•Streamline data management and
workflow processes
• Focus line staff on research and analy-
sis within their functional area
•Disseminate data throughout the
organization
• Generate new insights into previously
unidentified signals
• Trigger decision-making response and
new actions by business directors
Scorecards
The framework described above is
designed to move a company toward an
evidence-based mindset within each
functional activity. Business manag-
ers that take the initiative to drive orga-
nizational decisions based on the best
available information need an intuitive
tool that:
• Provides immediate and clear feedback
• Ties performance to goals and objectives
• Aligns operational activity with strate-
gic activity
• Summarizes the right set of metrics
decision makers can control
• Allows for problem identification with-
in the business
• Shows how decisions affect business
success
• Compels decision making based on
analytics, not instinct
One of the most effective tools to
achieve these results is the visualized
scorecard. Central to the success of
scorecard use is its design rationale and
an actionable purpose that furthers the
insights into the business. A user-centered
design for the scorecard will maximize
the value of the user experience (UX). 1 A
well-designed scorecard with an appeal-
ing user experience will enhance the
overall quality of decisions through the
deliberative use of relevant and best avail-
able analytics. Figures 2 and 3 are exam-
ples of energy company scorecards by
functional activity. They are shown with
a corresponding example visualization.
Success Factors
To successfully build a culture of evi-
dence-based management, firms must:
• Demand that all data be validated and
that a process is in place to ensure con-
tinuous validation
• Demand that an open, data-sharing
environment exists for all employees
• Create and enforce appropriate work-
flows that underpin the culture
•Resist the urge to take an ad hoc
approach to scorecard design as it
invariably results in views that are
“nice to have” and may have little
redeeming value
•Scrupulously monitor and manage
the use of visual scorecards to achieve
actionable, decision-based views Com-
panies employing visual scorecards
supported with accurate analytics and
timely information dissemination are
already gaining an advantage against
their competitors through decision-
making responses and actions that
achieve faster, more efficient and prof-
itable results.⊗
Requirement, Market
And Customer Insight In
Business Expansion
Requirement: Capacity
management tracking and
reporting
Actionable Output:
• Asset efficiency
• Fuel management
• Supply management
• EBITOA performance
• KPI tracking
• Asset risk factors
FIGURES 5: Overarching Decision Management Portal
Goal, Optimize Return On Assets
Requirement: Grow revenue in
multi-mode services supported by
trading activities
Actionable Output:
• Improve forward visibility on
asset balances. in-transit inven-
tory and s hipper destination
terminal rundown
• Maximize revenue and volumes
related to multi-mode trans-
porting (truck, ra il and pipe]
and blending under bundled tra
nsport agreements
• Capture trading and logistics
solutions to enable storage
optimizat ion and grad e/location
differentialbased transact ions
FIGURE 4: Optimization Interactions
from Asset and Commodity Data Sets
