t’s essential that any management information produced takes account of the data integrity of the system(s) that data is being pulled from. You can produce the most wonderful clear reports but if they are based on flawed data they can have catastrophic results if you choose to run your business by them. Make sure your business has a process for monitoring data quality and corrective action processes should that data have errors.

4/ Don’t forget Pareto’s rule – 80/20 – focus on value. Pareto’s rule stipulated that 80% of the consequences stem from 20% of the causes – make sure that you remember that. For example – you may require management information on supplier performance – and you may have 10,000 suppliers – that’s one big report! – you could refine that search by looking at the suppliers with 80% of the transaction value

It’s often said that you can’t manage what you don’t measure – one of the most important parts about business is monitoring your organisation’s performance. Traditionally this is done via a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s). These usually support the organisations strategy or targets – for example if your business has a target of customer satisfaction you may have a KPI to have less than 1% customer returns made.

Too often, however, management data is produced which just doesn’t assist the business decision process it may just portray a picture or status – This explains your current position but doesn’t provide any detail on targets (missed or achieved) action plans or what should be done about the problems that the statistic is portraying – too often management data doesn’t actually tell you anything at all – metrics are produced as a set of numbers that require interpreting to make use of, such data is often not geared towards either strategic or operational objectives! For management information to make a difference and support the business decision making process – this mindset must change.

An example – say that you were a Procurement Manager with a target to consolidate spend within key commodities – you could have a monthly report that shows you the total number of suppliers transacted with – your data analyst gives you a report that shows you a list of 136 suppliers with their names and addresses – great – first question - what’s it telling you? - you have a target to consolidate spend so your management reports need to support your decision making process rather than just providing a snapshot – going back to our procurement manager – he’d be better off with a report showing him the actual supplier profile vs the targeted supplier profile – throw in some commodity groupings and % weighting of spend per supplier and we’ve got something useful – straight away we can begin to hone in on the tail end of our supply chain and look at rationalisation options.

There are a number of tools that you can use to ensure that your management information is produced in support of your business requirements.

1/ Rule 1 – make sure that the information being produced is suitable for the audience that consumes it. Think of your management information needs as a three tiered pyramid – at the bottom sits operational requirements of the workforce – in the second tier partially consolidated requirements of management, at the top tier sit the chief Execs and VP’s who consume fully consolidated reports of the whole company performance.

2/ Ensure that your business objectives are S.M.A.R.T.– (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time). By having objectives that follow these rules – your management information requirements can be structured accordingly – having objectives that are difficult to define or analyse means it will be a struggle to produce clear information that shows performance and aids decision making.

3/ Ensure that Management Information flows to the right people. All staff tend to have some information requirement – however key management reports need to flow to decision makers, who guided by the data can make changes to the business where required – too often by the time statistics are received by the decision maker it’s too late to make changes.

3/ Quality of Data – It’s essential that any management information produced takes account of the data integrity of the system(s) that data is being pulled from. You can produce the most wonderful clear reports but if they are based on flawed data they can have catastrophic results if you choose to run your business by them. Make sure your business has a process for monitoring data quality and corrective action processes should that data have errors.

4/ Don’t forget Pareto’s rule – 80/20 – focus on value. Pareto’s rule stipulated that 80% of the consequences stem from 20% of the causes – make sure that you remember that. For example – you may require management information on supplier performance – and you may have 10,000 suppliers – that’s one big report! – you could refine that search by looking at the suppliers with 80% of the transaction value (

e produced as a set of numbers that require interpreting to make use of, such data is often not geared towards either strategic or operational objectives! For management information to make a difference and support the business decision making process – this mindset must change.

An example – say that you were a Procurement Manager with a target to consolidate spend within key commodities – you could have a monthly report that shows you the total number of suppliers transacted with – your data analyst gives you a report that shows you a list of 136 suppliers with their names and addresses – great – first question - what’s it telling you? - you have a target to consolidate spend so your management reports need to support your decision making process rather than just providing a snapshot – going back to our procurement manager – he’d be better off with a report showing him the actual supplier profile vs the targeted supplier profile – throw in some commodity groupings and % weighting of spend per supplier and we’ve got something useful – straight away we can begin to hone in on the tail end of our supply chain and look at rationalisation options.

There are a number of tools that you can use to ensure that your management information is produced in support of your business requirements.

1/ Rule 1 – make sure that the information being produced is suitable for the audience that consumes it. Think of your management information needs as a three tiered pyramid – at the bottom sits operational requirements of the workforce – in the second tier partially consolidated requirements of management, at the top tier sit the chief Execs and VP’s who consume fully consolidated reports of the whole company performance.

2/ Ensure that your business objectives are S.M.A.R.T.– (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time). By having objectives that follow these rules – your management information requirements can be structured accordingly – having objectives that are difficult to define or analyse means it will be a struggle to produce clear information that shows performance and aids decision making.

3/ Ensure that Management Information flows to the right people. All staff tend to have some information requirement – however key management reports need to flow to decision makers, who guided by the data can make changes to the business where required – too often by the time statistics are received by the decision maker it’s too late to make changes.

3/ Quality of Data – It’s essential that any management information produced takes account of the data integrity of the system(s) that data is being pulled from. You can produce the most wonderful clear reports but if they are based on flawed data they can have catastrophic results if you choose to run your business by them. Make sure your business has a process for monitoring data quality and corrective action processes should that data have errors.

4/ Don’t forget Pareto’s rule – 80/20 – focus on value. Pareto’s rule stipulated that 80% of the consequences stem from 20% of the causes – make sure that you remember that. For example – you may require management information on supplier performance – and you may have 10,000 suppliers – that’s one big report! – you could refine that search by looking at the suppliers with 80% of the transaction value

’d be better off with a report showing him the actual supplier profile vs the targeted supplier profile – throw in some commodity groupings and % weighting of spend per supplier and we’ve got something useful – straight away we can begin to hone in on the tail end of our supply chain and look at rationalisation options.

There are a number of tools that you can use to ensure that your management information is produced in support of your business requirements.

1/ Rule 1 – make sure that the information being produced is suitable for the audience that consumes it. Think of your management information needs as a three tiered pyramid – at the bottom sits operational requirements of the workforce – in the second tier partially consolidated requirements of management, at the top tier sit the chief Execs and VP’s who consume fully consolidated reports of the whole company performance.

2/ Ensure that your business objectives are S.M.A.R.T.– (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time). By having objectives that follow these rules – your management information requirements can be structured accordingly – having objectives that are difficult to define or analyse means it will be a struggle to produce clear information that shows performance and aids decision making.

3/ Ensure that Management Information flows to the right people. All staff tend to have some information requirement – however key management reports need to flow to decision makers, who guided by the data can make changes to the business where required – too often by the time statistics are received by the decision maker it’s too late to make changes.

3/ Quality of Data – It’s essential that any management information produced takes account of the data integrity of the system(s) that data is being pulled from. You can produce the most wonderful clear reports but if they are based on flawed data they can have catastrophic results if you choose to run your business by them. Make sure your business has a process for monitoring data quality and corrective action processes should that data have errors.

4/ Don’t forget Pareto’s rule – 80/20 – focus on value. Pareto’s rule stipulated that 80% of the consequences stem from 20% of the causes – make sure that you remember that. For example – you may require management information on supplier performance – and you may have 10,000 suppliers – that’s one big report! – you could refine that search by looking at the suppliers with 80% of the transaction value

lly consolidated reports of the whole company performance.

2/ Ensure that your business objectives are S.M.A.R.T.– (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time). By having objectives that follow these rules – your management information requirements can be structured accordingly – having objectives that are difficult to define or analyse means it will be a struggle to produce clear information that shows performance and aids decision making.

3/ Ensure that Management Information flows to the right people. All staff tend to have some information requirement – however key management reports need to flow to decision makers, who guided by the data can make changes to the business where required – too often by the time statistics are received by the decision maker it’s too late to make changes.

3/ Quality of Data – It’s essential that any management information produced takes account of the data integrity of the system(s) that data is being pulled from. You can produce the most wonderful clear reports but if they are based on flawed data they can have catastrophic results if you choose to run your business by them. Make sure your business has a process for monitoring data quality and corrective action processes should that data have errors.

4/ Don’t forget Pareto’s rule – 80/20 – focus on value. Pareto’s rule stipulated that 80% of the consequences stem from 20% of the causes – make sure that you remember that. For example – you may require management information on supplier performance – and you may have 10,000 suppliers – that’s one big report! – you could refine that search by looking at the suppliers with 80% of the transaction value

t’s essential that any management information produced takes account of the data integrity of the system(s) that data is being pulled from. You can produce the most wonderful clear reports but if they are based on flawed data they can have catastrophic results if you choose to run your business by them. Make sure your business has a process for monitoring data quality and corrective action processes should that data have errors.

4/ Don’t forget Pareto’s rule – 80/20 – focus on value. Pareto’s rule stipulated that 80% of the consequences stem from 20% of the causes – make sure that you remember that. For example – you may require management information on supplier performance – and you may have 10,000 suppliers – that’s one big report! – you could refine that search by looking at the suppliers with 80% of the transaction value (likely to be a smaller pool than your original 10,000). Top n reports are also very useful – how about the top 50 worst performing suppliers – remember not to get swamped by your data – focus in on what counts!

5/ Ensure that management information is outputted with a set of conclusions and follow on actions with owners – Key with any management information is the follow on action – taking our previous example of the worst performing supplier analysis – what is the next stage in this process? – The answer should be an action plan provided with the report –– an action list should include – the person who is carrying out the activity – the description of the action and the target date for conclusion.

6/ Measure your movement! – make sure that when you produce data you are able to view your information not just as a snapshot but analyse the movement between periods. Monitor trends! – a common mistake in management reporting is to produce snap shot reports – while this is perfectly fine for understanding where you are at that point in time – it doesn’t provide any indication of previous performance or forecasted activity.

Management Information is key to the success of any business – get it wrong and it’s like operating in the dark – get it right and it can help you steer your business to success.