Information Builders Delivers Latest Version of Performance Management Framework

03/10/2010

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Enhanced Customization and Personalization Enable More Effective Measurement of Corporate Performance

Information Builders, the independent leader in operational business intelligence (BI) solutions, today announced the availability of Performance Management Framework 5.2 (PMF 5.2), a comprehensive and customizable application suite for measuring and executing business strategies.

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This latest release allows users to better manage business performance and strategy through custom, personalized dashboards, as well as the ability to integrate with Web 2.0 gadgets and other critical corporate performance management (CPM) applications.

For example, PMF 5.2 enables a sales director to access regional or product details, quickly see where the numbers are lagging, and view what leads are being followed or events are being held. The director can also drill into staff goals and quota attainment to determine how those resources are being applied. Meanwhile, HR professionals can access the same details for employee appraisals and the supply-chain director can work directly with vendors through vendor-facing SLA dashboards, score against industry benchmarks, or access third-party feeds from social media sites like Twitter. PMF brings all this performance data together in interactive dashboards tailored to specific audiences.

"Many companies still struggle to get useful, accurate, and actionable information into the hands of managers so they can consistently make the best decision faster," remarked Robert Kugel, senior vice president of Ventana Research. "The data visualization capabilities in the latest release of Information Builders Performance Management Framework, its dashboards, charts and gadgets, break new ground. They improve user comprehension of business data, increase their productivity in using the data, and encourage them to become smarter about its finer points and implications."

Enterprises in every industry are using performance management, including Premier Manufacturing, Maasstad Hospital, and ProRail, who are awaiting this new release and innovations in the areas of dashboard personalization, strategy and risk management, Web 2.0 collaboration, and systems interoperability.

New Capabilities in PMF 5.2

PMF 5.2 introduces a variety of features to help business users design an analytic experience that best suits their needs without the assistance of IT support. For example, business users can easily design highly interactive dashboards by choosing from more than 60 information gadgets, including Adobe Flex and other third-party content, to help them observe trends and make informed business decisions. Business users can even create custom gadgets by mashing up third-party content into existing gadget templates.

Within any company, c-level executives set specific goals and outline strategies for achieving these goals. These strategies can be detailed and tracked within the PMF system. Conversely, companies can manage risk within the system by determining their greatest risks and consequences, and tracking key risk indicators (KRIs) that may prohibit them from reaching their goals.

For example, the Risk Management Association (RMA) defines thousands of KRIs that international businesses face. PMF 5.2 enables business users to build strategies using these RMA-certified KRIs.

In addition, business users within the same company can interact, collaborate, and share information about their enterprise metrics and strategies. Through a variety of Web 2.0 gadgets, users can mash up external content into their dashboards, further extending their view. With PMF 5.2, teams can not only track metrics and compare them to targets, but also socialize this information with their teams in three different ways to make the changes necessary to meet company goals.

Business users can set up and receive alerts based on predefined conditions and also comment and forward alerts for action or response. Users can blog about any specific metrics or strategic goals, enabling collaboration directly within the system. Lastly, managers can create specific tasks, or action items, for themselves and their team to take tangible steps to solve a problem.

PMF 5.2 also enables enterprises to interface with business-critical applications and systems, such as Tagetik CPM, Microsoft SharePoint, and other vendor systems and platforms. Business users can work with metrics, trends, and predictive analytics from disparate systems to align and understand the information in a way that is useful for making smart decisions.

"Over the last few years, we have focused on providing best-in-class capabilities and high ROI while the larger vendors struggle in their efforts to deliver customer value by combining their acquired systems," said David Cook, Director of Performance Management at Information Builders. "PMF remains independent of vendor ERP, CRM, or other systems and in doing so, provides a holistic and comprehensive way to measure, manage, analyze, and communicate business performance and risk. PMF helps our customers remain future-proofed against changes in their markets, strategies, and their other vendor systems."