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In 1993 the Office of the Public Prosecutor (OPP) launched a quality improvement project to assure a certain standard level of quality. The organization was far from functioning optimally. The system features elements of ISO, the INK-model (the Dutch version of EFQM), the Balanced Scorecard and Six Sigma. It was decided to start a pilot project with Bizzscore to monitor the OPP’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) with Balanced Scorecard methodology. Currently the OPP uses the Web based Enterprise Edition of Bizzscore to fully benefit from Bizzscore’s integration features with various data sources and databases. Eric van der Baaren of the OPP commented: “The monitoring of improvement propositions requires a focused and straightforward approach. It requires strong support of the top management”. He explains that Bizzscore fully supports this by offering a single system to manage different focus areas at the same time. But above all: “Bizzscore is easy in use and is very easy to learn”.
The Organization
The OPP operates the various district courts in The Netherlands. It assesses several hundreds of thousands cases at these district courts, supported by administrative and legal specialists.
The OPP in Amsterdam has ten different teams. The leadership style of the management of the OPP in Amsterdam centers on the following core values: coaching, stimulating, respect, openness and being goal driven. The OPP Staff Bureau supports the overall management and the team supervisors of the OPP. In addition the Staff Bureau coordinates and harmonizes policy issues with the public prosecutor, the police and the governing board.
The Challenge
In 1993 the OPP received a large amount of complaints. The amount of dismissals was enormous; more than forty percent of the cases were not being handled in court. This clearly indicated that the OPP did not function optimally. The OPP chose to engage in a project of quality improvement.
As a result the OPP implemented ISO. By the end of 1997 it received the ISO certificate, further improvement followed with the implementation of the INK-model (the Dutch EFQM quality model). Since 1998, the OPP operated under the project name PARAL (Parket Amsterdam Renovates and Learns) to persist in the improvement of the quality. Shortly after, the public prosecutor was honored with an INK award. The total quality system includes elements of ISO, the INK-model, the Balanced Scorecard and Six Sigma.
As a result of the INK-award in 2000 the public prosecutor got interested in the Bizzscore software application. This resulted in a pilot project to effectively and efficiently monitor the Key Performance Indicators, KPI’s of the Balanced Scorecard.
The Pilot
Bizzscore was chosen to support OPP’s management. The main focus was on the internal Planning & Control Cycle for the board of directors and team supervisors. Through a standard set of KPI’s the responsibilities of the external planning & control cycle are being monitored by the College of Procurator-General in The Hague.
The Bizzscore pilot project was supervised by the Staff Bureau of OPP and coordinated by senior advisor Eric van der Baaren. The Staff Bureau translated the organizational structure into Bizzscore scorecards. Scorecards were categorized by the established set of KPI’s for the OPP. Using queries on the central database Bizzscore was automatically fed with data. Scorecards are fed at the bottom level of the organization.
Bizzscore automatically consolidates data for all different levels resulting in management information being available for all departments. When Bizzscore was ready to be shown to the end users a training was provided to all the team supervisors.
The Implementation
During the evaluation it became clear there were some difficulties to get the right numbers in the right scorecards. This issue was caused by a problem in the underlying data sources. It needed to be resolved in order for Bizzscore to function properly. It was decided to switch from Bizzscore’s Standard Edition to the Enterprise Edition. Instead of feeding Bizzscore by using intermediate spreadsheets in Excel the OPP moved to direct datalinks. Data was directly inserted in Bizzscore’s Microsoft SQL Server Database from several sources that were running through Cognos. The required software was installed, and existing links were copied and translated to Bizzscore Enterprise in order to make the data available for nine teams and the board of directors.
The KPI’s of the team scorecards are based on the underlying information and connected to the data sources. KPI’s are grouped by Key Success Factors which in turn are grouped in perspectives based on the Balanced Scorecard methodology: Main Processes, Financial perspective, Learning and Growth and Customer perspective. The required production data is retrieved from Cognos (Rapsody data), the financial data were retrieved from Jurist and the employee data (composition, sickness etc) were retrieved from PeRCC.
The Business benefits
The management team at OPP continuously evaluates results using Bizzscore. Improvement initiatives and action plans are tracked and monitored in Bizzscore. These initiatives can be tracked at a personal level, as well as team level and support audits (ISO, Operational, etc.) or a six sigma project.
Eric van der Baaren of the Staff Bureau comments: “The monitoring of improvement initiatives requires a focused and straightforward direction and guidance. It needs strong support by top management”. Eric van der Baaren explains that Bizzscore supports all this: “Bizzscore offers a single solution to manage and monitor different focus areas at the same time”. “But above all”, he continues “Bizzscore is easy to use and is very easy to maintain”.
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