KPI Fire New Features / Functionality

Metric Calculations Now Include Ratio, Multiplication, Subtraction, and Addition

Formerly you could define a Metric like Revenue Per Employee, by using a Ratio calculation.  Now you have the ability to define metrics by Multiplying one Metric by another, or by Summing or Subtracting one from another. Example: take Cost per Unit Metric, and multiply by the Total Units Sold, to get a brand-new metric Cost per Unit Sold.

Metric Calculations Now Include Ratio, Multiplication, Subtraction, and Addition
Grid View Options Currently in BETA

Grid View Options Currently in BETA

Choose how the Grid View displays the new Group by Goal (3 Column), the traditional Group by Goal (4 Column) Group by Department, or Group by Category. On the Grid View use Display Options to change your view.

Grid View Options Currently in BETA
Grid View Options Currently in BETA

Introducing the Metric Trees View

Accessed through the Metrics item on the Main Menu Bar, this view provides a drill down of all Linked Metrics, or Parent Sub Metrics.  Great way to view all the metrics in the tree to identify potential weak spots affecting the performance of the Parent Metric.

New Filter Options on “Clear Filters”

In the past, the Clear Filters option on any View, would simply eliminate all selected filters to show all. Now there is a second option, “Reset Filters” which automatically filters for your User Name, and your Department. Makes it easier to set filters and find what you’re looking for.

Introducing the Metric Trees View
Introducing the Metric Summary View

Introducing the Metric Summary View

Accessed through the Metrics item on the Main Menu Bar, this view provides a summary of Metrics by Department with total counts, and counts on how many Metrics are Red, Yellow, Green or Gray (have no current data for this period). Provides the ability to quickly locate Metric data and drill down to details.

Metric Bowling View Display Options

If you have multiple Metrics where some are Monthly, some Weekly, and Some Quarterly… you can now display the Metric Bowling View grouped by Frequency. Makes it much easier to locate and manage the Metrics you’re looking for.

Project Timeline and Portfolio Timeline Report Have New User Interface & Capabilities

From a project select the Timeline view, or from the Projects / Reports menu select Project Portfolio Timeline… they both have improved functionality and look and feel.

Project Timeline and Portfolio

As well you can now hover over any Task to view the Owner, Due Date, Status, Priority and any Tags on that Task.

Project Timeline and Portfolio

Ability to Lock Pareto List Values

When using the Pareto List Reasons on a Metric, you can now lock the values that can be selected to a set list of reasons. This ensures only those values can be used and increases the accuracy and value of the Pareto chart. In this example when selecting the reason for a low NPS score we have locked the possible values to six options.

Ability to Lock Pareto List Values

Added “Open in New Tab” Option on the Project List View and the Benefit Exception Report

Open in a New Tab” facilitates quicker, easier drill downs.

Added Open in New Tab Option

New X-Matrix Tree View

When you open the X-Matrix you now have the ability to select what level you wish to view, instead of always opening at the highest level. Enhances navigation and clarity of data at the appropriate department level.

Enhanced Print Capability on the X-Matrix

Use the “Actions” button to Print your X-Matrix.

“My Projects” View Defaults to Display Last Project You Were Working On

When you log in, the project you’ve been working on is displayed, no need to select it from the list.

“Project Benefits” Re-Order the Benefit Accounts

Ability on a project to re-order the Benefit Accounts to better match the purpose / intent of the project. In this example, if “Fixed/OH Cost Savings” is the primary driver of the project, move that line to the Top.

My Projects View
Introducing QR Code Generation for Idea External Forms

Introducing QR Code Generation for Idea External Forms

Previously you could generate an External Idea Form from any Goal producing a URL that could be included in an email or web page.  Now you can generate a QR Code to enhance the idea capture process. Create your own posters with the QR Code, and anyone with a cell phone can submit an idea.

Ability to Tag Tasks in a Project Plan, and Filter the Task List on a Tag, or Multiple Tags

Introducing a new “Tag Filter” feature to easily view and manage project tasks based on specific tags.

Ability to Tag Tasks in a Project Plan

Use Advanced Task Search to Find all Tasks with a Tag Across Projects

From the Main Menu select Search, then Tasks, “Advanced Search”, Set Task Tag to Equals, then select the Tag or Tags, and hit Search.

Use Advanced Task Search to Find

Benefit Account Line Items can now be Assigned to Different Departments

If a project being executed in one department produces a Benefit or a Cost for a different department KPI Fire can now apply that Benefit/Cost to multiple departments. Example here: Project is delivering “Direct Savings” to Detroit, as well as “Indirect Savings” to Salt Lake City. These numbers will roll up to the appropriate Departments in all Benefit Reports. This feature is controlled by Advanced Settings and is not available in current sites unless activated.  (Contact support / customer success manager for assistance with this feature.)

Benefit Account Line Items
Benefit Account Line Items
Currencies Now Supported / Currency Conversion

Currencies Now Supported / Currency Conversion

KPI Fire can now display currencies in, US Dollar, Pound, Yen, Euro, Rand (ZAR) Australian Dollar, Malaysian Ringgit, and Nicaraguan Cordoba. Enter project benefits in Euro, or Pond, and display the total in a common currency using latest exchange rate.

Set Default Benefit Currency for a Department

If one of your departments is in Europe, then set the default Currency to Euro. Now any time a project is created in that department the Benefits will be tracked in the local currency.

On Metrics Hide or Show Configure Options

Once a Metric is configured, in terms of the frequency, data type, format, etc.. you can they Hide the Configuration options which expands the data fields and makes for a cleaner data input area.

On Metrics Hide or Show Configure Options

Project List View Now Displays # Days Open

Users can now display the “# Days Open” on the Project List View, as well as sort by this filed and filter for projects that have been open for over a desired number of days.

Project List View Now Displays

Actual Project Benefit ROI Now on Project Charter

Where previously only the Target ROI was available, users can now view both the Target Return on Investment (ROI) and the Actual ROI on the Project Charter page.

Actual Project Benefit ROI Now on Project Charter

Metric Bowling View by Category

Added option to group by category and use category color as border color for groups.

Metric Lock

Metric Lock – Now locks the Metric Target, Begin Green, Begin Yellow, Begin Red, Department and Category fields. This ensures anyone who has edit authority to enter Actuals can not accidentally delete or modify the Targets and other key variables. Use the Lock Icon on the Metric “Team” tab.

Revenue
Metric Bowling View by Category

New Project Benefits Exception Report

New report to help you quickly identify projects that have a Target Benefit, but no Actual has been entered yet.  Months that have a Target Value but no Actual Value appear highlighted in yellow.

New Project Benefits Exception Report
Update Workflow Applied to all Existing Projects

Update Workflow: Applied to all Existing Projects

If you make a change to the Charter Layout, add a new Text Tile, a new Custom Field, etc, to an existing Workflow, you can now choose to apply that change to all existing projects currently using that Workflow.

Project Teams

Simplified the project team member edit/access settings/
Separated the Edit/Read access from the License Types. There are now simple options for indicating a team member’s edit rights.

  • Owner (can edit all areas)
  • Editor (can edit all areas)
  • Edit-Own (can edit status of tasks assigned to the user)
  • No-Access (Team member does not have access to KPI fire, but will be listed in Reports)
Project Teams

Added a “No Access User”

Lets say you want to track who is working on a project, but that person does not need to log in. You can now add team resources as a “No Access Member”.

  • Better track all of the people involved in your improvement program and projects
  • Add no-access team members.  No additional cost.
  • Users can be upgraded to receive access later if company settings allow.
Add No User Access

Metrics: New Custom Date Frequency

Formerly you could choose the frequency of a Metric from a number of options; from Hourly to Yearly. But what if the data comes at random times, say if you are tracking the cycle time of a client implementation. This could happen every day, or once a month.

Metrics New Custom Date Frequency

Idea Submission Form Configuration

You can now decide whether you want the Idea submitter to rate the Effort and Impact of the idea they submit. This allows a possibly more qualified individual or team to do the rating and prioritization as the idea is compared with others in the funnel.

Idea Submission Form Configuration

“Close the Books” Financial Lock Dates

Ensures the numbers you are reporting on project benefits are consistent and accurate and are not subject to accidental changes. KPI Fire Administrator selects the date ranges to lock.

“Close the Books” Financial Lock Dates

Metric Trend Line

Metrics now include a Trend line. Allows you to project future performance based on current trend.

Metric Trend Line

Balanced Scorecard

The new Balanced Scorecard Huddleboard allows you to weight goals and metrics to calculate a weighted performance score. Example below: the total performance score is based 40% on Shareholder Performance, 25% on Customer Satisfaction, etc… Within the Shareholder goal, EBITDA metric weighted 40% while Cost Reduction is worth only 30%, etc.

Balanced Scorecard

Added Filters to the Idea Funnel Page

Now you can filter your list of Ideas by

  1. All Ideas
  2. Those that need to be Prioritized
  3. Prioritized
  4. Rejected

Makes it easier to filter and view those ideas requiring action.

Added Filters to the Idea Funnel Page
Added Filters to the Idea Funnel Page
Added Filters to the Idea Funnel Page
Added Filters to the Idea Funnel Page
Manage Financial Benefit Approvals

Manage Financial Benefit Approvals

This feature is for you if:

Your program requires approval of target savings (target benefits or costs) before a project is approved beyond a particular stage gate. Or, Your program requires an approval of claimed actual benefits which will help you avoid PPDs (PowerPoint Dollars). PPDs look great in presentations but are often exaggerated, or lack accurate assumptions.

First step assign the Approver, and set the the project to Pending Approval. This will generate an email to the approver.

In this example you can see that the approver used the “Approve All” button to approve all the Target benefits, but has only approved the first two months of Actuals. The approver can use the Notes function to explain why the third month was not approved.

If a project owner attempts to approve their own project benefits they will receive a stern warning that this is not allowed. This approval process ensures you have the information to understand what was promised, what the owner of the project said they delivered, and what the approver could verify.

How Well You Are Process
Hard Savings

Adjust Start Month for Project Benefits

KPI Fire allows you to track project benefits over the time frame that you will accrue those benefits. Most organizations will claim a full 12 months of benefits for a project’s value. Set a start month for project benefits to make it easier to see a full 12 months’ worth of project benefits on a single screen. Click on any line item, and a pop up appears where you can enter data and drag and drop ammounts that repeat, similar to excel data entry functionality.

Adjust Start Month for Project Benefits

Metrics> Direction > Control Chart

KPI Fire has added Control Charts or Statistical Process Control Chart (SPC) which allow monitoring how a process is performing over time and to help determine if there is any special cause variation (read more details How to Use Control Charts )

Control Chart

Here’s a typical Control Chart. The solid green line is the Mean, 1 standard deviation (StDev) from the mean is the green zone, 2 StDev the Yellow zone, while the boundaries of the red zone represent the Upper and Lower Control Limits. We see a pretty normal variation with one concerning data point that is outside the UCL, and thus points to some type of special cause that will be worth investigating.

Control Chart

In this example you can see that as performance improved we set a new range.

Control Chart

No Access Users

You can now add “No Access” users to KPI Fire. This allows you to list people on projects and provides better reporting on who is involved and participating on projects, without counting as a paid user.

No Access Users

Huddleboard Project Task Filters

Answering the question what tasks are overdue on my projects?  You can now display project tasks by project on a Huddleboard, and filter by Owner, Status, and Due Date.

Huddleboard Project Task Filters