Patent ID: 8301489

Claim:
A method of assessing a state of a business entity, the method comprising: generating entity data for the business entity to be analysed, the entity data including a plurality of entity variables applicable to the business entity and the variables comprising a plurality of entity drivers; deriving reference data from a processor-based analysis engine which performs cluster analysis on source data extracted from a database, the source data relating to a state of a community of which the business entity forms a part and the source data relating to a plurality of community variables, the community variables comprising a plurality of community drivers; inputting the entity data into an analytical tool, the analytical tool comprising an array of cells, each cell containing a subset of the reference data, the reference data within each cell providing a measure of each community driver and the arrangement of the cells relative to one another being governed by the inter-relationship of the reference data contained in the cells; using the analytical tool to compare the entity data with the reference data to position the business entity in that cell of the analytical tool where the values of the subset of reference data most closely matches the entity variables and to transform the entity data into output data; and producing a performance map containing the output data and using a position of the business entity on the performance map to form a result which is used to analyse the business entity to assess and manage change in the business entity by comparing the output data with the reference data.