Using Key Performance Indicators

A key performance indicator (KPI) measures progress towards a result, such as a goal or objective.

A goal or objective is the outcome that you want to achieve. Typically, goals use the SMART method of definition: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. KPIs, on the other hand, are a metric that indicate your progress in achieving the goal. The KPI is essentially the measurable part of the SMART goal.

A set of KPIs can track performance while providing an analytical basis for decision-making. For example, if you have one KPI indicating success, and another KPI indicating underperformance, then you can decide to allocate more attention or resources to examining the underperforming KPI to increase its chance for success.

Understanding how different types of measures and various metrics are used can increase knowledge and trust in KPI use.

To create a useful KPI, make sure that it's on a goal that can create quantitative or qualitative measures. For example, you can have a goal to improve the customer retention rate by 20% based on last year's retention rate. Use this product to find all the source systems and assets necessary so that you have all the customer data you need to work on this goal and measure it with this KPI.

After you have found the source systems, you can create relationships and link them to this KPI. While defining the KPI, you can specify that the calculation is "CRR=Number of customers at the beginning of a period / number of those customers that remained customers at the end of a period". Then the detailed documentation can include the steps for finding the source systems and creating a workflow to get the data necessary for tracking each month.

You can create another KPI that can be related to this KPI in the Related Objects tab. For example, you can have a KPI that tracks the number of new customers this year that uses the same source systems and does a comparison, and then you create a table with the new customer information.