Wageningen University and Research center

Wageningen University and its Research center is an international leading knowledge institution for nutrition and health, sustainable agro systems, a green environment and public processes of change.
The SWOT analysis from the strategic plan 2003-2006 revealed points of improvement with regard to the management reporting process in the organization. For this reason, Bizzscore was implemented to help embed the balanced scorecard in the planning and control cycle. This software proved to be a powerful tool during management meetings and a true quality improver for management information.

The Organization
Wageningen UR is an international knowledge institute with the mission ‘to explore the potential of nature to improve the quality of life’. Part of the ambition is to differentiate the institution at national and international levels by its excellent quality of education and research in the Wageningen domain.

Striving towards leading quality and an international top position requires Wageningen UR to know the limits of what they are striving for. These limits are defined by the domain of Wageningen UR: healthy food and living environment.

The Cause
The SWOT analysis from the strategic plan 2003-2006 revealed points of improvement with regard to the management reporting process within the organization. At the same time, Wageningen UR strived to become an organization that is focused on results and the private market. The project to realize this was entitled “Internal Professionalization”. Objectives of this project were to create internal modernization, strengthen performance management and to enforce a shared vision lead by strategic management.

It was decided to embed the Balanced Scorecard in the Planning & Control cycle. In October and November of 2003 performance indicators were defined, which in December of 2003 were included in the budget of 2004.

The Challenge
In order to implement the balanced scorecards, a number of vendors of different software solutions were invited. Wageningen UR was looking for a standard software solution that would facilitate communicating the vision, enhance sharing information and transparency, offer fast and accurate feedback, and at the same time would require a far lower investment than building a solution themselves or buying customized software would.

Out of the potential candidates, Wagening UR selected Bizzscore. The look and feel but also the relatively low TCO played a very important role in this decision. Moreover, because the KPI definition solution Bizzdefiner being part of the offer, Bizzscore was regarded as an instrument that fitted the organization and management philosophy of Wageningen UR. Finally, the experience in the field of higher education and the focus on business instead of IT, were reasons to select Bizzscore.

The Implementation
In January of 2004 Bizzscore software was installed by EFM in the Citrix environment and implemented in an Oracle DBMS. A pilot started in the Animal Science Group, one of the five domains in Wageningen UR. Scorecards were built and data was linked to the relevant sources during the first trimester of 2004. Demonstrations of the results took place and a video clip for the introduction of Bizzscore was created and distributed among the end users.

Bizzscore became operational at Wageningen UR in April 2004 and the balanced scorecard became part of the spring management meetings. Early 2005 the Bizzscore environment in Wageningen UR was extended with an Early Warning System.

The Business benefits
“Bizzscore seemed is a powerful tool in management meetings and a true quality improver for management information” according to René Berns of the Finance department of Wageningen UR. This is, according to Berns, among others due to the uniformity of the definitions of the performance indicators and the transparency of the results that was created by Bizzscore. “The communication has improved notably thanks to Bizzscore; it is a very useful instrument that matches our way of management.”