Feature

Benefit

Description

Overview

The software is available as a Totally Free Personal Version, without nag screens or usage timeouts.

An extremely valuable innovative industrial-strength Strategic Planning and Learning facility for free.

Tens of thousands or customers worldwide have downloaded the system and are using it for free.
They can Read the Demonstration Business Plans and learn about Strategic Planning.
They can run their own Strategic Plan, at no cost, forever.
Larger organizations may need to upgrade to the licensed version where the costs are typically a small fraction of other similar software products.
Target for 2008-Q1 is 40,000 total software system downloads.

The software conforms to the Harvard University standard.

The Strategy Map defines the Perspectives and Objectives which then drives the Balanced Scorecard.
The Balanced Scorecard then provides the Financial Planning data which drives the Digital Dashboard.

Kaplan & Norton style Strategy Map defines the Perspectives and Objectives.
This is a graphical environment where you can choose the correct Objectives which are then used as the basis for building the standard Balanced Scorecard.

The software comes as a modular system controlled by a single Startup program in which Strategic Plans are viewed in a relational structure.

Strategic Plans can be structured to have a Parent-Child relationship.

Strategic Plans can be structured in an organisational tree and have a Parent-Child relationship.
In Version 3.1 Child Strategic Plans will be able to inherit Objectives from Parent Strategy Maps.

The Startup program has 10 modules which include Vision/Mission/Swot, Strategy Map, Balanced Scorecard, Drill-Down Dashboard, Options, Log File and Database Integrity Checker.

Modules are easy to select and are all internally linked but represent a natural management partition.

After clicking on the required Strategic Plan, the easily selected Modules and are all internally linked.
For example the Vision and Mission can be defined as the Strategy Map header.

The Strategy Map contains small Objective-specific performance graph displays which are derived from the Balanced Scorecard.
This is called “Strategy Map WYSIWYG”.

Provides a Graphical Closed-Loop-Learning information pathway inside the actual Strategy Map.

This basic closed loop concept is widely accepted as being totally essential for progressive thinking, but is sadly lacking in most other Strategic Planning Software Systems.

The software is an adaptable and practical system that can be easily adapted to a variety of Strategic Planning schemes.

Virtually anything in the Strategic Plan can be relabelled or redefined.

The software is currently used for Kaplan & Norton, Cranfield Performance Prism, Lean Thinking and Project or Asset management.
It can also be used for general budget control.

Balanced Scorecard

The Balanced Scorecard is in the form of relational grid tables with Cell Merging.

Cell Merging provides a natural one-to-many relationship and averaging process within the grid table.

Cell Merging provides a natural one-to-many relationship from left to right within the grid table.
Column or cell selection then provides an averaging process which propagates through the entire system.
So by selecting a merged cell you also select the properties and averages associated with all merged components.

The Balanced Scorecard Objectives Grid is a highly adaptable multi-purpose table.
15 user defined columns can be defined in a variety of formats.

Additional industry-specific data, with documents and web links, can be included inside the Scorecard Grids.

The Objectives Table typically contains the chosen Objective from the Strategy Map plus a responsibility column often called a KRA followed by a Measure and Score.
It can also contain additional industry-specific data plus documents and web links inside the same table which are then incorporated into the cell merging and averaging scheme.

Each row in the Objectives Table links to a separate Initiatives Table.

There is a one-to-many relationship between each Objective and it’s Initiatives.

The Objectives and Initiatives can be displayed in either a single Cell-Merged grid, or a dual one-to-many grid arrangement.
This Initiatives Table is sometimes called an activities or projects table.

Initiatives Grid

The Initiatives tables are also highly adaptable with 24 user defined columns.

Industry-Specific, Accounting and Financial Planning can easily be included.

As well as the Initiative text, Practical Industry-Specific data... Document and Website links plus Accounting, Budget and Financial Planning data can all be included inside the Initiatives grid.

Each Initiatives table row contains a date-range which is used to define the columns in a multi-function Gantt Chart.

The Gantt Chart includes a variety of progress indicators as well as Financial Planning capability.

You can select from 5 different progress indicators in every Gantt Chart.
The outcome of these is fed back through the gauges into the Organizational Tree and the Strategy Map.
Each Initiative row and associated Gantt chart has its own Date-Range which defines the scope of every Gantt and Financial Planning Grid.

The Initiatives/Projects table date-range is a practical open-date system.

This allows planning over a multi-year period with YTD filters to represent the data in a Financial Year Context.

There is no need to switch off the planning at the end of the Financial Year.
Just activate the YTD filters to show the data in a Financial Year Context.

The Initiatives/Projects table Financial Planning has both Income and Expenditure as Planned and Actual.

Planned and Actual Income and Expense budgets.
The YTD filter allows Actual/Planned performance analysis.

Turn off the YTD to allow planning and budgeting over one or more Financial Years.
Turn On the YTD to show Actual/Planned performance cash flow analysis.

Drill-Down Dashboard

The Drill-Down Dashboard module allows column-based cross-referencing throughout the whole Strategic Plan.

Employees can easily collaborate with everyone else in the organization who is also contributing to each critical function.

Employees are always both surprised and motivated when they find out who else in an organization is also working towards the same objectives.
Hence they can easily collaborate with everyone else who is also contributing to each critical function.

The Drill-Down Dashboard module uses the same Cell-Merging table format as the Balanced Scorecard.

Data can be averaged for merged cells giving a variety of analysis snapshots.

Data can be averaged for merged cells.
In the Graphical output module, simply selecting the column provides varying Financial Planning data according to the column which is selected.  
If a Region or Department was selected, then the financial planning or YTD data can be seen as an average of each chosen column component.
It is not uncommon to have a review date column and this is one which is frequently chosen for cross referencing and graphical averaging.

The Overall Balanced Performance Schema

The Closed Loop Learning Performance system thus originates from the Gantt Chart, back up through the Initiatives & Objectives Tables, the Organizational Tree and finally into the Strategy Map.

Gantt Chart Performance is averaged and fed back up through the structure, with a weighting value applied, and then right inside the actual Strategy Map components.

The Strategic Planning process is a top-down design with the Strategy Map, down through the Objectives and Initiatives tables and into the Gantt and Financial Planning Chart.
In all of these there is a numerically-based Gauge system which is averaged back up through the structure and into the Strategy Map.
These gauges provide the Closed Loop system and are used in conjunction with a drill-down style Digital Dashboard.

Hence this system provides an "Overall Balanced Performance Schema".

A dual-stream backward flowing closed loop information trail that measures and presents both Financial and Weighted Performance information.

The Dashboard is fundamentally a financial planning concept and this confronts the very idea of balance in a Balanced scorecard.
The Strategy Map WYSIWYG Gauges provide a weighted performance measure feedback pathway.
The Dashboard will never replace the Strategy Map WYSIWYG and the two provide differing analysis view-ports that comprise the overall schema.