Release 2010-04-30: Strategy End-Status Approval

Ending a strategy eliminates the need to review it in subsequent quarters. There are three ways to end a strategy; it can be Completed, Canceled, or put On Hold. Choosing one of these statuses from the Review Status screen may end the strategy immediately, or starting with this release, it may require approval from the owner of the objective above your strategy in the plan similar to the way Creation Statuses are approved, depending on how your company is configured.



This release also adds new Activity radio buttons to the Review Status screen for selecting whether the strategy is Active, Completed, On Hold, or Canceled. This new control will put the right status in the Concern for Future drop-down for you.

• Active: This strategy is currently being pursued.


• Complete: Marking a strategy complete signifies that all actions have been completed and all improvements are sustainable.  This success-status will show up for all future review periods and will not require additional reviews, but it is prudent to check on the metrics for this strategy from time to time to ensure that the progress is maintained.


• On Hold: The strategy is not currently being pursued, but is likely to be pursued again some time in the future.  The hold-status will show up for all future review periods and will not require additional reviews.


• Canceled: The strategy is no longer being pursued.  The canceled status will show up for all future review periods and will not require additional reviews.

There are three levels of End-Status Approval configuration. Ask your support contact to configure this for your company:

• None: No approvals are required. This is the default, what all users have now.


• Completed Only: Approvals are only required for the completed status.  This status is configurable individually because you may wish to continue to monitor a completed strategy to be sure the improvement is sustainable.


• All: Completed, On Hold, and Canceled statuses all require approval.

If you are reviewing a top-level objective, or you own the objective above your strategy in a plan (thus making you the approver) it will never require approval.

When marking a strategy Completed you will have an easier time getting it approved if you enter the reason you believe that the improvements you achieved are sustainable, since that is how the reviewer will evaluate your request for completion.  Reviewers may ask owners to monitor and review a strategy for another few months before allowing them to mark it Completed.  When a strategy is put On Hold or Canceled, it is usually much more cut-and-dry and the approval process (if enabled) can be as much about notifying the boss of the change as is it is about getting approval.

Strategy Complete

Creation Statuses Renamed

The labels that identify the specific strategy creation stage have been changed to be more descriptive:

• Awaiting Approval (formerly called, "Complete") - The owner of this objective has added metrics and strategies (or tactics) and indicated that it is ready to be approved, but has not received management approval yet.


• Being Defined (formerly called, "In Process") - Metrics and strategies (or tactics) have been added to this objective, but the owner has not yet sent it for approval.


• Missing Metrics and/or Strategies/Tactics (formerly called, "Not Started") - This identifies an objective or strategy that does not contain at least one metric and one child strategy or tactic.

You may also filter by any of the above labels on the Plan Status screen.

Final Strategy Statuses

Another enhancement to PlanBase Hoshin enables owners of specific strategies and tactics to mark certain strategies as completed, thus bypassing review-overdue reminders. The Concern for the Future field reflects the owner's expectations about a strategy over the next period. Now it can also show if a strategy has been completed, canceled, or put on hold:

• Complete: Marking a strategy complete signifies that all actions have been completed and all improvements are sustainable. This success-status will show up for all future review periods and will not require additional reviews, but it is prudent to check on the metrics for this strategy from time to time to ensure that the progress is maintained.


• On Hold: The strategy is not currently being pursued, but is likely to be pursued again some time in the future. The hold-status will show up for all future review periods and will not require additional reviews.


• Canceled: The strategy is no longer being pursued. The canceled status will show up for all future review periods and will not require additional reviews.

Statuses show up for the review period they are entered for (quarter or month) except for the Completed, On Hold, and Canceled statuses which are "sticky" and show up for all future time periods. You can overwrite a sticky status at any time in the future and doing so will return the strategy to its normal one-status-per-review-period mode.

Customize Your PlanBase System

We have had many requests to customize PlanBase to allow for easier adoption of the system by more employees. Customization includes adding your company logo or changing specific labels to match your internal terminology. In PlanBase Scorecard, you may now customize the labels, "Business Unit", "Function", and several of the labels on the Financial Review screen. We even let you change the name of PlanBase Hoshin to whatever you want (Strategy Deployment, Goal Achievement, Quality Function Deployment, etc.)

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.

Scorecard Metrics on Hoshin

If you are a PlanBase Hoshin and PlanBase Scorecard user, you can now attach Scorecard metrics to Hoshin objectives and strategies. You can still define ad-hoc Hoshin metrics on-the-fly, but it's much easier to grab an existing metric from Scorecard and leverage the data already being tracked in the system.

Also, the Process Review screen has been redesigned so that metric-specific process improvements are shown next to their metric. General process improvements display at the top of the screen.

New Scorecard Features: Batch Data Load and Heat Map

Batch Data Load Screen

You can only access this screen if you have batch-data-load privilege, but you don't need the privilege to benefit from it! It allows someone (or a program) to automatically upload actuals and targets for multiple metrics at once. This is particularly useful when that data is provided by another system, but it can also be used to limit people's ability to enter data.

If you are an administrator with batch-data-load privilege, you can find the new screen in the left-hand navigation pane. It's designed for uploading a Tab-Delimited Text file (.txt) from a spreadsheet or other source. It is similar to the Metric Load screen but it allows loading multiple metrics at once. Before loading any metrics with this screen, you need to set those metrics up to be batch loaded. See the on-line help for full details.

Heat Map Screen

The Heat Map is a graphical representation of the current month's progress by metric vs. business unit. It shows all the key metrics across a BU, or function and highlights:

• How each business units is performing across multiple metrics
• Which metrics are challenging the most business units
• If any key reviews for this period are missing

Instances of a Metric Type Screen

This screen shows every instance where a metric type is used and lets you check across-the-board performance. It is also useful for managing metric types and for investigations related to batch data loading. It displays the review status, trend, and concern for each metric.

PlanBase Rolls Out Enhanced Communications Features in PlanBase Hoshin Upgrade

Andover, MA  June 8, 2009 – PlanBase, a leading creator of web-based Hoshin Planning software, today announced an upgrade to its PlanBase Hoshin software, including new communications and coaching features designed to increase users' engagement with the planning tools, and collaboration with one another, for improved results.

PlanBase Hoshin: New Features Enhance User Engagement and Collaboration

The latest version of PlanBase Hoshin includes several new features designed to increase users' engagement in the planning process through personalized communication and coaching. A new, built-in notification system allows users to receive messages on the Home Page, specific to their role in the planning process, such as reminders to take certain actions for which they are responsible. Many messages will delete themselves when the required action is taken, but any one may be deleted manually. The in-system messages will be augmented by email reminders when certain actions are not taken, or when new messages are present.

In addition, the new release includes features designed to facilitate communication among all participants in the planning process. Known as "Catchball" among Hoshin practitioners, this group dialogue is deemed critical to a plan's success. PlanBase Hoshin will now enable all participants charged with executing a plan to be engaged in top down and bottom up communication aimed at continuously refining and improving their plans, even if they are in different locations.
For more information about the latest release of PlanBase Hoshin, visit PlanBase.com.

PlanBase's web-based Business System management software take the pain out of the strategic planning process by allowing real time, enterprise-wide collaboration on strategy deployment and process management. PlanBase Hoshin brings speed to strategy deployment, accountability to strategy execution, and visibility to progress. PlanBase Scorecard brings measurement to key metrics, continuous improvement to the collection of processes that define how value is created, and transparency to results. In organizations large and small, PlanBase solutions foster increased awareness, motivation, alignment, and success.