| Performance management software is a software | | | | performance management solution, look for the |
| application that you use to keep track of how your | | | | capabilities that you would want the software to have. |
| organization is doing. This type of software replaces | | | | These can include everything that you have been |
| relying on printed or static reports or even trying to | | | | doing manually so far and a lot of it depends on the |
| manage a home-made performance management | | | | kind of organization that you run. |
| system using spreadsheets. The software | | | | For organizations selling products, you are measuring |
| automatically takes in new actuals and results from | | | | how much of each SKU is stored in inventory and |
| your enterprise databases and compares them to | | | | how in-stock and turnover rates of specific SKU's are |
| budgets, targets, goals and/or forecasts. So charts, | | | | performing in comparison to each other. Any |
| diagrams and graphs are created automatically and | | | | organization also needs to keep track of sales |
| and are free from human error, guaranteeing | | | | performance on many different levels, daily, weekly, |
| maximum accuracy. Also, since the process is | | | | monthly, or annually. For multi-national corporations, |
| completely automated, your daily, weekly, or monthly | | | | every aspect of business comes in to play, including |
| analysis of your enterprise performance becomes | | | | manufacturing efficiency, market mechanics, individual |
| much more streamlined and the time savings leads to | | | | performance tracking and other things. The application |
| greater productivity. | | | | that you purchase should allow you to track any type |
| Performance management solutions are mainly aimed | | | | of data, such as these, rather than being dedicated |
| at medium to large companies that have to keep track | | | | only to one functional area. This also means the |
| of the performance of various lines of business and | | | | application needs to access unlimited disparate data |
| departmental functions. This might include, but is not | | | | sources in one interface. The application should be |
| limited to inventory tracking, sales performance, | | | | flexible enough to allow comparisons of any historical |
| geographical tracking of actuals and a lot of other key | | | | and current data, to slice and dice by various drivers, |
| metrics that keep the business performing well. The | | | | and include visualization features to permit the |
| main aim is to provide a easy way for business | | | | discovery of patterns or trends in the data. |
| managers and executives to keep track of how the | | | | Flexibility for date selection and date grouping are |
| business is faring at any given time. So there are | | | | other features that should be supported in the |
| various aspects to be looked into while you go about | | | | software that you are evaluating. This means that the |
| selecting performance management software. | | | | software should have to ability to easily expand and |
| The first thing to do is not to get confused by the lingo. | | | | contract the timeline of any displayed data that is date |
| You will read terms like Corporate Performance | | | | based. For example, take daily and monthly sales |
| Management (CMP), Business Performance | | | | numbers. By looking at a larger time frame you will be |
| Management (BPM) or Strategic Performance | | | | easily able to locate patterns, such as seasonal ones, if |
| Management (SPM). In actuality, they are one and the | | | | any exist. There should also geo-tagging features, |
| same, and at the most they are only slightly varied. All | | | | whereby large companies with a national and/or global |
| of them aim to give you the necessary tools to track | | | | presence can keep track of their performances by |
| your organization. So when you are looking for a | | | | area. |