Gentia Software has opened a New Zealand office on the back of its analysis application tie-up with a strategic management consultancy.
Massachusetts-headquarted Gentia, which supplies analytical software, teamed up with Renaissance Worldwide, a consultancy also based in Massachusetts, toward the end of last year to automate the “balanced scorecard” approach to management. The scorecard is a strategic management technique developed by Renaissance founder David Norton that attempts to utilise financial and non-financial elements such as customer loyalty, quality, revenue and employee knowledge into an integrated system that measures business performance. Previously, companies had to take a paper-based approach or customise software to suit. Scorecards usually follow four guidelines: customer analysis, internal business processes, learning and growth, and financials. The Scorecard software, created using Gentia’s object-oriented business intelligence environment and utilising its OLAP engine and ORB-based (object request broker) middleware, allows different levels of employees to create individual views through GUI wizards that let them drill down into information provided by systems such as ERP software or data warehouses. The client side is Windows/browser-based, while the server side is NT or most flavours of Unix. The product sells for about $5000 per user. A “lite” version for mid-sized companies is scheduled for the end of the year.
Gentia says a textbook installation to management can take 14 to 16 weeks, while a full installation across an organisation can take six months to two years.
Renaissance claims a high percentage of Fortune 1000 companies and leading banks among organisations using balanced scorecard management processes, and a number of local companies are said to be using paper-based scorecards, including Immigration, New Zealand Post and Wellington City Council. Fletcher Challenge Forests, Repco and BNZ are among local firms using Gentia software.
The small Gentia staff in New Zealand is headed by Andy Batchelor, formerly of PST, a reseller of opposition business intelligence products Pilot Lightship and Impromptu. Gentia has about 20 staff in Australia and about the same in Singapore. Renaissance Worldwide has no presence in New Zealand to date.