Starting my own business, need a logo ...

Sawell said:
People really outsource MIs/KPI reporting?

If the information is there to be interrogated (i.e. they record it) then what kind of company doesn't already report on it?

I work in systems analysis and reporting, creating management dashboards/reporting on KPIs and SLAs/general MI. I don't know of any company that we liaise with through usergroups or special interest groups that outsource that kind of work. And not to be blunt but 9 times out of 10 the data is manipulated in-house to ensure that KPIs etc are met no matter what (80% of all stats are made up on the spot).

If I'm wrong and there's a big market for it then fair enough, perhaps it's something I should look into or talk to you about. But as a starting point I think (and this is just advice) that you should perhaps look into systems consultancy, sell third party HR/Payroll systems to companies and then do contractual reporting off the back of that? Just an idea.
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It's more aimed at improving the reporting structures for ease of use. I'm basing it in Excel as everyone has access to this, therefore access to the dashboards, rather than creating systems through third party software that requires huge expenditure and multiple licensing etc.

You'd be surprised at how much requirement there is for this sort of work. I basically spent 3 years moving through departments in GD setting up individual dashboards as they were deemed to be so successful.

And I think you'll find it's 93.7% of statistics are made up ;)
 
Good job you didn't decide to call it Performance Management Technology.. ;)
Unless you are a female boss of course, then it would be quite apt.
:D
 
Burnsy2023 said:
It wasn't directed at you. There have been many threads before which have been ruined, so I was being pre-emptive :)
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Pre-emptive moderation.. interesting concept.. but I'd be careful Burnsy.. probably the most condescending concept too.

As for the logo. You haven't given any specs at all. Surely you have an idea of colours, symbols, strap line etc that you might want to associate with your new business and have plastered all over everything?
 
dangerstat said:
I was with you until you said:



Excel!!!! Epic Lolz.:p

Good luck with it though
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The reason I'm going with Excel is that everyone has access to it so there are no major costs in new software licenses etc, and everyone is familiar with it. It makes perfect sense. No need for the elitist sarcasm. EDIT - sorry, that came off as quite harsh! I apologise :)

Just a few example pics so that people can see where I'm coming from:

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This would be the first page which has 3 hyperlinked options. The top two move into specific metrics, the bottom one goes to the data entry sheets.

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This sheet shows a basic RAG (red, amber, green) status to easily identify problem areas. There are various drop down menus in order to select different months or suppliers. This is useful as it reduces the number of seperate spreadsheets required for multiple suppliers / time periods. The example shows a list of suppliers in the dropdown box. Note that the time scale is showing May 08.

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This is the same sheet, but I have now chosen a different time period ie from July 08. Now this can be fixed at the current month, therefore always showing the most recent 6 months, no matter when you open it, or it can be used to go back 12 months and show that period of time, assuming you want to access that particular time period.

Notice the Home button at the top that takes you back to the first sheet. As I mentioned, it's all about creating a simply front end to access a number of different types of metrics that are all consolidated into one location, rather than multiple spreadsheets in multiple locations.

Does that make more sense?
 
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Jed Shields said:
Does this thread need to be somewhere else? I wasn't aware ...
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Well not necissarily, but you're much more likely to get serious help if you post graphics requests in the graphics forum, rather than the general chat forum.

I just don't think dons should complain about threads being ruined by non-serious replies if they were not posted in the right place anyway. :p
(especially when they don't move it!)
 
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Jed Shields said:
The reason I'm going with Excel is that everyone has access to it so there are no major costs in new software licenses etc, and everyone is familiar with it. It makes perfect sense. No need for the elitist sarcasm. EDIT - sorry, that came off as quite harsh! I apologise :)

Snippy

Does that make more sense?
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I do some similar work in my day to day job. And one of my pet hates is Excel being using as the way to visualise this type of data (though I understand partial reasoning for doing so). There are some outstanding open source projects you can use to generate amazing visuals and excellent numerical properties.

I use Processing a lot, here's an example of it "in action"
http://projects.zumkuckuck.com/realtime/

And for numerical work I use R (google it)

The advantage of Processing is that it's just Java, so it's amazingly simple to plug in all sorts of data (for example it's a couple of lines to get it ripping data straight out of a MySQL / ORACLE database). And the results can be amazing if you put in the effort (like the example I've linked too above).
 
seek said:
Well not necissarily, but you're much more likely to get serious help if you post graphics requests in the graphics forum, rather than the general chat forum.

I just don't think dons should complain about threads being ruined by non-serious replies if they were not posted in the right place anyway. :p
(especially when they don't move it!)
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Any Dons reading ... can this be moved to a more appropriate forum ...
 
dangerstat said:
I do some similar work in my day to day job. And one of my pet hates is Excel being using as the way to visualise this type of data (though I understand partial reasoning for doing so).QUOTE]

My plan is to look at Java solutions etc eventually, but I'll need training for that. Using Excel opens up an easy performance increase for the companies at first, with the possibility of future improvements further on down the line.

I showed my business proposal to a woman at the jobcentre who's job was to provide me with one of a number of training providers (for becoming self employed). Her boss looked over my proposal as part of her quality checks and phoned me up the next day requesting help with setting up a very basic RAG chart to measure all of her providers through Wales. This is very straightforward and for two days work I'll get £500. Not bad for a first job. She also wants me to help with "some other Excel stuff" - so there seems to be some repeat business opportunities. She works for the Welsh Assembly Government, so hopefully word of mouth will open up even more.

I also had an interview last month for a Continuous Improvement Engineer role. One of the things I showed I could do were these dashboards, to which the guy interviewing me said he could see a definate need / use for that sort of work. I'll be contacting him shortly to see if he wants to hire me to deliver some dashboards. Again, it's a case of delivering one or two dashboards well and hoefully he'll want me to create more in other departments etc.
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Jed Shields said:
The reason I'm going with Excel is that everyone has access to it so there are no major costs in new software licenses etc, and everyone is familiar with it. It makes perfect sense. No need for the elitist sarcasm. EDIT - sorry, that came off as quite harsh! I apologise :)
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Not everyone has excel, perhaps you should develop a web portal with client logons. Make it a nice simple web front end, connected to an SQL Express or MySql back end.

Negates the need for ANY software licensing at all, and can be accessed anywhere by your clients.
 
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