Canadian Government Executive - Volume 22

February 2016 //

Canadian Government Executive /

Program Planning

challenge is that these planning compo-

nents are both highly symbiotic and itera-

tive in nature. Without a suitable means

to rationalize resource deployment to

execute on operational plans that sup-

port strategic objectives, the process often

becomes fragmented and indeed, error-

prone.

The good news is that there are a variety

of readily-available technologies that can

help streamline these processes as shown

in Figure 1;

• Logic models and/or strategy map-

ping solutions

provide the means to

both articulate and visualize the causal

relationships between strategic and

operational outcomes. These tools ulti-

mately help tell the “performance story”

and both qualify and quantify how front-

line outputs help achieve longer-term

expected results.

• Business planning and budgeting so-

lutions

deliver techniques and tools to

assign and balance the resource require-

ments considered necessary to execute

on operational plans and objectives.

They readily manage the iterative pro-

cess of budget formulation (both top-

down budget allocations and bottom-up

operational budgeting), forecasting, bud-

get re-allocations, and financial manage-

ment reporting. They provide managers

the ability to better manage the limited

resources available (particularly in the

public sector) to optimize both program

and/or service efficiency and effective-

ness.

• Business modeling and optimization

solutions

offer users the ability to cre-

ate comprehensive interactive models

of their business processes to better

understand input (resources) to activity

(work) to output (products and services)

relationships. In this fashion, managers

can readily comprehend the resource

consumption requirements that support

costing, efficiency analysis, business con-

straint, and “what-if” scenario-playing.

• Scorecarding and dashboard solu-

tions

provide the means to not only

monitor and report on performance

indicators derived in the planning pro-

cess, but ultimately demonstrate “value

for money” by visualizing the linkages

from resource consumption to strategy

achievement. They also offer a platform

to provide qualitative feedback and col-

laborative commentary around the at-

tainment of performance objectives; be

they expected results, indicator targets,

or project/initiative milestones.

Gartner labels the above class of technol-

ogy tools as Corporate Performance Man-

agement (CPM). Specific vendors also use

the term Enterprise Performance Man-

agement (EPM). In this regard, Garter de-

fines performance management as:

the combination of management

methodologies, metrics and tech-

nologies that enables users to define,

monitor and optimize results and

outcomes to achieve personal or de-

partmental objectives, while enabling

alignment with strategic objectives

across multiple organizational levels:

personal, process, group, departmen-

tal, corporate or business ecosystem.

Gartner publishes a review of the major

CPM technology vendors in their annual

“Magic Quadrant for CPM” research sum-

mary. Not surprisingly, all three of the

largest enterprise class technology com-

panies (IBM, Oracle, and SAP) have CPM

suites considered to be in the leader’s

quadrant (i.e. high ratings on complete-

ness of technology vision and ability to

execute).

Unfortunately, the implementation of

these technologies is often done piece-

meal without consideration for the full

value that a completely integrated CPM

suite offers in supporting a truly aligned

business planning and reporting environ-

ment. While most organizations begin

their CPM journey by introducing or ex-

panding one of these key business man-

agement technologies, this is often done

in a disparate fashion across various busi-

ness units. This generally leads to sub-op-

timization of both the business practices

and the supporting technologies. This can

cause further challenges when trying to

standardize methodologies in the design

of a truly enterprise approach to perfor-

mance management. It is therefore im-

portant to “begin with the end in mind”

not only for integrated planning and re-

porting as a business approach, but on

how the various components of technol-

ogy enablement fit into “the big picture”.

In the federal government, a number of

departments are beginning to overcome

some of these challenges as they con-

tinue to explore the capabilities of CPM

solutions. Over five years ago, Transport

Canada was considered an early adopter

by implementing some of the Oracle CPM

tools in the design of their Enterprise

Resource Management System (ERMS).

More recently, Citizen and Immigration

Canada has been working with the IBM-

Cognos toolset as part of their ePlanning

initiative while Health Canada is current-

ly deploying SAP’s Enterprise Information

Intelligence Software Solution (EIISS) for

Government as part of their Planning for

Enterprise Performance or PEP project. In

all cases, the drivers behind these imple-

mentations have been threefold:

• reduced burden on departmental staff

and managers for plan development

and management,

• improved accuracy of both operational

and financial performance forecasts,

and

• enhanced decision-making at all levels

of the organization.

In summary, the application of modern

enterprise-class technology should be

seen as an enabler for strengthening the

integrated planning process by providing

visibility into not only how plans are exe-

cuted, but why they are done. In this fash-

ion, planning can indeed be “everything”

by making it a truly engaging value-added

exercise that provides the foundation for

a strong performance culture in any orga-

nization.

ike

aley

is President of Landmark

Decisions and a board member of the

Performance and Planning Exchange

(PPX). For over 20 years, he has worked

with both private and public sector or-

ganizations to help architect planning,

costing, and performance content that

can be readily supported by enterprise

technology solutions to enhance orga-

nizational efficiency and effectiveness.

Planning can be

“everything” by making

it a truly engaging

value-added exercise

that provides the

foundation for a strong

performance culture in

any organization.