Patent ID: 8260658

Claim:
A method, using a computer means, for displaying key performance indicators relating to the current performance of a business enterprise having a plurality of profit centers, each of which profit centers has a plurality of projects, comprising the steps of: a. determining key performance indicators which are representative of the current status of said business enterprise; b. using a computer means to extract data which is representative of said key performance indicators from an accounting database containing said data; c. using a computer means to organize said extracted data into a plurality of discrete analytical units, each of which said discrete analytical units is representative of a project associated with a profit center of said business enterprise; d. for each of said discrete analytical units using a computer means to assign a first value which is representative of the magnitude of the potential financial impact of that discrete analytical unit upon the financial well-being of the business enterprise; e. for each of said discrete analytical units using a computer means to assign a second value which is representative of a deviation of the performance of that discrete analytical unit from a selected performance for that discrete analytical unit; f. for each of said discrete analytical units using a computer means to generate a minor node of a squarified tree map which has an area that is proportional to said first value assigned to said discrete analytical unit; g. for each of said profit centers using a computer means to generate a major node of a squarified tree map which has an area comprising the sum of the areas of minor nodes of the discrete analytical units associated with that a profit center; h. using a computer means to generate a squarified tree map having an area comprising the sum of areas of said major nodes; i. for each of said minor nodes using a computer means to assign a color which correlates to the second value assigned to the discrete analytical unit associated with that minor node; j. using a computer means to generate a visual display of said squarified tree map, said major nodes and said minor nodes, wherein the visual display of each of said major nodes is positioned within the visual display of said squarified tree map by descending order of size from a selected corner of said visual display of said squarified tree map to the corner of the visual display of said squarified tree map which is disposed diagonally opposite from said selected corner of said visual display of said squarified tree map and each of said minor nodes is positioned within the visual display of the major node with which it is associated by descending order of size from a selected corner of said visual display of said major node to the corner of the visual display of said major node which is disposed diagonally opposite from said selected corner of said visual display of said major node.