Introduction

Business Performance Indicators (BPI): Business performance metrics, also known as business performance indicators (BPIs), are data points that help professionals of all levels maintain greater visibility into the health of their business. For example, as a sales manager one BPI you would likely keep an eye on would be your Actual Sales vs. Forecast Sales. Task: You will be given a BPI name to define and describe. You will also describe the parameters of a chart that would be representative of that BPI. BPI Analyst Requirements: While it may be easier for a person with sales experience to explain sales BPIs, the task does not necessarily require first-hand knowledge of a particular industry or role. Analysts who can be resourceful, thoughtful, and imaginative can be successful describing the BPIs. Rules: Follow BPI Field Requirements Instructions Carefully: Entries that do not follow the instructions will not be accepted. Complete All Required BPI Fields: These are indicated with a (Required) on the BPI Field Requirements section of this document. Clearly Understood: Communicate as clearly and as succinctly as possible. Use a professional third person voice to complete answers. Incomplete sentences and redundancy will significantly reduce the chances of BPI acceptance. Our BPI review committee will be evaluating many submissions and will not accept submissions for which they must assume or translate the Analysts meaning. Detail: The richer the explanations and descriptions, the more likely the BPI is to be accepted.

Example BPI
Refer to the example in this section for clarification on data entry into the BPI Entry Form. Note: Most analysts find it easiest to fill out the fields in the spreadsheet if they draw and label a chart which represents the BPI, and also create a table which would provide the hypothetical supporting data for the chart (just as we have done in the example BPI Actual Sales vs. Forecast Sales). You are not required to submit a drawing or a hypothetical table, it would be solely for your own reference. Example: Example of a completed entry (Figure A) for the given BPI Actual Sales vs. Forecast Sales. The table and the graph (Figure B) are an example of what a data source and graph might look like for this BPI. To clarify, we are not asking analysts to provide us the data table and the graph; rather, we are asking analysts to fill in the BPI Definition Form so that a graph and table could be derived from the information in the spreadsheet. Figure A | Sample BPI Entry Given BPI: Actual Sales vs. Forecast Sales
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(Note: KPI is the same as BPI)

Figure B | Sample Data Table and Graph

BPI Field Requirements

These are the rules for data entry into the BPI Entry Form. Refer to examples for further

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clarification. Instructions: All values in a field with multiple entries should be separated with a semicolon, NOT with a comma. Example: Orders vs. Forecast Orders; Sales Projections; may be multiple entries in the BPI Title Alias field. Use a colon as shown in the example screen shot. Generally, a colon is used to replace the statement is equal to. Example: X: Month; Y: Sales; for the Axis Label field (Required) indicates the field is required in all BPIs. Non required fields should be filled in when possible. Fields with obvious repeat cut and pasting will not be accepted. Plagarism will not be accepted. BPI Title: The value for this field is given. Example: Actual Sales vs. Forecast Sales Group: The value for this field is given. Primary usage of this BPI by group (options: industry, function, or role). For the example BPI "Actual Sales vs. Forecast Sales" the Group would be "Function" and the Area would be Sales. Area: The value for this field is given. Primary usage of this BPI by subsection within the group selected. For the example BPI "Actual vs. Forecast Sales" the Group would be Function" and the Area would be Sales. BPI Title Alias: Potential alternate names for the title that will be used as search tags for the BPI. Enter the BPI Title Alias using title (proper) case. Example: Orders vs. Forecast Orders; for the BPI Actual Sales vs. Forecast Sales. BPI Description (Required): Answer the question, what is this BPI? The description of some simple BPIs may seem to be encapsulated in the BPI title. However, we would push the analyst to include all information in this section that could help clarify what the BPI measures. Write in a complete sentence; avoid the use of first person writing. Example: This BPI tracks total sales for the organization during a given period and compares it to forecasted sales. BPI Purpose (Required): Answer the question, why should this BPI be tracked? or what is the value in this BPI? Think as if you were the user of this BPI trying to explain to an outsider why you look at this data. Write in a complete sentence; avoid the use of first person writing. DO NOT just restate the description beginning with To visualize . . . or To show etc.

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Example: This BPI helps an organization monitor sales performance to ensure sales targets are being achieved. The indicator helps predict business success; it also demonstrates how well the sales team is able to forecast. Example: For another BPI called Current Cleanliness the description and purpose are as shown:

BPI Formula: Formula used to calculate measures displayed on the BPI chart. You may include definitions of terms or measures. The formula will follow the format: Measure = Formula. If multiple measures should display on the chart, enter a formula for each measure, separated by semi-colons. Some charts will not require a formula to calculate the BPI. (The word measure should not be in the actual equation. See example) Example: Current Issues = # Reported Cleanliness Issues - # Resolved Cleanliness Issues; (see Figure C below). BPI Dimension Filters(Required): List all the possible ways that this BPI could be filtered. Some of the most common examples would be Date; Location; Region; Territory; Product; Customer; Salesperson; Line of Business; Department. If the dimension has specific values, enter them in ( ). Each BPI should have 5-10 Dimension Filters. Example: Order Month; Salesperson; Territory(east, west, north, south); Chart Type (Required): Choose the most effective chart type (from our dropdown selection) to display your BPI. Some of these graphs are shown as examples at the bottom of this document. If you are unsure of what other graphs look like, perform a Google search to learn more about the graph type. Chart Legend: A chart will generally require a legend if there are multiple measures (or formulas) being measured on the chart (multi-line chart; stacked vertical bar chart), or if the chart type is not displayed using a grid (pie chart, map, funnel, etc.). (See Figure D below.) A simple line or bar chart does not require a legend. Axis Labels (Required): The chart labels that you would like to have for your X and Y Axes. Example: X: Date; Y: Sales; Axis Field (Required): Identify the dataset field(s) containing the data that will show on the chart axis. It may be helpful to sketch a quick spreadsheet with column headers and sample data. Most of the time, a chart will have just an X axis field; however, charts such as a stacked bar chart or a funnel chart will have both X and Y axis fields(See Figure E below.)
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Example: X: Order Date;

Measure (Required): What does this BPI measure? These are the column headers for measures in the data set. A BPI may have one or multiple measures. (See Figure B above.) Example: Order Amount; Forecast Order Amount; since there are two columns from the spreadsheet being measured. Sample Data Minimum Value (Required): As the graph will be randomly generating values based solely on the information in this table, you need to designate a reasonable minimum and maximum value for the BPI measure. Base the value on the assumption that your BPI represents a company with 200 employees and $150million in revenue. Sample Data Maximum Value (Required): As the graph will be randomly generating values based solely on the information in this table, you need to designate a reasonable minimum and maximum value for the BPI measure. Base the value on the assumption that your BPI represents a company with 200 employees and $150million in revenue. Sort (Required): Indicates whether the items entered in Axis Field should increase or decrease along their respective axis. Use :A for ascending and :D for descending. You may use :C in the case where you would like to have a custom sort. (IMPORTANT: THE ITEM IN SORT SHOULD MATCH THE ITEM IN AXIS FIELD) Example: Order Date: A; Green Direction (Required): Green Direction is used to indicate if a positive increase in the value is good or bad. If favorable when increasing, then the green direction is "up". If favorable when decreasing then the Green Direction is "down". If neither, specify for neutral for a direction that carries neither a positive or negative value. Example: for the BPI Actual Sales vs. Forecast Sales the Green Direction is Up since an increase in the sales totals would be favorable. Data Filter (Required): Default range of data that supports the chart. If you used a specific type of date in the Axis Field, specify that date type here. (IMPORTANT: THE ITEM IN DATA FILTER SHOULD MATCH THE ITEM IN SORT AND AXIS FIELD, IF A SPECIFIC TYPE OF DATE WAS USED, see Figure A above) Example: Order Date: Last 12 Months; would display the last 12 months of data Example: Period Date: Last 24 Months; Department: Sales (see Figure F below) Default Value: Think of this as the grain on a line chart or vertical bar chart. State if data should initially be displayed by: hour, day, week, month, quarter, year, etc. Select YearMonth to display a year next to a month for a chart that displays multiple years of data. Example: Order Date: YearMonth; would display one data point for each month BPI Notes: Any additional notes that you need to add to help explain the BPI.

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Figure C | Sample BPI Entry Chart Type: Vertical Bar

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Figure D | Sample BPI Entry Chart Type: Pie

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Figure E | Sample BPI Entry Chart Type: Vertical Stacked Bar

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Figure F | Sample BPI Entry Chart Type: Line (Data Filter Example)

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Appendix I: Graph Examples

Multi Line

Vertical Bar

Map

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Funnel

Heat Map

Grouped Vertical Bar

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Combo Vertical Stacked Bar(y#) Line (z#)

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