control-ES approaches performance management from an operational perspective tied to metrics, whilst many other vendors are approaching it from a financial analysis and planning basis.  However, our clients would view a purely financially driven approach as incomplete.  Rather than measure things that are easily or currently measured, it is far better to establish the operational process and corresponding metrics that will reinforce the correct behavior, and measure them.  To drive an improvement in performance requires that the people do things differently; a change in behavior; a new set of working practices. To simply identify and report on a missed target will not necessarily improve performance.

To identify the correct metrics there needs to be a shared, consistent understanding of the business operation, in terms of end-to-end processes.  This is defined at Board level and then broken down to the lowest level activity, and delivered to every employee through a role-based portal.  All supporting information (forms, applications, procedures) is attached to activities making it the ‘single source of truth’ around operations.  At any level in the hierarchy metrics are linked to activities that the end-user performs. Combined with process ownership, this level of accountability initiates the culture of continuous improvement.  control-ES perpetuates that culture by putting in place, via the web, all the tools required to drive and manage continuous improvement;

CPM cycle:

control-ES plays a key role in supporting the CPM cycle and provides a closed-loop approach to managing performance, coordinating the financial and operational perspectives.  

The CPM cycle can be described in simple terms as:  

Plan – identify the financial and operational direction, allocate responsibilities and set the expected performance. Do – drive the financial and operational direction down into the organization and extended supply chain. Check – validate that the operation is performing accurately and at on-target, and analyze variances. Act – make operational changes to bring performance back up to target

 

control-ES delivers:

 control-ES delivers the following – quickly, effectively with powerful end-user acceptance

• consistent operation and alignment with strategy; end-to-end definition of business operation in process terms, from strategy down to detailed task which aligns people’s day job with the operational strategy
• information at point of need for every employee; a web-based interface through which every individual can see their role, responsibilities, tasks in context and links to all supporting information to conduct the task – application, forms, policies, procedures and training
• relates activity with performance – closes the loop; metrics are related to activities so decisions can made in the correct context and turned into specific actions which will result in constantly improved performance – not fire fighting.
• enables culture of continuous improvement; employees (end-users) can genuinely drive grass-roots improvements because all the tools are provided with a interface which is genuinely end-user friendly (process modeling, discussion, Activity Based Costing, collaboration, change requests, reviews, authorization, audit trail)

 

Because managing process information is a key element of the control-ES, it is often confused with Business Process Management (BPM) tools [e.g. WebMethods, Pega, SeeBeyond] that are designed to define and automate process, or Business Process Analysis (BPA) tools [e.g. Aris, Casewise, Systems Architect] which are used by business and IT analysts to define processes and data models, with a view to developing software applications.  This is explored in more detail in the paper titled “Putting control-ES into context”.

How control-ES delivers improved Corporate Performance

The diagram shows how control-ES delivers a Corporate Performance Management solution onto every employee’s desktop through a browser. 

• Measure and model business performance

• Communicate "Best Practice"  through end-user portal

• Validate decisions with Activity Based Costing (ABC)

• Data Table Reporting and XML Export

• Delivers quality compliance

• Drive auditable changes through collaboration

• Performance Metrics and Balanced Scorecards

• Access to extended supply chain and customers

 

control-ES Supports:

• Up
• control-ES and ERP/CRM Implementation
• control-ES and Six Sigma Process Management
• control-ES and ISO Management Systems
• control-ES and Business Process Outsourcing
• control-ES and Corporate Performance Management