Scorecard Best Practices

Use Consultants Appropriately

Use of consultants⁴ varies widely. Some organizations extensively use consultants’ expertise to get the scorecard system up and running quickly. Others use technical consultants to help with software implementation, integration and, if needed, the creation of a data warehouse. Consultants can also supplement already busy in‐house staff, who sometimes simply don't have the capacity to devote sufficient time to a scorecard system project.

For organizations with little scorecard familiarity, experienced consultants often add great value when defining strategy, creating a strategy map, educating and training, and communicating the purpose and benefits of the scorecard initiative to employees. The use of consultants for these phases can help to foster employee acceptance. In many cases, consultants have been instrumental in enabling a supportive environment by guiding executive and management buy‐in.

Consultants have also been useful in back‐filling key roles in the organization while staff focuses on the scorecard system project. For instance, if a senior financial planning manager is “borrowed” for the scorecard project, a consulting professional can fill in the financial planning role temporarily.

Take care that scorecard knowledge and skills are transferred to in‐house employees if you want to take ownership of ongoing maintenance of the system. This will reduce your reliance on the consultants (who may have moved on to other projects).