The technical underpinning of the framework is provided by Information Builders’ flagship WebFOCUS web reporting platform that has been bolstered by a set of over 25 key performance indicator (KPI) templates, enhanced BI data visualization capabilities, and a formal score-carding methodology.
Information Builders’ core competency in delivering enterprise reporting software means it has a different take on performance management, a hyped-up flavor of BI which has up to now been largely focused on financial applications.
Scorecards have traditionally been targeted at C-level executives, Michael Corcoran, chief communications officer for New York-based Information Builders, told ComputerWire in an interview.
Our vision of performance management focuses on broader operational levels in the organization, he said. We’ve essentially broken down the constituent components of a high-level scorecard and put relevant performance information it into the hands of operational staff.
Corcoran believes that driving performance management information down to the company’s operational coalface drives a significant behavioral change.
The underlying premise of the framework is to shift performance management beyond a small number of people (departmental or upper management) analyzing data to everyone spotting problems that impact performance as they surface during the course of daily business operations.
Relatively few people in the company view a scorecard. We’re offering people the ability to track key performance metrics on a daily basis before they end up on a CEO’s scorecard, Corcoran said.
Operational staff, right down to the shop floor level, will have the ability to drill down on performance data and react more quickly, he said. Even mechanics with greasy fingernails can see how they’re doing performance-wise.
Unlike other vendors, Information Builders does not purport to deliver a full corporate performance management. It is leaving complex financial modeling and metrics calculations to partners. Instead, the company is focusing on providing an enabling infrastructure for operationalizing performance management by linking enterprise reporting to metrics applications such as scorecards.
While Corcoran acknowledged that financial metrics were a key part of any performance management he said the framework was not intended to be positioned in the same market as the likes of Cognos Inc or Hyperion Solutions Corp.
We have no plans to buy budgeting or planning applications like Cognos did when it bought Adaytum, he said. Rather, Corcoran said the company would partners closely with specialists that have the necessary modeling know-how. One such relationship is with Acumen Financial Solutions Inc, a provider of predictive analytics.
Information Builders told ComputerWire a year ago that it planning such a framework, which is really the productization of its past experiences of implementing several score-carding applications in Europe.
We’ve built many custom scorecards in the scorecard. Recently our Spanish division was engaged in implementing four formalized balanced scorecards applications for clients.
Corcoran said that the framework has been certified against BSCol (Balanced Scorecard Collaborative), a standards organization that was involved in its development.
Despite its early release, Information Builders claims eight live implementations of its framework to data; all currently in North America. While declining to name the companies, Corcoran said implementations were being done across the banking, pharmaceutical, and telecommunications sectors.
It’s more or less a fifty-fifty split between existing WebFOCUS and new customers, Corcoran said.
Pricing for the framework starts at $50k as a 20-day implementation service. Included in the package is 5 days of strategic business consulting from PM² a boutique performance management firm.
PM² front-ends the process of defining metrics and strategy… we provide the underlying technical architecture, Corcoran said.
Information Builders is not the first BI vendor attempting to push performance management information beyond its traditional executive niche. Earlier this month Pilot Software Inc recently announced PilotWorks, an operational performance management that aims to align strategic planning to operational execution.
