In a recent survey looking at scorecard usage it was discovered that 68% of the responders were using spreadsheets and 11% using free form documents to manage their scorecards. Only 19% were using dedicated software. When it comes to managing strategy and business performance, in today’s environment using spreadsheets and documents just will not cut it!
Selecting strategy management software can be difficult; there are many viable products in the market today. It is important to be clear on what you require from the product from the outset. You should start with a simple checklist approach with a rating system to allow you to make the first cut. The table below could be used as a starting point:
The areas for examination are those things that are most important to you. The checklist above covers a wide variety of functional and a few non-functional areas. For more information on each, take a look at Selecting Strategy Management Software.
When completed, the table may end up looking something like this:
The commentary is sometimes just as valuable as the rating/score. It may well cause you to weight the certain areas if they are really important to your business. In which case, it may be worth adding a ‘Weight’ column to allow for a final weighted score. The above is reasonably comprehensive and will give you a good start when selecting strategy management software.
