How Is The Success Of Your Company Tracked?

Every company with which I've ever been associated tracks their successes and or failures in some way.  It can be as simple as looking at inquiry screens for Sales Analysis, Inventory Management and Accounts Receivable or something more complex.  Many businesses have chosen to implement a BI tool as several of my Customers have done with our BI offering.  Even if you're not ready to take the plunge into a full blown BI solution you should be thinking about what measurements you're using and how they might be improved on.  It might be just making the output easier for your executives to get the information they need.  A good example of this might be the workbook posted here on May, 10.  It's an enhancement of Sales Analysis Option #1.

This inquiry screen in HD...

Can become this worksheet in Excel...

Hopefully you'll agree that the worksheet not only has more information but is also presented in such a way that it can more easily be digested by a busy executive.

One of my customers uses Total Inventory overlaid with Cost of Goods Sold as a Key Performance Indicator (KPI).  We've not discussed how he views this data but I do know that he gets the raw data from accounting and then does something manually to get it in the format he wants.  This process could be automated and might look something like this...

As with the previous worksheet the user can select from a drop down what is to be displayed (Company, Division, Region or Branch).

One thing that I've not previously mentioned and of which you might not be aware, Excel workbooks can be opened via a function key added to HD screens.  It requires a CL program and a change to the DDS for the screen to add the function key.  Not difficult and makes accessing the workbook just a key entry away.

In future entries we'll take a look at additional KPI's that you might find useful.  As always, comments and questions are welcome and can be posted here or emailed to me at the office.