will be able to summarize company performance and make smart decisions as to future development strategy. Of course, you know what to tell a head of logistic department if he always has several unused vehicles in his fleet. And you do know if customers are complaining that call center operators are sometimes incompetent to solve their problems.
Balanced Scorecard is your reliable advisor in the changeable world of business. This is a MUST have tool for top managers, head of departments and companies, development managers, quality control specialists etc.
