Key Performance Indicator or KPI is measurable unit, which defines how efficiently your business achieves its goals. KPIs are used to evaluate how successful your business is at reaching targets.
Reasons to select KPI program
Manually creating KPI details needs business to spend inordinate time on collate and analysis. By the time KPI reports get submitted, the situation becomes historic. You can’t act on-time, opportunities get restricted, and your competition gains an edge over you.
KPI application offers businesses a focused platform, which creates, manages, and analysis major performance data. You need to enter KPI data in a specifically designed outlay instead of using the traditional methods like spreadsheet.
Businesses can benefit from quick data collection, immediate performance reports, and alerts when KPI is under or over achieving. This gives an opportunity to uplift and gain competitive edge.
Benefits of choosing cloud-based KPI app
- Saves money significantly
- Centralizes business data
- Real-time reporting helps to gain competitive edge
- Increases backup and storage aspect
- Accessibility from anywhere
- Automated updates
KPI dashboards are crucial
Monitoring and reporting is an essential task of KPI. If they fluctuate in real-time, you need to monitor it in real-time. For KPI reports dashboards are good because they visually define the performance of a particular department, enterprise, or main business operation.
KPI program selection or customization
KPI software selection is tough because there are many vendors offering endless list of solutions. It ranges from data visualization tools like dashboards to intricate forecasting system. All of them claim to be a part of the KPI program, so how will you select an ideal one for your business.
- Determine your business goal for KPI clearly
- Perform a thorough research
- Decide to use web-based solution or desktop version
- Go for a system, which has entry, analysis, dashboard and reports in one place
- Opt for a vendor, who covers majority of your needs without having to spend on expensive elements like forecasting
- KPI needs to be versatile to suit your business development needs
- KPI objectives need to be updated, whenever necessary
- Involve staff in trial of potential KPI program to find out, if it is attainable
You can even have a KPI program developed specially to suit your business situation.
Integrate KPI best practices
Business performance measuring is crucial but choosing the wrong KPIs to focus on can be bad. Therefore, avoid KPIs that are poorly structured or hard to understand or costly or needs regular monitoring. The factors that avoid detrimental KPI creation need to be considered. The selected KPI’s best practices are –
- Aligned – KPI needs to align with your business goals and objectives
- Attainable – Data needs to be obtained easily
- Accurate – flowing data needs to be accurate and reliable
- Acute – Everyone needs to be kept on same page and even move in same direction
- Actionable – Enables to get an insight into your business
- Active – Readily evolve to developing and changing business needs
With the right KPI, you will not lose your focus from true metrics crucial to your business.