External Scorecards

 

Introduction - Functions Overview - Purchase Program

What are External Scorecards

With Balanced Scorecard Designer one can work with external .bsc files, created with BSC Designer. There are some facts behind this:

  • External scorecard file can be local or be in local network;
  • External scorecard file can be placed on web-server;
  • Before importing from local scorecard you can run some script;

When selects the external .bsc file the program reads available indicators and groups, then user can link the particular indicator or group into his own scorecard.

  • Linking is not static, BSC Designer tries to read values from external file every time user open his scorecard;
  • User cannot change imported values in his scorecard, he can only change the weight of imported value;
  • When linking to external scorecard time points are also supported.
  • As BSC Designer can run some external program before importing, this external program can modify the scorecard in any way and fill the imported scorecard with necessary data.

How to link your scorecard to external scorecard?

Follow these simple steps:

  1. Select the group that will be parent for imported indicator
  2. Select "Import Indicator" option from Edit menu
  3. If you wish to link to local file select "From file" tab, if you wish to link to file located on server select HTTP. If you connecting to file located online, you might need a help of your system administrator. Don't forget to add BSC Designer to the list of approved applications in your FireWall. Right now you can try connecting to external scorecard on our server using URL http://www.strategy2act.com/support/sample_scorecard.bsc.
  4. Then you should click "Select" button and select the name of indicator to be imported.
  5. Once you click OK, you will see the name of new indicator in Balanced Scorecard tree, you can change its local name and weight.

Integration by independent developer

Independent developers can create applications which will help to integrate scorecard with any business solution.

Software designed could create an application, which will analyze passed parameters and depending on users' requirements create .bsc file with data to import.

Check the list of possible parameters in the hint text of "Parameters" text box:

  • %indicator_name% - this is the name of indicator in "parent" scorecard, which initiate importing
  • %project_name% - this is the .bsc project name
  • %imported_indicator_name% - this is the original name of indicator in "child" scorecard, e.g. scorecard which is source of imported data.

The following scheme shows how BSC Designer can be integrated with other applications:

  1. Software developer should create a program which reads passed parameters (such as "name of indicator") and as a result create a simple .bsc file (the bsc file is in XML format, available for third-party developers).
  2. User in BSC Designer select "Run script before import" and specify the application and necessary parameters, for instance "script.exe %indicator_name%"

As a result the program will run script before reading data, the script will create necessary information to read and pass it to user's scorecard.

Sometime it is good idea to developer script and use described scheme, but there is also a possibility to import data using SQL indicators.

Why linking to external Balanced Scorecard is important?

It is a very simple way to link several scorecards in one main scorecard. For instance, your financial director might be in charge of developing financial indicators, you HR manager might be responsible for HR-related things etc. You as a CEO can put together several scorecards by getting indicators and their values from different sources.

Also, using external script or SQL indicator one can integrate his balanced scorecard with almost any business systems, such as ERP or CRM.