Introduction

What is KPIfix?
KPIfix is an online balanced scorecard application that helps companies turn their strategy into action. It is a simple, affordable data entry system that helps companies implement and manage a Balanced Scorecard.

What is a Balanced Scorecard?
Developed by two Harvard professors, Dr's Kaplan and Norton, the Balanced Scorecard is a management system that enables a company to clarify, track and achieve its overall strategy. Typically companies manage their businesses using primarily financial measures. The balanced scorecard proposes a more rounded or “balanced” way of managing a business in that it looks at a company from four perspectives – financial, customer, internal operations and learning and growth. Tracking more elements than just financial allows a company to focus on both short and long term success. The term “scorecard” refers to the tracking and monitoring of the key performance indicators (KPI’s) that are central to the balanced scorecard and critical to the company’s success.

How does the Balanced Scorecard work?
The overall strategy is broken down and considered from four perspectives of the business: financial, customer, internal process, and learning and growth. Within each perspective, the overall vision and strategy is broken down into strategic objectives. For example, within the financial perspective, a strategic objective might be to increase profit. In order for the strategic objective to be met, certain actions need to take place. These “actions” are the “doing” of the strategy – what needs to be done to meet the goal. The actions are called Key Performance Indicators or KPI’s. In our example, a KPI might be to decrease costs.

Why is Balanced Scorecard important to my organization?
Simply put: what gets measured gets done! People in the organization get assigned the responsibility of managing the performance of the KPI’s, their understanding of the company’s strategy becomes clear. The Balanced Scorecard is a powerful management system that allows organizations to flesh out their overall strategy into actionable goals and objectives. Strategy becomes everybody’s job. Keeping your finger on the pulse of KPI’s in the business is vital to stay ahead in this fiercely competitive market. Having more than just financial data at your fingertips allows you to make better, more proactive decisions involving ALL aspects of your business.

Who should use a Balanced Scorecard?
KPIfix is designed specifically for small to mid-sized organizations in any industry, goods or services, manufacturing or distribution, private or public, for profit and non-profit organizations. The application is built on a powerful SQL database so it is extremely robust and scalable for large companies, yet very simple and affordable for the smallest of companies. Basically, anyone that wants to execute their plan or strategy should use a Balanced Scorecard.

Getting Started

Signing Up
All KPIfix plans can only be used if you sign up for an easy-in, easy-out subscription. You can cancel at any time. No long term contracts are required.

Creating an account
When you sign up for an account, you will create a username (your email address) and password. This becomes your login information.

Can I customize my Balanced Scorecard?
You can fully customize your scorecard depending on the nature of your business. Once you create your account, log into “Balanced Scorecard Setup” and you can add, edit, delete any of the objectives, KPI’s and sub-KPI’s.

What is the company administrator?
The company administrator is the person who signed up for a KPIfix account. The company admin is the only person who can control billing information or cancel an account. The company admin is also the only person that can setup new users.

Where can I add a user to my account?
Log on to your KPIfix account. Click on “My Account”, and on “User Admin”, then at the bottom of the list, click on “Add new User”.

Is there an easy permissions structure?
Yes. Users are labeled as either access level 1, 2, or 3.
1 = Administrator (can do and see everything)
2 = Input user (can input scores against KPI’s)
3 = View User (only has read access to view all dashboards)

Is my data I enter onto KPIfix safe and secure?
We take all reasonable steps necessary to protect your data and keep it safe, secure and private. KPIfix uses a state of the art hosting company and we are certified by VeriSign Inc. We use SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology which means the information you exchange between your computer and our servers is fully secure.

Is my data private?
KPIfix and its web site www.kpifix.com is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to enable individuals and organizations to establish trusting relationships based on respect for personal identity and information by promoting the use of fair information practices.

Billing

Do I have to sign a contract?
No. KPIfix practices easy-in, easy-out billing options. If you choose to cancel your account, we will stop billing your credit card and delete all your information on our site.

How do I cancel my Account?
Only the Company Administrator (the person who signed up for the KPIfix account) can cancel an account. Log onto your account, go to the user admin section, and click the box called “Cancel my account”.

When will you bill my credit card?
On the last business day of each month. We'll bill your credit card the day prior to a month end that falls on a weekend or public holiday. This charge will be for the following month’s service.

What if I cancel half way through the month?
You can cancel anytime during a month. However, we will not refund you for the unused portion of

How does the 30 Day Free Account work?
All plans come with a 30 Day Free trial period. When you sign up, you will need to enter your credit card information which we will validate for future billing periods. If you cancel your account within 30 days, we will not bill your credit card.

What is your Refund Policy?
KPIfix does not give out partial period refunds. If you cancel your account at any time during any month we will simply stop billing your credit card from there onwards. You would have been billed for a full period on the last business day of the previous month. The onus is on you to remember to cancel your account.

Learning

What is a Balanced Scorecard?
The Balanced Scorecard is a management system that enables a company to set, track and achieve its overall strategy. Typically companies manage their businesses primarily using financial measures. The balanced scorecard proposes a more rounded or “balanced” way of managing a business in that it looks at a company from four perspectives – financial, customer, internal operations and learning and growth. Tracking more elements than just financial allows a company to focus on both short and long term success. The term “scorecard” refers to the tracking and monitoring of the key performance indicators (KPI’s) that are central to the balanced scorecard and critical to the company’s success.

What is a Perspective?
A perspective of the Balanced Scorecard framework is a view or angle to look at your business. There are typically four perspectives in a Balance Scorecard:

What is an Objective?
An objective, or strategic objective, according to the Balanced Scorecard framework is essentially what you want to accomplish? Where you want to go? How do you want to be seen? It's the how, what, where and when questions of your vision and strategy.

What is a KPI?
A Key Performance Indicator or KPI is an indication of the performance of a key area in your business. KPI’s are functions in your organization that are critical or “key” to its success. KPI’s are the actions or the doing of your strategy. If you “do” them well, you should succeed.

What is a Strategy?
Strategy, very simply, is how we get from point A to point B? It starts with identifying what or where point A is. Where are we now? This often involves a SWOT analysis – looking at your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Then you need to determine where or what point B is? What do you want to accomplish? Where do you want to go? Strategy then takes all this into account and defines the best way of getting from point A to point B.

What is a strategy map?
A strategy map is typically a one page graphical representation of your overall strategy – how your objectives and measures tie together and interrelate between the four perspectives of the balanced scorecard. It graphically displays the cause and effect relationships between all the objectives and measures.

What is a strategic theme?
It’s a group of strategic objectives. Strategic objectives are sometimes grouped into broad categories or themes to help clarify and define the purpose and function of the strategies.

What is a strategic Initiative?
In order to plug the gap between current and desired performance on a particular strategic objective, a company may initiate a series of initiatives or programs that define what needs to be done to pick up performance. For example, if a company’s strategy is to increase sales and things are not progressing according to plan, a company might implement a new promotion to help drive more sales. The sales promotion is the strategic initiative.

General

Can I export my data?
Yes. Email us at info@kpifix.com and we will export your data and send it to you.

Can KPIfix connect to any other data systems?
KPIfix is designed for smaller companies where editable databases are not extensively used. For example, small businesses where say QuickBooks and Microsoft Office is used. KPIfix runs as a standalone program where data from multiple sources can be manually input (eg. From a QuickBooks report, MS Excel report, customer survey, production sheets, CRM system, POS system etc).

You mean I have to input the data?
Yes. It takes about 30 seconds for an input user to enter a score against a KPI. We figure this is a LOT less time and a LOT less costly than dealing with the complexity of hooking directly to your data systems. The input responsibility is delegated to the input users assigned to their KPI’s. Have them keep documentation or some kind of substantiation for the scores they input.

Customer Service
If you need help or have questions, please email us on info@kpifix.com and we will respond to your request promptly.