Executive Dashboard Case Study

The Problem

The Executive Dashboard was developed for a large global financial institution as a tool to monitor performance against stated objectives.  The organization uses a balanced scorecard approach to evaluate performance at every level of the organization, from the group level to the regional level to the country level, to the line of business level, to the product line level, to the department level and right down to the individual employee level.  With a balanced scorecard approach, objectives, or key performance indicators (KPIs), are defined and agreed upon at the beginning of each year. 

These KPIs must be monitored throughout the year.  Most are updated on a monthly basis.  By continuously monitoring KPIs, management and employees can take action early on when performance falls below benchmark thresholds.  The challenge that the organization faced was continuously collecting data on KPIs and comparing them to stated benchmarks.  Quantitative data is easy to collect and measure, but many KPIs are not quantitative measures, or they are measures that must be converted into quantitative data for balanced scorecard purposes.  An example might be measuring an employee’s contribution toward recruiting and hiring.  Other measures are quantitative in nature, but there is no easy way to track them.  The organization saw the balanced scorecard fail in many areas because there was no system in place to capture current status data.  All current data was collected manually and then consolidated for benchmark comparison.  The manually collection and comparison was so time consuming that many KPIs were never updated at monthly intervals.  Instead, management scrambled to collect the necessary data before year end.  At that point, it was too late to address KPIs that were well below benchmark.

The Solution

The Executive Dashboard was designed to alert managers when performance measures were due and an easy and intuitive collection interface made the entry quick and painless.  The software was designed to be highly intuitive so that even the most computer-challenged executive could use it without much training.  Like the dashboard lights on a car, the Executive Dashboard alerts the users when there is a problem forming.  With the Executive Dashboard, management is alerted immediately when KPIs fall below benchmark levels so objective can be addressed before its too late.

Results and Benefits

The software tool facilitated the balanced scorecard approach to management.  Since the data collection was entirely digitized, management and users were alerted immediately when updates were not performed on time.  Management was able to have a “state of the union” snapshot of the organization at any time across regions, departments, individuals and product lines.  Warning signs allowed management to concentrate their efforts on those areas where there were red flags.  Departments and individuals could monitor their performance against stated objectives. 

The tool became an interactive measuring stick that allowed the financial institution to identify problem areas within their products or their operations and adjust accordingly.  Users saved massive amounts of time that was previously spent collecting data on an on-going basis and management was able to base their decisions upon accurate and timely information.  It is difficult to measure an exact dollar amount of value that the software application provides the organization each year because much of the value is realized in the form of greatly reduced opportunity costs, management decisions based on good information and freed up time for employees.  For this particular organization that has over 60,000 employees worldwide, the aggregate value of the tool makes the return on investment (ROI) very high even if it cannot be accurately measured.

Visit our Executive Dashboard demo page to see the software application in action.

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