Year: 2014

Painful report production? Why you should be worried…

By Bernie Smith | May 28, 2014

The problem with a good Reporting/MI/Analytics team is that they make it all look too easy. They will often go through a very painful report production process (particularly for executive meetings) and deliver against all the odds. This usually involves heroic efforts of chasing, data manipulation and spreadsheet gymnastics. The reports get generated and the Reporting/MI/Analytics…

Defining KPIs: How the wrong KPI shut schools

By Bernie Smith | May 13, 2014

Defining KPIs clearly is crucial. Badly defined KPIs have unfortunate side effects. The cobra effect is one of my favourites. Most people agree that going to school is good for children. This means that there is a government focus on truancy as a measure. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons why children cannot get to school. One such reason is snow. A singular focus on truancy…

Managing KPIs with Excel?

By Bernie Smith | March 13, 2014

Are you managing KPIs with Excel? I often hear that Excel is not capable of managing KPIs but in reality that is rare. Consider this, your PC, laptop or tablet has more than a million times the computing power of the Apollo moon missions. Excel is an extraordinarily powerful, flexible and widely used application. So…

The wrong KPI. Dangers of the ‘obvious’ measure

By Bernie Smith | March 8, 2014

  A powerful example of  wrong KPI is a measure used in call centres. Many of us have experienced a call centre agent who is clearly dying to get us off the line (even if they are scripted to hurriedly ask you ‘Is there anything else I can help you with today, Mr Smith?’). The…