Plan Diagnostics Report

This new page is like a health check-up for your planning process.  It displays the following statistics about the selected plan:

Reviews
Has this plan been reviewed effectively?

Achievements
Over all, how well are we achieving this plan?

Creation
How well did we define what we planned to do?

Most of the numbers link to custom reports on the Plan Status screen that show exactly how the number was calculated.  Only the Missing Owner numbers link to the Ownership Transfer screen.  A Show Percentage control in the gray top-navigation toggles most fields from showing counts to showing percentages.

Responsibilities Shows a Review Dashboard Much Like the Tags Report

This report still shows a user's strategies, tactics, and Scorecard metrics on one screen, but now it shows a "review" perspective with the latest updates, start- and end-dates, and graphs:

This is the same format as the Tag report and includes the same control parameters so that you can customize the report to your liking.  You can view other people's Responsibilities, but like the rest of the system, you only see items that are already visible to you.  Use the up and down arrows to move between users alphabetically, or pick one from the drop-down with your mouse.

Company-Wide Plan Visibility

Visibility

Scorecards have always offered company-wide visibility, but now you can make company-visible plans too!  Instead of manually giving everyone view access to a plan, just set the Default Visibility from "Confidential" to "Company-Wide" and every PlanBase user at your company will be able to see it!.

New visibility icons appear in the upper-right of every Plan (and Scorecard) page, reminding you of who can see your data.

Company-Internal:    Confidential:

Reporting

Plan Review View now provides a show cumulative link in the gray top navigation which displays QTD and YTD information for scorecard metrics, just like on the Process Review screen.  During a review, when you ask, "I see how we're doing this month, but how are we doing for the quarter/year?" the answer is a single click away!

The Entities view screen now shows just the top 2 levels of entities by default.  The Display Depth drop down makes this screen show as many levels as you like.  Like other screens with a single drop down, pressing the up and down keys scrolls the drop-down and the screen refreshes automatically.

Security

For improved security, you can now monitor your active sessions and close any that you may have left open by accident.  From the My Account screen, click on the blue Active Sessions link in the gray top-bar navigation.  This is a great way to clean up an old "keep me signed in" session you may have forgotten about, even (or especially) if you opened that session on a phone or computer you no longer have access to.  If you used the same password on your PlanBase account as another account that was hacked, this screen also provides a great way to check that no unauthorized sessions have been started, or close any that have!

Tactic Date Picker and Multi-Tag Reports

Intuitive, pop-up calendar controls make setting tactic start and end dates as easy as possible.

New Tactic Date Picker

Also, you can now report on combinations of tags.  You can still click on any item to see everything with that one tag, but now you can also check the box next to multiple tags to report on them together.

Selecting multiple tags for reporting

Combine tags using AND to report on items that are tagged with all the selected tags. Selecting OR will generate a report of items that have any one of the selected tags.  See last month's post on Tagging Tactics and Metrics for details about this new, powerful reporting feature.

Tagging Tactics and Metrics

Tag your favorite strategies, tactics, and metrics to make them easier to search for, or to group them for reporting.

This report can show 15 months of numeric data for metrics, or it can show spark charts.

Other reports in the system are aligned by person, by plan, or by process.  This new tag report lets you identify similarities and pick items from all your data to report on.

Plan Status Comments

Run your strategy reviews live from our Plan Status screen

New Comments checkbox on the Plan Status screen shows the Reason for Difference comments.  Now you don't even have to click to drill down.  This is much more efficient than having each participant prepare a slide deck for your monthly review meeting.

Also in this release:

• Improved Sign In screen.
• The term "Ad Hoc Metric" can now be customized to be "Short Term Metric," "Simple Metric," or match whatever term your organization is already used to.
• Added three new columns to the Plan CSV download to make the download and upload match exactly.  New columns are: Type (Indicates whether this row is an objective/strategy or a tactic), Tactic Start Date, and Tactic End Date.

Metric Review PDF Report

Release 2014-08-27:

It's never been easier to make metrics and action items accessible to associates without computers!

• Download a review report for a single metric from the Process Review screen.
• Put the print-out on the wall, or in the mail, to bring the visibility and accountability of PlanBase to associates who do not have computers.
• PDF format ensures maximum printer compatibility and minimum hassle.
• Includes a full-width graph and space to write in extra corrective actions.

Multiple Plan Status Filters

Release 2014-07-03:

Say goodbye to pivot tables...

Filtered Strategic Plan Status

Have you ever wanted to select only improvement priorities that are off track and getting worse? How about those that are either ahead of plan, on track, or getting better? Now you can easily mix and match selection criteria to better analyze your plans with multiple simultaneous filters!

Release 2013-09-13: Metrics on Plan Status Screen

Metrics can now be displayed on the Plan Status screen.

Check the Show Metrics box and click Apply Settings just like any other report setting.

Release 2011-03-11: X-Matrix

Companies that choose to enable it can now view their Hoshin plans as an X-Matrix report. The X-Matrix is another way of presenting the information already in the system as a chart of the objective, strategies, metrics, supporting strategies, owners, and their relationships around a central box, the "X." In the PlanBase version coloring in the chart helps your eye follow the information in the chart around the corners of the box. Plan entry and reviews are still done in the regular Plan and Review views.

Read about Your Custom X-Matrix in PlanBase on our web site.  Please contact us if you are interested in a demo.

Release 2011-02-28: Pareto Analysis

Scorecard Improvements

• Added an optional Pareto analysis and Variance analysis to each process and metric review (on the Process Review screen).
• "Tactic Assigned" and "Review Overdue" messages are now generated for process improvements and corrective actions as well as tactics.
• Now everyone has access to the Load Metric screen (formerly only the Application Manager had access).  It works like the Batch Data Load screen except it only loads one metric at a time and it's designed to be used by cutting and pasting data directly from your spreadsheet into the system.  This makes it even easier for each metric reporter to enter their own data (and historical data too).  Look for the little blue load link next to your favorite (non-batch-loaded) metrics on the Business Unit screen.

Usability Improvements

• Made Metric Subsets stickier - now editing a metric or updating a review leaves you in the subset you were in.  Editing a process or function or clicking something in the left-hand navigation still pops you out of the subset.
• The subset name now appears at very top of the screen, making it more obvious and mirroring the way the Function View works.
• Changed name of "Scorecards" and "Plans" section in left-hand navigation to "My Scorecards" and "My Plans" for clarity.
• (Brief) message on each user's home page announces the new release.

Security Improvements

• We now store each password using multiple rounds of SHA-512 hashing with unique salt for each user, which is currently state-of-the art for making passwords "unrecoverable."
• This increases the maximum password length.  All alphabets of the Unicode Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP) are still supported in both the password and user ID (and every other field in the system).
• We have also improved our password requirements (to encourage people to make better passwords), by adding several popular passwords to the list of reserved words and by prohibiting 4 or more of the same character in a row (e.g. 1111, AaAa, etc.).
• To take advantage of the new storage you must change your password.
• Ninety days after this release, anyone who hasn't changed their password yet will be forced to change it.
• It is still each user's responsibility to use a unique password for every account, to make each password strong, unguessable, compliant with their organization's security guidelines, and to keep each password secret, never sharing it or their account with others for any reason.
• PlanBase is continually looking for ways to improve security, not just password security.  PlanBase encourages people to use good passwords by having password requirements, by making helpful suggestions, and by storing passwords securely.  But even PlanBase cannot protect you against a hacker outright guessing your password (on the first try), or stealing a reused password from another site and using it to access this one.  Only you can choose a unique, unguessable password for each of your accounts and store them securely.  Please do your part to keep your account, your company, and PlanBase applications secure.

Release 2011-01-10: Scorecard Metric Subsets

• Each entity, function, or process owner can now create their own subset of metrics that are most important to them and navigate the Scorecard system showing only that subset. The new Edit Metric Subset screen makes it easy to select your favorite metrics. Any combination of metrics (within an entity) is allowed in a subset.
• The Heat Map screen now suppresses (or at least dramatically shrinks) columns that have no metrics in them.
• The old system of calling some metrics Entity KPIs or Function KPIs has been converted to the new system such that all the old Entity KPIs have been moved to the Metric Subset of the entity owner and the Function KPIs have been moved to the Metric Subsets of the function owners. The new system only allows one subset per-person per-entity and generally only entity or function owners can have their own subset.
• Tip: Inform your direct reports that you will use your subset to review their progress.

QTD/YTD Views and Financial Review Screen

QTD/YTD Views

The Heat Map, BU, Function, and Metric Contributors screens have a new "Time Frame" tab that switches the view from Monthly (the current view which will still be the default) to QTD (Quarter-To-Date) or YTD (Year-To-Date).

Your administrator may want to revisit which metric types are declared Cumulative because that setting now affects many more screens. Checking the Cumulative box on a metric type tells the system to calculate QTD (for monthly metrics) and YTD values by adding up the values in that quarter or year. If the Cumulative box is not checked, the end-of-period value will be shown instead.

Use Cumulative for metric types like Gross Sales, Units Produced, and Number of Defects are generally cumulative (the quarterly number is the sum of the three monthly numbers). Do not use Cumulative for Call Rate, Customer Satisfaction, and Sales Growth over Prior Year because these numbers cannot be meaningfully added together and the end-of-period number (last month of the quarter, or last quarter of the year) tends to be the most relevant.

Financial Review

The new Financial Review screen shows shows how financial forecasts changed over time, shows future forecasts, and lets you update the latest forecast for all financial metrics in a business unit. Only users with financial permission can access this screen. It shows 15 months of data, similar to the other screens, but instead of showing the months prior to and including the current review month, it shows the months for the prior quarter, the current quarter, and the three upcoming quarters. Access this screen from the button at the top of the Business Unit screen.

The layout of this screen is similar to the BU view, except extra data is shown for each metric.

Any metric marked financial will not display current or future data on any screen except the Financial Review screen. This is for security so that only people with Financial privilege can view the forecasted values. Everyone will still be able to see the historical (ROFO) targets and actuals.

Full details of this feature can be found in the on-line help.

Press Release: PlanBase Hoshin "Responsibilities" Release Links to Any Document

PlanBase Inc. released a new version of its PlanBase Hoshin web-based planning software that allows it to link to any document accessible from the web.

If it can be scanned, photographed or typed, it can be linked to PlanBase Hoshin. PlanBase announced today that this new functionality is designed to support links to A3 charts, graphs, web sites, or other supporting materials. "It's another way PlanBase Hoshin fits into an organization's existing infrastructure" says Executive Vice President, John Hamilton.

Also in this release is a "Responsibilities" screen that shows each user all of the objectives, strategies, and tactics that they are responsible for and the status of each. The screen can be printed or sent for ease of documentation and review.