This study investigates different ways to use Microsoft SharePoint to publish data in the form of charts and tables from a software system as a part of a business intelligence effort. The purpose is to provide accurate and up-to-date statistics automatically on a corporate website instead of manually creating it. An application was developed to serve as middleware between the SharePoint server and the data source. Different options were analyzed, both client-side and server-side components. It was found that using the SharePoint .NET client API is an efficient way to achieve this goal, especially in an IT environment where development of SharePoint server-side components isn’t a viable option due to IT security concerns. The study describes a way to initiate a small-scale BI implementation without large budgets or firm commitments in the organization. It uses a web collaboration tool that is common in larger businesses and shows a way to interface in-house developed data sources. What SharePoint API to use was restricted from a IT security and stability standpoint in this thesis. This restriction is likely to apply also on other larger organizations where a similar initiative is driven from outside the IT department. It was found that automating the generation of production reports could save significant time compared to manually creating them.

The overall objective of the study is to plan and recommend the most appropriate city environment that can foster the dynamic interactions necessary to implement sustainable and adaptable smart city projects for the purpose of enhancing the quality of the natural environment. Specific research approaches have been applied to answer the separate research questions, which is a performance indicator approach combined with a literature review. The Smart City level of Tshwane is measured, and it is further analysed how this contributes towards environmental sustainability on a city level. Even though environmental issues persist in the City of Tshwane, it was observed that there exists a direct correlation between smart city implementations and the improvement of environmental sustainability, from international examples. It is thus evident from the study that smart city initiatives applied in all city activities facilitate the enhancement of resource efficiency within a city. This ultimately contributes to improving the environmental performance, quality, liveability and sustainability within the cityscape. In order to achieve this, the Smart City level of a city needs to be measured and evaluated to establish a baseline supported by existing data to best inform an integrated approach in planning and implementation procedures (Bosch, et al., 2017). Smart city technologies and implementations create the setting for possible significant changes towards environmental sustainability. Key Terms: City of Tshwane, Smart City, ICT, environmental sustainability, environmental performance, evaluation, EUROCITIES CITYkeys’ Key Performance Indicator Framework, Key Performance Indicators, city-level, and literature review. / Mini Dissertation (MA (Environment and Society))--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / MA (Environment and Society) / Unrestricted

The purpose of this exploratory research was to explore the effect of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) on State Owned Enterprises’ performance in South Africa. The aim of the study was to establish the impact that KPIs have on state owned enterprises, how they are currently measured and the causes of success or failure of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) on State Owned Companies.Fifteen respondents participated in this qualitative study. The survey method used was a questionnaire with closed and open-ended questions. The respondents were all Senior Executives including Chief Executive Officers, General Managers, Board Members and Senior Management employed by State Owned Enterprises reporting to the Department of Public Enterprises, Department of Transport and Department of Water Affairs. The research instrument that was used was a questionnaire with closed and open-ended questions. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to create a brief, but comprehensive process for developing KPIs independent of context. Bridging the current gap in the literature for a process that can be applied in any industry or situation and include instructions for each of the steps in the process. To fulfill the purpose, the following research question is answered: Independent of industry and application, how could a process for organizations that are interested in developing new KPIs be structured? Method: This is an abductive qualitative study that combine extant literature with empirical data from both in-depth analysis of a single case company as well as interviews with companies from different industries. The literature was analyzed through a content analysis. Thematical analysis was utilized for analyzing the interviews. A tentative process for new KPI development synthesized from the theory and empirical findings was applied in the case company to identify a process that is applicable in a practical setting. Findings: The findings consist of a process for developing new KPIs with (1) six activities that companies should undertake, (2) six critical success factors, one for each activity, they need to consider, and (3) actions and tools to utilize in each activity. Implications: This study contributes to the literature by combining the currently wide array of research into a brief but comprehensible and applicable process that can be used independent of context. For practitioners, this study contributes by creating an understanding of how to efficiently develop new KPIs that enables the whole organization to achieve the strategy and goals. Limitations and future research: There are two main limitations in this study; the process is only applied at one company and the timeframe inhibited the ability to study the effects of the developed KPIs. Hence, future research should investigate if the process is valid in other contexts as well as study the effects of the KPIs being developed through the process. / Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att skapa en koncis och kontextoberoende process for utveckling av nya KPIer. Detta överbryggar det nuvarande gapet i litteraturen för en process som innehåller detaljerade instruktioner och kan appliceras i vilken industri och situation helst. Följande forskningsfråga besvaras för att uppfylla syftet: Oberoende av industri och användning, hur kan en process för organisationer som vill utveckla nya KPIer vara strukturerad? Metod: Detta är en abduktiv, kvalitativ studie som kombinerar nuvarande litteratur med empirisk data från både en djupgående analys av ett företag samt flertalet intervjuer med företag från olika industrier. Litteraturen analyserades med en innehållsanalys. En tematisk analys nyttjades för att analysera intervjuerna. En tentativ process för utveckling av nya KPIer syntetiserad från teoretiska och empiriska resultat applicerades i ett företag för att identifiera en process som var applicerbar i praktiken. Resultat: Resultatet består av en process för utveckling av nya KPIer med (1) sex aktiviteter företag bör utföra, (2) sex kritiska framgångsfaktorer, en för varje aktivitet, de behöver ta hänsyn till och (3) steg och verktyg att nyttja i varje aktivitet.  Bidrag: Denna studie bidrar till litteraturen genom att kombinera det nuvarande breda spektrumet av studier till en omfattande men koncis och applicerbar process som kan användas oberoende av kontext. Studiens praktiska bidrag är att processen skapar en förståelse för hur företag effektict kan utveckla nya KPIer som möjliggör att företagets strategi och mål uppnås.  Begränsningar och framtida forskning: Studien har två huvudsakliga begränsningar: processen är enbart applicerad i ett företag och tidsramen förhindrade undersökning av de utvecklade KPIernas effekt. Därför vore det värdefullt om framtida forskning studerade processens användning i fler industrier och situationer samt vilken effekt KPIer utvecklade med processen har.

During the 2009 economic recession, United States business leaders cut marketing expenditures between 33% and 50% more than they did for any other business expenditure to mitigate financial loss because business leaders often regard marketing as an expense and not an investment. Since there is not a widely applied marketing measurement standard, this multiple-case study focused on finding key performance indicators that healthcare and sales small business leaders in eastern United States with less than 500 employees, and marketing evaluation practices in place, used to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing. Institutional theory was used as the conceptual framework to explore the key drivers behind marketing measurement practices. The focus of this study was on the experiences of 4 small business leaders in Atlanta, Georgia, and Baltimore, Maryland, who have developed financial and nonfinancial strategies to measure their marketing performance. Data collected for this study included 20-minute interviews with each participant, strategic plans, and field notes. A modified van Kaam and triangulation approach was used for data analysis to identify themes, which included the need to tie marketing measurement to the product or service offering and drive revenue or traffic to their business. The results of the study may benefit practitioners who work on social change strategies because the conclusions clarify effective marketing practices and increase well-being of customers. Further, this study provides recommendations for successful marketing measurement strategies that may help businesses meet the needs of community members.

The master thesis at Sandvik Additive Manufacturing Division, Sandviken, aims at three things. The first step is to estimate the cost of a Binder jet Additive Manufacturing method and identify the key cost drivers in the manufacturing process, since cost estimation can help the organisation to understand the cost factors that are affecting the product's price. Also assisting the sales team to create a foundation to price quote their customers and raise profit margins. Hence the first part of the thesis emphasizes creating an easy-to-use template for the organization's production and sales teams. The second part of the thesis is to provide an Excel sheet that is simple to use for computing the yearly budgets so that it serves as a technique for forecasting impending outflows within the company. Hence, a quarterly and yearly budgeting template that the sales and production team can use at Sandvik AM division is designed. The final objective of this thesis is to establish the Binder Jet machine's Overall Equipment Efficiency key performance indicator. This is done by taking into account availability, performance, and quality. These three factors are tracked from the additive manufacturing machines using an automated OEE Key Performance Indicator calculator that collects data from the build reports into Excel using the power query tool. / Examensarbetet vid Sandvik Additive Manufacturing Division, Sandviken, syftar till tre saker. Det första steget är att uppskatta kostnaden för en Binder jet Additive Manufacturing-metod och identifiera de viktigaste kostnadsdrivkrafterna i tillverkningsprocessen, eftersom kostnadsuppskattning kan hjälpa organisationen att förstå de kostnadsfaktorer som påverkar produktens pris. Hjälper även säljteamet att skapa en grund för att prissätta sina kunder och höja vinstmarginalerna. Därför fokuserar den första delen av avhandlingen på att skapa en lättanvänd mall för organisationens produktions- och säljteam. Den andra delen av uppsatsen är att tillhandahålla ett Excel-ark som är enkelt att använda för att beräkna den årliga budgeten så att det fungerar som en teknik för att prognostisera förestående utflöden inom företaget. Därför utformas en mall för kvartalsvis och årlig budgetering som sälj- och produktionsteamet kan använda på Sandvik AM-divisionen. Det slutliga målet med denna avhandling är att fastställa Binder Jet-maskinens övergripande utrustningseffektivitets nyckelprestandaindikator. Detta görs genom att ta hänsyn till tillgänglighet, prestanda och kvalitet. Dessa tre faktorer spåras från de additiva tillverkningsmaskinerna med hjälp av en automatiserad OEE Key Performance Indicator-kalkylator som samlar in data från byggrapporterna till Excel med hjälp av kraftfrågeverktyget.

Food is one of the strongest influences affecting both human health and the environment. The food sector is responsible for a substantial share of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, and the demand for more sustainable diets has, therefore, increased. The individual is starting to realize one's own possibility to contribute to a more sustainable society, and people are willing to change their habits to become more sustainable. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to create holistic KPIs for sustainable food systems that encourage improvement. The KPIs aim to measure and quantify sustainability from three perspectives: environmental, economic and social sustainability. The methodology used is a framework consisting of five focus areas aiming to create sustainability indicators. The purpose of the five focus areas are to establish vision, indicator framework, indicator selection, stakeholder participation and lastly communication design and strategy. 13 KPIs have been developed, focusing on electricity usage, water usage, GHG emissions, waste management, well-being and expenses. The target group, aimed to use the KPIs, consists of students living in Sweden, making the KPIs adjusted to a student’s lifestyle. The KPIs range from 0-100 %, and a final sustainability ranking is provided through a weighted average of the 13 indicators. The indicators are presented in a radar chart to increase awareness of the students' everyday habits and aim to encourage improvement to increase the sustainability ranking.

AbstraktSyfte: Syftet med studien var att analysera hur företag kan förbättra förståelsen för denekonomiska lönsamheten i sina marknadsföringsaktiviteter, detta genom att undersöka hurföretag idag arbetar med att följa upp den lönsamheten av digital marknadsföring samtvilken förbättringspotential företag upplever att det finns kring sätten de arbetar på. Metod: En kvalitativ metod har genomförts i denna studie där fyra intervjuer hargenomförts med tre respondenter som arbetar med att utvärdera lönsamhet av digitalmarknadsföring. Den insamlade empirin har sedan jämförts med nuvarande teorier för attförsöka förbättra förståelsen för ämnet. Resultat: Företag använder idag främst ROAS för att mäta lönsamheten avmarknadsföring och att den data som utgör grunden för utvärderingen kommer ochbearbetas av Google och Metas AI modeller. Däremot behandlas dessa olika av företag,vilket har visat sig motsvara deras erfarenhet och expertis inom området. De mest väsentliga aspekter som uppmärksammades var förbättringen och utnyttjandet avAI och dataanalysverktyg då den är kärnan i att utvärdera lönsamheten avmarknadsföringsaktiviteterna. Respondenterna är övertygade om att AI kommer utgöra enallt större del av arbetet med att utvärdera lönsamheten med digital marknadsföring därförmågan att förstå och hantera dessa AI modeller kommer att vara viktigt för företag iframtiden.Slutsats: Studien beskriver hur företag arbetar i praktiken och bidrar till nuvarande teoriergenom att visa på områden som bekräftar och säger emot tidigare forskning. Till exempelhar studien bekräftat problemet med att kunden inte delar med sig av information på nätet,vilket styrks av litteraturen. Medan det också visat sig att företagen i studien endast harutvärderat lönsamhetsmåttet ROAS, vilket säger emot tidigare forskning. / Purpose: The purpose of the study was to analyze how companies can improve theirunderstanding of the economic profitability of their marketing activities by examining howcompanies currently work to follow up on the profitability of digital marketing, as well asthe potential for improvement that companies perceive in the ways they work. Method: A qualitative method has been employed in this study, where four interviewshave been conducted with three respondents who work on evaluating the profitability ofdigital marketing. The collected empirical data has then been compared with currenttheories in order to enhance understanding of the subject. Results: Companies today primarily use ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend) to measurethe profitability of marketing, and the data that forms the basis for evaluation is providedand processed by Google and Meta's AI models. However, these are treated differently bycompanies, which has been found to correspond to their experience and expertise in thefield. The most significant aspects that were highlighted were the improvement and utilization ofAI and data analysis tools, as they are at the core of evaluating the profitability ofmarketing activities. The respondents are convinced that AI will play an increasinglyimportant role in evaluating the profitability of digital marketing, where the ability tounderstand and manage these AI models will be crucial for companies in the future.

Background: Business process compliance management has recently attracted a lot of attention in both business and academia as it enables organizations to not only control and monitor their business processes from a legal point of view but also to avoid financial penalties and undesirable consequences to their reputation. Objective: This thesis aims to provide a framework that would enable organizations to: 1- Discover business processes that violate regulations, laws and policies; 2- Discover the importance level of business processes based on the organization’s goals; 3- Determine the impact of compliance-related process modifications on business goals, including conflicting goals between stakeholders, and on policies; and 4- Enable organizations to measure the level of business process compliance for one or multiple policies. Methodology: A systematic literature review in the area of goal-oriented business process compliance management and measurement has been conducted, which showed that balancing legal compliance obligations with business objectives remains a difficult challenge. A new Indicator-based Policy Compliance Framework (IPCF), which combines policy and rule models together with models capturing business goals (with their relative importance to the organization) and business processes, has been proposed. This framework builds on the User Requirements Notation (URN), which is the first international standard to combine goal modeling with scenario modeling. The intents and objectives of policies have been modeled, as well as the goals and business processes of organizations, and indicators are used to measure the compliance level of policies. This enables the detection of non-compliant business processes and the evaluation of the impact of compliance-related process modifications on business goals. Human resource policies and business processes are used as an example to illustrate the method. Aerodrome security regulations and business processes are then used to validate the method in a real-life environment. Comparisons to related work, evaluation against different sets of criteria, and tool support complement the framework validation. Results: The Indicator-based Policy Compliance Framework enables organizations to discover business processes that violate policies as well as other types of rules, regulations, and laws. Guidelines for modeling legal text with URN’s Goal-oriented Requirement Language (GRL) are proposed. Furthermore, IPCF helps determine the impact of compliance-related process modifications on business goals, including conflicting goals between stakeholders, and on policies. In addition, as policies sometimes apply differently to different types of organizations, a new profile for GRL, with suitable stereotypes, well-formedness constraints, and a modified analysis algorithm defined for GRL model families is used to evaluate the satisfaction level of individual goal models that are members of a larger family model. Finally, the proposed IPCF enables organizations to measure the level of business process compliance for one or multiple policies, and such measures can be visualized directly in URN models but also through interactive Business Intelligence portals, for a wider diffusion.

Performance management, which is a core element of the New Public Management (NPM), has maintained its significance both in academic and practical perspectives for many scholars and governments, although enthusiasm for the NPM has waned since the late 1990s. There have been debates on the universality of the NPM, and the divergence argument regards the practices and trajectories of specific reforms as being shaped by the different characteristics of politico-administrative and cultural systems. Through the comparative study of performance management based on the case studies in the UK and South Korea, this thesis demonstrates that the processes of a NPM-type reform can be similar in spite of differences of politico-administrative and cultural characteristics. It examines performance management systems in the two countries in terms of the speed and nature of reform, resistance to reform, use of performance information and importance as a control mechanism. The comparison is also useful for lesson-drawing for the improvement of current systems. This research has been conducted by undertaking a wide literature review, including journal articles and government papers, and by conducting semi-structured interviews. To undertake analysis and comparison of performance management systems, the thesis looks at the Public Service Agreements (PSAs) in the UK and the Government Performance Evaluation (GPE), Financial Performance Management System (FPMS) and Performance Agreements in Korea. Case studies have been carried out with the Department of Health in the UK and the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs in Korea. The PSA system has problems generated by excessive central control and lack of participation of professionals and front-line staff. In Korea all three performance management systems are based on evaluation. Departments used evaluation as a tool of exercising control, which resulted in duplication of evaluation and excessive bureaucracy. Focus on the process-oriented evaluation has undermined the value of the systems for improving public services. Whilst the two countries display differences in the fundamental approach to performance management, there are similarities in the detailed practices and trajectories in the operation of the systems. The reason for these similarities may be attributed to the strong leadership of top politicians in both countries.