Looking for Balanced Scorecard Software

I haven’t been able to come up with an authoritative list of major balanced scorecard software vendors. UK-based consultancy 2GC lists more than 100 in a helpful database with little blurbs on each, but they include performance management systems that are not necessarily for balanced scorecards. The Balanced Scorecard Collaborative, home of balanced scorecard co-inventor David P. Norton, lists two dozen products they have certified as meeting true balanced scorecard criteria. Of these, more than half belong non-specialist companies including enterprise software (Oracle, Peoplesoft [now Oracle], SAP, Infor, Rocket Software) and broad business intelligence systems (Business Objects, Cognos, Hyperion [now Oracle], Information Builders, Pilot Software [now SAP], SAS). Most of these firms have purchased specialist products. The remaining vendors (Active Strategy, Bitam, Consist FlexSI, Corporater, CorVu, InPhase, Intalev, PerformanceSoft [now Actuate], Procos, Prodacapo, QPR and Vision Grupos Consultores) are a combination of performance management specialists and regional consultancies.

That certified products are available from all the major enterprise and business intelligence vendors shows the basic functions needed for balanced scorecard are well understood and widely available. I’m sure there are differences among the products but suspect their choice of system will rarely be critical to project success or failure. The core functions are creation of strategy maps and cascading scorecards. I suspect systems vary more widely in their ability to import and transform scorecard data. A number of products also include project management functions such as task lists and milestone reporting. This is probably outside of the core requirements for balanced scorecard but does make sense in the larger context of providing tools to help meet business goals.

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