As in all human communication, content and format go hand in hand to deliver a communication message. The content of performance reports only partially addresses communication requirements.
Since its launch on a Windows platform in 1987, Microsoft Excel has gradually become omnipresent on business desktop environments. It is widely used in businesses of all sizes for data management, analysis and reporting. In a way, it can be considered the first Business Intelligence (BI) software product mass marketed.
Almost since its launch, Excel’s position in the market has been challenged by various products with advanced data integration and analysis functionality. Together, they formed the basis of the today’s BI market, by going through several successive phases:
1987-1996 Formation – initial product launches
1996-2005 Growth – product maturity and market formation
2005-2010 Consolidation – by various mergers and acquisitions involving the major software producers in the world.
One of the skills we have as humans is the ability to find, create and select the appropriate tools to assist us in our activity. One way of grouping tools is by their form: physical or conceptual.
In my previous updates I highlighted the importance of theory in performance management and introduced the goal setting theory as one of the most important informing the discipline. I also outlined the importance of understanding the complexities of setting targets.