- 1. PerformVolume 7 / Issue 2 / 10Information in ActionThe
Future of theScorecardPerformance Management:Past, Presentand
FutureLetters from the Publisher andEmergency Response
.............. 22Building Sustainable PerformanceEditor
.................................... 2 By John Katsoulis and Seema
HajiManagement Frameworks.... 41By Kaye KendrickThe Future of the
Scorecard PSEG Leverages Actuate to ReduceBy Jeff
Perkins........................ 3 Costs and Increase Productivity
25Bridging the Finance-OperationalPublic Service Enterprise Group
Gap ....................................... 44In this issue >
The Smart Statement..............Xenos10Top-Notch
Performance........28By David F. GiannettoPromaco ConsultingActuate
Excellence Awards .... 50How to Spot a Bad Strategy..15By Mark
Graham BrownExpanded Opportunity.........31 Coachs
Corner...................... 52Prudential plcBy Catie
SirieTheRoadto World-ClassCommissioning..................... 19 A
Clearer View ....................... 34Reading
Room...................... 54NHS South of Tyne and WearIBM Rational
ClearQuest
2. From the PublisherAt Actuate, 2010 started off with some
exciting news. TechWebs Intelligent Enterprise Editors ChoiceAwards
were announced, and Actuate was named a 2010 Company to Watch in
the Business Intelligence(BI) category, for creating and leading
the Eclipse BIRT project and supporting the developer community.The
awards look at companies that innovate, even in the tough times
weve seen in the past year. Ourinnovation and ability to
continually evolve are things that Actuate take special pride in,
and were pleasedthat the editors at Intelligent Enterprise would
recognize that too.While were on the subject of innovation and
evolution, weve been doing exactly that recently at Actuate
evolving. In fact, with just the first quarter of 2010 behind us,
were already a different company than wewere in 2009. And the
biggest change has certainly been adding a new member to the
Actuate family:Xenos, the leader in Online Presentment and Document
Storage Reduction. But thats not the only thingweve accomplished so
far this year we also did amazing work launching BIRT Performance
Scorecard 9, BIRT Mobile for theiPhone and Xenos Accessibility.Now
were getting underway with this years Actuate Excellence Awards,
which is an exciting opportunity for us to reward theamazing
innovations of our own clients. You can read more about those on
page 50. And as usual, theres a lot of great informationin this
issue of Perform. I hope you enjoy it and can apply it to your own
lives.Best,Rich GuthRich GuthVice President & General Manager
Open Source Strategy GroupFrom the EditorI recently came across an
inspiring article about a gentleman in Malawi who was intent on
providingThe Future of theelectricity to his country one windmill
at a time. Hes built three so far, put together with anything
hecould get his hands on, and hes become a local hero because just
one of them generates enough powerfor a television, the lights in
his family home and more incredibly his local villagers can use it
to powertheir cell phones.The storys theme played out in my mind
over and over again, reminding me that simple ideas can have
aSCORECARDtremendous impact. Each year Actuate recognizes great
ideas in our own environment. And although weare not focused on the
same goals as that man in Malawi, we also think we have our own
group of heroes our customers, who come up with great ideas every
day.For 2010 we honor these ideas through our Excellence Awards,
with three areas of excellence, outlinedon page 50 of this issue of
Perform. While the first two categories may seem familiar to you
BIRT Implementation Excellenceand Scorecard Excellence the third
honors the newest member of the Actuate family, Xenos. Xenos is the
leader in OnlinePresentment and Document Storage Reduction and were
excited to have them join us. You can read more about Xenos in
TheBy Jeff Perkinshealthy or not. And then theres you, searching
high and lowSmart Statement on page 10, the first of a three-part
series.Vice President and General Manager for a piece of
information that will better inform how you doPerform Magazine //
Information in ActionWI hope you enjoy everything weve put together
in this issue of Perform, from Jeff Perkins The Future of the
Scorecard (page 3) Actuate Performance Management Solutions your
job. But it doesnt exist, at least not definitively. There iswhich
explores how Performance Management has evolved in his 14 years in
the business to Mark Graham Browns How to Spotno single version of
the truth.a Bad Strategy (page 15) and David Giannettos Bridging
the Finance-Operations Gap (page 44). Actually, were pretty excited
eve all worked at that organization.about all of the contributions
to this issue of Perform we hope you are too.You know the one: the
place where you have When I started in the Performance Measurement
andBest Regards, to go searching everywhere for
information,Management business 14 years ago, that organization was
Vol 7. Issue 2 . 2010for every single piece of data. But you look
inmost every organization. And that was why we were doingJohn
Katsoulis10 different places and you get 10 differentanswers. There
is no single system of record for key, vital statistics what we
were doing, because we were looking to improve on the status quo.
We wanted to help people measure to track the vital indicators that
tell you whether your organization isthings like actual versus
budget, actual versus benchmark, etc.John Katsoulis2 Perform
Editor3 3. data more effectively to manage your organization.
Companies tall and small, public or private and for all levels of
thoseare also moving away from the traditional report card
approach,organizations. Its an attitude that we think meshes nicely
with About the AuthorTheres been a vital With a solid background in
systems engineering, productrealizing that when employees feel like
they are being judgedor graded constantly held up to the scrutiny
of their peers this new evolution of Performance Management
culture, but its one that differs from some of our competitors, who
vary and dramatic shift in the management, sales, and sales
management, Jeff Perkinsthey dont always feel secure or happy in
their jobs. No wondermany of them werent on board with the early
performance across the board but dont quite have that same
attitude. Some think Performance Management belongs strictly in
past years; a shift from aoversees the worldwidePerformance
Management Solutions team at Actuate. After spending eight
successful measurement initiatives! the financial domain, to be
practiced exclusively by the folks performance measurement years as
Performancesofts Chief Technology Officer, JeffToday, though, were
seeing organizations calling people from that are financially
oriented; others see it only as being for the a 14-year Performance
Management Software veteran upper-echelon senior management. On
that, we disagree.far-flung regions of their company because theyve
been culture to a Performancenow works closely with Actuates
engineering and product performing well on a particular metric.
Theyre calling them No matter where I stand on the companys totem
pole, after Management culture. management groups to ensure that
all Actuate Integrated Performance Management solutions remain the
mostin to help mentor and coach coworkers who are strugglingon the
same metric, and theyre doing it in a collaborative all, I may be
accountable for a business result or metric. And if I am, its
important for me to be able to drill down into the innovative and
user-friendly on the market.environment with great respect. Its a
more scorecard-oriented underlying operational detail of that
metric, so that I canapproach, where the idea isnt to cast blame
but to look instead understand whats really going on behind the
scenes. Someoneat why certain metrics are performing below target,
somethingabove me isnt going to necessarily need to go into as
muchthat often has very explainable extenuating circumstances.
detail as I am, so theyll drill down to a much less detailed level;
and to allow them to use those statistics and ratios during
Performance Management vs. MeasurementIf you look at the Actuate
BIRT Performance Scorecard today, theyre focused on the big picture
and dont have the timethe course of their jobs, to hopefully do
those jobs better.for example, theres room for commentary and
annotations,or need to go down to the most minute level of detail.
But inWeve come a long way, dude.allowing metric owners to capture
their knowledge, so that theyPerformance measurement still allows
for that today. my role on the front lines, I need that information
to do myIn its infancy days, performance measurement was just that:
a can explain whats going on behind the numbers. Its a different
job well. Its why we dont think a company is making full useBut its
amazing how much something can change in a decadeway of measuring
performance at all levels of an organization approach, and it makes
each employee along the chain a partof a Performance Management
system of its potential andand a half. Back then, performance
measurement was still newand of keeping an eye on what was
happening in the companyof the process, not simply the fall guy if
something goes wrong. possibilities if theyre leaving it as the
exclusive domain ofand finding its footing. To succeed, we saw that
visionariestrenches, so to speak. Which is fine, but many Id say
most In other words, its no longer a shame-and-blame system, but
upper-tier executives.within the organization often someone senior
needed toof the metrics being measured then were financial (since
theinstead one of constant collaboration and improvement.champion
the cause; to push it through, sometimes amidst Thats one
competitive differentiator of Actuate, and it translatesmanagement
systems themselves were all based on financial Actuates
Approachopposition from those who didnt understand it or simply
into what we offer. Our BIRT Performance Scorecard offersmetrics)
so most of the time companies only really had a smalldidnt like the
idea of being measured. And that often meantActuates approach to
Performance Management is this: we different capabilities for
different types of users at differentglimpse at what was happening.
And they couldnt react verythat even the best performance
measurement program, while think its for everyone, plain and
simple. Its for all organizationslevels of an organization. Other
differentiators include:quickly to any changes, either not when
they only lookedstarted with the greatest intentions, often had
some inherentat those metrics every six months or maybe once a
quarter. Aproblems: a top-down approach that left those lower on
thevery frequent measure then may have been monthly; today,
itstotem pole feeling alienated by a new system; or a report
card-likely to be daily or even hourly.style view of measurement
that again left many employeesfeeling nervous and blamed. It was no
wonder that someThats not the only change weve seen either. Instead
of justprograms failed.tracking the data, organizations are now
using it, and theyreusing it on a daily basis, to manage and move
themselvesTheres been a vital and dramatic shift in the past
years,forward. Its no longer just executives taking the drivers
seatthough; a shift from a performance measurement cultureeither;
that top-down approach, which never worked well,to a Performance
Management culture. And the chief aim ofis gone and in most places
weve seen it replaced with ana Performance Management culture is no
longer just aboutorganization-wide approach instead. Metrics
outside of financehaving all of that relevant data in one place
although thatshave been embraced, so there are more subjective
measuresimportant too its also about being able to use that data
inbeing adopted including qualitative measures, as well asa
meaningful way, to build your business. To see clearly thosePerform
Magazine // Information in Actionleading or predictive measures to
balance the financially-areas that need to be worked on and to
benefit as much asskewed outcome measures, which are still
important but onlypossible from those things that, as an
organization, you doshow part of the picture.well and from the
people who own those thriving metricsand are helping them excel.
Its a more collaborative culture,In other words, its an entire
shift in culture, from measurementone thats less quick to blame.
And its a culture that Actuate to management. If youre looking at
data thats been recordedVol 7. Issue 2 . 2010fits into nicely,
because our approach to measurement and daily or hourly as opposed
to that which might be six monthsmanagement has always been one
where everyone works old already youre able to react to it more
quickly, to nimblytogether towards the same goals.navigate through
any problems that might exist and to use that[ Figure 1.1: Briefing
Books display information from multiple scorecards and allow users
to drill down to understandperformance trends via color-coded
interactive display and user commentary. ]45 4. Time to value.
Companies want to know how long it will learning mode, trying to
figure out how to get the features that take before they start
getting value from a system. And thea purpose-built application
already has; and chances are, as Actuate team, over its years in
the business, has realized talented as they may be in their own
area of focus, they will never that the only way to be successful
is to be able to deliverbe able to build something with the same
level of functionality, value quickly. One of our leading sales
propositions is oursince their core strengths arent in Performance
Management. In time to value, measured in a small number of weeks
rather than in months or years.the meantime, strategic resources
like IT personnel, technicalresources and management are distracted
and arent focusing Performance Management: The simplicity of
replicating metrics. Its incredibly simple inon core duties that
are key to the companys bottom line. Time The Top Three Persistent
Pain Pointsis lost as they try to create and later maintain a
Performance the BIRT Scorecard to replicate a metric across
multipleManagement system; theyll never be able to give 100 percent
organizational units. This is accomplished with minimalWhat havent
changed all that much, even as the culture of Performance
Management and Measurement hasto their own business. A
purpose-built product like BIRT effort in BIRT Scorecard because of
the dimensionality progressed significantly, are the pain points
our customers come to us with. Actuate sees them day in and day
out,Scorecard embodies years of Actuate and customer experience of
the product, which helps in being able to find best and they can
stall a Performance Management initiative or stop it from meeting
its potential. These are the top threein Performance Management
automation; something a home- practices and to identify areas that
are under-performingpain points we encounter:grown system cannot
hope to achieve. quite quickly, even on the same metric.The Future
of the ScorecardThese are the key differentiators that Actuate
brings to the1. You dont have the proper tools. There will always
be some companies who try the low-cost approach toIf theres one
thing that you can always count on, its change.table, and that our
customers tell us have been deal breakers in measurement. They know
Performance Management can be important to their organization, but
they figureAnd if Ive seen Performance Management culture change
sotheir decision to choose BIRT Scorecard for their Performancethey
can do a good enough job of it by measuring their company
performance using personal productivitydramatically in the last 14
years, I know Im going to see justManagement initiative. tools like
those in the Microsoft Office suite: Excel, PowerPoint, Access,
etc. Those are all perfectly good tools,as much change or even more
in the next 14. Predicting dont get me wrong, but theyre not
designed for Performance Management. A companys PerformanceOn the
flip side, some organizations that are technically inclinedexactly
where that change is going to happen isnt an exact Management
program can quickly become unmanageable and unmaintainable without
a purpose-builtsometimes decide that they can build their own
Performancescience, but there are a few things that were already
seeing that package, one thats meant for sharing and has
reliability and multi-use capabilities built in. Theres a reason
whyManagement application. Since theyre not in the business ofI
think will be crucial in how Performance Management plays
do-it-yourself initiatives ultimately collapse under their own
weight.Performance Management themselves, theyre always left in out
in the years to come:2. You cant find the right data. Data, data,
data it all comes down to data, and whether you have the right data
or not. With the proliferation of multiple enterprise systems, and
the proclivity of businesses to merge and acquire, we find that any
particular organization and this goes for government as well as the
private sector has multiple source systems and multiple data
formats. And in order to measure and manage properly, companies
need to be able to reliably capture that data and to bring it into
a system that is data-source agnostic. Weve found that the ability
for a system to sit on top of and to be independent of the data
sourcing really future-proofs it from any changes that might happen
due to mergers and acquisitions, or from changes to corporate or
organizational strategy.3. You cant get support. The culture around
a Performance Management initiative can make it or break it. So
take a look at your organization: Is your initiative being used as
the stick or the carrot? Is it engaging users at all levels? If you
push a Performance Management initiative down from the top tell
employees this is what you have to measure it rarely ever succeeds.
Instead, collaborative design is the most effective way of getting
support; you go out and work with the people who are accountable,
who own the metrics, and ask them what they need in order to
measure and manage their part of the business. If they truly have
ownership and can seePerform Magazine // Information in Action how
their metric aligns with what the organization is trying to
accomplish, then its easier to get that buy-in that is so crucial
to success. And the benefits of doing that right are fantastic; it
lends to better decision making all round and makes organizations
more able to react to changing market conditions. Vol 7. Issue 2 .
20106 7 5. It wont be long before Performance Managementoffices and
desks are becoming a thing of the past so pervasively invades all
portions of organizationsthe ability to get performance information
regardless of operations. So it wont be an afterthought anymore:
whenwhere you are, no matter your mobile device, is becoming a
company invests in a large administrative system like
anincreasingly important. ERP system, the metrics portion will be
built right in. Thats Actuates stated objective and goal as we move
forward is to good news, since it means sourcing data wont be
nearly maintain state-of-the-art leadership, driven by the blending
of a the same problem it has been in the past. very strong metrics
calculation engine that does all of the heavy There will be mass
changes to the visualization oflifting work, with a strong and
easy-to-use visual interface. Well performance information. Its an
area where Actuate isbuild on that in the future through increased
mobilization and strong, and it will become more and more important
as collaboration, and through self-serve performance information
society becomes even more computer oriented and getsportals. I cant
give anything away as to what were working on used to strong,
simple and intuitive interfaces. Well seenow, but look for things
to be faster and better in the future, applications we use in our
work life mimic those we use for a system that is able to take on
even larger Performance at home, influenced by things like social
networking andManagement applications. There will be a continued
focus on self-serve banking applications, which need zero training
being able to link from the strategic or summarized level right and
are easy to use. Some of thats already evident in thedown to the
operating level. current BIRT Scorecard, but youll find all
applications But on the other hand, expect us to take things in a
few adopting that kind of design standard going forward. directions
introduce some exciting new elements that Its the second wave of
web-based Rich Information youve never even dreamt of. Surprises
are definitely in the Applications. works. Because our job at
Actuate isnt just to react to changes Finally, mobility will play a
greater role in the Performance in the Performance Management
culture. We create those Management world. People are increasingly
mobile changes too.Perform Magazine // Information in Action Vol 7.
Issue 2 . 2010 [ Figure 1.2: Strategy maps allow you to create
graphical representations specific to your Performance Management
initiative. ]8 9 6. TheSMARTSTATEMENTSay Good-bye to
PaperStatements,Say Hello to OnlinePresentment Every year,
companies are sending out more and more statements, claims,
invoices and bills. Traditionally those statements have been
nothing but a cost sink. But not anymore.Perform Magazine //
Information in ActionVol 7. Issue 2 . 2010 1011Part One in a
Three-Part Series on Xenos, an Actuate Company 7. Traditionally,
statements have been sent through the mail, and its been a
one-size-fits-all approach.Xenos has been a major player in
organization has 100,000 or 10 million customers, they typically
theEnterpriseInformation send out the same statement to their
entire client base, not Management Space for overmaking any
distinction based on demographics or personal25 years, during which
time a unique mix of technology andcustomer preferences. At the
same time, those same companiesexperience has positioned the
company as an industry leader. Xenos may be spending hundreds of
thousands of dollars on onlineproducts and solutions can be found
deep within the information or mail campaigns to target specific
customer groups, trying toarchitectures of many of the worlds
largest companies. Withretain their customer base by building brand
recognition, or up-a global customer base of over 375 Tier 1
organizations, Xenos selling or cross-selling to their existing
clients. Many customerssolutions are used to improve business
processes, reduce operationalmay not even glance at those
campaigns, but those samecosts, enhance customer experience and
promote the benefits ofcustomers will look at their statements for
an average of one toGreen IT. In February 2010, Xenos became an
Actuate company.three minutes each month, and often more than once.
Add tothat an open rate of 95 percent or more and those
statementsThis is the first of a three-part series of articles on
Xenos, an Actuaterepresent the perfect medium for those up-sells
and cross-sellscompany. In this issue, Perform examines Xenos
ePresentment, an an opportunity that, more often than not, is
overlooked by theonline statement presentment offering. Part 2 will
focus on Xenoscompanies sending them.solutions for document storage
reduction, while Part 3 examineshow Xenos fits into the Actuate
world.But thats not the only element of the statement thats ripefor
change. First of all, the mail is no longer necessarily
theIntroductionpreferred way of sending or receiving statements.
Whether itsEvery year, companies can produce and send out millions
of in an effort to be green, to reduce mailing costs, or to
simplify these documents have taken any action to reduce the
storageWith the aging of the baby boomers, accessibility is also
morestatements, claims, invoices and bills. But could organizations
the integration with their own personal electronic bookkeeping
footprint. important than ever. There has been a movement towardsbe
doing more with those statements? Could they be getting
requirements, more and more people are requesting to receive
creating documents in an accessible PDF format for the visually The
Evolution of Online Presentmentbetter use out of them? And at the
same time, could they be their statements online. To stay
competitive, companies need to impaired and aging population. These
PDFs are created withusing fewer resources to produce them, while
making them offer that option.Besides the challenge of storage,
traditional PDF documentstags to allow for the reading aloud of
text, graphics andmore customer-focused? that simply reflect a
print statement also come up short inimages. But soon,
accessibility wont just be a nice to haveNot all online statements
are created equal, though. The another area: performance. Customers
in todays computer-feature. Rather, as baby boomers the largest
segment of theIn other words, are companies wasting a prime
opportunity?most common and basic way to create one is to simply
takesavvy world expect to see their online statements when
theypopulation age, the need for everything from large print
toAfter all, statement generation typically done monthly a
traditional printed statement and to transform it into a PDFwant
them and how they want them. They want those online easily
accessible documents is rapidly moving to become ais the most
frequent contact most companies have with document without any
changes. But statements that have documents to meet their needs and
to be accessible however regulatory requirement. With this in mind,
Xenos has recentlytheir customers. But in most cases, organizations
ignore the been designed for print dont always translate well into
thethey choose to look at them. Xenos ePresentment allows for this,
announced a new addition to its ePresentment Enterprise
Serverimportance of the experience their customers have with that
online world; a PDF that mirrors a printed statement does little
breaking up and saving PDF documents into their individual platform
that will generate accessible PDFs for ePresentment.information,
and how it relates back to the branding and to address the
uniqueness of a companys customer database, components, to retrieve
them as necessary, when necessary; This will go a long way in
helping the visually impaired takemessaging they wish to convey.
The result is that marketing it does little to address customers
self-service needs, and itthis not only saves storage space but
allows for branding andadvantage of client information and at the
same time insuredepartments are not taking full advantage of those
documents. doesnt do much to support companies marketing efforts.
marketing information to be personalized based on customer that
Xenos customers do not fall in breach of regulatory orBy
dramatically changing the content reflecting specific profiles and
to be constantly updated as needed and integratedPerform Magazine
// Information in Action Traditional PDFs also can increase storage
capacitylegal changes on the horizon.customer segments while
getting their branding across they requirements and as a result
increase capital and operational automatically when clients call up
their statements online.could be benefiting from the marketing
potential of documents Thats not all thats possible, either. Every
day, new and more costs. A graphically rich document like a PDF
file can easily With this model, changing customer needs can also
be takenthat they have to generate and send out anyway. advanced
adaptations of online presentment continue to reach 5 MB in size
(as opposed to a more traditional text-into consideration. The
growth of social networking and mobileemerge. Xenos ePresentment
stays on the forefront, offeringThats where Xenos ePresentment
comes in.based document, which ranges between 150 and 500 KB).
technology usage, for example, means that output must
becapabilities that include: The fully-burdened cost is between $20
and $30 per GB per adapted for much smaller-format devices,
including netbooksVol 7. Issue 2 . 2010The Traditional Approach
month to sustain digital storage. Multiply that cost over several
and smartphones. PDF delivery, then, is no longer simply a
Repurposing content. Some organizations offer contentTraditionally,
statements have been sent through the mail, and years and the
challenge becomes clear. At the same time, fewcustomer-centric
issue it has evolved to become device- extracts of previously
static information in structured dataits been a one-size-fits-all
approach. No matter whether an Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
systems used to store centric as well.formats such as XML or CSV.
These structured data extracts 1213 8. are being directly imported
into back-office applications in a straight-through processing
manner, or manipulated by individual recipients within personal
spreadsheets. Content repurposing offers a massive reduction inThe
Power of Xenos downstream manual processing, resulting in real cost
ePresentment savings for end consumers. Dynamic content
consolidation. With dynamic content As a server-based approach,
Xenos ePresentment consolidation, multiple related pieces of
information offers a number of advantages: are merged or linked
together to provide an expanded and/or supportive view of a single
transaction or holistic It eliminates the gaps in existing customer
position. An example would be a personal bank information
architecture and process flows statement, where all relevant check
images are appendedby streamlining information flows and to the end
of the statement or hyperlinked within it and enabling the
repurposing of legacy data then made available online. This
translates into significant documents for new applications; saved
time for end users who would otherwise have to It delivers a
superior return on information search for supporting materials. In
addition, customers canby making that information available where,
get a consolidated view of all of their transactions acrosswhen and
how it is needed at a lower cost; multiple lines of business, or
over expanded periods of It enables the enterprise to control
business time; this can enhance their service experience and
makeinformation and flow for both structured it feel more personal
to them.and unstructured data, making information Post processing
composition. In post processingavailable where, when and how it is
needed composition, previously produced and archivedwithin the
enterprise to improve operational documents are manipulated in real
time based onefficiency and business processes, reduce changing
customer preferences and advanced analytics. In risk and costs, and
increase productivity; an online world, customer profiles are
constantly updated and what was true at the time of document
production It eliminates redundancy in archive and may no longer
hold true at the time of presentation. legacy applications and
significantly Since documents are re-composed, assembled and
reduces storage costs associated with presented online in real
time, each reflects the latestdocument and image archives. How to
Spot a Bad Strategy possible customer information and can take
advantage of up-to-the-minute analytical trending reports extracted
from corporate data warehouses. Online documents also reflect the
most current marketing messages and offers self-service model for
customer interaction. Online statements that are personally
relevant to the consumer to supportcan be more than just a print
document presented online,By Mark Graham Brown plenty of demand for
their services, so this was a realistic goal. cross-selling and
up-selling.though, and companies are realizing the benefits of
presentingMark Graham Brown Consulting The company ended up with
three key strategies for achievingrelevant and accurate information
in a format thats adaptableWeve Document decomposition. Some
organizations aretheir growth goal: one thats able to keep up with
their branding initiatives whileall been in those planning taking
advantage of print stream or PDF documentmeeting their clients
personalized needs. Those companies aremeetings where we begin1.
Increase share of business. Get more work from existing
decomposition to present customers with a trulybeginning to
understand that statements dont need to be theby reviewing our
companyscustomers. interactive experience. Documents produced in
printcost sink theyve previously been, but rather that they
represent strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Typically stream or PDF formats offer a static presentation of2.
Acquisitions. Investigate and purchase smaller competitorsan
opportunity to interact with customers in a variety of ways.Perform
Magazine // Information in Actionthere is a much longer list of
strengths than there are or other companies who are in different
markets/ information to the end customer. Advanced integratedXenos
helps bridge the gap between companies documents weaknesses, but
companies seem to be getting more realistic geographies. document
solutions (IDS) break down static documentsand their customers,
recognizing the true potential of online these days and are willing
to acknowledge that they are not into individual XML files. A style
sheet is created and 3. International. Focus on marketing to and
acquiring newstatements. With a powerful solution like Xenos
ePresentmentgood at everything. Once the goals or objectives have
been applied to the extracted XML content, resulting in a
veryinternational accounts in Asia and South America.behind the
initiative and the right champions within theestablished for the
next year or two, the real hard work begins interactive customer
web experience.in coming up with strategies for success. There are
oftenComing up with strategies is hard enough. Even more
difficultVol 7. Issue 2 . 2010company driving it through online
presentment can bringConclusionany companys statements into the
present and through tomultiple strategies for a single goal. For
example, a client had is coming up with realistic and accurate ways
of evaluatingDriven by demand and a desire to continually improve
theirthe future, helping to maintain and build their
customer-client a goal of going from $400 million to $600 million
in sales inwhether or not the strategies are the right ones. In
this article,customer experience, organizations are moving to an
onlinerelations at the same time. the next three years. Industry
data indicated that there was we will explore some of the practices
that tend to work well 1415 9. when evaluating strategies, as well
as the most commonwebsite. They measured the effectiveness of the
communicationmistakes organizations make when assessing their
strategies.strategy by counting metrics like butts in chairs at
briefingWell start out by examining some of the errors and follow
up meetings, the number of newsletters distributed and web sitewith
a review of the best practices Ive seen.hits. When they measured
the effectiveness of communicationThe chances of any strategy being
successful doMistake #1: Failure to Get External Opinions on the
following year, it actually got worse.include factors like luck and
timing, but experience isStrategyI tried using Google ad words as a
marketing strategy for myDeciding on strategy is often more an
exercise in politics than consulting and training business; I paid
Google $400 to $600probably the most important variable.logic and
reason. The executive team may brainstorm a list of every month to
make sure Mark Graham Brown showed uppossible strategies for
achieving the goals, but its funny how on the first page if someone
did a search on performancethe ones that make the shirt list are
almost always the onesmetrics or Balanced Scorecard. I got close to
1,000 hits permonth, which people told me was excellent. I did this
for sixfor growth, market share and profit are handed down from #2
Best Practice for Spotting Bad Strategies: Lack ofsuggested by the
CEO. Once in a while the CEO does not trymonths before realizing
that not one of those website hits on high by the executives,
board, or parent organization. We Knowledge/Experience/Successto
control the decision and its a more democratic process,translated
into dollars in business, or even a good hard lead. usually dont
have much say in these, regardless of how stupidbut in these cases
it is usually the person who can argue and Its funny how when
companies get big they start to think theyThe big mistake all of
these organizations (including my own)they might be. For example, I
remember talking with a well-present his/her case the best who gets
to select the strategies.are good at business, and that any
business that comes alongare making is to judge the success of a
strategy by measuringknown Fortune 100 technology firm right after
the internetRegardless of how the decision making is done, though,
it they can make successful. This directly contradicts Jim
Collinsmilestones, activities, or behaviors associated with the
chosenbubble burst in the mid 1990s and they still had a goal of
50is always a wise idea to get the council of some outsiders.
findings that great companies stick to the knitting. In
otherstrategy. You can complete all the activities on time and in
the percent sales growth over the previous year! The best
andPerhaps your board can provide advice on picking the rightwords,
stick to what you are good at. The further you stray fromright
number and still not achieve the goal. easiest way of spotting a
bad strategy is logic and reason.strategy, but sometimes they are
even too close to theyour roots, or what you currently do, the
greater your chancessituation and there is always the political
factor operating with Mistake #3: Measuring Strategy with Only
Outcome Its hard for outsiders to understand how some big smart for
failure. Weve seen this time after time. Anheuser Busch isboard
members and executives as well. Most
organizationsMetricsorganizations can make such stupid decisions
sometimes great at making and selling beer, so they come up with a
growthhave a handful of consultants or advisors who know their when
coming up with strategies. Apparently some of these strategy called
Eagle Snacks (pretzels and chips). The strategycompany well and who
they can call on for honest advice This is probably even more
common than tracking activities strategies are decided on without
much in the way of a logical capitalizes on their core competences
of manufacturing foodabout whether or not they have picked the
right strategies. I as a way to tell if youve picked the right
strategy. For many analysis. Some organizations rely on the nice
diagrams withproducts, distribution, and marketing to consumers. It
wouldwould take the time and spend the money to get at least two
organizations, the only way to tell if a strategy worked is to
circles and arrows called strategy maps to think through their seem
to be a pretty easy transition, but it wasnt. Eagle Snacksor three
outside opinions on the strategies you have selected look at
lagging outcome metrics like revenue, profits, or market
strategies. These diagrams are created in flipcharts with a team
eventually failed and the remnants were sold to Frito Lay.
Onebefore settling on them. This will be money well spent if the
share. Its true that often these things are the ultimate goal orof
experts and they look very scientific, but most are nothing of the
simplest ways of spotting a bad strategy is to compareoutsiders can
point out some risks or flaws in your choices. Thereason for the
strategy. However, by the time you find out ifmore than a series of
broad assumptions drawn on charts with the strategy with the
organizations track record for success.danger with this approach is
doing it when you have already the strategy worked, it is too late
if this is all you measure. This arrows used to indicate causal
relationships. For example, the This is what scares most people
about a government-runmade up your mind and dont want to hear
anything that is mistake is much more prevalent in business than in
the non-sequence goes something like this: If our end goal is
growth healthcare system. The government is not very good at
runningcontrary to the strategies you have already picked.
Therefore, it profit or government sector. They tend to be happy
with activity in profits, then we need more loyal customers who
give usanything, except perhaps the military. The Medicare system
isis important to get this external input when the strategies are
or program metrics. The people who run the Say No to Drugs more
business. In order to improve loyalty, we need greateralready
crippled by paperwork and bureaucracy and a strategystill in the
idea phase, and probably before some big off-siteprogram are happy
to track metrics like eyeballs that view their customer
satisfaction. To achieve greater customer satisfaction, of having
the government run the entire healthcare businessplanning meeting.
This can provide you with some of the dataTV commercials or
billboards, school programs conducted andwe need high levels of
engagement from our employees. To seems doomed to failure.you
present when discussing alternative strategies. buttons
distributed. They dont want to be accountable for the achieve that
we need to do a training workshop to teach everyfact that drug use
has steadily risen as has spending for the SayStrategies should be
selected based on the likelihood that the employee how they can
contribute to improved customerMistake #2: Measuring Strategies
with ActivityNo to Drugs campaign. Business people want to see
outcomes organization can make them work. The chances of any
strategy satisfaction and loyalty, and thus profits. Whew!Metrics
that are usually measured in real dollars. Ive run across many
being successful do include factors like luck and timing, but
Sounds good right? So the flaw here is that no one is asking
experience is probably the most important variable. This isA
pension organization I worked with had a strategy oflarge
corporations that measure the success of their strategies for
evidence or even a logic test to evaluate each of thewhere
outsiders are sometimes valuable because they can askbalancing
their investment portfolio to manage risk better. One by only
looking at outcomes that are water under the bridge. assumptions or
theories in this strategy map. How, for example,the hard questions
like: What makes you think you can pull thisof their metrics was
the number of meetings with investment In other words, by the time
we realize that the new office in can a training workshop lead to
higher levels of engagementoff when you have never done anything
like this before? Its hardPerform Magazine // Information in
Actionadvisors. Another was the number of research papers written
Singapore was a bad strategy we have already lost millions of from
employees? If people are disengaged because they areto ask
questions like this when you are inside the organization on
different investment options. A second client had a strategy
dollars. The success of any strategy is ultimately judged by the
overworked and mostly have idiots for bosses, no trainingyou might
be viewed as not being a team player.of growing sales through
innovative new product designs; this outcomes it produces. However,
waiting for those outcomes workshop is going to change that. If
customer satisfactionwas a fashion-oriented business, so it sounded
like a great and only measuring success with outcome data often
makes it #3 Best Practice for Spotting Bad Strategies: Better does
improve, how do you know that will lead to more loyalty?strategy.
However, they measured the strategy by counting impossible to spot
a bad strategy until it is too late. Strategic Metrics If loyalty
does improve from some of your worst customers,activities like time
spent with customers, trade shows attended, Vol 7. Issue 2 . 2010#1
Best Practice for Spotting Bad Strategies: Logic! this could result
in a decline in profits. The bottom line is that One of the best
and most scientific ways of spotting badand milestones completed on
design projects. A third client someone needs to evaluate your
strategies with a critical eyestrategies is to come up with a suite
of metrics or an indexhad a strategy for improving communication
with employees Its amazing to me how little thought and logic go
into many and Mr. Spock logic to test all of the assumptions that
have metric that drills down to lower-level indicators of
success.that focused on a newsletter, briefing meetings, and
employee strategies Ive seen in big organizations. Often the
overall goals been made and ask for data/evidence to support them.
Heres a great example: A consumer-products company has 16 17 10.
The most important dimension of any approach tospotting bad
strategies is speed. Organizations need toquickly detect a bad
strategy in the first month or two,change course, and come up with
a new one. Waiting until the end of the year to see if any strategy
is a successdooms you.a growth strategy that depends on
establishing a tighter Outputs;partnership with a few key
successful retail customers who Outcomes.stock and sell their
product. The success of this customerrelationship management
strategy is measured with a The input and process metrics are the
leading indicators thatCustomer Engagement Index. The index
includes a numberhelp tell you the strategy is a good one, but the
ultimate successof hard and soft measures of the strength of the
relationship,of a strategy is determined by the outputs and
outcomes, whichincluding factors such as shelf space, use of the
consumer- are lagging indicators.products company as consultants,
turnover of key customerSummary and Conclusionscontact personnel on
both sides, customer profit margin,customer satisfaction, brand
strength, and relationship withBusiness textbooks are filled with
all sorts of strategies that werecompetitors. The consumer-products
company is able to colossal failures: Daimler-Chrysler, Time
Warner/AOL mergers, The Road to World-Classmeasure customer
engagement on a monthly basis to evaluateNew Coke, diet pills that
give you uncontrollable diarrhea, spray-the success of the
relationship building strategy.on hair and lots of companies
branching out into new productsand markets and cultures where they
dont know what theyAnother client had a growth strategy linked to
innovative are doing (EuroDisney!). The most important dimension of
any Commissioningnew products. New products sometimes took three to
five approach to spotting bad strategies is speed.
Organizationsyears from concept to market, so the company developed
an need to quickly detect a bad strategy in the first month or
two,Innovation Index that included the following sub-metrics:
change course, and come up with a new one. Waiting until the
Employee perceptions and beliefs regarding risk taking end of the
year to see if any strategy is a success dooms you tofailure. Ask
for outside opinions on your chosen strategies, test and
innovation;their logic, pick strategies that link to your past
successes, and Early Adoption of PBC Software has put NHS South of
Tyne and Wear Streets Ideas/suggestions passing through first,
second, and third screens;measure the progress of each strategy
with a suite of leading andlagging indicators. Ahead of Other PCTs
in its Journey Towards Commissioning Excellence NHS Milestones met
on innovation projects; Mark Graham Brown has 30 years of
experience helping business and South of Tyne and Wear isnt modest
in its and South Tyneside Primary Care Trusts, as well as
Sunderland Patents; government organizations measure and manage
performance. Hisambitions. Despite challenging demographicsTeaching
Primary Care Trust.current clients include the U.S. Navy,
Medtronic, Eagle Systems, Inter-and intensive demands on its health
services, the regional Industry firsts; American Development Bank,
and Nestle Purina. Mark is the author NHS body excels in the
provision of information to practice-The statistics for Sunderland
alone are striking. The 2004 IndexPerform Magazine // Information
in Actionof a number of books on performance measurement, including
his based commissioners and aspires to achieve World-Classof
Multiple Deprivation ranked Sunderland as the 22nd most Awards,
rankings, recognition;deprived district (of 354) in the UK.
Sunderland has also beenmost recent: Performance Management Pocket
Guide (2010). HeCommissioning status within the next two years.
Sales and margins from new products. is currently collaborating on
a new book with Steve Player calledfound to be part of the worst 10
areas in England for binge It is often said that, if you want
something done quickly and drinking, and one in three adults and
one in five children agedThe key to coming up with a good strategic
index metric is to Banishing Business Bullshit How to Save Millions
and be a Hero well, ask a busy person. The same seems to be true in
theat Work that will be published in 2011. Mark has his own
consulting10 to 11 are clinically obese. Meanwhile, an already
dominantmake sure it includes the following types of
sub-metrics:NHS. If you want to see real step change, go and talk
to an elderly population is set to double by 2025, with
increasingVol 7. Issue 2 . 2010practice in Manhattan Beach,
California. overstretched PCT whose resources are under pressure.
numbers having long-term conditions including serious
Inputs;Contact the author at [email protected] or via his website
atNHS South of Tyne and Wear provides a single management
disabilities. (Almost one in four adults suffer from a long-term
Processes; markgrahambrown.com. infrastructure serving some 600,000
people across Gateshead condition, compared to one in 10 in England
as a whole). 1819 11. system for delivering budgets, rather than
multiple emailed Traffic-Light Alertsspreadsheets, notes Watson.The
sophisticated reporting capabilities provided by BIRTThis is its
real value getting practices to look at This means that the 117 GP
practices in its region now receiveScorecard are so accessible that
they are used across thefully-costed budgets at healthcare resource
group level for all their budgets and review how they are referring
patients patients. This allows them to get a clearer picture of
whereboard from executive directors (for performance information)to
the staff on the front line (for management and clinical to
secondary care, so that improvements can be made. resources are
being expended, and where areas of pressureare developing, so that
these can be addressed efficiently andinformation, to support
decision-making). BIRT Scorecardprovides a Briefing Book feature,
for example, which allows Scott Watson, Acting Head of Information
Management and Business Intelligence effectively.organizations to
create and deploy customized views ofSavings performance to
accommodate specific users needs.SincedeployingPreviously, we had a
number of disparate systems tacklingSo it is impressive, faced with
these not insubstantialdeploy BIRT Scorecard to an additional 64
practices in a fractionthe PBC systemvariousaspectschallenges, that
NHS South of Tyne and Wear is developingof the time it would have
taken other products.two years ago, NHSofPerformancean enviable
reputation for its approach to information Previously, NHS South of
Tyne and Wear had a range of disparateSouth of Tyne and
Management,delivery for PBCs. systems in place that made it
difficult to collate or assess PBC Wear estimates that but there
was noFrom Performance Management to PBC information across the
integrated landscape. With the newit has saved over continuity, and
there system, this situation was transformed in a matter of a few
weeks. 1 million by being were many gaps,NHS South of Tyne and Wear
was in the process of procuring a We are still one of the few PCTs
to have a single, centralizedable to pinpointWatson says. It
wassystem for Performance Management when the Departmentexcessive
outpatientalso very resource-of Health (DoH) introduced its targets
for PBC. It chose theappointments andintensive trying toBIRT
Performance Scorecard suite of Business Intelligencefrequent
flyerupdate them all.tools from Actuate, which leads the way in
PerformanceManagement. Its solutions capture and analyze management
About NHS South of Tynepatients. The ability
Now,everythinginformation from a range of sources, presenting this
to and Wearto identify and is centralized,quantify the impact
everyone has it, andstakeholders in a very accessible, visual way
via the web.NHS South of Tyne and Wear covers Gateshead these
patients have its very accessible.When the DoH made its move to the
Annual Healthcheck in Primary Care Trust (PCT), South Tyneside
Primaryon local health The software isplace of star ratings, NHS
South of Tyne and Wear decided Care Trust (PCT) and Sunderland
Teachingproviders has very intuitive too,that Actuate was ideal for
the task, thanks to the depth andPrimary Care Trust (TPCT) and is
the name given enabled the PCT toso you dont needclarity of its
information reporting. Actuate agreed to lendto the integrated
management arrangements utilize alternative IT skills to
introducethe Trust management some development time, in order to
which exist across the three PCTs. This means that, community
services,ultimately ensuring resources are usednew elements. If new
legislation is introduced concerninghone the software so that it
would measure specific criteriawhilst each PCT remains a statutory
organizationappropriately, but most importantly, providing better
moreadditional performance areas that need to be measured,
youacross the full range of commission categories and relatedin its
own right, the day-to-day management ofappropriate care to
patients, Watson says. can build new frameworks very quickly,
without having to waitbudgets.the PCTs has been brought together
under aHaving gained an early advantage and made good headwayfor an
external software expert to come in, Watson explains.Speed to
Market single management team.with initial PBC target monitoring,
NHS South of Tyne and WearStaff Savings, Better DecisionsThe
software, first procured in January 2006, went live thatNHS South
of Tyne and Wear covers the is now working at encompassing broader
community metricsApril a full eight months before the DoHs strict
deadlinesame area as Gateshead, South Tyneside andinto the system.
It wants to be able to measure activities andThe software has
provided such a boost to productivity that itsfor universal PBC
coverage. The speed of the roll-out owed aSunderland Local
Authorities and is responsible resource consumption among district
nurses and health allowed NHS South of Tyne and Wear to free up
resources togreat deal to the applications ease of use, and its
web-basedfor spearheading improvements to the health visitors, as
well as capturing more primary-care data fromother more strategic
tasks. But above all, the system lets us pushconfiguration. Scott
Watson, Acting Head of Information of local people. To do this they
must understandGP systems (such as attendance and prevalence). Our
aimout information and robustly monitor and manage
resources,Management and Business Intelligence at the Trust
explains: the health needs of their local communities and is to
link primary and secondary health care information, toWatson says.
This is its real value getting practices to lookat their budgets
and review how they are referring patients toPerform Magazine //
Information in ActionPrior to the integration of our management
structure, theuse their resources to fund, improve and
developprovide an holistic view of the health of our population,
andsystem was deployed in Sunderland only. Our rollout ineasily
accessible healthcare services in line withthe effectiveness of our
services, Watson explains. Knowledge, secondary care, so that
improvements can be made.Sunderland took place almost overnight,
with all 54 GPthose needs. This means working closely withafter
all, is power.The journey towards World-Class Commissioning
statusPractices being able to access BIRT Scorecard within a matter
local hospitals, GP practices, pharmacies, dentalWatsons ambitions
are fueled by the ease of use of the BIRTcontinues, as NHS South of
Tyne and Wear works to introduceof days. Following integration, the
strategic decision waspractitioners and optometrists, as well as
theirScorecard suite, which he describes as visually very striking.
It additional data into BIRT Scorecard. Thanks to the Actuatemade
to use BIRT Scorecard as the vehicle for the deliverysocial care
partners, to ensure the best possibleVol 7. Issue 2 . 2010displays
information very flexibly using a hierarchical structure system, we
now have a very good feel of where we are with this.of Practice
Based Budgets and associated management range of services are
availableand traffic lights, so you can see how everything
interconnects Were now using BIRT Scorecard for all aspects of
Performanceinformation across the NHS South of Tyne and Wear
patch.and identify immediately where issues are arising, he says.
You Management and health commission frameworks, so we haveDue to
the systems easy-to-use architecture, we were able to can then
drill down into more detail to see whats going on. a clear roadmap
on which to chart our progress, Watson says. 2021 12. EMERGENCY
Rich Information ApplicationsBy 2030 the United States over-65
population isRESPONSE expected to nearly triple from its 1980
rate,Enable Healthcare Providersa result of the influential baby
boomergeneration reaching their retirement years. And as is natural
with any agingto Maintain Healthy Datapopulation, those baby
boomers will face escalating health issues, in turn puttingmore and
more pressure on the healthcare system and continuing to add stress
toit for years to come. Thats not the only concern that the
healthcare industry faces, By John Katsoulis & Seema Haji
either; 16 percent of Americans dont have medical insurance, while
another 17 Actuate Corporationpercent of the population has opted
out of their health insurance for a multitudeof reasons, including
an inability to afford the payroll deductions.Meanwhile, as demand
increases, costs are escalating, largely because growth
inhealthcare hasnt been organic. While more customers enter the
healthcare system,there are fewer companies out there to offer them
the services that they need.Instead, existing companies grow to try
to accommodate the increased demand.Skyrocketing costs are making
it look like the industry is getting bigger, though,because costs
and revenues for those left keep going up. The total number
ofcommercial healthcare plans is decreasing, while high-deductible
health plans are decreasing profits. As a result a greater
emphasis, by necessity, has been put on costs, savings and
efficiencies. Growth, in turn, has changed the quality of the
services that are being offered. Mechanisms are needed to spur
organic growth in healthcare, as well as to entice the working
uninsured and to build more consumer-driven products. As changes
continue to reshape the healthcare industry, healthcare providers
are finding that they must view themselves differently than in the
past and improve their methodology to gather the right data in an
efficient way. Hospitals need information that allows them to
measure their performance in a wide range of key areas, including
regulatory requirements, patient care, healthcare services,
outcomes operations, and finance. Rich Information Applications
have a massive impact on a healthcare organizations ability to
deliver services, create differentiation and enhance market appeal.
Too Much Data, Too Little Time Hospitals are businesses, and like
all businessesPerform Magazine // Information in Action they need
to make money in other words, revenue must exceed expenses. When
they dont, a hospital often cant afford to continue on, which is
why the United States is losing an average of 30 hospitals a year.
Others risk closing too because Vol 7. Issue 2 . 2010 of Medicaid
under funding. Meanwhile, one- third of the revenue that used to be
captured by 22 23 13. hospitals now goes to non-hospital providers,
physicians and Delivering regular and on-demand content to all
usersambulatory surgery companies. Occupancy rates are goingfrom a
single unified platform so they can make the rightup but the number
of beds is on the decline. Fees are goingdecisions at the right
time;down but costs are going up. Lowering the total cost of
ownership with Open SourceHealthcare data is also getting more
difficult to manage technology, zero-training environments, lowest
setupwith more regulations, complex reimbursement processes costs
and fastest time to market;and fewer staff. Although patient care
continues to be top Providing physicians, nurses and other staff
with theof mind, utilization management, physician satisfaction and
richest, most personalized user experience possible.employee
satisfaction also need to be measured accurately.An explosion of
data has accompanied these factors on a BIRT Performance
Managementdaily, weekly, and monthly basis, including:BIRT displays
powerful, visually engaging dashboards and Detailed financial data
spitting out from billing and cost-scorecards to track healthcare
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) tracking systems;such as
operational efficiencies, billing and claims information Average
census, admissions, discharges, and length-of- and physician
performance to convey this information to stay information;hospital
administrators in an easily consumable format. BIRTdashboards
display data about current and past performance Turnover rates,
vacancies, accident rates, and employeeand show what needs to be
improved either immediately or satisfaction tracked by Human
Resources;in the future. Users can drill through into BIRT reports
for root- And accreditation, certification, outside
performancecause and what-if analysis. benchmarks, and patient
satisfaction levels, monitored by managers; Users can view or
create dashboards from templates, readcommentary down to the
measure level and view trendingThe result is data
overload.information over time and location. Enabling
interactiveBIRT-Based Rich Information Applications andcontent
allows stakeholders to evaluate the results of servicesBusiness
Intelligence Tools provided and the overall effectiveness of
processes. With PSEG Leverages Actuate to Reducethe right view of
KPIs, areas for concern can be identifiedAn effective healthcare
information system must access andimmediately and a hospitals
performance and outcomes canintegrate real-time data such as
efficiencies and utilization,be managed effectively.patient and
physician information, and employee satisfaction.Costs and Increase
ProductivityThis information exists in multiple systems. As new
mandatesEnd users can access regular and on-demand content in aare
implemented, healthcare providers must expand their variety of
presentation styles, including brochure-qualityuse for larger user
populations. Dependability and high documents, performance
scorecards, Briefing Books, Excelperformance become crucial
business requirements at thisfiles, dashboards and simple
data-driven web pages. Withstage as well.limitless data
presentation formats and integration possibilitiesThe PSEG
Challengefor the BPR. This report generation process was manual
andThetook several days after the month-end close to
produce.Actuate Healthcare solutions can help healthcare agencies
from a single platform, Actuates Rich Information
Application-clarity of a one-page statement on monthlywade through
the data overload. They are built on BIRTready platform leads to
100 percent user adoption across the actuals, plan and forecast
with drilldown Teams throughout PSEG were spending a substantial
amount(Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools) and
BIRTenterprise.capability offers compelling value to any of time
producing reports and compiling analysis, states DavidPerformance
Scorecard to deliver a cost-effective powerfulbusiness. The larger
the organization, the more critical the Shor, Senior Business
Process Design Specialist in the PSEGConclusionsolution that can be
used by hospitals, medical facilities andneed. Services
Corporation. Not only was this process inefficient,healthcare
professionals. The healthcare industry in the United States faces
greatbut the data was often outdated by the time it reached theThe
Commercial Operations Group at Public Service Enterprisechallenges
now and in the years to come. A rigorous management reporting
team.Perform Magazine // Information in ActionFor healthcare, BIRT
tools offer options for creating interactive Group (PSEG), a $12
billion energy and energy services companyPerformance Management
program can keep track ofdashboards, billing and claims scorecards,
physiciansheadquartered in New Jersey, deployed the SAP Business
The Actuate Solutionperformance trends; without one, results are
difficult todashboards, strategy maps and interactive reports,
enabling Information Warehouse (SAP BW) to provide a data
warehouseascertain. Increasing regulatory guidelines detailing new
PSEG selected Actuate to deliver a critical financial managementthe
management and improvement of performance. Actuatethroughout its
organization. PSEG found it difficult to use thecritical areas of
performance, the demand for performance application for its
business units and management team. TheHealthcare solutions empower
hospitals and medical staff by:reporting functionality within SAP
BW to create its key financialimprovements in clinical outcomes,
and increased reportingcompany selected Actuate over Business
Objects and Cognosperformance statement, called the Business
Performance Report Vol 7. Issue 2 . 2010 Streamlining financial,
operational and customer demands have all contributed to this need
for a practical and based on the following reasons:(BPR). The BPR
is used by all of PSEG Services Corporations interaction processes
with up-to-the-momentuseful system. The key areas of patient care,
healthcare services,business units and the management reporting
team. Therefore, The ability to include revenue, expense and
residual data, information to slash costs and improve patient
operations, outcomes, and finance can be measured withPSEG created
multiple Excel reports to display the data needed from multiple
information sources, on a single page; satisfaction;Actuate
applications built using Actuate BIRT. 24 25 14. PSEG relies on
Actuate for one of the most critical reports in our organization
the Business PerformanceAbout PSEG Industry: Energy & Utilities
Challenge: Report. Actuate pulls data from multiple
informationPublic Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) is a publicly-
Compiling monthly Excel and SAP BW analysis wastraded (NYSE:PEG),
growing energy and energytime-consuming and inefficient; sources
and produces a single version of the truth.services company
headquartered in New Jersey. Financial information was outdated by
the timeThe company delivers gas and electric service safely David
Shor, Senior Business Process Design Specialist, PSEG Services
Corporation and reliably to areas of New Jersey in which about 70
received;percent of the population reside. PSEG has assets over
Wished to produce an at-a-glance snapshot for The ability to store
annotations at a cell level for each Actuate e.Reports is
integrated with SAP BW and aggregates $28.6 billion and total
revenues of $12.2 billion, with business and each unit, with
drilldown capability. business unit that runs the report, and
aggregate those data from multiple information cubes into a single
presentation- over 10,000 employees. into a single report for
management reporting analysis; quality report with full annotation
capabilities. Over the past Solution:The PSEG Services Corporation
was formed in 1999 to couple of years, the Actuate Business
Performance Reporte.Reports, e.Spreadsheet and Information Objects
for Flexible output, including Excel.provide quality, value-added
services to internal clients (BPR) has become one of the most
critical reports in the PSEG financial management reportingwithin
the PSEG family of companies. This division Services Corporation.
The BPR is a profit-and-loss statementPSEG selected Actuate because
it met all of our functional employs approximately 927 associates,
who in turnBenefits: that compares actual, plan, and forecast data
and is used by allrequirements and could integrate with the SAP
BWprovide transactional and professional products and business
units, as well as the management reporting team. This Saved the
equivalent of 20 workdays per month of ainfrastructure. We had
multiple requirements for our reportingservices to 21 business
units. hospitals, GP practices, report presents a clear, one-page
picture of PSEGs financialfull-time employee through process
automation;solution, including web based, user friendly and the
ability to pharmacies, dental practitioners and optometrists,
performance, including summaries and forecasts for eachsupport
multiple hierarchies and queries from a single report.as well as
their social care partners to ensure the best Tailored reports to
specific user needs, empowering business unit.In addition, Actuate
was also the only solution that would allowpossible range of
services are availableusers. Improved development efficiency,
freeingannotations within a report at a cell level a key
requirement,PSEG is also leveraging Actuate e.Spreadsheet and
Informationup IT resources.says Shor. Objects to enhance the user
experience and to speeddevelopment. e.Spreadsheet enables PSEG to
source data from Tailor reports to user needsboth SAP BW and SAP
R/3 and combine the data into a singlereport. Actuate e.Spreadsheet
gives PSEG the ability to createActuate offers a flexible, powerful
development environmentdynamic, reoccurring formulas based on
different nodes of for precise control. The PSEG development team
has not beenmultiple hierarchies. Links and formulas are based on
the server, limited in terms of the kinds of enterprise reports
that can benot in the spreadsheet, so deleting rows and columns
will not delivered, ensuring that specific end-user needs are
met.affect data or formulas.Improve development efficiencyBy
partnering with Actuate Professional Services, PSEGWith Actuates
e.Spreadsheet, PSEG gets the power andcompleted the e.Reports
implementation in two months andcustomization capabilities of
Actuate combined with thethe e.Spreadsheet implementation in less
than six months.interactive and familiar interface of Excel. Power
users are ableBenefits of Actuate to develop their own
e.Spreadsheet reports, offloading thedevelopment from IT
staffs.Perform Magazine // Information in ActionGenerate cost
savingsPrior to Actuate, PSEG relied on a manual, time-consuming
The PSEG Futureprocess to create the BPR. Actuate has fully
automated thisPSEG will continue to leverage Actuate for financial
management,process, pulling data from both SAP R/W and SAP BW into
toas it has helped in reducing operating expenses while increasinga
single report. As a result, PSEG has saved 20 days per monthuser
satisfaction. Vol 7. Issue 2 . 2010of work because of the Actuate
application, and is expectedto save more time as additional reports
are developed inGoing forward, PSEG plans to increase the use of
Actuate[ Figure 6.1: PSEGs Actuate reports aggregate annotations,
providing variance and revised forecast explanations as well as the
ability e.Spreadsheet.throughout our organization, says Shor.to
drilldown and expand to lower levels of details. ] 26 27 15.
Top-NotchPerformanceHow Promaco Consulting Uses Years of
Experienceto Measure and Improve their Clients
PerformanceCapabilitiesHow do you get where you want to go in a
fast andCorporate Governance, Process and Project Management,
andfocused way? Realize your business goals efficientlyIT
Integration Promaco has made it their business to help theirand
effectively?clients measure and improve their performance and to
realizetheir business plans and goals. With offices in Antwerp,
BelgiumIts all about performance, the partners at Promaco
Consultingand Utrecht, The Netherlands, the team of consultants
haswill tell you. Performing well on all levels can make yourworked
all over the world with primarily medium- to large-sizedcompany
shine. Knowing where your performance strengths companies from a
range of industries, including healthcare,and weaknesses may be and
measuring them along the waywaste management, electronics, tobacco,
financial and textile.to see where you arent up to par can give you
a better ideaof where you might need to focus your efforts, so that
you canIn the last seven years, Promaco has gone even further to
trywork on improving that performance to make your businessto meet
its clients needs, by developing a software application.run better.
Called Connect, its a user-friendly data and metadata ETLsoftware
and allows for the seamless integration of Actuates BIRTAs a
consulting company with 20 years experience and aPerformance
Scorecard Performance Management softwarespecialty in Business
Performance Management as well as with any type and number of data
and metadata sources.Perform Magazine // Information in Action Vol
7. Issue 2 . 2010[ Figure 7.1: Using Connect you can seamlessly
integrate your BIRT Performance Scorecard with any underlying
metadata and data source. Due toConnects capability to define
connection procedures using variables for measure, location,
comparative and period, one and the same procedurecan process data
for a wide spread of combinations. ] 28 29 16. [ Figure 7.2: In
Connect, variables can be used in simple click-and-select
procedures or in full blown SQL or MDX statements. On execution
anyvariable will be replaced with the name of the object data youre
looking for. As a result, the number of connection procedures can
be reduceddramatically, saving time in both the initial setup and
the maintenance. ]How Does BIRT Fit In?Promaco has had a long and
fruitful history with Actuate and its Expanded Opportunityteam.
They use the Actuate suite of performance and reporting Quick Facts
abouttools, as well as their own Connect ETL and
PerformanceManagement expertise, for fast and reliable deployments
of aPromacos Connectuser-friendly management information solution
that providesa clear connection between a companys strategy,
tactics andA system with 100 measures, 20 locations,operations.
three comparatives and 12 monthlyperiods might yield a total of
72,000 How Prudential Expanded its File ConversionThe consulting
firm first started using BIRT PerformanceScorecard formerly
referred to as Views in 1995 and hascombinations. Using Promacos
Connect,Capabilities Using Technology from Xenos Eand depending on
the structure of yoursince seen their company evolve along with the
softwaresource data, this could be reduced to as stablished in
1848, Prudential plc is an international capabilities to bring even
more workflow improvements to itssolution. Theyve used the
application in close to 40 differentlittle as 100 procedure
signatures.financial services group with significant operations
document generation, proofing and COMfiche functions.customer
settings, and in the past two years have started usingBIRT
reporting capabilities as well. in Asia, the United States and the
United Kingdom.ChallengesConnect allows you to use metadata fromIt
provides insurance and financial services throughWith help from
Actuates performance and reporting tools,your existing
transactional systems, or to its subsidiaries and affiliates
throughout the world. In the UK, Prior to adopting Xenos
technology, proofing Xerox-formattedPromaco also now offers a
solution for Independent Softwareprepare measure and location
structures. Prudential UK & Europe is a leading life and
pensions provider documents was a time-consuming process for
PrudentialVendors (ISV) that wish to deploy an integrated
managementAfter connecting to these sources, the with approximately
seven million customers.IT staff. The proofing process took a lot
of time due to thePerform Magazine // Information in
Actioninformation solution on top of their application. The
solutionsystem will process the available metadata PGDS is a
distinct company within the Prudential plc group ofslow turnaround
on test prints, says Jane Spittal, IT Technicalcan be set up for
any ISV vendor in a matter of days and requiresand automatically
create measure and companies. It is responsible for the delivery of
IT infrastructure Specialist with PGDS. In order to check
application changes,as little as one day to be deployed at each new
customer site.location structures for your Scorecard onservices for
the group.programmers often had to wait two or three hours for
their testIts proven to be a successful offering, and Promaco now
has 80the fly.outputs to be printed and sent back to them. If
further changespercent of the Housing Authorities market in The
Netherlands,A Xenos customer since 2001, Prudential has relied on
Xenoswere required, it could take several days to test even
minorwhere they provide a boxed solution to deploy a management to
streamline a number of internal processes. Prudential initially Vol
7. Issue 2 . 2010changes to formatted output.information system on
top of their transactional systems, usingimplemented Xenos d2e
software, the technology behindActuate and Promacos technology and
based on a pre-builtthe transformation-services-for-documents
component of Xenos d2e technology enables the transformation
andperformance framework for the industry.Xenos Enterprise Server.
More recently it expanded on Xenos repurposing of high-volume print
stream documents into 30 31 17. In considering the new
requirements, we had tobe satisfied that Xenos could handle outputs
from ourIBM mainframe as well as the existing Unisys outputs.And we
needed to ensure that the system could cope By adding processing
power to the Xenostechnology, it easily handled the file sizes and
volumes,and we have had no problems in terms of loading
andsearching. Now all files are available and easy to locate with
the extra volumes without adversely affectingand users are
benefiting from the search capabilities inturnaround on existing
PDFs.PDF. Jane Spittal, IT Technical Specialist, PGDS Prudential
John Alcock, Senior IT Technical Specialist, PGDS
Prudentialelectronic formats. In 2001, Prudential purchased the As
the regulatory climate changed, Prudential decided in transport to
and from the site was too great. We wanted to easily handled the
file sizes and volumes, and we have had notechnology specifically
to streamline the document-proofing March 2009 to reconsider the
management of its COMficheeliminate the physical transport of data
and adopt an onlineproblems in terms of loading and searching. Now
all files areprocess. With this transformation services software,
Prudentialcreation and storage. Historically we had been sending
printalternative. In doing so we would be able to achieve a
next-day available and easy to locate; and users are benefiting
from thewas able to convert print streams to PDF. This enabled
staffstreams from our mainframes offsite via tape to be converted
toturnaround, Alcock adds. search capabilities in PDF.to check
changes right away, reducing the testing cycle frommicrofiche and
returned to us for storage, explains John Alcock, SolutionAbout the
Technologyhours and in some cases days to a matter of
minutes.Senior IT Technical Specialist, PGDS. According to our
policy, wesent tapes out once a week. This ultimately meant a
potentialAccording to Spittal, taking on the additional print
streamsXenos d2e is the underlying technology within XenosFrom the
outset, when volumes were in the region of 1,00010-day turnaround
before we saw the output in microfiche would more than double the
volumes of what was beingEnterprise Servers Transformation Services
for Documents.documents per month, Prudential increased the use of
Xenosform. Also, there were occasional misfilings and search
functionshandled by the existing Xenos transformation
technology.Xenos Enterprise Server (ES) transforms, indexes and
repurposestechnology every year. A second license was purchased
towere cumbersome at times. As she points out, while they initially
considered a number ofinformation into other formats for print and
presentation. Itenable the software to be used for distribution of
outputs to vendors, Xenos had been chosen because of the fidelity
of the integrates with existing applications through a variety of
inputbusiness areas, and volumes reached 15,000 documents per In
addition to lengthy processing delays and potential errors, print
stream conversion. In considering the new requirements,and output
services, allowing organizations to add value tomonth by the end of
2008. Prudential also decided that the risk of losing data during
we had to be satisfied that Xenos could handle outputs from their
document-centric business processes and applications our IBM
mainframe as well as the existing Unisys outputs. And without
changing their infrastructure. With its Java-based, multi- we
needed to ensure that the system could cope with the extra threaded
architecture, Xenos ES is designed to process millions volumes
without adversely affecting turnaround on existingof high-volume
print documents each with sub-second PDFs.performance. After
considering a software upgrade, the decision was made Summary
instead to add CPUs to increase processing power, as well as To
date, the Xenos platform handles 30,000 documents a acquire a test
license for the COMfiche data requirements. month on average, half
of which are used for online viewing Prudential was aware that the
conversion was a considerable for internal and external users. As
users become more familiar effort, since it entailed a number of
changes in mainframe with the technology, Spittal says that
Prudential will continue functions. to build on its capabilities to
improve processes in other areas. It was a big project that
involved many people on both the Originally we started with
document proofing. The next stage IT and business sides, says
Alcock. We did look at differentwas distributing internal reports
to business users in their versions of software to implement, but
ultimately decided itoffices, then the COMfiche conversion. There
is still more wePerform Magazine // Information in Action would be
better to augment the processing power instead. We can do with the
new system. We are all very happy with the already knew the
capabilities of the Xenos solution, so we felt change. this would
allow us to implement the transition with minimal disruption. We
were worried, however, that the large file sizes up to 650 MB is
some cases might tax the system. Prudential plc is a company
incorporated with its principal place ofVol 7. Issue 2 . 2010 The
worries were laid to rest fairly quickly in the process. The
business in England. Prudential plc is not affiliated in any manner
fiche conversion exercise was very successful, Alcock adds. with
Prudential Financial, Inc, a company whose principal place of By
adding processing power to the Xenos technology, it business is in
the United States of America. 3233 18. By Virgil Dodson,BIRT
Evangelist, Actuate Corporation;Karishma Haji,Product Marketing
Manager, Actuate Corporation;and Sean Wilbur,Rational Unleash the
Labs, IBM CorporationIntroductionSoftwaredevelopment management is
the ability to track sourcecode as it goes through the various
stages of developmentfrom requirements gathering, testing, to
release. Software requirements, plans and technicalchanges in a
project, combined with the eminent interdependent and repetitive
nature ofthe software development process, can make management
chaotic for project managersand increase software quality risks.
Reporting is a business attribute of project administrationfor
software development. Metrics, summaries, and contextual reports
provide views andinsight into the status of a project and help
bring projects to successful completion.IBM Rational ClearQuest, a
comprehensive flexible change management system suitable
formultiple process management, provides change tracking, process
automation, reporting,traceability, and control of the software
development lifecycle. Software development teamsuse Rational
ClearQuest to successfully manage change in their development
environmentsand throughout the software development cycle.Version
7.1 of Rational ClearQuest provides a new, flexible reporting
mechanism based ona data-pull reporting model, adding significant
flexibility over the traditional data-pushmodel, so that individual
team members can gain real-time visibility into
developmentactivities. Data is pulled from Rational ClearQuest via
the supplied ClearQuest ODA JDBCdriver and presented in the
standard reports shipped with ClearQuest 7.1 that are based onthe
Open Source Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT), a
project of the EclipseFoundation.BIRT is an Open Source reporting
system for web applications, especially those based onJava and
J2EE. Actuate founded and co-leads the BIRT project, while IBM is
also an activeparticipant, with representation on the Project
Management Committee and a number ofdevelopers contributing
code.The BIRT project brings Rich Information Application
capabilities as well as interactivityto the web-based reporting of
structured data. As a result, it is the Open Source
BusinessIntelligence offering with the most momentum, with more
than 6.5 million downloadsthrough 2008. BIRT consists of a
comprehensive report development environment, reportingengine and
powerful skill-specific tools for creating rich, interactive
reports for client andA Clearer Viewweb applications in a variety
of formats. Rational has implemented these technologies asthe basis
of the new built-in reporting solution within Rational ClearQuest
7.1, along with aPerform Magazine // Information in Actionset of
standard BIRT reports that present the most commonly needed
data.BIRT provides the foundation for the new web-based reporting
in Rational ClearQuest 7.1and will help meet the core, on-demand
reporting requirements of ClearQuest users.This new architecture
also provides the basis for more advanced reporting
capabilitiesMaximizing the Value of the New BIRT Reporting in IBM
Vol 7. Issue 2 . 2010that will allow users to maximize the value of
the data captured in ClearQuest. Theseadvanced capabilities span a
range of reporting needs, including customization and userRational
ClearQuestpersonalization of reports, web-based report development
by any ClearQuest user, andreport scheduling, archiving and
distribution. 34 35 19. The New Reporting Paradigm and
Feature-RichEclipse. The BIRT Designer guarantees stable source
code as itBIRT Reporting in ClearQuest is based on an Open Source
initiative and has been tested by a wide variety of users on
different infrastructures and platforms.Rational ClearQuest Version
7.1 provides a new paradigm The report designer provides an
intuitive, easy-to-use, drag-for reporting using a data-pull
reporting model, adding and-drop environment for representing
structured data withinsignificant flexibility over the traditional
data-push model, a layout similar to a web page. Developers can use
the designerand enabling real-time reporting. Prior versions used a
data- quickly and effectively to create complex markups
includingpush model to run reports, which precluded reporting on
dashboards, drillable charts and charts that can change
colorsmultiple data sources and multiple result sets. With the new
based on values, where each cell pulls in information from
thedata-pull paradigm and built-in BIRT reporting technology,
internal implementation of ClearQuest.ClearQuest users have
significantly more flexibility, withthe ability to create real-time
reports that use multiple data The BIRT report designer provides
advanced capabilities throughsources and multiple data sets, and
the ability to store and reusable components such as libraries and
templates andmanage reports by using an enterprise reporting
server.programmatic control over the individual elements in a
report through Java and JavaScript. Components can be frequentlyThe
reporting solution built into Rational ClearQuest used data
queries, visualization items, calculations or storedincludes the
Open Source BIRT Designer, BIRT Engine and connections. These
reusable report components can be usedBIRT Viewer from the Eclipse
project. The BIRT Designer as is or enhanced to meet new
requirements, enabling users toprovides ClearQuest customers with
the ability to create quickly change reports as business
requirements mature.report designs as a part of ClearQuest, without
the need topurchase a separate report designer, while the BIRT
Engine The BIRT Designer connects to ClearQuest through a JDBCand
BIRT Viewer provide on-demand reporting capabilities.driver called
the ClearQuest ODA, based on the Open Source Eclipse Open Data
Access (ODA) project. The ClearQuest ODADesigning ClearQuest
Reports with the BIRT driver was developed by Rational and is key
to the real-time [ Figure 9.2: Designing reports with the BIRT
Report Designer provided with Rational ClearQuest. ]Designer
reporting capabilities. The ClearQuest ODA provides local andThe
BIRT Designer is bundled as a plug-in for the ClearQuest web
connections exposing the underlying ClearQuest queries built into
ClearQuest are honored by the reporting capabilities On-demand
report generation provided by ClearQuest Webclien