Similar to many other businesses, the Norwegian company Avinor spent a lot of resources on following up whether the strategy they had in place was actually implemented and used in the right ways. Some of their biggest pain points were:
- Large, heavy Excel sheets that made it difficult to make changes
- Time-consuming tasks such as gathering data to management meetings and decision-making processes
- The process depended on many individuals and was very vulnerable
From Excel sheets to corporate governance tool
In 2013/2014, Avinor introduced balanced scorecards to improve the management of their business. They saw the need for a tool that could help them execute this process, and in 2017 they announced a competition to find the best tool for managing goals and corporate governance.
“It was very inconvenient to use and maintain our many traditional Excel sheets, and the whole system was complex. We, therefore, had to find a new system,” says Ørjan Slotterøy, manager for strategic corporate governance in Avinor.
As the excel sheets were stored locally in the different units within Avinor, this created “silos” within the organisation – which led to little or no transparency across the units. There was a lot of copy pasting and challenges as only a few people had access to the sheets and could make changes.
– Very satisfied users
Corporate governance is important in providing the right information to the right person at the right time so that the business can make the right decisions.
Due to, among other things, the ease of use and the short implementation period, it was Visma bWise with their software solution Strategy Orchestrator (Norwegian link) who drew the longest straw and won the competition to deliver a system for corporate governance to Avinor.
And the result? Satisfied users:
“We now have a system that the users are very pleased with. One of the biggest advantages is that the reporting feature is easy to use and easily accessible for everyone,” says Kristine Rud, adviser for strategic corporate governance at Avinor.
Kristine Rud explains that the users are very satisfied and pleased that the system is easy to use.
With Strategy Orchestrator, Avinor is now able to automatically report on KPIs, which has been an important focus area within corporate governance. Comments and assessments on goals and measures provide complementary background and context to the numbers, and everything is now in one central database with version control and access management. This way, they avoid the uncertainty that comes with Excel-based routines.
Transparency in focus
Information is the very lifeblood of the organisation. If one can channel the information correctly, this will contribute to better decisions and as a means of communicating and coming together on the business strategy.
Avinor ensures that the Group’s strategic goals are well reflected in the units, which ensures that they all pull towards the same direction. And with everything in one place, Avinor now has full transparency across the organisation. A total of 2274 employees have access to the system and so the numbers are available to everyone.
“Now everyone can see each other’s goals and measures. This proves to be a useful effect because the employees are inspired by each other,” says Rud.
All departments’ goals, strategic measures and KPIs are registered, and status is visualised using strategy charts and scorecards.
The strategy chart is one of the features that Ørjan Slotterøy finds the most beneficial within the solution.
“The strategy map is one of the things we like best about the solution. The clarity within the strategy map is important because from there you dive deeper into the information you need by switching between units and time periods. This supports the transparency of the organisation,” says Slotterøy.
Strategic corporate governance is implemented and is now used by both corporate management as well as divisions and corporate staff.
Further developing of visualisation
When implementing new solutions, it seldom goes without problems. Avinor explains that they have received the support they need and that issues have been taken seriously.
“It has been a very good collaboration. Visma bWise is easy to collaborate with and thus the collaboration has been uncomplicated. They deliver a good balance between usability, as well as technical and pragmatic solutions,” says Rud.
Now that the system is implemented in the organisation and works well, Avinor is focusing on further development.
“The solution works very well, but there are still some things that we are working on. We want an even better visualisation. It works well on its own workstation, but we need to make some adjustments so that it works better in meetings,” explains Slotterøy.
Makes sure the history is safe
When Avinor used traditional Excel sheets, the history of the system was difficult to access. If you made changes, earlier notes disappeared from the system and one had to restore earlier versions of the files to find the history.
“With Strategy Orchestrator, all history is safe. This was not the case with the old system. Now, if you want to get an overview of how things have developed, you can easily do that with the new system,” says Rud.
– Now we want to expand
The number of active users in Avinor’s system is increasing every month. Because it is so easy to use and accessible for everyone, more people have now become interested in using the system.
Slotterøy explains that the department is experiencing a demand in Avinor after implementing Strategy Orchestrator for several purposes:
“Many people struggle with follow-up of activities and measured results on action plans. Therefore, we now look at the possibility that Strategy Orchestrator can be put into use in a broader sense,” says Slotterøy.
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