Key Performance Indicator in Business Intelligence

I am preparing my computer laboratory service for Business Intelligence using Key Performance Indicator Analysis. Sometimes, balancing life and work is a major issue for me. After joining a live meeting with my overseas comrades that focuses on Implementation of ERP, I'll definitely have to turn back in the original state as "guru" of Business Intelligence tomorrow.

Key Performance Indicators, also known as KPI or Key Success Indicators (KSI), help an organization define and measure progress toward organizational goals.

What Are Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

Key Performance Indicators are quantifiable measurements, agreed to beforehand, that reflect the critical success factors of an organization. They will differ depending on the organization.

• A business may have as one of its Key Performance Indicators the percentage of its income that comes from return customers.
• A school may focus its Key Performance Indicators on graduation rates of its students.
• A Solution Service Department may have as one of its Key Performance Indicators, in line with overall company KPIs, percentage of support calls answered in the first minute.

A Key Performance Indicators for a social service organization might be number of clients assisted during the year.

Key Performance Indicators Reflect The Organizational Goals

An organization that has as one of its goals "to be the most profitable company in our industry" will have Key Performance Indicators that measure profit and related fiscal measures. "Pre-tax Profit" and "Shareholder Equity" or "Revenue Sharing" (got it from my boss) will be among them. However, "Percent of Profit Contributed to Community Causes" probably will not be one of its Key Performance Indicators. On the other hand, a school is not concerned with making a profit, so its Key Performance Indicators will be different. KPIs like "Graduation Rate" and "Success In Finding Employment After Graduation", though different, accurately reflect the schools mission and goals.

Key Performance Indicators Must Be Quantifiable

If a Key Performance Indicator is going to be of any value, there must be a way to accurately define and measure it. "Generate More Repeat Customers" is useless as a KPI without some way to distinguish between new and repeat customers. "Be The Most Popular Company" won't work as a KPI because there is no way to measure the company's popularity or compare it to others.
It is also important to define the Key Performance Indicators and stay with the same definition from year to year. For a KPI of "Increase Sales", you need to address considerations like whether to measure by units sold or by dollar value of sales. Will returns be deducted from sales in the month of the sale or the month of the return? Will sales be recorded for the KPI at list price or at the actual sales price?

Good Key Performance Indicators vs. Bad

Bad:

Title of KPI: Increase Sales
Defined: Change in Sales volume from month to month
Measured: Total of Sales By Region for all region
Target: Increase each month

Good:

Title of KPI: Employee Turnover
Defined: The total of the number of employees who resign for whatever reason, plus the number of employees terminated for performance reasons, and that total divided by the number of employees at the beginning of the year. Employees lost due to Reductions in Force (RIF) will not be included in this calculation.
Measured: The HRIS contains records of each employee. The separation section lists reason and date of separation for each employee. Monthly, or when requested by the SVP, the HRIS group will query the database and provide Department Heads with Turnover Reports. HRIS will post graphs of each report on the Intranet.
Target: Reduce Employee Turnover by 5% per year

KPIs give everyone in the organization a clear picture of what is important, of what they need to make happen.

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Nightmare edition

Got all of these by experiences.

Worms — A worm is similar to a program but doesn't need to attach itself to another program to run. Trojans — A Trojan poses as a legitimate program but is designed to disrupt computing on the PC it infects. It is not designed to spread to other computers.
Backdoor Trojans — This type of code allows other computer users to gain access to your computer across the internet. Here are examples of viruses, worms and Trojans released over the past couple years and a description of the havoc they raised:
DLoader-L — This Trojan arrived in a seemingly legitimate e-mail, and then it downloaded and installed another program on a PC. This program then allowed computers to be controlled by a third-party to attack websites whenever they connected to the internet, all without the PC owner's knowledge.
Bugbear-D — The worm recorded keystrokes, including passwords, and gave the virus writer access to them. The Compatable virus made changes to data in Excel spreadsheets. And the Sircam worm deleted and overwrote data on hard disks on a specified date.
Chernobyl (CIH) — This virus overwrote system BIOS chips on PCs, rendering them unusable. The Netsky-D worm made computers beep sporadically for several hours. And the Cone-F worm displayed a political message and mailed itself to other computers.
MyDoom — This worm e-mailed itself to addresses found on the infected computers. This generated so much e-mail traffic that e-mail servers slowed to a crawl or crashed. Companies responded by shutting down servers and mail service.