Patent Application
20070255681
Key Performance Indicators, also known as KPI or Key Success Indicators (KSI), help an organization define and measure progress toward organizational goals. Once an organization has analyzed its mission, identified all its stakeholders, and defined its goals, it needs a way to measure progress toward those goals. Key Performance Indicators are used to provide those measurements.
Scorecards are used to provide detailed and summary analysis of KPIs and aggregated KPIs such as KPI groups, objectives, and the like. Scorecard calculations are typically specific to a defined hierarchy of the above mentioned elements, selected targets, and status indicator schemes. Business logic applications that generate, author, and analyze scorecards are typically enterprise applications with multiple users (subscribers), designers, and administrators. It is not uncommon, for organizations to provide their raw performance data to a third party and receive scorecard representations, analysis results, and similar reports. In this case, the author may not have any influence over the structure of the data source or its automation, which may be a significant limitation.
Scorecard applications may retrieve data from a multitude of data sources such as On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) data sources. OLAP sources typically contain time dimensions which enable users to slice data from multiple hierarchical time periods, e.g. looking at sales data from 2006 Q1, then week 45, then for the month of August. When designing an OLAP source for a scorecard, users can create a “current” time member for displaying the most recent data uploaded into the cube. However, scorecard metrics very often need to source from existing OLAP sources, which may not have been designed with a current member. In this situation, a time slice is often manually set and then reset when the underlying data adds a new time period.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present invention has been made.
This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Embodiments are directed to automatically determining an appropriate time slice to be used in a data source without current time designation based on a last non-empty member in a given level of a dimension. Lag values may be assigned to time dimension members in the data source and corresponding data values associated with a scorecard application such that current and future time values can be determined and used in scorecard operations based on the last non-empty member.
These and other features and advantages will be apparent from a reading of the following detailed description and a review of the associated drawings. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are explanatory only and are not restrictive of aspects as claimed.
As briefly described above, existing OLAP sources can be consumed in a scorecard application, according to embodiments, by automatically detecting the appropriate time slice to be used based on the last non-empty member in a given level of a dimension. In the following detailed description, references are made to the accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which are shown by way of illustrations specific embodiments or examples. These aspects may be combined, other aspects may be utilized, and structural changes may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. The following detailed description is therefore not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.
Referring now to the drawings, aspects and an exemplary operating environment will be described.
Generally, program modules include routines, programs, components, data structures, and other types of structures that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that embodiments may be practiced with other computer system configurations, including hand-held devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmable consumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. Embodiments may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote memory storage devices.
Embodiments may be implemented as a computer process (method), a computing system, or as an article of manufacture, such as a computer program product or computer readable media. The computer program product may be a computer storage media readable by a computer system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process. The computer program product may also be a propagated signal on a carrier readable by a computing system and encoding a computer program of instructions for executing a computer process.
The term “last non-empty member” as used throughout this text refers to a last valid data value among a series of temporally ordered data values in a data source. Any members or data values following the last non-empty member do not include useful information, and are considered “empty.” “Empty” members may be indicated differently in different data sources, however. For example, some data sources may have an “empty” designator, others may include a zero, or negative value to indicate that members following last non-empty member are empty. Therefore, the term “last non-empty member” should not be construed as limiting in any fashion other than as described here.
With reference to
Time intelligence module 122 is configured to automatically determine an appropriate time slice (current time) to be used based on a last non-empty member in a data source for a scorecard metric data. Time intelligence module 122 may be an integrated part of scorecard application 120 or a separate application. Scorecard application 120 and time intelligence module 122 may communicate between themselves and with other applications running on computing device 100 or on other devices. Furthermore, either one of scorecard application 120 and time intelligence module 122 may be executed in an operating system other than operating system 105. This basic configuration is illustrated in
The computing device 100 may have additional features or functionality. For example, the computing device 100 may also include additional data storage devices (removable and/or non-removable) such as, for example, magnetic disks, optical disks, or tape. Such additional storage is illustrated in
The computing device 100 may also contain communication connections 116 that allow the device to communicate with other computing devices 118, such as over a network in a distributed computing environment, for example, an intranet or the Internet. Communication connection 116 is one example of communication media. Communication media may typically be embodied by computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. The term computer readable media as used herein includes both storage media and communication media.
Referring to
A business logic application may be run centrally on scorecard service 202 or in a distributed manner over several servers and/or client devices. Scorecard service 202 may include implementation of a number of information systems such as performance measures, business scorecards, and exception reporting. A number of organization-specific applications including, but not limited to, financial reporting, analysis, marketing analysis, customer service, and manufacturing planning applications may also be configured, deployed, and shared in system 200. In addition, the business logic application may also be run in one or more client devices and information exchanged over network(s) 210.
Data sources 212-214, 216, and 218 are examples of a number of data sources that may provide input to scorecard service 202 directly or through database service 204. Additional data sources may include SQL servers, databases, non multi-dimensional data sources such as text files or EXCEL® sheets, multi-dimensional data source such as data cubes, and the like. Database service 204 may manage the data sources, optimize queries, and the like. Elements of a scorecard built and maintained by scorecard service 202 may be associated with one or more of the data sources. Some of the data sources may not include a current time designation. In such cases, a time intelligence module as part of scorecard service 202 may determine current time values in data sources without current time designator based on a last non-empty member.
Users may interact with scorecard service 202 running the business logic application from client devices 222, 224, and 226 over network(s) 210. In one embodiment, additional applications that consume scorecard-based data may reside on scorecard service 202 or client devices 222, 224, and 226. Examples of such applications and their relation to the scorecard application are provided below in conjunction with
Report service 206 may include reporting applications, such as charting applications, alerting applications, analysis applications, and the like. These applications may receive scorecard data from scorecard service 202 and provide reports directly or through scorecard service 202 to clients.
Network(s) 210 may include a secure network such as an enterprise network, or an unsecure network such as a wireless open network. Network(s) 210 provide communication between the nodes described above. By way of example, and not limitation, network(s) 210 may include wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.
Many other configurations of computing devices, applications, data sources, data distribution and analysis systems may be employed to implement a business logic application automatically generating dashboards with scorecard metrics and subordinate reporting.
Now referring to
Scorecards are a simple method of evaluating organizational performance. The performance measures may vary from financial data such as sales growth to service information such as customer complaints. In a non-business environment, student performances and teacher assessments may be another example of performance measures that can employ scorecards for evaluating organizational performance. In the exemplary scorecard architecture 300, a core of the system is scorecard engine 308. Scorecard engine 308 may be an application that is arranged to evaluate performance metrics. Scorecard engine 308 may be loaded into a server, executed over a distributed network, executed in a client device, and the like.
In addition to performing scorecard calculation, scorecard engine may also provide report parameters associated with a scorecard to other applications 318. The report parameters may be determined based on a subscriber request or a user interface configuration. The user interface configuration may include a subscriber credential or a subscriber permission attribute. The report parameter may include a scorecard identifier, a scorecard view identifier, a row identifier, a column identifier, a page filter, a performance measure group identifier, or a performance measure identifier. The performance measure may be a KPI, a KPI group, or an objective. The page filter determines a period and an organizational unit for application of the scorecard calculations.
Data for evaluating various measures may be provided by a data source. The data source may include source systems 312, which provide data to a scorecard cube 314. Source systems 312 may include multi-dimensional databases such as an On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) database, other databases, individual files, and the like, that provide raw data for generation of scorecards. Scorecard cube 314 is a multi-dimensional database for storing data to be used in determining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as well as generated scorecards themselves. As discussed above, the multi-dimensional nature of scorecard cube 314 enables storage, use, and presentation of data over multiple dimensions such as compound performance indicators for different geographic areas, organizational groups, or even for different time intervals. Scorecard cube 314 has a bi-directional interaction with scorecard engine 308 providing and receiving raw data as well as generated scorecards.
Scorecard database 316 is arranged to operate in a similar manner to scorecard cube 314. In one embodiment, scorecard database 316 may be an external database providing redundant back-up database service. Data from scorecard cube 314, scorecard database 316, or other data sources may be provided to individual elements of a scorecard such as actuals, targets, and the like associated with individual metrics (KPI's, Objectives, and the like).
Scorecard builder 302 may be a separate application, a part of the performance evaluation application, and the like. Scorecard builder 302 is employed to configure various parameters of scorecard engine 308 such as scorecard elements, default values for actuals, targets, and the like. Scorecard builder 302 may include a user interface such as a web service, a Graphical User Interface (GUI), and the like.
Strategy map builder 304 is employed for a later stage in scorecard generation process. As explained below, scores for KPIs and parent nodes such as Objective and Perspective may be presented to a user in form of a strategy map. Strategy map builder 304 may include a user interface for selecting graphical formats, indicator elements, and other graphical parameters of the presentation.
Data Sources 306 may be another source for providing raw data to scorecard engine 308. Data sources may be comprised of a mix of several multi-dimensional and relational databases or other Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)-accessible data source systems (e.g. Excel, text files, etc.). Data sources 306 may also define KPI mappings and other associated data.
Scorecard architecture 300 may include scorecard presentation 310. This may be an application to deploy scorecards, customize views, coordinate distribution of scorecard data, and process web-specific applications associated with the performance evaluation process. For example, scorecard presentation 310 may include a web-based printing system, an email distribution system, and the like. A user interface for scorecard presentation 310 may also include an overview of available scorecards for a subscriber to select from. Scorecard presentation 310 may further include a matrix or a list presentation of the scorecard data. The scorecard presentation and one or more zones for other applications may be displayed in an integrated manner.
Time intelligence module 320 is arranged to communicate with one or more of the data sources described herein and determine an appropriate time slice to be used based on a last non-empty member. According to one scenario, an OLAP source may have a time dimension with a hierarchy consisting of day, week, month, quarter, and year. A time intelligence module according to embodiments enables the scorecard server to scan through the OLAP cube at a particular level and find the last non-empty member in that level and set the notion of “current” and “previous” time selections in the data source relative to the last non-empty member. This supports both the definition of current period based on the last completed period (e.g. on June 2, one can see May's numbers) as well as the “to date” current period (e.g. on June 2, one can see the sum of June 1 and June 2).
Also, the “current” and “previous” definitions for a single data value, such as an actual or a target, can be used to automatically influence other values as well as subordinate reports. For example, defining automated time intelligence on the actual value of a KPI can have it automatically set for the KPI's targets (which may simply be variations on the first mapping created with additional filters) as well as the subordinate reports (e.g. graphs and charts based on the “current” slice of the data).
Other applications 318 may include any application that receives data associated with a report parameter and consumes the data to provide a report, perform analysis, provide alerts, perform further calculations, and the like. The data associated with the report parameter includes content data and metadata. Other applications may be selected based on the report parameter, a subscriber request, or a user interface configuration. The user interface configuration may include a subscriber credential or a subscriber permission attribute. Other applications 318 may include a graphical representation application, a database application, a data analysis application, a communications application, an alerting application, or a word processing application.
When creating a KPI, the KPI definition may be used across several scorecards. This is useful when different scorecard managers might have a shared KPI in common. The shared use of KPI definition may ensure a standard definition is used for that KPI. Despite the shared definition, each individual scorecard may utilize a different data source and data mappings for the actual KPI.
Each KPI may include a number of attributes. Some of these attributes include frequency of data, unit of measure, trend type, weight, and other attributes. The frequency of data identifies how often the data is updated in the source database (cube). The frequency of data may include: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, and Annually.
The unit of measure provides an interpretation for the KPI. Some of the units of measure are: Integer, Decimal, Percent, Days, and Currency. These examples are not exhaustive, and other elements may be added without departing from the scope of the invention.
A trend type may be set according to whether an increasing trend is desirable or not. For example, increasing profit is a desirable trend, while increasing defect rates is not. The trend type may be used in determining the KPI status to display and in setting and interpreting the KPI banding boundary values. The trend arrows displayed in scorecard 400 indicate how the numbers are moving this period compared to last. If in this period the number is greater than last period, the trend is up regardless of the trend type. Possible trend types may include: Increasing Is Better, Decreasing Is Better, and On-Target Is Better.
Weight is a positive integer used to qualify the relative value of a KPI in relation to other KPIs. It is used to calculate the aggregated scorecard value. For example, if an Objective in a scorecard has two KPIs, the first KPI has a weight of 1, and the second has a weight of 3 the second KPI is essentially three times more important than the first, and this weighted relationship is part of the calculation when the KPIs' values are rolled up to derive the values of their parent Objective.
Other attributes may contain pointers to custom attributes that may be created for documentation purposes or used for various other aspects of the scorecard system such as creating different views in different graphical representations of the finished scorecard. Custom attributes may be created for any scorecard element and may be extended or customized by application developers or users for use in their own applications. They may be any of a number of types including text, numbers, percentages, dates, and hyperlinks.
One of the benefits of defining a scorecard is the ability to easily quantify and visualize performance in meeting organizational strategy. By providing a status at an overall scorecard level, and for each perspective, each objective or each KPI rollup, one may quickly identify where one might be off target. By utilizing the hierarchical scorecard definition along with KPI weightings, a status value is calculated at each level of the scorecard.
First column of scorecard 400 shows example elements perspective 420 “Manufacturing” with objectives 422 and 424 “Inventory” and “Assembly” (respectively) reporting to it. Second column 402 in scorecard 400 shows results for each measure from a previous measurement period. Third column 404 shows results for the same measures for the current measurement period. In one embodiment, the measurement period may include a month, a quarter, a tax year, a calendar year, and the like.
Fourth column 406 includes target values for specified KPIs on scorecard 400. Target values may be retrieved from a database, entered by a user, and the like. Column 408 of scorecard 400 shows status indicators.
Status indicators 430 convey the state of the KPI. An indicator may have a predetermined number of levels. A traffic light is one of the most commonly used indicators. It represents a KPI with three-levels of results—Good, Neutral, and Bad. Traffic light indicators may be colored red, yellow, or green. In addition, each colored indicator may have its own unique shape. A KPI may have one stoplight indicator visible at any given time. Indicators with more than three levels may appear as a bar divided into sections, or bands. Column 416 includes trend type arrows as explained above under KPI attributes. Column 418 shows another KPI attribute, frequency.
Data table 510 represents data from data source 502, which does not include current time designation. A scorecard application frequently retrieves data from such data sources, and current time may have to be determined manually. According to embodiments, the current time and corresponding data values may be determined using a last non-empty member such as the actual value 15 corresponding to week 2 of time dimension column 512. As described previously, non-empty member refers to a data value within the data table that includes useful data. Empty members which do not include useful data may be indicated by an empty designator (no data), a zero value, a negative value (e.g. −1, −64000, etc.), or any other designator according to a convention.
The time dimension in the data table may include several layers of members. For example, a top layer may be year followed by quarters, which include months which in turn include weeks. The example time dimension column 512 in
Following the designation of current time members, data values from the actuals column may be retrieved by the scorecard application for further operations. While the example in this figure is given in months and weeks, embodiments are not limited to these time units. The principles described herein may be implemented in any layered time dimension to determine a current time within a data source.
For the target values column 516, all of the members are non-empty (target values may be determined at the beginning of a budget year for the whole year). Therefore, the process of determining current time based on a last non-empty member may not work for the target dimension. However, each target value is associated with an actual value temporally. Hence, a current target value may simply be determined from a corresponding actual value, once that is designated as current. For example, the current target value in data table 510 is 106, which corresponds to the current actual value 105 for February as described above.
As noted above, KPIs may have different time granularities. For example, “Inventory Turns” is measured in weeks, showing values for “current” and “previous” weeks while “Parts Defect Rate” shows daily data, with “current” and “previous” day data. The “current” and “previous” for each KPI may be defined relative to two items: 1) a time granularity, which is represented by levels in a time hierarchy (such as Quarter, Month, and Week as represented in
For example,
The table below summarizes the above mentioned example KPIs:
Negative lags may be used to bring back numbers that are leading (i.e. further ahead in time) the last non-empty. For example, to compare “Sales from last month” (level=month, lag=1, returning the month of Feb with an actual value of 105) with “Target for next month” (level=month, lag=−1, providing the month of April with a target value of 102).
The scorecards, metrics, dimensions, time units, and data sources discussed in
Each of the KPIs may receive data from one or more data sources (e.g. data sources 712 and 714). As described above, the data sources may not necessarily have current time designation. In that case, the scorecard application performing scorecard computations and determining KPI values and indicators for the subordinate reports may automatically determine a current time slice for each data source based on the last non-empty member(s). This ability may be especially critical where the data sources have different granularities (e.g. one at week level, another at month level). Different granularity means the same process cannot be applied to all data sources, but it has to be adjusted dynamically depending on the granularity of time dimension in each data source. Moreover, the data source(s) assigned to a KPI may be changed due to a number of factors such as geography, user selection, and the like.
When the KPIs are computed based on the automatically determined current time and associated data, the subordinate reports may also be updated changing not only the data values represented in the reports, but other parameters as well (e.g. axis values or scale of a chart).
According to another embodiment, the determined current time and associated data may also be used to set or modify page filter parameters. For example, a page filter parameter may define the quarter for a scorecard view. If the determined current time is in the next quarter, the page filter parameter may be adjusted accordingly to increment the quarter to the next one.
Process 800 begins with operation 802, where a KPI value in a scorecard is selected. Typically, all KPI values in a scorecard may be scanned before rendering the scorecard. Processing advances from operation 802 to operation 804.
At operation 804, a time dimension of the data in a data source such as an OLAP source is scanned at a specific level. Time dimension members may include hierarchically structured levels such as weeks, months, quarters, and the like. Processing advances from operation 804 to operation 806.
At operation 806, a last non-empty member is determined. As described previously, a last non-empty member refers to a last useful data value in an ordered dimension. Members following the last non-empty member may have an “empty” designation, a zero value, a negative value, and the like. Once the last non-empty member is determined, processing advances to operation 808.
According to some embodiments, a lag value of “0” may be assigned to the last non-empty member designating it as the current member (current time value). At operation 808, data is retrieved based on the lag value associated with the member relative to the last non-empty member. Thus, a scorecard application may define and retrieve data for any member in the data matrix using the lag values relative to the last non-empty member. As described previously, future data values may be retrieved using negative lag values. Processing advances from operation 808 to operation 810.
At operation 810, the retrieved data is combined with values for other KPIs (current or previous) such that the scorecard can be rendered. Other operations such as filtering, customization, and the like, may also be performed depending on the scorecard application configuration. After operation 810, processing moves to a calling process for further actions.
The operations included in process 800 are for illustration purposes. Determining current time in a data source without current time designation may be implemented by similar processes with fewer or additional steps, as well as in different order of operations using the principles described herein.
The above specification, examples and data provide a complete description of the manufacture and use of the composition of the embodiments. Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims and embodiments.
