CorVu moves from scorecard to portal

Marketing what it defines as "Enterprise Business Performance Management" solutions, CorVu is launching two data warehousing and business intelligence products--CorBusiness and CorManage. CorBusiness includes end-user query/reporting, and OLAP analysis tools, while CorManage combines the CorBusiness application with Balanced Scorecard.

"A balanced scorecard application must enable users to monitor metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) and to drill into the detailed data behind these for analytic purposes," said Philip Russom, director of data warehousing and business intelligence at Hurwitz Group. "Whereas most balanced scorecard applications fulfill these requirements and stop, CorVu's CorManage also enabling users to link the strategic planning process directly to tactical measurements."

CorManage uses regression analysis of scorecard results to statistically validate models of organizational strategy. Users perform 'what-if' analysis to identify how changes in one area of an organization impact performance in another area.

According to Alan Missroon, VP of marketing at CorVu, CorManage users can model their business through an intuitive cause-and-effect diagram and apply regression analysis to testing organizational strategies.

Visual aids ensure information is communicated clearly. These visual performance indicators include:

• Use of bitmap indicators on scorecard objects to enhance readability and interpretation of performance data;

• Graphical indicators that highlight performance trends, links to external applications, and warnings that certain metrics have exceeded user-defined performance thresholds;

• User-defined object styles, including customizable wallpaper and backgroundsPresentation of context sensitive performance trend graphs in the same window as scorecards.

"We expect to utilize the regression analysis features to perform strategic planning exercises and better link strategy to tactical measurements," said Dennis Peterson, VP of performance measurement at Lutheran Brotherhood.

Predictably, CorVu is developing a portal product with expected release in the first quarter of 2000.

"This performance management portal includes the ability to integrate structured CorVu objects with external unstructured information, said Missroon. "We recognized the need to provide a single point of access to a great deal of disparate types of information.Users will be able to both access and integrate internal data storehouses with valuable, but often lacking, external performance information. "Our portal strategy is the most effective way to integrate this information, without drowning users in a flood of data."

CorBusiness is priced at $1,500 per user; CorManage is $3,800 per user