key performance indicators

If you are struggling to define your company's key performance indicators (KPIs), here is a useful bit of information. I recently discovered an interesting website dedicated to identifying KPIs for just about every category you can think of. And it is FREE!

Yes, indeed -- a website described as "The free Key Performance Indicator (KPI) Library is a community of business professionals that provides guidance in identifying and prioritizing the KPIs that really matter for your organization's success." The categories include business, compliance & legislation, environmental, finance, HR, IT, outsourcing, procurement, project portfolio, R & D, supply chain & logistics, and many others. Warning -- you have to register to use the site but I found it quite useful.

The site contains (at the time of this posting) 943 KPIs. Here are a few by name:

Market share gain comparison %
Ad click-through ratio (CTR)
Cash dividends paid
Share price
Perfect Order Measure
Average customer recency
Average number of trackbacks per post
Number of past due loans
% of service requests posted via web (self-help)
Total energy used per unit of production
Cumulative Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)

With each entry, you get a definition, the category it belongs to, and the ability to share it using any number of book marking applications. You can also comment on the KPI and add your own to the listing. As an example, here is the entry for Cumulative Annual Growth Rate (CAGR):

"This tells the story about any company as to what rate the company has grown over years irrespective of consistency in growth YoY basis. A company might have one successful year and then a bad year. If you compare the growth rate YoY basis it may give a different picture and be concluded as lack of consistency in management. But if one looks at the CAGR, it will explain the real growth over years. It is calculated as:

=Power(Revenue Year (n)/Revenue Year(1),1/n) - 1

Where, Revenue Year (n)= n-th year Revenue Revenue Year(1) = 1st year Revenue"

And on it goes...

Variable Types

Types of Variables:

The type of variable being used. This determines the object that the variable represents as a placeholder for a concrete value.

Structure

There are different types of variables depending on the object for which you want to define variables. These types specify where you can use the variables.

· Characteristic Value Variables

Characteristic value variables represent characteristic values and can be used wherever characteristic values are used.

If you restrict characteristics to specific characteristic values, you can also use characteristic value variables.

· Hierarchy Variables

Hierarchy variables represent hierarchies and can be used wherever hierarchies can be selected.

If you restrict characteristics to specific hierarchies or select presentation hierarchies, you can also use hierarchy variables.

· Hierarchy Node Variables

Hierarchy node variables represent a node in a hierarchy and can be used wherever hierarchy nodes are used.

If you restrict characteristics to specific hierarchy nodes, you can also use hierarchy node variables.

· Text Variables

Text variables represent a text and can be used in descriptions of queries, calculated key figures and structural components.