Context: The ABCs of Performance Analytics

[dangrady510]

Studies have shown that people remember things better if they are grouped in threes.   Telephone number groupings are a great example. But let's also not forget the three little pigs, the three stooges, the ABCs and your 123s.       All unforgettable trios.

You are about to be introduced to a new group of three that will clearly demonstrate the difference you get between the operational reporting that comes with the ServiceNow platform and additional benefits of Performance Analytics.

Time, Influence, and People.   TIP for short.

Performance Analytics enables you to run a better ServiceNow by adding more CONTEXT to the valuable data you have flowing through the platform from these three perspectives.

In terms of Time, Performance Analytics provides trend-based data that gives us visibility into whether the investments we've made and the programs we've put into place are helping us improve over time.

In terms of Influence, Performance Analytics gives us the ability to build relationships between the metrics we are tracking to help us better understand how actions we are taking are influencing each other.   This understanding reveals not only what adjustments can be made, but which adjustment will have the largest impact.

In terms of People, Performance Analytics allows us to align everyone in the organization to common business goals and outcomes.   It accomplishes this by providing information to stakeholders at all levels of the organization, information that will impact the decisions each will make on a daily basis.

This is the first in a three-part blog series in which we will look at each of these in more depth.

So let's start with Time.

The operational reporting in the platform gives you real-time access to data at that exact moment in time.   This is extremely valuable for those situations when the decision to be made is based on what happening right now.

Essentially, operational reporting gives us a single data point that answers the question "Where are we today?".

For example — Let's say we run a report to get the current number of open incidents and the answer we get is there are 45 open incidents today.

Is that good or is that bad?

How do you know?

You need a point of reference; you need more CONTEXT.

This is where Performance Analytics comes in to play.   The intelligent in-platform engine can be configured to collect point in time data on a daily basis.   Having an accurate historical view of not only where we are today, but where we were before gives us the context we need to understand if we are improving or not.

The time series data that is collected and stored automatically in the platform can then be used to do some quantitative forecasting based on tangible numbers from the past.   By combining forecasting with the ability to set targets (more CONTEXT), Performance Analytics helps us answer two more important questions — Where do we want to be? and When will we get there?

Simply by adding the context of time to the data we are analyzing, we've enhanced the number of questions we can answer and we've improved confidence in those answers as well.

One of my colleagues used a great analogy to highlight the difference between operational reporting and the importance of the added time based context that Performance Analytics brings:

He said, "Operational reporting is like the scoreboard at a basketball game.   It gives you the score — Home team is up 28-27 — it gives you the number of time outs each team has left, it gives you the time remaining in the game, it tells you what is happening right now.

What the scoreboard doesn't give you is the 'momentum' in the game.   Maybe the home team was up 28-2 and the visitors have scored 25 straight points or the opposite maybe the home team has just scored 10 unanswered points and has all the momentum.

As a coach you are going to change the decisions you make based on the 'momentum' in the game not just what's happening right now."

We need to start taking the same approach when managing our business.

Adding the context of time to the data in the platform helps you understand the momentum of what's going on inside of your organization.   Understanding momentum allows you to make more informed and proactive decisions.

In the next post in this series we will look at how adding the context of Influence will help us answer the question — What can we do to get there quicker?

Read Part 2 Now - Context: The ABCs of Performance Analytics - Part 2

Read Part 3 Now - Context: The ABCs of Performance Analytics - Part 3