A feasibility analysis of the development of the system for indicator management at UNICA is presented.
The situation without project, the optimized situation without project, and the situation with project are mentioned.
The tangible and intangible costs and benefits of the system are analyzed. The main process to be automated is represented through the IDEF notation in its AS-IS and TO-BE variants. A brief description of the system is made. Finally, a cost-benefit analysis is performed, reaching the conclusion that the system is feasible to develop for the case in which there are more than 150 indicators.
INTRODUCTION
At the University of Ciego de Ávila (UNICA), management specialists currently have implemented a mechanism for strategic planning and control, which focuses on the concept of variables and indicators, with variables being the values associated with the indicators, in each of the different areas (organic units) of the institution.
The main process associated with this mechanism begins when the rector requests from the managers the information associated with the variables of interest of the corresponding organic unit. Each one of the directors (deans, directors of the study center, department heads, etc.) must visit their area checking the current status of each of the variable instances of indicators that it manages, according to their role (promotion of students, evaluation of the student residence, currency collection, etc). Subsequently, it sends a report to the principal's advisor with this information. The rector's advisor starts from this and uses evaluation criteria predefined by himself, provides a qualitative evaluation to each of the variables. Finally, it delivers the qualitative evaluation to the rector for each organic unit.
This process is currently carried out manually. The main objective of the project is to automate this process, helping to humanize the work required by the subjects involved in it.
DEVELOPING
2.1 Situation without project
The situation without project is summarized in that:
- There is no computer support for these processes. All information is processed manually by senior university officials, who dedicate a significant part of their time to managing it. There is ineffectiveness in obtaining fast and timely information.
2.2 Optimized situation without project
This situation can be optimized, being able to mitigate some of the problems. To this end, possible actions include:
- Creation of a strategic control support department with at least three workers. Design and printing of hard-format models to help streamline the process.
2.3 Situation with project With the development of a project:
- The exchange of information occurs only through the computer system. The computer system condenses the information, minimizing the role of the principal's advisor as the main tabulator of the information. The current status of each of the units can be viewed from any connected computer, Depending on the permissions of the corresponding user, rapid and timely access to the information associated with the strategic control will be guaranteed.
3. Benefits and costs
3.1 Tangible benefits:
- Savings in man-hours, in the main executives of the university.
3.2 Intangible benefits
- Greater relevance when making decisions x Transparency in the substantive processes of the university. Better image of the university.
3.3 Tangible costs
- Expenditure of man-hours, by the developer, in the set-up of the system Expenditure of man-hours, in training of end users.
3.4 Intangible costs
- Resistance to change Difficulty assimilating new technology
4. Representation of the process to automate
In figures 1 and 2, the process described in section 1 is represented, which was named Get current state of indicator variables. With a view to following the formal definition of process, which is “a sequence of activity with a well-defined beginning and end”, the process was conceived to be initiated by the university president.
However, in the final version of the system (TO-BE) this process should not only be able to be started by the rector, but by any user of the system.
In the TO-BE version, most of the responsibilities of the rector's advisor disappear, remaining only as a mere spectator, just like the rector.
It is wished to emphasize that the evaluation criteria were located as a control mechanism, because although the definition of these is the responsibility of the advisor to the rector, this activity is not part of the main process "Obtain status of variables-indicators", but of another process not represented here.
Fig 1. Get current status of variables-indicators. AS-IS process.
Fig 2. Get current status of variables-indicators. TO-BE process
5. System development
Currently, the first version of a computer application to support the Balanced Scorecard is in use at the University of Ciego de Ávila. For its development, the Java 2 Enterprise Edition platform was used, a widely validated free technology in the development of systems of this type. For the creation of the database, the PostgreSQL database management system was selected, which is characterized by its high scalability and performance. The development methodology used in obtaining it was Xtreme Programming, or XP, applying the three-layer architectural style. Figure 3 shows a part of the physical model of the database, where you can see the representation of the concepts defined above.
The developed system manages key result areas, critical success factors, indicators, and organic units, allowing each of the indicators to be applied in each of the organic units, depending on their characteristics.
As one of its main values is having an interface that, showing all the managed data, can be used as a Balanced Scorecard (fig. 4). This interface, corresponding to an organic unit, allows viewing, for each area of key results, the indicators concerning that unit, grouped by critical success factors and by levels of the scorecard theory (strategic, tactical and operational). The risk and its current evaluation are also shown for each indicator. The current status of an indicator is reflected in a numerical value, usually in the form of% compliance. Each of the heads of the organic units can insert the current status of the indicator, which is equivalent, in the terminology of the Balanced Scorecard, to feed the indicator,this being allowed through a separate interface (fig. 5), which is accessed through the main interface. The current evaluation of the indicator is calculated taking into account these fed values, reflecting in the form of a color, which can be red, orange, yellow, or green, with green being the most positive evaluation.
The software allows to dynamically define how to evaluate each of these indicators. The administrator can establish evaluation criteria of the indicator depending on the% of compliance (fig. 6), this being another of the important values of the application.
The head of each organic unit is also given the possibility of defining actions, for a specific month, in each of its indicators. These actions can subsequently be filtered by month, regardless of the indicator of which they are part, as a work plan.
The design of these interfaces was carried out giving priority to the usability factor as a fundamental element in the development of web applications.
Fig. 3 Fragment of the physical model of the database
Fig. 4 Main interface of the Balanced Scorecard
Fig. 5 Power of an indicator
6. Analysis of the cost-benefit relationship
In these types of custom software scenarios for non-business environments, it is very difficult to quantify the long-term benefits resulting from the introduction of the solution. On the other hand, given the specific characteristics of the scenario in question, it is decisive to justify to the managers the feasibility of the introduction, with respect to the current situation without a project. For this reason, the equilibrium point technique is selected for the cost-benefit analysis.
Fig. 6 Definition of evaluation criteria of an indicator
In the current situation without a project, the main source of expenditure is given by the man-hours consumed by managers in the manual processing of information. This processing is carried out through digital Word and Excel files, so paper and printer are not regularly consumed.
The discrete variable selected to carry out the analysis is the number of indicator variables to be managed. In addition, Table 1 details a detailed description of break-even analysis for the current system. The conclusion is reached that for just over 150 indicator variables, the costs with the system are lower than the costs without the system, as shown in figure 7. This result is in correspondence with what the Classical authors on the subject of Balanced Scorecard, who affirm that the presence of a computer system in this scenario is justified from an important volume of information. In the particular case of UNICA, the volume to be handled considerably exceeds the value for which costs are equalized, thus making development feasible.
7. Conclusions
With the development of the work, it could be concluded that the construction of computer systems is a priority to support the strategic control processes in the universities, developed on the philosophy of the Balanced Scorecard, since it is not currently available, at the national level., of any application, neither free nor proprietary, that meets these needs.
It was also concluded that the construction of a computer system to support the Balanced Scorecard and its use in a university environment, specifically at the University of Ciego de Ávila, constitute a notable improvement and an important support to the strategic control process. Finally, one verified that the usability factor is key to the acceptance by customers of computer systems.
Fig 7. Balance point analysis
8. References
- Castilians. (2000). Towards a balanced scorecard for the institute. I Iberoamerican Meeting on Management Accounting. Collaborative. (2007). Solutions certified by BSC Collaborative. Retrieved on April 1, 2010 Kaplan, & Norton. (2000). The Balanced Scorecard. Barcelona: Editorial Gestión.Ortiz, P., & Campaña, P. (2010). Procedure for the design of a balanced scorecard in university institutions. Education and Development Notebooks. Pérez, N. (2005). Improvement of Strategic Control at the University of Ciego de Ávila. Doctoral thesis, Pérez, N. (2010). Organizational system for management work. University of Ciego de Ávila, Solán, OG (2006). Strategic Management Model for Universities. Camaguey.
