Have you ever tried to find or define a KPI?
If so, you'll know that it's difficult because KPIs or Key Performance Indicators, are complex and interrelated among themselves and business processes. So what do you do?
SAP Solution Map Composer Can Help
Many people have found success by using the SAP Solution Map Composer or SMC for short. But there are a few things you should know before you attempt to design a business dashboard or management cockpit to ensure KPI Best Design Practices are followed. This post will tell you what you need to know to make sure you select a KPI that will let you successfully design a corporate KPI and related hierarchy.
KPI Design Best Practices
If you're looking for a best practice for the design of KPIs, you should start by downloading the SAP Solution Map composer, available for free from SAP, which provides you the ability to explore all SAP Industry Solution Maps and to compose your own. I have prepared a series of videos for you to see how that is done here.
Of course, this blog is about a much different subject, the best practices to follow when designing KPIs. It turns out that with a little advanced knowledge, you can use the SAP Solution Map Composer to find all the definitions of just about every KPI known and as well, to define your own, or modify the definition of an existing definition. I have prepared a short tutorial video here to show you how to do that.
But just knowing the name and definition of a KPI is not nearly enough. Let's take airlines for example, they might typically want to come up with a set of aircraft maintenance KPIs and so, they would like a method to look at both the airline maintenance solution map and to find out what KPIs are supported by which business process. In this short video, I show you how you can search for a KPI and find out which business process is actually a source of information for that KPI.
Sometimes, you may want to use some of the advanced search functionality embodied within this tool. One such time is when you want to find out which KPIs use a particular KPI as part of their formula. In other words, how the KPI tree is built. In this video, I show you the results of just such a video.
You can also use the SMC to produce a powerpoint version of existing or a custom built solution roadmap. These SAP ERP Business Maps can then be graphically displayed, with only slight manipulation, within the Solution Manager. It does a pretty good job of maintaining formats, and is also useful for quickly communicating complex process ideas to customers and end users.
Export SAP Solution Manager
As usual, due to the highly integrated nature of all of the SAP tools, you can export a KPI map created in SAP Solution Map Composer to the SAP Solution Manager. This helps your SAP Implementation Team to ensure their SAP Business Processes are configured to support the defined KPIs with the target SAP ERP solution landscape.
These are just some of the best practices available to you when designing a KPI hierarchy, and if you have any questions about how to use this tool, don’t hesitate to ask.
Explore the KPIs that SAP Business Processes Support
With these short tutorials, you are now equipped to explore the KPIs that SAP business processes support. Of course, should you need help composing your own solution landscape and building a KPI tree to support your business objectives, and to drive your solution design, you know what to do.
People Who Read This Also Read:
- SAP Solution Explorer (This is the tool that replaced SAP Solution Map Composer)
- SAP Value Lifecycle Manager (VLM)
- How To Translate SAP Modules Into Business Process Capabilities
- Business Process Requirements Specification Template
- Business Process Improvement Prioritization Tool
What are 2 Primary Focus Areas for SAP Airline Customers?
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