Abstract:
Methods and systems for developing key performance indicator (KPI) systems are provided. A centralized data store contains an indexed collection of KPIs. The KPIs may be arranged in a manner that facilitates rapid searching and retrieval. Multiple computer devices are connected to the centralized data store. The computer devices are programmed with computer-executable instructions for searching the data store and creating balanced scorecard applications that utilize one or more of the KPIs.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    This application is a continuation application of and claims priority to U.S. application Ser. No. 12/013,934, filed on Jan. 14, 2008, which claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/972,531 filed on Sep. 14, 2007, the entire disclosure of the prior applications is hereby incorporated by reference. 
     
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0002]    This invention relates generally to the development of key performance indicators (KPIs) and balanced scorecard systems. More particularly, aspects of the invention provide methods and systems for organizing KPIs and data utilized by multiple KPIs. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0003]    Balanced scorecards are management systems that enable organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. The balanced scorecard approach was developed by two Harvard Business school professors in the mid 1990&#39;s. The approach was developed after it was determined that financial results of a corporation are lagging indicators which are adequate for industrial age companies for which investments in long-term capabilities and customer relationships were not critical for success. These financial measures are inadequate, however, for guiding and evaluating the activities that information age companies make to create future value through investment in customers, suppliers, employees, processes, technology, and innovation. 
         [0004]    The balanced scorecard approach suggests that organizations be viewed from four perspectives. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the perspectives include finance  102 , process  104 , employee  106  and customer  108 . The finance perspective includes traditional financial data. The process perspective relates to internal business processes and allows a manager to determine how well a business is running and whether its products and services conform to customer requirements. The employee perspective relates to employee training and corporate cultural attitudes related to both individual and corporate self-improvement. The customer perspective relates to customer focus and customer satisfaction in any business. In balanced scorecard approach, the 4 perspectives mentioned above are the basic building blocs. Nevertheless, it is possible to come up with additional perspectives as it is required. 
         [0005]    Key performance indicators (KPIs) are developed for each of the four perspectives and data is collected and analyzed relative to each of the KPIs. Data used to calculate KPIs may include: customer, product and service performance, operations, market, competitive comparisons, supplier, employee-related, and cost and financial data. 
         [0006]    The development of KPIs can be time consuming and may require extracting data from multiple systems, such as human resources systems and accounting systems. With existing approaches it is common for developers to create redundant and similar KPIs and for balanced scorecard systems to extract the same data multiple times for use by multiple KPIs. 
         [0007]    Therefore, there is a need in the art for systems and methods for developing and organizing KPIs that are used by balanced scorecard systems and other systems. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0008]    Aspects of the invention overcome problems and limitations of the prior art by providing systems and methods that utilize a central data store that contains KPIs. The KPIs may be developed by a number of people within or external to an enterprise. The KPIs may be arranged in a manner that facilitates rapid searching and retrieval. Multiple computer devices are connected to the central data store. The computer devices are programmed with computer-executable instructions for searching the data store and creating balanced scorecard applications that utilize one or more of the KPIs. Some embodiments include applications that retrieve data and calculate KPI value. 
         [0009]    Some embodiments of the invention may include or utilize computer-executable instructions for performing one or more of the disclosed methods. The computer-executable instructions may be stored on a tangible computer-readable medium, such as a portable memory drive or optical disk. 
     
    
     
       DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         [0010]    The present invention is illustrated by way of example and not limited in the accompanying figures in which like reference numerals indicate similar elements and in which: 
           [0011]      FIG. 1  illustrates an exemplary balanced scorecard methodology. 
           [0012]      FIG. 2  shows a typical prior art workstation and communication connections. 
           [0013]      FIG. 3  illustrates a system for developing and managing KPIs, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 4  illustrates a graphical user interface tree structure that lists KPIs stored in a KPI collection, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
           [0015]      FIG. 5  illustrates a system for calculating balanced scorecard values, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0016]    Various embodiments of the present invention may be implemented with computer devices and systems that exchange and process data. Elements of an exemplary computer system are illustrated in  FIG. 2 , in which the computer  200  is connected to a local area network (LAN)  202  and a wide area network (WAN)  204 . Computer  200  includes a central processor  210  that controls the overall operation of the computer and a system bus  212  that connects central processor  210  to the components described below. System bus  212  may be implemented with any one of a variety of conventional bus architectures. 
         [0017]    Computer  200  can include a variety of interface units and drives for reading and writing data or files. In particular, computer  200  includes a local memory interface  214  and a removable memory interface  216  respectively coupling a hard disk drive  218  and a removable memory drive  220  to system bus  212 . Examples of removable memory drives include magnetic disk drives and optical disk drives. Hard disks generally include one or more read/write heads that convert bits to magnetic pulses when writing to a computer-readable medium and magnetic pulses to bits when reading data from the computer-readable medium. A single hard disk drive  218  and a single removable memory drive  220  are shown for illustration purposes only and with the understanding that computer  200  may include several of such drives. Furthermore, computer  200  may include drives for interfacing with other types of computer readable media such as magneto-optical drives. 
         [0018]    Unlike hard disks, system memories, such as system memory  226 , generally read and write data electronically and do not include read/write heads. System memory  226  may be implemented with a conventional system memory having a read only memory section that stores a basic input/output system (BIOS) and a random access memory (RAM) that stores other data and files. 
         [0019]    A user can interact with computer  200  with a variety of input devices.  FIG. 2  shows a serial port interface  228  coupling a keyboard  230  and a pointing device  232  to system bus  212 . Pointing device  232  may be implemented with a hard-wired or wireless mouse, track ball, pen device, or similar device. 
         [0020]    Computer  200  may include additional interfaces for connecting peripheral devices to system bus  212 .  FIG. 2  shows a universal serial bus (USB) interface  234  coupling a video or digital camera  236  to system bus  212 . An IEEE 1394 interface  238  may be used to couple additional devices to computer  200 . Furthermore, interface  238  may be configured to operate with particular manufacture interfaces such as FireWire developed by Apple Computer and i.Link developed by Sony. Peripheral devices may include touch sensitive screens, game pads scanners, printers, and other input and output devices and may be coupled to system bus  212  through parallel ports, game ports, PCI boards or any other interface used to couple peripheral devices to a computer. 
         [0021]    Computer  200  also includes a video adapter  240  coupling a display device  242  to system bus  212 . Display device  242  may include a cathode ray tube (CRT), liquid crystal display (LCD), field emission display (FED), plasma display or any other device that produces an image that is viewable by the user. Sound can be recorded and reproduced with a microphone  244  and a speaker  246 . A sound card  248  may be used to couple microphone  244  and speaker  246  to system bus  212 . 
         [0022]    One skilled in the art will appreciate that the device connections shown in  FIG. 2  are for illustration purposes only and that several of the peripheral devices could be coupled to system bus  212  via alternative interfaces. For example, video camera  236  could be connected to IEEE 1394 interface  238  and pointing device  232  could be connected to USB interface  234 . 
         [0023]    Computer  200  includes a network interface  250  that couples system bus  212  to LAN  202 . LAN  202  may have one or more of the well-known LAN topologies and may use a variety of different protocols, such as Ethernet. Computer  200  may communicate with other computers and devices connected to LAN  202 , such as computer  252  and printer  254 . Computers and other devices may be connected to LAN  202  via twisted pair wires, coaxial cable, fiber optics or other media. Alternatively, radio waves may be used to connect one or more computers or devices to LAN  202 . 
         [0024]    A wide area network  204 , such as the Internet, can also be accessed by computer  200 .  FIG. 2  shows a modem unit  256  connected to serial port interface  228  and to WAN  204 . Modem unit  256  may be located within or external to computer  200  and may be any type of conventional modem, such as a cable modem or a satellite modem. LAN  202  may also be used to connect to WAN  204 .  FIG. 2  shows a router  258  that may connect LAN  202  to WAN  204  in a conventional manner. A server  260  is shown connected to WAN  204 . Of course, numerous additional servers, computers, handheld devices, personal digital assistants, telephones and other devices may also be connected to WAN  204 . 
         [0025]    The operation of computer  200  and server  260  can be controlled by computer-executable instructions stored on a computer-readable medium  222 . For example, computer  200  may include computer-executable instructions for transmitting information to server  260 , receiving information from server  260  and displaying the received information on display device  242 . Furthermore, server  260  may include computer-executable instructions for transmitting hypertext markup language (HTML) and extensible markup language (XML) computer code to computer  200 . 
         [0026]    As noted above, the term “network” as used herein and depicted in the drawings should be broadly interpreted to include not only systems in which remote storage devices are coupled together via one or more communication paths, but also stand-alone devices that may be coupled, from time to time, to such systems that have storage capability. Consequently, the term “network” includes not only a “physical network”  202 ,  204 , but also a “content network,” which is comprised of the data—attributable to a single entity—which resides across all physical networks. 
         [0027]      FIG. 3  illustrates a system for developing and managing KPIs, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. A computer device  302  includes a processor  304  and a balanced scorecard development tool  306 . Processor  304  may be implemented with a conventional microprocessor or other device used to control the operation of a computer device. Balanced scorecard development tool  306  sets may be implemented with a software application that when executed by processor  304  allows a developer to create a balanced scorecard and create and manage KPIs. Computer device  302  may be connected to a variety of sources of data via a network  308 . 
         [0028]    Network  308  may be implemented with a local area network, wide-area network and/or various combinations of local and wide area networks. A human resources module  310  may include human resources related data, such as records of employee training events and employee reviews. An accounting module may include accounting related data, such as a general ledger and balance sheets. A sales module  314  may include sales related data. One skilled in the art will appreciate that a variety of additional modules may be included and that those modules may include data used to calculate KPIs. The modules shown in  FIG. 3  and additional modules may be implemented with various hardware and software configurations. Some or all of the modules may be implemented with unique hardware configurations and may utilize unique APIs to retrieve data. For example, accounting module  312  may be implemented with an accounting application that is linked to a database that stores accounting data. The accounting application may utilize the specific API for retrieving accounting data. Human resource module  310  may be implemented with a database application that utilizes different APIs for retrieving data. 
         [0029]    A KPI collection  316  may include a variety of KPIs. For example, KPI collection  316  may include finance KPIs  318 , process KPIs  320 , employee KPIs  322  and customer KPIs  324 . One skilled in the art will appreciate the numerous alternative and/or additional types of KPIs may be included. KPI collection  316  may be linked to computer device  302  via a network  308 . KPI collection  316  may be implemented with a database or other mechanism for storing and arranging KPIs. Storing the KPIs in a central location such that computer devices  302  and  326 , may access the collection allows multiple users to search and reuse KPIs. For example, after a user of computer device  302  creates and stores a specific process KPI within KPI collection  316 , another user may search through the process KPIs when developing a new KPI to see if an appropriate KPI already exists. Computer devices  302  and  326  may utilize one or more KPIs included in KPI collection  316  to create balanced score applications, such as balanced scorecard application  328 . Balanced scorecard application  328  may be implemented with a spreadsheet, database application or any other type of application that retrieves data and performs calculations. 
         [0030]    In one embodiment, KPI collection  316  may be arranged in a hierarchical manner to allow for the rapid searching of KPI&#39;s.  FIG. 4  illustrates an exemplary graphical user interface tree structure  400  that lists exemplary KPIs stored in KPI collection  316 . Each KPI may include a description, such as description  404 , and a reference number, such as reference number  406 . Selecting a specific KPI may reveal information such as the objectives, measures and targets of the KPI. Several KPIs may be cascaded. Three different types of cascading may be used. Direct cascading may be achieved through formulas. For example, the same KPI may be used at the corporate and the business unit levels. Translation cascading may be achieved by making one KPI a component of another KPI. For example, a KPI at the business level may be a component of KPIs at each business unit. Cause and effect cascading may also be used when one KPI influences one or more other KPIs. 
         [0031]      FIG. 5  illustrates a system for calculating balanced scorecard values, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. A balanced scorecard tool  502  may be hosted on a computer device, such as a desktop, laptop or server computer. Balanced scorecard tool  502  may include one or more KPIs that are calculated by the tool. In the example shown, a single employee KPI  504  and three finance KPIs  506 ,  508 , and  510  are shown for illustration purposes only. One skilled in the art will appreciate that multiple additional or substitute KPIs may be used in various embodiments of the invention. An input/output module  526  may be used to send or receive data to a plurality of data sources. In various embodiments, input/output module  526  is implemented with a network interface card. 
         [0032]    When calculating KPIs, balanced scorecard tool  502  may request data from a variety of different sources. In the example shown in  FIG. 5 , balanced scorecard tool  502  requests data from a human resources module  514 , customer surveys  516 , an accounting module  518  and a sales module  520 . Requested data is transmitted from the data sources to balanced scorecard tool  502 . In various implementations of aspects of the invention, balanced scorecard tool  502  is structured to coordinate requests for data used to calculate multiple KPIs so that multiple requests are not used to extract the same data from the data sources. For example, if finance KPI  506  needs to request a value from accounting module  518  and finance KPI  510  needs to extract the same value, balanced scorecard tool  502  will make a single request for the value to accounting module  518  and utilize the data when calculating values for all of the relevant KPIs. Reducing the number of requests for data results in a lower bandwidth requirement for the transmission media between balanced scorecard tool  502  and data sources. 
         [0033]    Balanced scorecard tool  502  may also include a report generation module  522 . Report generation module  522  may be used to generate reports  524  that may be displayed on a display device and/or printed on paper. Report generation module  522  may include computer-executable instructions for formatting reports in a manner desired by users. 
         [0034]    Data and information needed for performance measurement and improvement are of many types, including: customer, product and service performance, operations, market, competitive comparisons, supplier, employee-related, and cost and financial. Analysis entails using data to determine trends, projections, and cause and effect—that might not be evident without analysis. Data and analysis support a variety of company purposes, such as planning, reviewing company performance, improving operations, and comparing company performance with competitors&#39; or with ‘best practices’ benchmarks.” 
         [0035]    The present invention has been described herein with reference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that a person understanding this invention may conceive of changes or other embodiments or variations, which utilize the principles of this invention without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. For example, aspects of the invention may be used with systems that calculate values other than KPIs. All are considered within the sphere, spirit, and scope of the invention.