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200 Part II • Descriptive Analytics

Application Case 4.7 (Continued)

“The reports we have now are much more maintaining and customizing the processes, and
useful because they allow us to drill down from the more on actually analyzing the figures themselves.
group level through all our international subsidiar- Brendan Kitley concludes: “With better vis-
ies to the individual cost-centers, and even to the ibility and more timely access to more detailed and
projects themselves,” explains Brendan Kitley. “The accurate information, we are in a better position to
ability to get an accurate picture of financial perfor- monitor performance and maintain profitability while
mance in each project empowers our managers to ensuring that our projects are delivered on time and
make better decisions.” within budget. By continuing to work with IBM and
“Moreover, since the reporting process is now Barrachd to develop our Cognos Express solution,
largely automated, we can create reports more quickly we expect to unlock even greater benefits in terms of
and with less effort – which means we can generate standardization and financial control.”
them more frequently. Instead of a one-month lead
time for reporting, we can do a full profitability anal- Questions for Discussion
ysis in half the time, and give our managers more 1. What was the reporting challenge Mace was fac-
timely access to the information they need.” ing? Do you think this is an unusual challenge
specific to Mace?
Moving towards a single platform 2. What was the approach for a potential solution?

With the success of the international reporting proj- 3. What were the results obtained in the short term,
ect, Mace is working to unite all its UK and interna- and what were the future plans?
tional subsidiaries into this single financial reporting
and budgeting system. With a common platform for Source: IBM, Customer Success Story, “Mace gains insight into
the performance of international projects” http://www-01.
all reporting processes, the company’s central finance ibm.com/software/success/cssdb.nsf/cs/strD-99aLbx
team will be able to spend less time and effort on (accessed September 2013).

sectiOn 4.7 revieW QuestiOns
1. What is business performance management? How does it relate to BI?
2. What are the three key components of a BPM system?
3. List and briefly describe the four phases of the BPM cycle.
4. Why is strategy the most important part of a BPM implementation?

4.8 peRfoRMAnCe MeAsuReMent
Underlying BPM is a performance measurement system. According to Simons (2002),
performance measurement systems:

Assist managers in tracking the implementations of business strategy by compar-
ing actual results against strategic goals and objectives. A performance measure-
ment system typically comprises systematic methods of setting business goals
together with periodic feedback reports that indicate progress against goals.

All measurement is about comparisons. Raw numbers are of little value. If you were
told that a salesperson completed 50 percent of the deals he or she was working on
within a month, that would have little meaning. Now, suppose you were told that the
same salesperson had a monthly close rate of 30 percent last year. Obviously, the trend
is good. What if you were also told that the average close rate for all salespeople at the

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