Charts can provide a visual aid to look at your organizational Strategy. You can make use of many charts to display the Perspectives, Objectives and KPIs in a more meaningful and logical way to review your Organization’s Performance. A good Balanced Scorecard Software will provide you options to build meaningful charts easily and flexibly.
What is a Balanced Scorecard?
Balanced Scorecard is one of the most efficient methodologies for Strategy Management, co-created by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Nortan. It organizes the KPIs under various Objectives and these are listed under the four Perspectives:
.Financial
.Customer
.Internal Processes
.Learning and Growth
For a more thorough explanation on Balanced Scorecard, check out this article.
How to create charts for Balanced Scorecard?
You can utilize many free tools to create basic charts for your Balanced Scorecards. However, for more analytical charts, you can use a the only recommended Balanced Scorecard Software by the Balanced Scorecard Institute i-e Spider Impact® by Spider Strategies®. This Strategy Software is a tailor made to cater to the methodology of Balanced Scorecard and to make Strategy management easier and less cumbersome.
“If you can measure it, you can manage it.”
-Robert S. Kaplan
Co-Creator of the Balanced Scorecard
Many sophisticated Strategy Management Software and Balanced Scorecard Softwares like Spider Impact® by Spider Strategies® provide multiple options for creating charts and reports. These Charts and reports can be added to dashboard to create impressive performance snapshots or can be used as a tool for Ad-Hoc analysis. Charts and Reports in Spider Impact® do not require any coding and can be created intuitively.
Charts available in Spider Impact® by Spider Strategies®
Spider Impact® by Spider Strategies® provide a total of 9 basic and Scorecard charts, 7 Advanced Charts, 5 combination charts, 2 Analytical charts and lastly, 8 intuitive widgets charts. This is a fantastic array of choice for a Balanced Scorecard Software, as you can make a lot of combination charts of your own to suit your organization’s unique requirements. Not many strategy management softwares provide this wide variety in a budget-friendly price. Following is a list of some of the charts that can be constructed in Spider Impact® with ease and no advance training required.
1. Bar Chart:
The length of the rectangular bar represents the KPI Value. It is used for categorical data, for example, time like monthly, yearly etc. It is widely used for seeing annual performances of Strategic KPIs like Net Profit, Customer Satisfaction, and Employee Capabilities etc.
In Spider Impact® by Spider Strategies®, you can add multiple bars to compare data from either different business units, different employees, different sectors etc. this can be done through Advance chart Section.
Multiple Bar Charts can be used to compare the 4 Perspectives’ Scores of the Balanced Scorecard, as shown below.
2. Line Chart:
Similar to bar chart, but the Key Performance Indicator value is shown through pointers on the axes. These pointers are joined by a straight line to form a line chart. In Spider Impact® by Spider Strategies®, you can add scoring colors in the background which will tell if the currently the KPI is performing in safe zone or not. You can also add multiple lines through advanced charts or make dual axis charts.
In Balanced Scorecard or any other Strategy Management Methodology, Line charts can be extremely useful as these are easily understandable and extremely versatile.
3. Stacked chart:
it’s a bar chart that shows the contribution of different categories within a grand total.
In Strategy Management, it can be utilized for a KPI like Revenue. It can be used to show revenue from different business units or revenue streams.
4. Pie Chart:
similar to stacked bar, the slices of the pie chart shows numeric proportions. It can be used to show % Cost of Goods sold to compare the same cost across different regions, departments etc.
Following are some analytical tools available in Spider Impact®
Trend lines: Shows the prevailing direction of a certain KPI. For example, in spite of seasonal fluctuations, a trend line can tell whether the overall Net Sales are increasing, decreasing or staying constant. In Spider Impact® by Spider Strategies®, you can add Trend lines through the Analytics option.
It can add a lot of value in your Organization’s Strategy Management, especially when its combined with Forecast and other analytical option like Goal Lines, Maximum Lines Miniumum Lines, etc.
Forecast:
A Forecast shows what the expected KPI Value will approximately be. The default confidence interval in Spider Impact® by Spider Strategies® is 95%, which can be changed to suit the need of your Organization’s Strategy Management methodology. It is used widely in the Financial Perspective of The Balanced Scorecard.
Charts are extremely important and valuable for your Organization’s Strategy Management no matter what methodology. Spider Impact® by Spider Strategies® provides extremely easy to create Charts that do not require any coding.
Crystal Consulting Group is Spider Impact Reseller in UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman and Pakistan. A lot of our Clients like University of Sharjah, Abdul Latif Jameel, The Department of Economy & Tourism in Dubai® have numerous Charts in their Various Departments that aid them in performance review of their Strategic or Operational KPIs. Many of these esteemed clients use the Balanced Scorecard methodology and Spider Impact® has greatly aided them in their data visualization.
