Inside ASI-AP

I missed posting both the customer survey results for Q1 and the BSC results. So this is a catch up for Q1. I should have the Q2 results done in the next couple of weeks, so look out for those then.

Q1 is a great example of how the BSC works as a management system. Before the BSC we generally managed the business on financial results. But in the balanced scorecard, financial results are only 1 perspective of 4 total perspectives. The financial results for Q1 in AP were outstanding, and without the BSC everyone would be happy. But if you look at our BSC strategy map below you will see we have some significant red areas in the 3 other perspectives. And since it flows from bottom up, reds will eventually flow up and lead to poor financial outcomes if they are not addressed now.

The BSC results for AP for the 4th quarter of 2007 are now compiled. AP had a very strong quarter in Q4 for BSC results and gives two back-to-back quarters (Q3 and Q4) of doing what we are being asked to do.

12 out of 19 measures are at or above plan ('green'), a 63% attainment. 6 measures are at caution level ('yellow'), and 1 measure is below plan ('red'). The 'red' measures have been reduced from 8 'red' measures in Q2 down to just 1 this quarter.

My main area of concern for the results has been some minor negative trends over the second half of the year in the measures of customer retention, participation and satisfaction. We need a greater focus across all departments in these areas for 2008.

I have loaded up the full (detailed) BSC results for both AP and ASI globally for each of the three quarters so far completed in 2007. Each of these wiki pages are ASI-only and you need to be logged into this site as an ASI staff member to get access. The home page for the results is here, or click the 'Wikis' link in the top navigation bar.

Any feedback or questions on the BSC results please email or call me ext. 7555.

The BSC results for AP for the 3rd quarter of 2007 are now compiled and the BSC wall in the Melbourne office has been updated. AP had a very strong quarter in Q3 for BSC results - which in short means we are doing the things we are being asked to do by the ASI Board. We also showed a significant improvement over Q2. This is a great result and everyone should be very proud.

13 out of 19 measures are at or above plan ('green'), a 68% attainment (up from 37% in the previous quarter). 4 measures are at caution level ('yellow'), and 2 measures are below plan ('red').

For this quarter's address from Bob we all gathered over pizza in the Melbourne boardroom on Monday and listened in to Bob's recorded presentation (he gave the presentation live to the US team in the early hours of Saturday morning). The timing was good for this event with all the consultants in town for iMIS 15 bootcamp training, and other than Andrew, Ross and Keith who were on leave, everyone was together for the first time in about a year (although we did have Amanda and Peter on video conference from Sydney, not present in person).

The presentation is available for streaming to staff via our website here http://www.advsol.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=CEO_Quarterly_Updates.

I have completed compiling the BSC results for AP for the 2nd quarter of 2007. I will be updating the BSC wall in the Melbourne office in a few days; in the meantime, if you want to see a full copy of the BSC report detail, please ask me.

7 out of 19 measures are at or above plan ('green'), a 37% attainment. 4 measures are at caution level, and 8 measures are below plan ('red'). The significant 'red' areas are in the perspectives of Learning & Growth, and Financial.

FINANCIAL PERSPECTIVE
Increase Global Consulting Contribution Margin - YELLOW
Increase License Related Revenue - RED

These wiki pages are being moved to the separate 7 business drivers wiki site here www.7businessdrivers.com/wiki.

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Our Partnership Program is based around 7 business drivers for high performance non-profits. I thought it would be useful to track how ASI AP is internally being managed against these 7 business drivers.

Although targeted specifically at non-profits, they are directly related to the 12 principles of the Australian Business Excellence Framework, and relevant to our own business. I also think it helps to better understand the importance of the business drivers to our customers by making them more tangible to things we do here in the AP region.

I posted earlier in the year about the need to become decompartmentalised. Last week I was in the airport bookshop and noticed the front cover of May's Harvard Business Review (HBR www.hbr.org) an article called "Silo Busting - How to Execute on the Promise of Customer Focus".

I only buy this magazine occassionally, since it costs about $30 every month, but I did buy this one. Over the years HBR has published some world famous management pieces, including Peter Drucker (often referred to as the father of modern management). I am also a regular listener to the HBR IdeaCast (also available via iTunes), a free bi-weekly podcast.

Our second round of customer surveys is underway this week. About 50 customers have been selected to be included in this round. A slight change to our process this time, in that those customers selected for the survey have been informed in advance via email that the survey is underway. Last quarter, we had a few customers concerned that it was our competitors calling them pretending to ask how iMIS is going.

The first quarter 2007 CEO update teleconference was presented early Saturday morning by our CEO Bob Alves. An audio recording is now available to all AP staff on the staff website. To access the teleconference navigate to the staff portal and login. Under News there is a link “Hear the latest CEO Quarterly Update”. Click on this and you will be taken to a page where we will store all the quarterly updates. Click on the 1st quarter 2007 update.

The direct URL link to the update is here.

The day after the Innovations conference – on Wednesday 2 May – was the ASI management meeting. This started mid-morning and ran through to about 5pm. The meeting was chaired by Bob and was conducted in person at the conference hotel, since most people were already attending conference. In attendance were VP's and Director level managers, and also all the regional sales managers, plus myself, Niroo and Andy representing the international offices (AP, Europe and Canada respectively). All up about 25 people.

I have been working with a couple of you on setting work plan goals for the next couple of months so I thought I would also share my own (not in priority order):

We have had a slow start to the 2007 year so far. Q1 revenues are $1.32m vs budget of $1.55m (15% behind) and compared to last year of $1.65m (20% behind). EBITDA was 31% ahead of budget, but still 41% behind last year.

We held our quarterly management meeting on Friday 16 March. This was for quarter 4 of 2006, which was also the year end. Like the previous management meeting, we used the Balanced Scorecard as our agenda for the meeting. For the first time, we had a full year (4 quarters) of BSC results to review. I posted a summary of these BSC results in a previous post.

Home page for the full Balanced Scorecard results and other resources related to the internal use of BSC for ASI AP. Note that all these pages are ASI only and the full BSC results (which include detailed financial analysis) are strictly confidential.