Quick Reference Guide: Creating KPIs

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1 : Creating KPIs Introduction A KPI, or Key Performance Indicator, is a useful tool for measuring the progress towards a target or goal that you have set. This QRG will cover: Different types of KPI Creating a new KPI Updating the KPI Setting up Alerts Useful tips for KPIs Using the KPI Dashboard Different types of KPI KPIs work by comparing two sets of data to give you an at a glance overview of the performance of whatever it is you are measuring using a simple traffic light system; under-performing KPIs can be notified in red, satisfactory performance in yellow and exceeding targets in green. You have total control over the trigger points that determine performance. There are three main types of KPI that can be created on DARS: Percentage towards target Count towards target Revenue towards target Percentage towards target KPIs Percentage towards target KPIs allow you to take two selections and compare them. For example; An Alumni Relations Officer wishes to ascertain what proportion of living alumni have an Collected Consent Attribute on their record (we ve collected consent that we re allowed to send mass ings to them): Selection 1 Would be driven by a query that identifies all alumni with addresses Selection 2 Would be driven by a query that identifies all alumni with addresses and a collected consent attribute. 1

2 Not only would one be able to make a very quick comparison but using KPIs one would also be able to set a target. I.e Your college/department would like to have collected consent from 75% of alumni with addresses by the end of the year. Count towards target KPIs These KPIs would allow you to set a single fixed target then measure performance against it. Whereas the percentage KPI gives you a proportional representation, this will give you a numerical one. For instance An Event Co-ordinator has 150 places at their event and wishes to measure how many places are taken. Fewer than 50 places would be poor, places is satisfactory and 100+ is good. One simply creates a selection of the registered guests and measures the count against the targets set in the KPI. Revenue towards target KPIs Revenue towards target KPIs are similar to the above Count KPIs with the principal difference being that the KPI can perform the maths for you i.e a Sum, Average, Minimum or Maximum count. For instance A fundraiser wishes to generate 40,000 in donations for a new project with a college or department and measure performance towards that goal. One could create selection of the gifts received into a particular designation and use the KPI so sum those gifts and then compare the total against a pre-defined target. Creating a new KPI From the Analysis area click KPIs. The KPI Instances page appears. On the action bar, click Add. The Select a KPI screen appears. Select the KPI definition on which to base your new instance. A KPI definition outlines what your KPI is measuring i.e Constituents, Events, Revenue etc. This is much like the Source View when you create a query. Click OK. The KPI instance screen appears. 2

3 Parameters Tab On the Parameters tab, add your selection(s) to represent in the KPI instance. The exact fields and options included on the tab depend on the selected KPI definition. As you grow more familiar with using KPIs and begin to experiment with the various definitions, explore the various options that appear on this tab such as the Revenue sum functions as mentioned above. The Preview Tab In the Preview value as of date field, select the date as of when to view the results of the value that satisfies the set parameters of the KPI and click Go. The value that satisfies the set parameters as of the selected date appears. This will give you a preview of the results in the selections(s) that you have used. The Goal Tab In the Goal value field, enter this KPI instance goal. For a dynamic goal KPI definition, the Goal value defaults to the goal associated with the record selected on the Parameters tab. In the Goal aim field, select whether high values or low values represent a good performance. In the Red until and Yellow until fields, enter the amounts, or select the percentages on the colour bar, to represent in red and in yellow as warnings for under performance. 3

4 Under Milestones, enter each milestone to track progress. For example, if you wished to measure the amount of gifts received to a particular designation over the course of a year, you might wish to Add a milestone for each month to track progress and address issues of under-performance as they arise. In the As of date field, enter the date of the milestone. In the Value field, enter the amount to reach by the As of date. In the Red until and Yellow until fields, enter the amounts to represent in red and in yellow, as warnings for under performance. Click Add. In the table below the new milestone appears. Repeat these steps for each additional milestone. The Trend History Tab Select whether to archive all history records generated with each instance update or only a select number of recent records. These values are used to create the trend graph on the dashboard and KPI instance page. Click Save and Close. The Save KPI Instance As screen appears. Updating the KPI value Now that you have created your KPI, you may wish to update the results on a regular (depending on your desire) basis. This can be simply achieved by clicking the Update KPI value button from the main KPI area of DARS. This process will move the last values into the Trend History and update the current status/totals. 4

5 Viewing the performance of your KPI To view the performance of your KPI, you can select your KPI from the list and click the Go to KPI button. This produces the latest results for the KPI and will format them into a lovely graph for you. Setting up Alerts On some occasions, you may wish for DARS to automatically alert other users when milestones or goals are met. For example, you may wish for a Development Director to be immediately notified when a campaign goal is reached. This can be done by: Clicking Enable Alerts in the Take Pane once you have clicked Go to KPI. DARS will ask you Are you sure you wish to enable alerts, respond as desired. Under Assigned Users click User Enter the name of the recipient and repeat as preferred. Useful tips when using KPIs Be clear about what you would like to achieve and what your KPIs should measure. Ensure that the quality of the data that you wish to measure is of a sufficiently high quality, it is all our responsibilities to maintain accurate information. 5

6 If you are using large selections of data, consider having the queries that drive them added to the static overnight refresh list. You can also have the KPI Update Process scheduled overnight so that your KPIs are always up to date without the need to manually run them. Contact if you have questions about this. Remember that Site security applies to all users so if your KPIs look at revenue etc, you will only be able to include data that you are permitted to access. Consider setting the Site filter in the main KPI area of DARS to My Site to only see KPIs relevant to your college or department. Using the KPI Dashboard Now that you have set up and created a handful of KPIs that you wish to run on a regular basis, you can manage them using the KPI Dashboard. The KPI Dashboard is a customisable screen on DARS that allows you to create easy to use and interpret overviews of your KPIs results. Please refer to the Using the KPI Dashboard QRG available in the Learning section of 6