Building on my last post, there are no perfect measuring tools for innovation. And this is a challenge that is made even more difficult as every organization is unique regarding the type of business it is in, the presence and maturity of an innovation strategy and most importantly, and in this context, the ability to measure innovation. Thus, the lifeline an organization has is to hope for the identification of ‘indicators’ that may reflect changes in the firm. And some signs can be considered best practices in some industry/sector. The key performance indicators should be optimized, in delivering results by aligning the measurement with a strategy. Particularly, if one is to align the case study, to the digital industry, it is said that digitation has a measurable effect on economic growth and job creation.
Beñat, Soumitra, and Bruno (nd) stated, in emerging markets “a comprehensive digital boost could help life, and over half a billion people out of poverty over the next decade.” This is because of the digital sector, contributed and it’s a transformer of industries, such as healthcare, agricultures, transportation and so on. The World Economic Forum and Index calculated the Networked Readiness Index. i.e., based on their capacity to exploit the opportunities offered by the digital age. The size is determined by the quality of the regulatory, business and innovation environments, the degree of preparedness, the actual usage of ICTs, as well as the societal and economic impacts of ICTs. The assessment is based on a broad range of best practice indicators and derived from access to the Internet. To which includes, adult literacy, mobile phone usage rate, and the availability of venture capital. Besides, indicators such as patent applications and e-government services gauge, the social and economic impact of digitization as mentioned by (Beñat, Soumitra, and Bruno, nd). However, such key indicators become too large to manage because of the numerous metrics involved. Mainly because the best practices of companies in the digital sector are aligned towards value delivery and attributed to service offered. To which, an organization uses software tools in calculating its KPI’s. However, they fail to exploit the potential of the performance metrics and best practices, because the human elements are eliminated by such tools in most cases. And some of the best practices are detailed below for measuring innovation through the key indicators.
Jeff and Eric (nd) mentioned, and suggested two metrics that are further elaborated, i.e., cost per contract and customer satisfaction rate. The last two metrics in the list are essential to understanding. I.e., the ‘Agent’ Satisfaction is important because it is so strongly correlated with many important parameters, which includes the Cost per Contact and Customer Satisfaction. “And the final metric, what we call an aggregate metric because it provides an overall measure of Service Desk performance, is the Balanced Score” (Jeff and Eric (nd). Although, if the listed below can be implemented correctly, this guarantees and shows how performance can be simplified. And serves as best practice indicators, when aligning KPI with the overall strategy of an organization.
Measuring Innovation through the Key Indicators
- 1. Track and trend performance over time
- 2. Benchmark performance vs. industry peers
- 3. Identify strengths and weaknesses in the Service Desk
- 4. Diagnose and understand the underlying drivers of performance gaps
- 5. Prescribe actions to improve performance
- 6. Establish performance goals for both individuals, and the Service Desk overall
Further Reading
Beñat B. O., Soumitra D., and Bruno L., Editors, (nd) The Global Information Technology Report 2013 [Online] Available: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GITR_Report_2013.pdf [Accessed: July 20, 2015]
Jeff R and Eric Z., (nd) The Seven Most Important Performance Indicators for the Service Desk [Online] Available: http://www.thinkhdi.com/~/media/HDICorp/Files/LibraryArchive/Rumburg_SevenKPIs.pdf [Accessed: July 20, 2015]