Glossary:
General Terms
Systemic
Oxford dictionary explains "systemic" as "relating to the system as a whole". There are generally two schools to this, one can be considered "soft-facts" based and is coming from psychology. The other one, coming from cybernetics and the Systems Theory, is more hard-facts based. This approach uses computer modeling and simulation of social systems (like companies, markets, projects,etc.) to derive new insights regarding the improvement and objectivity of decision making in an organization. We have spent the last years developing our Systemic Management approach from this school as well as our Manticore Systemic Model.
Systemic Management
A modern management approach that uses causal relationships to successfully combine information, analytics, systemic modeling and hands-on management experience to improve the decision making process and thus optimise results.
Systemic Enterprise Project Management:
Enterprise Project Management (EPM)
a corporate-wide approach to plan, manage, monitor and assess projects. In contrast with "normal" project management, EPM takes into account that a project isn't necessarily the only project in the organisation at any given point in time. It focuses in particular on the need to optimise (limited) global enterprise resources and manage conflicts across projects as well as with the operative business.
EVA(1) - Economic Value Added
not to be confused with the Earned Value Analysis, Economic Value Added is a corporate finance ratio that measures the relative advantage of an investment. Simplified, it is the net operating profit gained by an investment in relation to the money cost of capital employed. increasingly, managers are judged by their ROCE (see below) & EVA performance.
Calculation: Net Operating Profit After Taxes - Weighted Average Cost of Capital * Capital Employed
EVA(2) - Earned Value Analysis
is a project management technique for measuring project progress in an objective manner. I combines scope, schedule & cost in a single integrated system.
Project Portfolio Management (PPM)
a term often used in conjunction with Enterprise Project Management to describe methods for analysing selecting and collectively managing a group of current or proposed projects based on numerous key characteristics. The fundamental objective of the PPM process is to determine the optimal mix and sequence of projects to best achieve the overall organisational goals while minimizing the impact of resource and other (external) constraints.
Resources
are means to achieve an objective. In project management, a resource is typically something needed to complete a task. Types of resources include work (i.e. people, machines, etc.), material (i.e. raw materials), budget (or cost). A further categorization can be generic (i.e. a Carpenter) and actual/natural (i.e. Mr. Smith). Resources tend to be limited in nature and thus in need of management (hence the EPM & PPM approach)
ROCE - Return on Capital Employed
sometimes pronounced "Rosi", the ratio shows us how effectively a company utilised its capital to realise profits.
increasingly, managers are judget by their ROCE & EVA (see above) performance.
Calculation (one variant): Pretax Operating Profit / Capital Employed
ROI – Return on Investment
the ratio of money gained (or lost) on an investment relative to the amount invested
Calculation: ROI = (Final Value of Investment - Initial Value of Investment) / Initial Value of Investment
Systemic Decision Support
Business Intelligence (BI)
refers to technologies, applications and practices for the systematic collection, integration, analysis and presentation of business information. The purpose of business intelligence is to gain insights that will support better decision making. The BI term is sometimes used as a synonym for Decision Support Systems (see below). In general, the term is more focused on the presentation aspect of MIS.
Dashboard
is an Business Intelligence/Decision Support user interface that - similar to dashboards found in cars or planes - is designed to quickly and easily give a "birds-eye" view of the enterprise's (business unit's, department's, process's or project's) health. It serves as a "jump-off" point for "drilling-down" for further information. Graphically, the analogy is continued by using speedometers, thermometer or traffic light charts to display the key performance indicators. A well known variation of the dashboard is the Balanced Scorecard.
Data Warehouse (DWH)
a repository of an organisation's electronically stored data. Data Warehouses are designed to facilitate reporting and analysis and usually serve as the underlying database for Management Information System applications. In contrast to transactional databases (e.g. CRM), the design of the database is optimised for few large reads instead of many small writes. Data is collected in the DWH from a variety of sources by using Electronic Transfer & Loading (ETL) applications/methods (see Manticore product Data Quality Improvement Program).
Decision Support Systems (DSS)
are specifically designed systems that support operative and strategic decision making. Often used as a synonym for business intelligence systems, one could differentiate by pointing out that DSS focuses more on the modeling (logic) aspect while business intelligence normally has the presentation aspect as a priority. Our Manticore sDSS approach is meant to turn a passive business intelligence tool into an active decision support system by implementing and adapting our Manticore Systemic Model.
Management Information Systems (MIS)
is a generic term to describe several variations of applications used by managers for displaying information and supporting decisions. Depending on the focus, MIS systems could be Business Intelligence Systems, Decision Support Systems or Executive Information Systems or combinations. MIS are applications that usually tap into a special database called a Data Warehouse and use specific front ends (e.g. Dashboards) and reporting tools. In some cases the term MIS describes all the tools including DWH, Frontend and Reporting.
Manticore Systemic Model (MsM)
a model developed by Manticore in the course of a nearly 10 year research effort that maps the essential causal relationships in the form of mathematical models. The MsM can be quickly adapted to any specific company and integrated into any existing Management Information System. The result is an active forward looking Decision Support tool that will help Management significantly enhance decision making process and decision quality thereby substantially increasing corporate performance.