Transforming Strategy Management: From Spreadsheets to Specialized Software

Discover how to revolutionize your strategic planning by shifting from traditional spreadsheet-based methods to specialized strategic planning software.

This comprehensive guide outlines a change agenda across six key perspectives: performance indicators, strategy maps, business frameworks, strategic alignment, reporting, and teamwork. Learn how to enhance your strategy's effectiveness and efficiency with automated tools that offer superior organization, real-time updates, and seamless collaboration. Perfect for businesses seeking to streamline their strategic planning processes and achieve better results.

1. Shifting from Excel to
BSC Designer
Shifting from Spreadsheet-Based Strategies to
Specialized Strategic Planning Software

2. 6 perspectives of change agenda
Shifting from Spreadsheet-Based Strategies
Managing strategy with spreadsheet and
presentation software.
Ad-Hoc Approach
PAST STATE
Specialized Software
FUTURE STATE
Strategy is automated with specialized strategic
planning software.
Perspective 1
Performance Indicators
Perspective 2
Strategy Maps
Perspective 3
Templates and Frameworks
Perspective 4
Strategic Alignment
Perspective 5
Reporting
Perspective 6
Teamwork

3. Perspective 1
Performance Indicators
●Broken calculations
●Decomposition is limited to 2-3 levels of goals
Ensures data consistency:
●Update intervals
●Weights and data normalization
●Leading and lagging indicators
●Aggregated data
As the scale grows, maintaining a spreadsheets
scorecard becomes a challenge.
Ad-Hoc Approach
PAST STATE
●Automatic calculations
●Limitless strategy decomposition
Specialized Software
FUTURE STATE
Lacks awareness of the type of data you are
managing.

4. Perspective 2
Strategy Maps
A map diagram created in presentation
software is a static image.
●Difficult to update
●Lacks up-to-date data
●Little value for strategy discussions
●Created automatically
●Always up-to-date
●Shows goals, risks, indicators, and initiatives
The role of strategy map changes to:
●Facilitate strategy presentation
●Provide supporting details
●Automate brainstorming sessions
Ad-Hoc Approach
PAST STATE
Specialized Software
FUTURE STATE

5. Perspective 3
Templates and Frameworks
●Business frameworks embedded within the
software
●An easy way to align the insights from the
templates with the company’s strategy
●Templates for some popular strategy and
functional scorecards (cybersecurity, supply
chain, talent management)
Ad-Hoc Approach
PAST STATE
Visually appealing templates from the Internet
are disconnected.
●Five Forces - Analysis of competitive
landscape
●PESTEL - Analysis of external factors
●Ansoff Matrix - Planning growth strategies
Specialized Software
FUTURE STATE
Shared strategy workspace.

6. Perspective 4
Strategic Alignment
●Aligns goals with KPIs and initiatives
●Fails to align strategy and function scorecards
●Fails to align templates and scenarios with
strategy
●Alignment “by design” for goals, KPIs, risks,
and initiatives
●Alignment by perspectives, normalized goals, or
by a shared context for scorecards
Creates a single source of truth regarding strategy!
Ad-Hoc Approach
PAST STATE
Specialized Software
FUTURE STATE
Works on a low level, fails on high level.

7. Perspective 5
Reporting
●Instead of generating a report, share a link to
access the required data
●A report can be generated automatically by
the software
●Send out reports on schedule
Ad-Hoc Approach
PAST STATE
Specialized Software
FUTURE STATE
Reporting with general-purpose office tools is
time consuming.
Different paradigm for reporting.

8. Perspective 6
Teamwork
●Audit trail
●Access control for scorecards and indicators
●Automatic notifications
●Workflow for securing historical data
●Approval mechanisms for new data
Ad-Hoc Approach
PAST STATE
Specialized Software
FUTURE STATE
●Lack of accountability: no way
to track who introduced the
changes and why they were
made.
Access controls are designed for
general-purpose use cases.

9. Thank you!
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