chapter four : MEASURING THE SUCCESS OF STRATEGIC INITIATIVES

hi there! its been a long time i've not updating my blog. hee sorry! so today we going to chapter four, and will start with the definition of  metrics. 
metrics is a measurement by which is efficiency, performance, progress or quality of a plan, process or product can be assessed. Got it? Great! ok lets move to another new term in IT. Efficiency and Effectiveness.
efficiency : - measure the part performance of the IT system itself including throughput, speed and
                     availability
                   - getting the most from each resources.
                   - focuses on the extent to which an organization is using its resources in an optional way.

effectiveness : - measure the impact IT has on business processes and activities including customer
                            satisfaction, conversion rates and self-through increases.
                         - setting the right goals and objectives and ensuring they are accomplished.
                         - focuses how well an organization is achieving its goals and objectives.

now, let see what is benchmarking.
benchmarking is the a process of continuously measuring system result, comparing those result to optimal system performance (benchmark value), and identifying steps and procedures to improve system performance.

there is an interrelationship of efficiency and effectiveness IT metrics.

for efficiency,

Throughput	The amount of information that can travel  through a system at any point.
Transaction speed	The amount of time a system takes to perform a transaction.
System availability	The number of hours a system is available for user.
Information accuracy	The extent to which a system generates the correct results when executing the same transaction numerous times.
Web traffic	Include a host of benchmarks, such as the number of pages, the number of unique visitors, and the average time spent viewing the web page.
Response time	The time it takes to respond to user interactions such as a mouse click.

for effectiveness,

Usability	The ease with which the people perform the transactions and find information.
Customer satisfaction	Measured by such benchmarks as satisfaction surveys, percentage of existing customers retained, and increases in revenue dollars per customer.
Conversion rates	The number of customers an organization ‘touch’ for the first time and persuades to purchase its products or services.
Financial	Such as return on investment (the earning power of an organization’s asset).

                         

security is an issue for any organization offering products or services over the internet. it is inefficient for an organization to implement internet security slow it slow down processing.

• however, to be effective it must implement internet security.
• secure internet connections must offer encryption and secure sockets layers (SSL denoted by the lock symbol in the lower right corner of browser)

interrelationships between efficiency and effectiveness.

now lets move to metrics for strategic initiatives. there are a few metrics use, including website metrics, SCM metrics, CRM metrics, BPR metrics, ERP metrics.

 for Website metrics, there are a few terms that we must remember. it is :-

Abandoned registrations	Number of visitors who start the process of completing a registration page and then abandon the activity.
Abandoned shopping carts	Number of visitors who create a shopping cart and shopping and then abandon the activity before paying for the merchandise
Click-through	Count of the number of people who visit a site, click on an ad, and are taken to the site of the advertiser.
Cost-per-thousand (CPM)	Sales dollars generated per dollar of advertising.
Conversion rate	Percentage of potential customer who visit a site and actually buy something.
Page exposures	Average number of page exposures to an individual visitor.
Total hits	Number of visitors to a website, many which may be the same visitor.
Unique visitors	Number of unique visitors to a site in a given time.

for SCM metrics,

Back order	An unfilled customer order.
Customer order promised cycle time	The anticipated of agreed upon cycle time of a purchase order.
Customer order actual cycle time	The average time it takes to actually fill a customer’s purchase order.
Inventory replenishment cycle time	Measure of the manufacturing cycle time plus time included to deploy the product to the appropriate distribution center.
Inventory turns (inventory turnover)	The number of times that a company’s inventory cycles or turn over per year.

for CRM metrics,

Sales metrics	Service metrics	Marketing metrics
Number of prospective customer	Cases closed same day	Number of marketing campaigns
Number of new customers	Number of cases handled by agent	New customer retention rates
Number of open lead	Average number of service request by type	Number of purchases by marketing campaign
Number of sales calls	Average time to resolution	Revenue generated by marketing campaign.

BPR and ERP metrics,
the balanced scorecard enables organizations to measure and manage strategic initiatives.