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The Latest
New Survey on Performance Management Processes!
Key processes for managing organisational performance include planning and budgeting, financial consolidation, reporting, compliance and risk management, as well as strategy management. This global study explores the key challenges organisations face today, the implications of these challenges on performance management processes, future process improvement priorities as well as integration levels between the different performance management processes.
This empirical study is based on 553 responses from organisations across a wide range industries, countries and company sizes. Most respondents were executives from departments such as finance, IT and general management. The study was conducted between March and May 2009.
The survey finds that daily complexity in business is increasing. A stunning 93 percent of respondents state that complexity of their role has increased due to current challenges that arise from inside and outside the firm. Performance management has become a key enabler for two aspects: (1) helping organisations to provide managers with more decision-relevant information and (2) helping companies to become more transparent and compliant with regulations. Consequently the number of people involved in performance management processes has increased over the last years with an average of 30% across all PM processes. But still more than 80 percent of companies think their PM processes need improvement and started initiatives to tackle the most urgent deficiencies such as data quality, implementation of corporate strategy, and reduction of complexity. Also, the speed and quality of performance management processes is seen as a priority over resource or output quality considerations, showing the enormous pressure companies are facing in the current economic climate. In terms of technology we see an increase in the usage of specialised performance management software which is starting to replace Excel as the dominant tool. Even though respondents indicated that they see major benefits in closer integration, integrated technical platforms that are able to cover multiple PM processes are rare. The biggest gap between perceived benefits and actual integration is between planning and strategy management, compliance and legal consolidation and compliance and planning. This study shows that that improving and integrating performance management processes is seen as a business priority with a high level of expected benefits. Addressing the key challenges outlined in this study will help companies to comply with the increasing complexities and challenging global competition.
The following key messages have emerged from this study:
• Business – Acceleration of processes (faster reporting, shorter planning cycles, fast close) across all existing PM processes is the major improvement priority. – Creation of better links between strategy management and other PM processes is the major integration priority.
• Organisation – PM processes are becoming more complex, with more people involved and an in-creasing number of tools used. This requires careful management. – It is important to better align IT and business so they share a common vision of performance management.
• Technology – Companies do increasingly use more specialised software tools to automate their PM processes, as opposed to using basic spreadsheet tools such as Excel. – There is an increasing need for integrated technology platforms that allow companies to manage performance across the different PM processes. These key messages have emerged from the four sections of this study.
The full study can be downloaded from the resources section of this website: More
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