In my previous article in this series, I took a look at the use case for mobile BI in a call center. The next-use case I want to look at is for marketing agencies. Like a call center, marketing agencies monitor metrics and data that are constantly fluctuating. That data is crucial for determining the ROI of a marketing campaign and for understanding why a campaign is a success or a failure.
Sandra, an analyst, and Steven, an account manager, are responsible for tracking and monitoring the performance of marketing campaigns and sharing those reports with clients as well as sharing them internally. Sandra aggregates the data to create reports, provides insight and recommendations, and Steven shares those reports with clients to provide the ROI of certain campaigns (and their agency).
The marketing agency has been dependent on Excel to create and share KPI reports for internal and external use. Once a week Sandra saves the Excel report as a PDF, sends it to Steven and other account managers, and they share it with clients. Not only does Sandra have to manually input data each the week to keep up the report relevant , but the report she generates each week is out of date almost as soon as it is printed. Marketing metrics change on a daily or hourly basis, meaning a static report (like Sandra's PDF) provides an incomplete view of KPIs.
On the other hand, Steven relies on those reports to provide clients with detailed information about their marketing strategy. Unfortunately, the Excel reports have burned him more than once, when the report in his hand didn't match up with the data his clients were accessing live via Google Analytics; or worse, during a week of launch when his client called asking for stats and insights, he couldn't access the data because he was away from the office and his laptop. Steven has always prided himself on being proactive, so when he found his data was out of date and inaccessible he knew it was time to stop relying on manually updated, weekly Excel reports. He wanted something that worked in real-time so he always had all the facts at his disposal, as events unfolded.
One of Steven's clients had mentioned that their call center had deployed Klipfolio Dashboard for web and mobile. His client explained it was a web accessible dashboard, which meant that Sandra could build and share KPIs using Safari on her Mac in the office, and Steven could log in and view that information using his iPhone anywhere, anytime. That all sounded good to him, but he needed Sandra's help to create the KPIs for the dashboard.
At first Sandra was hesitant to switch dashboards because she had invested so much time (literally years) mastering Excel. The first thing she noticed when she started building KPIs in Klipfolio Dashboard was that the KPI editor worked in a way that was familiar to Excel users. At first she started creating KPIs by uploading her Excel files, but soon she realized it was much easier to import the data directly from sources like Google Analytics, Facebook, or Omniture. The best part was that any KPI she created always used the most current data set. As new data came in, the KPIs on her dashboard were automatically updated.
Sandra was able to complete dashboards for each of Steven's clients, and they even decided to provide the clients with access to those dashboards. One thing Steven really appreciated about the dashboards was that Sandra could use the annotations feature to share insights and recommendations from the office, and he could view the annotations on his iPhone. Her role as an analyst meant her expertise was an invaluable commodity not only for Steven, but also for their clients. When they unrolled the dashboard, his clients were immediately impressed by the clean, effective design, and loved the fact they could view that information anywhere.
It was just about this time that Steven logged into his dashboard at a conference and saw something alarming: his newest client's marketing campaign was flat-lining. Without hesitation he called the client, who didn't even know there was a problem yet, and they started figuring out what went wrong. Even though Steven was working remotely, he and his client could view the same KPI dashboard showing the same metrics. As Steven was examining his dashboard, he noticed that Sandra had made annotations to one of the KPIs showing the problem. He was able to leverage her insight to gain a contextual understanding of the data, and then provide his client with a clear-cut plan of action.
The client walked away from the meeting reassured in Steven and the marketing agency he represented. They not only noticed that Steven was willing to share his information, but that he was also actively checking that information and willing to do whatever the situation called for. If that meant talking for an hour on his iPhone in the conference lobby, then so be it.
I think that if you were searching for universal KPIs that are beneficial for any business to monitor (large or small), then I think you'd agree that financial ratios and metrics are the best place to start. By definition, a business is about making a living (read: money), and if you don't understand your cash-flow, then that living is in jeopardy. That's an obvious way financial KPIs are important - a not so obvious way is that once you starting taking the microscope to your fiscal health, you realize just how interconnected each area of your business is.
It's like dropping a stone in a pond when you are trying to keep a paper boat afloat. The ripple created by that stone rapidly expands outward and influences the environment as it passes. The thing is, that the stone rarely drops in the same place twice. Maybe it's your online marketing campaign that strikes a chord, and now your sales department is a flurry of activity trying to convert leads into customers. Or, perhaps it's your warehouse where a backlog of orders is resulting in increased call volume in your call center. The one thing that we believe is that wherever that stone drops, you can measure the results.
Your financial ratios and metrics are like a survey of all those ripples and that information is used to measure the impact of each wave on your paper boat. No captain would willingly sail his boat into a storm, so you need to have an accurate forecast of what is going to happen next. That's why financial metrics are so important. They not only provide you with a map of where you are going, they also provide you with a status report of your performance along the way.
Want some more KPI Examples? Check out these articles:
Just for fun, here's a KPI for anyone wanting to continue the sailing analogy:
What department's KPIs would you like to see in this list? Let us know!
Something worth considering when evaluating a mobile BI solution is how that solution will be deployed. For example, Klipfolio Dashboard for web and mobile is a cloud-based solution meaning that you can access it on any Internet-enabled device, whether it's your Mac or PC, iPhone or Nexus, iPad or Playbook, and even an LCD monitor. Mobile BI is about accessing KPIs anywhere, anytime, and by anyone.
I want to start taking a look at different use-cases to show scenarios where mobile BI can save the day. I hesitate to call it mobile BI, as what we are really talking about is pervasive BI - the ability to provide all relevant employees access to key metrics that measure and reflect their performance. Let's start with a familiar scenario: a call center. (Make sure to check out this case study to learn how Aviva's IT Service Desk uses mobile BI)
Who
Eric's role as a manager of a call center puts him in the hot-seat in one of the busiest departments in the organization. When things start to go bad, he needs to act quickly or else the call center could be overwhelmed by angry customers.
The lead-up
Over past few months, Eric has noticed that the current service level in the call center has been declining. Accessing his KPI dashboard from his Mac, he notices that at certain times during the week where service levels drop dramatically. Eric's management style is centered on delegating tasks to his team and letting them take responsibility for their actions. The problem is that he needs to provide his team with a way to see when service level drops, in real-time, so they can take appropriate action.
Luckily...
The call center has recently deployed Klipfolio Dashboard for web and mobile, and has provided access to the dashboard to all management staff. Eric already has a dashboard set up that monitors a range of call center KPIs, including service level and agent-by-agent performance. Already, several agents had commented on the dashboard when they were in his office, noting that the metrics he was viewing would be handy on the floor.
... he saves the day
Eric shares his KPI dashboard by setting up LCD monitors that display KPIs in a way that is visible to every agent on the floor. His belief is that by making people responsibility for their performance and providing them accurate information in real-time, his agents would take the right actions to address challenges before they become problems. By providing visual indicators that alert staff of issues and SLA breaches, his agents are able to self-correct, spending less time on calls or picking up waiting calls more quickly during busy times.
Eric was right - his agents are more than willing to take responsibility for call center performance. All they were missing was the facts needed to make important decisions on their own. Not only did his idea improve performance, it won him the respect of his bosses. They took notice of his idea, and have decided to use LCD monitors in each of their call center locations. And guess what? Eric is the one leading the effort.
Check out this article to learn which call center KPIs our customers monitor.
I was fortunate enough to attend the eMetrics Marketing Optimization in Toronto this week. It was a great learning experience that really hammered home the idea of having a scientific approach to online marketing metrics. Whether it was listening to industry leaders speak, or conversing with other delegates, it is apparent the online marketing analyitcs is a fascinating and rapidly expanding space.
I was particularly impressed with the keynote session put on by Shaina Boone and Scot Cottick (with some help from conference founder Jim Sterne). They worked on the launch of Nissan's first electric car, the Leaf, and shared their story from the initial phases of their campaign to the product launch. What really stood out was their scientific approach to monitoring their campaign and willingness to act on what the data was telling them.
Another interesting theme I noticed from talking with other delegates was figuring out social media metrics. It's not that we don't know what metrics we want to measure, it's that accurately measuring that data is difficult. The impact of social media isn't as simple as noting conversion paths or measuring how your Facebook campaign is pointing visitors to your website. Jim Sterne pointed out in the keynote session that he first learned about the Nissan Leaf via social media, but didn't take action immediately. Those types of scenarios are tricky for online marketers to measure, especially if you aren't using an expensive tool to do so. That's not to say that there weren't some great ideas put forward on how to deal with this problem - just that it's one area we all are very interested in.
For myself, the highlight of the trip was getting meet Klipfolio partner and analytics guru Stephane Hamel of Cardinal Path. You're going to be hearing a lot more about Stephane and Cardinal Path in the coming weeks (hint, hint). They've been working on some really exciting stuff, and getting the chance to chat with him was really cool. Never one to miss a photo-op, here's a photo of us at the conference.
I am already looking forward to next year's conference in Toronto, and recommend anyone interesting in online marketing metrics to attend, too!
This morning, the Ottawa Business Journal (OBJ) published an article about Klipfolio, "We're not building a company to be acquired". In it, Allan Wille offers his thoughts on the last 10 years in business and where Klipfolio is going in the next 10 years. As you can tell from the headline, Klipfolio is here to stay.
The cool thing is that there is a nice backstory to this article. When Allan, Peter, and James were first founding Serence, the OBJ published a 12 part series that captured the start-up's early successes and failure. The series wrapped up in 2002 leaving the reader wondering (hoping) if this small start-up would succeed. The story of the company continued with many new chapters being written along the way: the big Staples win, entry into operational business intelligence, or the rebranding of Serence to Klipfolio. This article picks up where the original series left off and captures the defining moments of the past 10 years.
Thanks to Courtney Symons for putting the article together, and Mark Holleron for the snazzy photo of Allan Wille. Great job!
Check it out here: "We're not building a company to be acquired."
Version 1.4 of Klipfolio Dashboard is live and the newest feature to be added, annotations, is now available for use in your Klips. If you've seen the annotations' video, then you probably agree this feature is about as user-friendly as you can get. Just click on the annotation menu, type your note, and save it. The annotation is visible to any colleague who was access to the Klip. Whenever a new annotation is attached to a Klip, you will be notified by a yellow indicator icon.
Annotations keep you socially connected so you can converse with the right people in your organization to get the most out of your KPIs. Anyone with access to a Klip can make an annotation, and you will be amazed at what your colleagues contribute. To give you an idea of what you can accomplish with annotations, I've put together 3 scenarios showing how you can use this feature to get the job done.
Annotations make it easy to share your business expertise and add context to any KPI. Let's say you are a call center manager and you notice a sudden drop in current service level. Your insight from working on the floor can quickly clarify why that drop occurred (high absenteeism, higher than normal call volume, etc). By attaching an annotation to that KPI, anyone can view the note on their dashboard, including your boss who might hire the additional staff you've been asking for.
Annotations can simplify how you investigate what's going on with your KPIs. Let's say you are monitoring a web performance KPI and you notice that conversions for one of your main pages is down, way down. Your instincts take over and you go to Google Analytics and create a custom report to get the whole picture. While you can create a Klip to show this information, it is only really applicable to this problem. Instead, you can add an annotation with a link to your report so that your colleagues can see what's going on, too. Just remember, they will need to be signed in to Google Analytics to view the report.
Annotations can take your KPI monitoring to the next level, and help you act on what you are seeing. Let's say you are monitoring the performance of multiple restaurants using several categories that provide an overall score or rating for each establishment. The ranking of one restaurant is sending off warning flags, and it's not enough to interrogate the data -- you need to act on what the data is telling you. By adding an annotation, you can coordinate actions with colleagues and deliver results when you need them most.
Have any ideas on how you'd like to use an annotation? How do you share insights with your colleagues? Comment below or join the conversation on Twitter - we're @Klipfolio.
The hyperlinks feature allows you to do some pretty cool things on your dashboard. I use hyperlinks in two different ways to save time and allow me to dig deeper into my data. The first method is to hyperlink to individual dashboard tabs in an "organization overview" style of Klip. The second method is to link to web resources like Google Analytics to view the in-depth report when I need more information about a KPI.
If you're like me, you organize similar KPIs on dashboard tabs to create reports about a department, project, or customer. As you create new tabs for a department, it is stored in Klipfolio Dashboard's library and will have a permalink created for it. Using the tab's permalink you can point users to any tab in your Library. Even tabs not actively displayed on your dashboard are accessible this way.
My example Klip takes this concept one step further. The purpose of this Klip is to provide a rating that analyzes the performance of each department in my organization. When a department needs my attention, I can click on the link and view the complete KPI report for that department.
Tip! Use this article to get started.
When a metric needs your attention, it helps to be able to quickly access the data or report backing your Klip. The KPI in my example monitors the performance of my website using Google Analytics data. For each page I am monitoring in my Klip, I have included a link to the corresponding page in Analytics. Using this Klip, I can dig deeper into my data when I need to see exactly what is going wrong.
Tip! Use this article to get started.
Remember to check all of your links before you share your Klip!
Visually, I don't think anything keeps your targets in perspective quite like a bullet chart. Originally developed by visual business intelligence guru Stephen Few, these charts are packed full of useful information and are a perfect match for any dashboard. Creating a bullet chart is straightforward: the tick-line is your target, the solid bar is your current value, and the shaded bar is your comparative value. Virtually anything can be measured this way, whether you are monitoring your sales numbers or call center service level. Whatever you measure, you always know if you are on target.
Before you start creating a bullet chart, take into consideration what the right targets are for your organization. This can be a bit like Goldilocks' conundrum as you want to strike the right balance. A target that is too easily attained breeds complacency, while an unrealistic target discourages your employees. Meeting a well thought out target should be a challenge that brings the best out of your team. Once you have a target in your crosshairs, it's time to build a bullet chart.
You have two choices for building a bullet chart in Klipfolio Dashboard: either you can use the bullet chart format in a Table Klip, or you can create a Gauge Klip (a modified bullet chart). Let's take a closer look at each of these methods.
Personally, I like using bullet charts in my tables because it adds an easy to understand visual representation of my performance. At a glance, I know if I am meeting my target and can compare my current performance to my past performance. The bullet chart only uses one column, so I am free to include more data and insights about the metric. In this example, I built a web analytics KPI that measures my conversions and page visits. The bullet chart tells me if I am meeting my monthly quote for each page, and provides a comparison on my previous month's performance.
Tip! Use the bullet chart how to article and the Table Klip how to article to get started now.
The other choice you have is to use a Gauge Klip to display your current performance and a target. The Gauge Klip is modified from the bullet chart to monitor a single target, such as a revenue KPI. While there isn't a comparative value included in the Gauge Klip, it makes up for it with the ability to use indicators and text in the chart. If you want to include a comparative value in your Klip, you can always include it in your target value. To do that and keep the currency formatting, just type it in the suffix field.
Tip! Use the Gauge Klip how to article to get started now.
When, in 2007, the team was considering a transition into operational business intelligence (BI), their decision crystalized with the aid of an early win: Lufthansa, Europe's largest airline, adopted Klipfolio's KPI dashboard organization wide. That big win, however, was followed in late 2007 with the increasing certainty of a new global recession. Big and small companies alike were tightening their belts and looking to do more with less. The economic outlook had the team nervous heading into 2008.
Before we look at how the team dealt with the recession, let's take a step back and understand what business intelligence is and why the team decided to move into that market.
Operational business intelligence is often summed up as providing the right information to the right people at the right time. This simple definition alludes to the three major components of a business intelligence strategy. First, you need to gather information about your organization's performance and frame that information in a way that is actionable. More often than not, the result of this step is to formulate KPIs (key performance indicators) to guide strategic and tactical decisions. Second, you need to determine who will benefit the most from having that knowledge. Third, you need to provide those people with access to that knowledge in a clear and trusted manner so that actions can follow. As you may have guessed, the third component - a KPI dashboard that is easy to use and pervasively accessible - is what Allan, Peter, and James were most excited about.
The team recognized the opportunity as early as 2001, and as they gained experience and expertise over the years, they became more confident that Klipfolio Dashboard could handle the real time data, scalability, and features demanded of enterprise-class customers. From the outset, the Klipfolio platform was about managing frequently changing data that came from multiple, disparate sources. At the center of this platform is the Klip, a unique reporting device that consolidates and presents data and can be organized with other Klips on a dashboard. The question facing the team in early 2007 was whether Klips could be used by developers to display a KPI just as easily as it could a news feed. As it turns out, Klipfolio Dashboard was more than up to the challenge.
With Lufthansa as their first KPI dashboard customer - and a big one at that - the team decided to enter the operational BI market, and exit the branded desktop application space, despite that market being at its peak in 2007. However, in late 2007, as the uncertainty of the global economy wrecked havoc on small and large businesses alike, the team prepared for lean times. On one hand, they knew that KPI dashboards had a potentially huge ROI (Return on Investment) and could have a measureable impact on the operational performance of any organization. On the other hand, the ROI of dashboards is largely intangible and for businesses shoring up expenses, the question of whether to invest capital into a KPI dashboard could be a deal breaker.
As it turned out, business intelligence vendors fared well throughout the recession. The lean years convinced organizations that they needed to do more with less and they turned to BI and dashboards as a solution to this problem. The team followed up their success with Lufthansa in 2007 with more big wins, adding EMC, Baxter Healthcare, and IBM to their list of globally recognized customers. "When the recession hit, we were more than a little nervous," recalls Allan Wille. "Our concerns proved to be unfounded as enterprises started turning to KPI dashboards as a way to stay competitive even as they tightened their belts."
A fact that has been glossed over a bit in this history is that from 2001 to 2008 the company went by the name of Serence. The name "Klipfolio" was initially reserved for the dashboard products, but with the success and visibility of the KPI dashboard, the distinction between the two names proved to be a distraction. Following much internal debate, and a legal name change, the full rebranding of the company from Serence to Klipfolio took off in December 2008. The decision to change the company's name was symbolic of the team's maturation and officially signaled Klipfolio's exclusive focus on the enterprise BI space. The rebranding was a huge success, and the team tracked an immediate increase in leads, inquiries, and customer wins.
While Klipfolio continued to enjoy success in the desktop KPI dashboard market, behind the scenes the team was itching to tackle a new opportunity. One of the core principles of the company is that data should be easily accessible to everyone. This had led to experiments with mobile consumer dashboards in 2004, and those ideas resurfaced in 2009. While the earlier foray into the mobile market had been focused on consumers, the team's attention was now firmly set on mobile BI. In 2009, the research and development team began developing a mobile BI dashboard using the BlackBerry OS. Although the team ultimately decided against building a client for an operating system, they were convinced that mobile dashboards were the future of business intelligence.
Business intelligence analysts unanimously agree that mobile BI is the next big thing, and the team whole-heartedly agreed with this sentiment. "Unlike analytical BI, operational or real-time business data is broadly applicable," says Allan Wille. "For us, mobile BI is an opportunity to truly achieve our goal of pervasive access to data, organization wide." In the rush to deliver mobile BI solutions many vendors fell into the trap of simply porting their existing products to mobile devices. The result was a cramped mobile dashboard with confusing and inappropriate functionality. This was something that the team wanted to avoid, even if it meant delaying entry into mobile BI.
In 2010, their mobile BI went from research into full-fledged development, rallying around HTML5 and a cloud-based infrastructure. This way, the mobile dashboard would be platform and device independent and accessible via any smartphone, tablet, or Internet browser. Klipfolio's mobile BI wouldn't just be accessible - it would also be fully functional and even capable of being a stand-alone business intelligence solution for small-to-medium sized organizations.
On June 22, 2011, Klipfolio announced the Beta for their new cloud dashboard. The development of Klipfolio Dashboard web and mobile involved some of the world's largest brands and most security conscious organizations. Throughout the Alpha and Beta testing in 2010/2011, Klipfolio worked closely with these customers to ensure that the mobile dashboard would not only live up to expectations, but exceed them.
On September 27, 2011, almost exactly 10 years after the company was founded by Allan Wille, Peter Matthews, and James Scott, Klipfolio Dashboard web and mobile was released. This news was quickly followed up by a string of new customers, including Aviva, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and Emrill. Klipfolio gained important new global partners increasing the visibility of both the desktop and mobile BI products. The launch of Klipfolio Dashboard for web and mobile was a huge success and capped off 10 years of hard-work.
And, as if to signal Klipfolio's emergence as a leading dashboard vendor, 2011 closed as being the most successful year in the company's history. Not only did the team boast new world-class clients, new strategic partners, and the successful release of a new product, but the company recorded a doubling of YoY sales in 2011. Even more remarkable was the fact that it was the second straight year that the team had doubled Klipfolio Dashboard revenues.
In 2001, when Allan, Peter, and James founded the company, they did so with the goal of making data visible and accessible. That objective is not just a mission statement, but the guiding principle shared by everyone at Klipfolio. The product has matured and evolved from a consumer dashboard to branded applications and at last as a KPI dashboard. While the way the product has been applied has changed over the years, the team remains dedicated to bringing data visibility to the next level.
Even as we wrap up this history, a new chapter is being written for the story of Klipfolio. Surely, that chapter will include the evolution of Klipfolio's line of products, but more importantly it will be about the maturation of the company as a whole. Guided by Allan Wille, Peter Matthews, and James Scott, and backed by an innovative and energetic team, it already appears that that next chapter will be as interesting and intriguing as the ones that preceded it.
Just in case you missed it (or want to listen to it again), Klipfolio's Allan Wille was on DM Radio to discuss "User Experience and the Evolution of Mobile Apps" along with panelists from the industry. The topic centered on mobile business intelligence (BI) and how user expectations impact the products put forth by vendors. After all, business users accessing their mobile BI on an iPhone expect the same ease-of-use as checking their Facebook, Twitter, or playing some Angry Birds.
I thought Allan made a really good point in his segment when he pointed out that despite the hype around big data, mobile users might not really be interested in analytical data on-the-go. Rather, Allan points out, checking operational or "small" data on your mobile device is more practical and relevant to the use-case of a remote worker. Host Eric Kavanagh agreed and made this Tweet:
The show is now available at DM Radio Broadcast Central.
