Automating balanced scorecards mobilises resources intelligently

Companies need compelling and strategic management systems to stay ahead of the pack. Executives need to be able to draw upon corporate knowledge and make decisions based on hard facts, not assumptions.

Performance management systems, such as the balanced scorecard, enable organisations to implement strategies and communicate the value of intangible assets to all staff members quickly and effectively.

Most businesses today already have performance management philosophies in place. However, simply monitoring financial and operational performance is just not enough in the current competitive environment.

"Initially, performance management systems only needed to report back on financials," says Bruce Jones, sales support manager at SAS Institute, the market leader in providing a new generation of business intelligence software and services that create true enterprise intelligence.

"Today, increasing volumes of data has resulted in a higher executive dependence on the data, thus creating a need for data integrity," says Jones. "Hence, executives have become more reliant on backup and automation to provide the desired integrity of the information.

"Strategies, or the sustainable ways by which companies create value, are changing but the tools for measuring whether individuals within the organisations are focusing on those strategies have not kept pace," he says. "Organisations need a suite of reporting and analytical tools to put the system into action effectively, throughout the enterprise."

Automating an organisation's balanced scorecard adds significantly to the reporting capability of the performance management system by providing predictive forecasting that delivers intelligence via automated analysis of data.

SAS's solution, Strategic Performance Management, captures the corporate strategy, no matter which management philosophy is selected, sources and distributes the measurements, then provides strong analytics.

Automating performance management systems through SAS brings enterprise intelligence to an organisation by enabling companies to identify, then measure both the impact and value of changes in strategy faster, smarter and easier than before.

"The benefits of automation bring sustainability and reliability to the performance management system," says Jones. "Analysis is quick and easy, allowing companies to query, report, forecast and effectively analyse whether the data is inside or outside the set parameters, making regular re-alignment to the set strategy simpler."

Says Jones: "This stops management being reactive and having to 'fire fight'. Automation demystifies data and empowers staff to collaborate information that tracks, measures and challenges strategy on all levels."