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Balanced Scorecards in Government Agencies
During one of the Bizzscore User Days, Luc Vereecken of Delta-I holds a presentation about his experiences implementing scorecards in the Belgian Federal Government. Vereecken first explains why these Ministries and Agencies felt the need for scorecarding: "Important reasons were mandates, budget pressure, changes of power and political pressure".
Vereecken says that the thing that matters most in a management system is to focus on practise and improvement. Practise, so he explains, is daily control: checking that services are in line with purpose and planning, that quality is at the set target levels and that operations are within budget. Improvement is about the time people need to react to under performance and realizing strategic projects. Perspectives of the Balanced Scorecard
According to Vereecken, balanced scorecards in a governmental setting are about keeping a balance in the functioning. He distinguishes the perspectives "Results", "Customers", "Processes" and "Innovation & Creativity". Results refer to the results for society, both as laid down in formal contracts or as informal understandings. By customers are meant customers as individuals and customers as target groups. Processes are divided by Vereecken into primary production processes and support processes (HR, logistical services, infrastructure, etc.). Innovation & Creativity are according to Vereecken about focusing the creativity on those matters that will help the organization right at this moment. Implementation
Implementation starts with defining success factors on departmental level. "The results are presented tot the directorate", explains Vereecken. Next, the definition of indicators takes place. After documenting these definitions, the necessary data is organized and collected. The process thus far takes about five days. Automating this in the Bizzscore software takes about two days. Subsequently, people can test, give feedback, consolidate and have yearly adjustments "because of strategic reflections". Vereecken says software is essential for implementing the balanced scorecard in Government agencies and argues for using Bizzscore first stand-alone, then as an enterprise solution, “and finally link it to other software". Pro’s and Con’s of the Balanced Scorecard
At the end of his presentation, Vereecken sums up the pro’s and con’s of applying the balanced scorecard in government agencies. The con’s concern according to Verreecken the additional paperwork, the abstract level of information and the need to set-up an ad hoc system and structure for use. But Vereecken says the benefits of using scorecards far outweigh these matters: "Lines of communication get much clearer, interpretation and analysis of information gets better, causal relationships become visible, input for strategic reflexion is available, the services improve, it is quick to implement at low cost and the objectives of the measurements are kept within the system!".
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