Copyright

This publication and the software described in it are copyrighted with all rights reserved.
Under the copyright laws, this publication and the software may not be copied in whole or
in part, without the written consent of CorVu Corporation. Under the law, copy includes
translating into another language or format.
The software described in this publication is furnished under a license agreement or nondisclosure agreement. The software may be used or copied only in accordance with the
terms of the agreement.
Copyright CorVu Corporation 2000. All rights reserved.
Trademarks
CorVu is a registered trademark of CorVu Corporation PTY Ltd.
Notice
The information contained in this publication is subject to change without notice.
Although efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the document, CorVu
Corporation assumes no liability for damages incurred directly or indirectly from errors,
omissions, or discrepancies between the software and the publication.
Education Information
For additional course and registration information, call CorVu Corporation at
(612) 944-7777 or toll free at (800) 610-0769.

CorVu North America, Inc.

3400 West 66th Street
Suite 445
Edina, MN 55435
V: (612) 944-7777
V: (800) 610-0769
F: (612) 944-7447

CorVu PTY LTD

Level 4
1 James Place
North Sydney
NSW 2060 Australia
V: (011) 61-2-9959-3552
F: (011) 61-2-9959-3583

CorVu PLC
121 Gloucester Place
London W1H 3PJ
United Kingdom
V: (44) 0171-486-1533
F: (44) 0171-486-1590

CorVu Publications Rev. 2.4 9/25/2000

Preface ii

CorVu Corporation 2000

4.1 Balanced Scorecard

When you have completed this course you will be able to:

Explain the basic philosophy, theory and methodology of Balanced

Scorecard development.

Input data for a scorecard from CorVu scheduled queries or manually

entered data.

Lay out a scorecard that reflects the organizational or departmental

strategy.

Lay out tactical scorecards that support the organizational or

departmental strategy.

Add commentary to the scorecard to better communicate objectives

and to provide a forum for feedback within the scorecard.

Attach drill-down objects (both CorVu and non-CorVu) to any element

of the scorecard to allow the scorecard user to link to further
explanations of KPI performance.

Change the display of the scorecard to look more appealing.

Create, edit and use templates to develop scorecards more easily.

Reference tactical scorecard for strategic scorecards.

Compare data across periods and summarize performance across a time

span.

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Preface iii

Contents
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................................1
PRESENTATION OF BALANCED SCORECARD THEORY..............................................................................1
CHAPTER 1:..........................................................................................ANATOMY OF A SCORECARD
1
OUTBACK FOODS SCORECARD................................................................................................................ 2
SCORECARD PANES............................................................................................................................... 3
MANIPULATING PANES........................................................................................................................... 5
SCORECARD COMMENTARY................................................................................................................... 7
VIEWING STRETCH TARGETS AND WEIGHTS..........................................................................................9
INPUT PATHS...................................................................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER 2:CREATING A STRATEGIC SCORECARD.....................................................................1
CASE STUDY BACKGROUND.................................................................................................................. 2
CREATING A NEW SCORECARD......................................................................................................... 3
CREATING THE STRATEGY..................................................................................................................... 4
DESIGNING THE STRATEGIC SCORECARD................................................................................................ 7
ENHANCING THE STRATGIC SCORECARD..............................................................................................11
ADDING GLOBAL-COMMENTARY......................................................................................................... 13
MODIFYING THE BACKGROUND OF THE STRATEGY ELEMENTS.............................................................15
MODIFYING ICON COLOR AND APPEARANCE........................................................................................16
QUICK REVIEW................................................................................................................................... 17
CHAPTER 2 EXERCISE......................................................................................................................... 19
CHAPTER 3:...........................................................................BUILDING A TACTICAL SCORECARD
1
TACTICAL SCORECARD INFORMATION................................................................................................... 2
CREATING A NEW TACTICAL SCORECARD............................................................................................. 3
ADDING THE INPUTS............................................................................................................................ 4
SPECIFIYING AGGREGATION RULES....................................................................................................... 6
CREATING THE RESULTS....................................................................................................................... 7
DESIGNING THE SCORECARD................................................................................................................. 9
SELECTING MEASURES.......................................................................................................................... 9
SELECTING LINKING COLUMNS........................................................................................................... 10
EDIT STRETCH TARGTS/WEIGHTS....................................................................................................... 12
Best and Worst Values..........................................................................................................................12
Planned Values.....................................................................................................................................13
Benchmark Values................................................................................................................................13
Business As Usual Values....................................................................................................................13
Understanding the Numbers.................................................................................................................14
SELECTING THE TIME PERIOD.............................................................................................................. 15
MODIFYING THE COLORS DISPLAYED..................................................................................................17
QUICK REVIEW................................................................................................................................... 22
CHAPTER 3 EXERCISE.......................................................................................................................... 23
CHAPTER 4:.........................................ATTACHING TACTICAL TO STRATEGIC SCORECARDS
1
LINKING SCORECARDS.......................................................................................................................... 2
DISPLAYING COLOR LEVELS.................................................................................................................. 3
TRIGGERS AND INDICATORS.................................................................................................................. 4
DISPLAYING REFERENCED SCORECARD DATA........................................................................................6
QUICK REVIEW..................................................................................................................................... 7
CHAPTER 4 EXERCISE........................................................................................................................... 8

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CorVu Corporation 2000

CHAPTER 5:BUILDING AN OVERALL TACTICAL SCORECARD..................................................1

CREATING AN OVERALL TACTICAL SCORECARD....................................................................................2
CREATE A NEW SCORECARD................................................................................................................. 3
REFERENCING THE RESULTS.................................................................................................................. 4
ASSIGNING WEIGHTS FOR INDIVIDUAL RESULTS TO OVERALL PERFORMANCE.........................................6
Changing Stretch Targets and Weights................................................................................................. 6
DRILLING INTO REFERENCED RESULTS.................................................................................................. 7
Adding Commentary.............................................................................................................................10
CHAPTER 6:.......................................................ATTACHING DRILL OBJECTS TO SCORECARDS
1
ATTACHING CORVU OBJECTS TO SCORECARD ELEMENTS......................................................................2
QUICK REVIEW..................................................................................................................................... 8
CHAPTER 5 EXERCISE........................................................................................................................... 9
CHAPTER 7:...................................GRAPHING IN STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL SCORECARDS
1
DISPLAYING GRAPHS............................................................................................................................ 2
GENERATING A GRAPH IN A SEPARATE WINDOW...................................................................................2
GRAPHING IN THE STRATEGIC SCORECARD............................................................................................ 4
GRAPHING IN THE TACTICAL SCORECARD............................................................................................. 7
GRAPHING IN THE RESULTS TABLE....................................................................................................... 8
QUICK REVIEW................................................................................................................................... 12
CHAPTER 6 EXERCISE ......................................................................................................................... 15
CHAPTER 8:.................................................................USING TEMPLATES AND MANUAL INPUTS
1
ACCESSING TEMPLATES........................................................................................................................ 2
MANUALLY ENTERING DATA................................................................................................................ 2
ADDING MANULALLY ENTERED INPUT.................................................................................................. 5
CREATING A NEW TEMPLATE................................................................................................................ 7
CHAPTER 7 EXERCISE........................................................................................................................... 9
CHAPTER 9: VIEWING NEW PERIODS IN THE SCORECARD........................................................1
VIEWING NEW PERIODS........................................................................................................................ 2
UPDATING THE SCORECARD.................................................................................................................. 2
ANALYZING THE NEW DATA................................................................................................................. 2
VIEWING THE SCORECARD FOR NEW PERIODICITY.................................................................................4
APPENDICES.................................................................................................................................................1
APPENDIX A SCORECARD INPUTS....................................................................................................... 2
APPENDIX B VIEWING MEASURES VS. ANALYSES TABLES.....................................................................3
APPENDIX C - IMPORTING FROM AN ASCII FILE....................................................................................3
APPENDIX D SCORECARD MODELING................................................................................................. 7
STRATEGIC MODELING.......................................................................................................................... 8
Victory Sports Scorecard.......................................................................................................................8
MODELING MODE................................................................................................................................. 8
OVERRIDING MODELS AND VALUES AND WHAT-IF...........................................................................11
Assigning New Links.............................................................................................................................15
What-If? Modeling...............................................................................................................................15
Score Colors.........................................................................................................................................16
APPENDIX E SAVING THE SCORECARD..............................................................................................19
Referenced Files...................................................................................................................................19
Non-Referenced Files...........................................................................................................................20
Modifying the Location of Referenced Inputs.....................................................................................17

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Preface v

About This Course

You will learn the CorVu Balanced Scorecard through a series of case studies that
represent real-life business conditions. The data you will use wont be real, but it does
realistically deal with the key performance indicators that companies use to run their
businesses. You will build scorecards that look at various key indicators for the Outback
Customer Service Center and Warehouse during the chapters. You will build upon the
Outback Customer Service Center and Warehouse during the chapters exercises. As you
learn the Balanced Scorecard, youll be surprised at how fast you can build a scorecard
that communicates an organizations key strategies. Youll also see how easy it is to give
scorecards a customized graphic look.
Using the Course Materials
The course is based on work with practice exercises. Many of these begin with practice
files, which will be installed by your instructor. It is therefore an assumption that you have
these files on your hard drive before you start the course.
This book is written primarily as a classroom guide and a follow-up reference guide for
the subjects taught. Each chapter builds on the concepts taught previously and provides
hands-on exercises at the end. It is strongly recommended that students complete the
course in consecutive order to facilitate a comprehensive learning experience.
Emphasis is placed on learning the basic functions of the CorVu Balanced Scorecard
module, including inputting data, defining the measures and links, designing the scorecard
and setting the target values. Students will also learn to use templates to facilitate quicker
development when building scorecards.
The chapters each consist of one or more of the following:
Demonstration

Explanation of concepts and description of functions. Procedures

for the use of the functions are explained and demonstrated.

Steps

Numbered, sequential steps to complete the exact motions

demonstrated by the instructor. In completing such examples you
will learn to use new functions so that you will remember them.

Exercise

Short exercises that allow you to practice use of the function(s) in

the section.

Challenge Project

This exercise builds upon the skills presented in the

demonstration and introduces one or two new topics for the more
advanced user who wishes to move ahead later in a self-study
format.

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CorVu Corporation 2000

Using CorVu Business Suite

Using the basic parts of the program, you will soon gain an understanding of how CorVu
works and how it can be used to give you the inside view to your data. Even if you are
already a CorVu user, you will probably learn several ways to use the program more
efficiently.
CorVu offers many alternative ways to use different functions. There can be a selection via
the menu bar, buttons on the toolbar, or on the shortcut menu. This variety can be
confusing if all methods are presented at the same time. Therefore, the course description
is limited to the most practical and easy way to remember procedures for the situation in
question. Comprehensive help is built into the program.
Conventions
The following conventions are used to clearly distinguish elements such as menu
selections, buttons, filenames, etc. from the rest of the text:
Bold type

Items that are to be selected or typed on the keyboard.

Vertical line ( | )

Division between different menu choices. For example:

Choose File|Close (first open the File menu and then choose
the command Close)

Tip

Additional items of interest pertaining to the subject being

discussed. It is not required that the action described in a tip
be completed.

Note:

Notes are used to call attention to items that may be

misconstrued or are important to the use of the function being
described.

CorVu Corporation 2000

Preface vii

Notes:

Preface viii

CorVu Corporation 2000