Below we have identified four common problems and how to solve them.
Firstly, what are Key Performance Indicators in business management?
Key Performance Indicators or KPIs as they are more commonly known are a way of measuring how well the business is meeting its objectives. In other words, KPIs provide organisations with the means of measuring how various aspects of the business are performing in relation to their strategic goals. KPIs provide critical performance-based information that enables an organisation, and its stakeholders, to understand whether or not objectives are on track and thus take action accordingly.
1. How do you measure everything?
Unfortunately, there is often a disconnect between whether something can be measured and whether it should be measured. Therefore, one of the biggest mistakes that people make with KPIs is measuring everything that is easy to measure, regardless of its relevance to the business. It is essential to have a system that provides you with the right tools when it comes to reporting and measuring. Best practice has shown that reporting on risks, issues, budgets and resources, help you make the right business decisions.
2. Not linking KPIs to your strategy
KPIs are only really useful if they are aligned to your strategy and inform strategic decision making. Anything else is just window dressing. When KPIs are not linked to your strategy, you end up wasting a lot of time and money collecting information that is not going to benefit the business. KPIs are useful if they deliver mission-critical information that is relevant to your business. Once you know what you are trying to achieve in your business, you should use those objectives to help you select the relevant KPIs.
3. Providing accurate reporting
It is key for any business to provide accurate reporting in order to deliver a critical analysis of how the business is performing in all areas of the organisation. It is essential to have a tool that can generate a report within seconds and can be downloaded in the form of PDFs or Excel Sheets, which helps you integrate any sort of information.
4. What are the benefits of a project report?
It keeps project stakeholders informed of critical aspects of project health such as status, schedule, issues, scope, resources, cost, etc and allows management to take action to address project issues and risks. Project status reports can also be used to provide a documented history of the project. It is key to have a tool that understands that everyone is in an individual and can give you the ability to filter reports depending on different parameters including programmes or project managers or even the timing.
