Dashboards & Scorecards

Abstract:

Does your organization's management have a window into key performance metrics
or a method to benchmark performance in relation to other institutions? Stacks of
reports are not the answer. Dashboards provide up-to-the-minute views of
institutional performance, while Scorecards compares those metrics with peers,
competitors, or any chosen institution. Dashboards and scorecards can help
organizations respond more efficiently and effectively to market changes.
Dashboards and scorecards provide business users with all the information they need
to make effective decisions and achieve strategic objectives without being
overwhelmed. These systems deliver data on demand as users need it--from visual
displays that let users monitor KPIs at a glance to dimensional and operational data
for conducting analysis and taking action.
Moreover, dashboards and scorecards are the key tools in a business performance
management discipline that enables executives to communicate business strategies
in a customized way to each employee and monitor the execution of those objectives
to fine-tune the organization and keep it on track
Dashboards & Scorecards

What are Dashboards & Scorecards

Dashboards

Dashboards are tools used to communicate complex information quickly. They translate
information from your various corporate systems and data into visually rich presentations
using gauges, maps, charts, and other graphical elements to show multiple results together.
Dashboards give an easy-to-understand view of the numbers that matter most, so we can
make decisions to keep our businesses running smoothly and at peak performance.

A dashboard helps to:

See changes—Gain a dynamic view of business conditions with timely, refreshed data.
Intuitive—Provide an at-a-glance understanding of information for faster action.
Understand what’s behind the picture—Drill through graphs for more detail. Align
decision-makers—Unite data from different departments for the complete picture.

Definition:

1) 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)

2) 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.)

Scorecard

A Scorecard is a performance assessment report for a given person, process, team, business
unit OR entity with respect to Strategic Business Plan. Scorecard should place greater effort
and space in reporting, highlighting and root-cause analyzing on things, which are doing either
too well OR too bad.

Scorecards distil information into a small number of metrics and targets. Scorecards help to:

Deliver at-a-glance information—Stop sifting through a stack of reports to find what’s

right…or wrong. Scorecards show you immediately how the company performs against
targets you set.

Communicate strategy and targets—Metrics show everyone what’s important, what’s

expected, and how you’re doing.

Increase accountability—Let people see the strategy, understand their part in making
the strategy succeed, and give them metrics to measure their success.
 Connect departments—Scorecard metrics, like your strategy, are interdependent. See
how your red metric affects others.

Definition:

1) Management practice that attempts to complement drivers of past performance

(financial measures) with the drivers of future performance, such as customer
satisfaction, development of human and intellectual capital, and learning.

2) A performance metric used in strategic management to identify and improve various

internal functions and their resulting external outcomes. The balanced scorecard attempts to
measure and provide feedback to organizations in order to assist in implementing strategies
and objectives.

Example of Scorecard vs. Dashboard

Consider a manager responsible for outbound renewal collection calls at a large enterprise.

The dashboard can have the following measures:

• Number of outbound call in progress vs. number FTEs

• Number of outbound call, which have gone over 5 minutes.
• Number of Outbound calls, which have not got a response in last one hour.
• Number of outbound calls in last one hour, which are resulting in agreement from the
customer to pay.
• Number of outbound call where customer has refused to pay.

The Monthly scorecard can have the following measures:

• Mean outbound call duration and weekly trend.

• Standards deviation outbound call duration and weekly trend
• Percentage of calls resulting in agreement from the user to pay.
• %age utilization of calling staff.
• Comparison of the above figures vis-a-vis average of last three months.
• Product wise split of the call duration and call success rates.

Sample Dashboards & Scorecards

Dashboard 1: The following dashboard sample displays 20 charts and 2 tables on one printed
page. When used with internal data, charts such as these typically contain the most-recent 13
months of performance. They often include budgets for comparable periods or performance for
the prior year.

Dashboard 2: The following dashboard compares key measures of one company's financial
performance with that of publicly traded competitors.
Dashboard 3: The following dashboard sample uses seven rows of data to present similar
information about seven different companies. Each column of charts in this figure uses the
same Y-axis values. This dashboard enables readers to visually compare each company's
performance for each of the four measures charted.
Dashboard 4: This dashboard sample compares 13 months of sales performance for 110
different products. Managers can use this report to find the poorly performing products.
Typical reports containing this data would use many pages and take much longer to read and
understand.

Scorecard 1: The diagram is an example from an institution of higher learning, and it shows
how certain metrics impact graduation rates, and--in turn--how graduation rates impact other
metrics. An executive looking at such a diagram can draw a conclusion that "if graduation
rates continue to slide, our goal of placing more of our ex-students in higher paying jobs will
be impacted negatively."
Dashboards vs Scorecards

The primary difference between the two is that dashboards monitor the performance of
operational processes whereas scorecards chart the progress of tactical and strategic goals

Dashboards and Scorecards are both measurement systems built on integrated data and help
an organization view the business performance. This is where lot of people goes wrong, the
question is if both gives the business performance insight then what is difference between
them?, and hence the terms scorecard and dashboard are loosely used.

Scorecard is a Business Performance Measurement (BPM) used mostly at senior management

level to view the business performance through indicators. This helps the organization do a
pulse check to see how the business is performing towards achieving the strategic goals in
different units of business which are operating as per the strategy map.
Dashboard is a Business Activity Process Monitoring (BAM) or Business Process Measurement
(BPM) used most by the operational managers to monitor the day-to-day operations through
visualization.

What do they have in common? In an ideal environment both Scorecard and Dashboard should
be developed on an integrated data infrastructure, preferably a data warehouse. This will
enable the organization to measure the performance of their business via scorecard, drill down
to the data warehouse to see what the possible causes of problems were and then look at the
dashboard to see the current operational status of the problem area. Also any remedy taken
at the operational level could be monitored starting at the dashboard and back to scorecard to
see the result of the action. This is a perfect example of a BI application where data is
converted to information, information to knowledge and the knowledge into action.

Key Performance Indicators are measurements of business performance. Scorecard uses KPIs
almost entirely to measure success in each areas of the business as defined in the strategy
map. Dashboard uses KPIs to highlight milestones in operations.

What visual display technique is commonly used? Scorecards commonly use symbols and
icons, Dashboards use mostly graphs, grids, gauges and a variety of visualization techniques
to highlight the operational data.
Dashboards work better for data in fine time-slices (hours or minutes), while scorecards tend
to be better-oriented to data that is more appropriately understood over a longer time context
(weeks or months). Consider the cycle time of the activity driving the data. For example, the
manager of an outbound tele-sales campaign for credit card protection services, in which the
sale cycle is measured in minutes, could benefit from a dashboard (for example, to see how
changes in a call script impact conversions). On the other hand the VP of sales for a large
sales channel is more interested about activity by week or by month, which fits better into a
scorecard model.

Characteristics of Dashboards/Scorecards:

Dashboards/scorecards can be classified under three different characteristics.

1. Application/ functionality
 Monitoring(Convey information at a Glance)
 Analysis (Analyze exception conditions)
 Management (Improve coordination and collaboration)
2. Layers
 Graphical (abstracted data to monitor key performance metrics)
 Detailed (operational data that identifies what actions to take to
resolve a problem)
 Summarized (dimensional data to analyze the root cause of problems)
3. Types
 Operational
 Tactical
 Strategic

Types of dashboards
Operational Dashboards: Focus on monitoring
Operational dashboards enable front-line workers and supervisors to track core operational
processes. Monitoring is their key capability. These dashboards provide operational managers
and staff immediate visibility into KPI performance, allowing them to make quick decisions or
take corrective action as soon as a problem or opportunity arises. Typically, operational
dashboards also generate alerts that notify users of exception conditions in the processes
being monitored.

Tactical Dashboards: Emphasis on analysis

Tactical dashboards help managers and analysts track and analyze departmental activities,
processes and projects. Analysis is their key strength. They display at-a-glance results in a BI
portal or professionally authored report format that contains charts and tables that users need
to monitor the projects or processes for which they are accountable. Users can drill down or
through the data using multidimensional (OLAP) analysis and advanced reporting to pinpoint
the causes of trends or issues.

Scorecards: Managing Strategy

Scorecards let executives and senior staff chart their progress against strategic objectives. A
Scorecard is a strategy management application that helps organizations measure and align
the strategic and tactical aspects of their businesses, processes and individuals via goals and
targets. Because of their role in executive decision-making, Scorecards demand a more
structured approach and framework than operational and tactical dashboards and as such,
often make use a methodology such as The Balanced Scorecard, TQM, or Six Sigma.
 COGNOS NOW

Delivered as a hardware appliance or through the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, Cognos

Now! Operational dashboards provide continuous monitoring for business operations. Cognos
Now! is built on a Web Services-based services oriented architecture (SOA) that integrates
with IBM Cognos 8 Business Intelligence. It is immediately interoperable with your existing
portal applications or can be run as a standalone deployment.
Cognos Now! provides a central location for viewing and responding to the information
critical to your business. Key to this tool is dashboards. Within each dashboard are one or
more objects that display metrics about your business. You can view the objects together to
get the big picture of what is happening, or drill down into any object to reveal more detailed
information. Dashboards can list the alert notifications that you have received about
exceptional business events, and they can list tasks in which you are participating as they are
associated with some exceptional event.
The Cognos Now! Dashboard is an easy-to-use interface to the information provided by
Cognos Now!. The server receives data about the activities in your business and looks for
exceptional events, as defined by your application developers and rule managers. The server
also produces aggregated information that is always current to the latest event and available
for presentation on a dashboard in the Now! Dashboard.

Cognos Now! Dashboard Objects:

Dashboard objects present business metrics graphically as charts or indicators or as numbers
in a table as follows:
 Charts, which are visual presentations of a series of related data values, are useful for
quickly seeing comparisons, patterns, and trends in data.
 Indicators, which are visual presentations of a number's position on a scale of
numbers, are useful for identifying progress towards a target and for quantity levels
within a range.
 Tables, which are columnar arrangements of the current contents of a business view,
show all the numbers related to an event, or of the latest aggregation.
The various chart types are:

 Pie Charts

 Combination Charts
 Combination charts are either area charts, line charts, bar charts, dot charts, or any
combination.
Combination charts may plot data on a single axis, or on dual axes.

 Distribution Charts
Distribution charts are based on plot point
distributions on a grid. The grid squares
are then colored based on the density of
points that fall within them.

 Pivot Combination Charts

presentation as a three dimensional figure

with a series of data points or columns
displayed as values along all three axes.
Pivot combination charts can be area
charts, line charts or bar charts.

Pivot combination charts map their

 Geography Map Charts

Indicators

The Cognos Now! Dashboard provides the following indicators:

 Speedometers present a radial scale.
 Thermometers present a horizontal linear scale.
 Traffic Lights present a vertical three-state scale.

Apart from charts, indicators and tables, the following objects are available in Cognos Now!

• External portlets: These are objects external to Cognos Now!. In the dashboard, you
can provide a link to these objects so that they can be displayed in your dashboards.

• Thresholds: Thresholds are visual elements on charts and indicators that allow you to
quickly see where the presented value is in relation to some target or range of values.
For example, this bar chart shows dynamic threshold lines and ranges for each bar,
and shows a target line and a target range, each applying to the entire chart.
 • Reports: Reports allow you to view information as series of related data values. They
help you to quickly see comparisons, patterns, and trends in data. Reports, like charts,
retrieve the metrics from an underlying business view or cube, where the report data
is in one or more columns in the view, and each row is an element of the report series
• Process diagrams: They graphically show the steps or actions that accomplish a
task. You create process diagrams for Cognos Now! in the Process Diagram Manager
• Business rules: They monitor data streams looking for exceptional business
conditions and produce alert messages that describe the conditions when they exist.
Further, rules can monitor a found condition and identify when it no longer exists.
• Alert messages: Alert messages are notifications of exceptional events in your
business activities. They can be a simple message indicating that an event has
occurred, or they can be detailed with contextual information that describes why the
event happened or provide options for responding to the exception
• Watchpoints: Watchpoints are business rules associated with dashboard objects that
send an alert message, color a cell in a data grid, or both, when a value in the object
is at or near a target vale

COGNOS Metric Studio/ Metric Manager

Metric Studio is a Web application for managing organizational performance by monitoring and
analyzing metrics, projects, and other performance measures at all levels of the organization.
It lets you create an effective performance management system that links decisions, tactics,
and accountability to goals and strategy.
It increases visibility into the company’s key value drivers and the way they interact. Decision
makers can access and manipulate their scorecards and supporting information instantly,
without the need of IT intervention. The users are self-sufficient, and can readily see how the
business is progressing against its strategy. Users can set priorities for their own actions and
can understand how their decisions affect the company’s performance.

Diagrams allow you to monitor status using a predefined visual representation such as a
process diagram or strategy map. Various types of diagrams available in Metric studio include:
Impact Diagrams
Impact diagrams show cause-and-effect relationships between metrics. You can create an
impact diagram only for a metric and only one per metric. Metric Studio provides a default
impact diagram for each metric.
Custom Diagrams
Custom diagrams include the following types:
• Strategy maps
Show the metrics that are important to various aspects of your organization, such as
Financial, Customer, Internal, and Learning and Growth. A strategy map is usually based on a
scorecard.
• Geographical maps
Show different focuses of your organization on fixed regions, such as inventory or cost metrics
in North America or Europe. A geographical map is usually based on a metric type.
• Process diagrams
Show metrics in the context of a process flow. A process diagram is usually based on a
scorecard.
Inherited Diagrams
Inherited diagrams can appear in multiple contexts, such as different scorecards within a
hierarchy. The objects on inherited diagrams are not specific metrics. The objects are classes
of objects, such as metric types and scorecards.
For example, you have a scorecard named Global with two scorecards that belong to it named
Sales - Asia and Sales - Europe. You create a scorecard inherited diagram for the Global
scorecard that includes the metric types Revenue - Global and Sales - Global, designate it as
inherited, and link it to the Sales - Asia and Sales - Europe scorecards. For the Sales - Asia
scorecard, this diagram shows the metrics that belong to Sales - Asia, such as Quantity - Asia.
For the Sales - Europe scorecard, this diagram shows the metrics that belong to Sales -
Europe, such as Quantity - Europe.

You can add reports to metrics and scorecards to provide additional information and analysis
to users. You can associate a report with the following objects:
• scorecards
• metric types
• metrics
• projects
• actions
You can link several reports to each Metric Studio object. You can link the same document to
several scorecards or metrics.

Summary

A Dashboard shares on what is happening at this point of time. To take an example, if you are
driving your car, the combination of speedometer, RPM meter, Fuel Gauge and Temperature
Gauge will be the Dashboard. A scorecard being part of a broader corporate methodology OR
management discipline and is a performance assessment report for a given person, process,
team, business unit OR entity with respect to Strategic Business Plan. Typically scorecard is
produced for a period of time. When you take your car for service and complete diagnostic
check is run on the car to tell you the distance traveled, the oil depletion, engine carbon
deposit generation etc. since last check will be the scorecard.
A scorecard can have 'at the moment' measures and Dashboard can have 'Over the period'
measures to achieve their objectives. Both Dashboards and scorecards have their own merit.
Both of them have to be linked to the Strategic Business Plan. Scorecard should place greater
effort and space in reporting, highlighting and root-cause analyzing on things, which are doing
either too well OR too bad. The primary difference between the two is that dashboards
monitor the performance of operational processes whereas scorecards chart the progress of
tactical and strategic goals.