The Performance Journal Update is an informational newsletter that provides the latest news and cutting edge practices on corporate performance management.  We continuously compile articles, papers, and excerpts from a multitude of sources to supply monthly updates on news andresearch on ways organizations are measuring and managing for results in their organizations. 

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KPI of the Month

Key Performance Indicator has become one of the most abused buzzwords in our industry since client-server or business intelligence. Nearly every software and services vendor in the BI space claims to help better manage KPIs. Internal IT groups at companies place the KPI label on any metric which can be put in the data warehouse and presented in a reporting tool. Just because a metric can be presented in a glitzy front-end tool, it does not make it a KPI. To read more, go to http://www.businessintelligence.com/ex/asp/code.83/xe/article.htm

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Blinded by Numbers

SUPPOSE YOU'RE THE CEO OF A FORTUNE 1000 COMPANY. The latest IT metrics give you reason to feel good about the CIO you hired last year. Network uptime holds firm at 98 percent. The average time spent to roll out an application--three months--represents a new low. And calls to the help desk are down a remarkable 20 percent since last quarter. To read more, go to http://www.cio.com/archive/enterprise/091598_reality.html

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Performance Conference

Performance.  It is on every executive’s mind: how to plan for it, measure it and improve it. All executives are looking for a strategy for improving their organization’s performance...but real success still hinges on the effective execution of strategy. When strategy is not executed, organizations fall short of meeting the performance expectations of stakeholders and customers.  To learn more, go to: http://www.asmiweb.com/performance

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Dashboard Design: Key Performance Indicators & Metrics

This article will focus on collecting and defining metrics and key performance indicators for executive and operational dashboards. While the techniques discussed here can be used across many different business intelligence requirements gathering efforts, the focus will be collecting and organizing business data into a format for effective dashboard design.
http://www.businessintelligence.com/ex/asp/code.159/xe/article.htm

The Federal Reserve Bank Of Philadelphia Implements Its Own Process For Enterprise Risk Management

In 2003, the Federal Reserve System emphasized the importance of risk management by creating an ERM guidance document providing direction and defining a common risk language. In 2004, Spyro Karetsos, the Philadelphia Fed's enterprise risk management officer, developed an ERM implementation guide to plan Philadelphia's approach to integrating existing risk-based practices and tools. This ERM plan is being developed for the bank to strengthen its own risk management practices and is in no way a prescription for the financial institutions the Fed supervises. The effort does show banks throughout the U.S. that what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Similar efforts are being undertaken at banks throughout the Federal Reserve System. In fact, one of Karetsos's roles has been to pull together the ERM initiatives of all entities in the Federal Reserve System to provide a high-level enterprise view of risks and associated mitigation activities. To read more, go to http://www.rmahq.org/RMA/

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Six steps to improving your planning and budgeting system

For many organisations, planning and budgeting is an annual ritual. Once a year a letter goes out from head office describing the company’s expectations, shortly followed by a budget pack to be completed by a predefined date. Once a year these packs are completed and returned, and then the annual negotiation begins in earnest. Head office wants more and the subsidiaries know this, so they have kept something back. But Head Office know they have kept something back, so are trying even harder to increase the budget. Eventually the negotiations conclude and the budget is set for the next twelve months and everyone breaths a sigh of relief and finally gets back to running the business again.
http://www.businessintelligence.com/ex/asp/code.141/xe/article.htm

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Financial Services Corporate Performance Measurement: What’s Hot and What’s Not

It has been said that there has not been an original idea in banking in the last 50 years. Well, I don’t necessary agree with this, but there is one thing for sure. We all watch what others are doing, and we move in herds. This is most evident when it comes to technology. There are early adopters and slow adopters, but we all adopt.
http://www.businessintelligence.com/ex/asp/code.131/xe/article.htm

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Historically, organizations measured and managed risk types in isolation.  That is, until enterprise risk management was developed.  Currently, leading organizations have enhanced their risk management system by viewing the impact of risks on an enterprise-wide system. To learn more, go to:
http://www.asmiweb.com/Events/risk.html

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Government HR Innovations 2006

The time has come to discuss the future of the government workforce in a fresh and innovative way. The future of government service and thus, government human resources personnel, is being crafted today, by you and your colleagues. With the changes you implement in regards to recruitment, hiring, retention and development of employees, you have the unique opportunity to impact generations of civil service workers and citizens at large.
http://www.hrinnovations.org/

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Human Capital in the New Economy: Devil's Bargain?

Human capital embraces both the broader human resource considerations of the business workforce, traditionally known as the labor market, and the more specific requirements of individual competence in the form of knowledge, skills and attributes of managers and the people they manage. To read more, go to http://www.managementfirst.com/human_resources/articles/human_capital.php?PHPSESSID=adfa1ac628ee0dd744712199114b0328

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HR Important – But Who Measures?

Survey shoes executive are high on HR initiatives, but they don’t know why. CFOs listed human-resources issues as one of their top concerns in a study released Tuesday by Accenture. But while finance chiefs say they're willing to pony up the money for workforce development, the survey found that many fail to measure the effects of such programs on the bottom line. http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/3008942?f=search

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Finance is from Mars, HR is from Venus

Can finance and human resources ever see eye to eye? They’d better. In the classic corporate paradigm, human-resources heads are the "people" people who want to make employees happy, CFOs are the "numbers" folks who just want to cut costs, and the twain never meet. Under the pressure of higher compensation and benefits costs, however, the twain are increasingly coming together in order to figure out how to spend smarter when it comes to employees. And more often than not, it's human resources imitating finance rather than the other way around.
http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/5077911?f=search

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A Sophisticated Crop Of Measurement Tools Could Take The Guesswork Out Of Human-Resources Management. The human-resources department is in survival mode. As outsourcing the function becomes a more-prevalent option for companies, HR managers know that if they are going to endure, they have to deliver strategic value, and that value has to be measurable. To read more, go to http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/5491043/c_5514415?f=magazine_featured

Marketing Function Is Different in a Six Sigma World

Six Sigma is changing the way the marketing function in an organization operates today. Consider the following marketing scenario at a company which manufactures consumer-packaged goods: During an emergency marketing meeting, the market research division discloses that its Brand X, which has recently lost market share, is rated a poor value by consumers in the targeted market. The challenge from the marketing manager is to identify a solution that will reposition the brand. The assistant manager provides a prototypical marketing solution. First, cut the price of the product. Then, develop an advertising program to convince consumers that the product really does provide the quality and benefits they seek. The new advertising campaign, coupled with the reduced price, will substantially enhance the perceived value of the brand in the marketplace. To read more, go to http://www.isixsigma.com/library/content/c060522a.asp

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Using DFSS to Improve Offshore Outsourcing Efficiency

During the last several years, there has been a tremendous amount of discussion relating to the offshore outsourcing of software development work to achieve significant cost reductions. This has been an emerging trend for about a dozen years, but one that has been recently accelerated and subject to wild variations in success and efficiency. A Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) approach is one way that software organizations can make better decisions about how, when and how much to deploy offshore.
http://software.isixsigma.com/library/content/c060301b.asp

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Project Management - You Give Me The Feature Creeps

The caliber of the project management you have merged into your business or department can mean the difference between enduring and booming in a very cut throat industry that you serve. It's very important to understand the evolution of a project management lifecycle and avoid skirting or skipping important upfront issues from the outset.
http://www.uswebpros.com/Project_Management___You_Give_Me_The_Feature_Creeps_51-4612.html

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Monumental Challenge Deploying new tech systems can be wrenching, but smarter project management will help you leave the past behind

It's often said that information technology is a field that lives and (too often) dies by the project. Even when a project isn't dying, it may be weak, sickly, or on life support. Large IT initiatives are difficult to manage and can prove disappointing, if not disastrous. Some progress has been made in recent years as project management has become a bona fide corporate discipline, but the latest statistics on success rates still leave plenty of room for improvement. (The Standish Group says that more than half of all IT projects still run late, exceed budget, or fail to deliver promised benefits.)
http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/5436923?f=search

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