The results of the survey show that over one-third of vendor-client relationships do not have any formal agreements in place for measuring performance. About 22 percent of respondents were not sure whether they had any KPIs or SLAs in place. If nobody knows about the KPIs, then a strong argument could be made that they are not being used effectively. This means that only 40% were actively using metrics to either set expectations through service level agreements or to measure current and past performance through key performance indicators.
Whether you are negotiating SLAs into a new contract or reporting KPIs during a quarterly business review, reporting meaningful data is crucial. Data helps us make better-informed business decisions and avoid costly mistakes. But everything comes with a cost. Although much can be automated, there is always some effort involved with tracking and reporting data.
Make sure to define meaningful metrics that you want to track. Avoid “vanity metrics” whose only purpose is to show off how much data you have. Those only lead to information overload. This is why KPIs are called KEY Performance Indicators. They should, as the name suggests, indicate key information about your performance, and ideally provide some insight into how that performance could be improved.
If you are not already tracking and reporting on key data, you can check out our Insight Report on running Quarterly Business Reviews and creating simple real-time data dashboards. As always, you can reach out to the experienced team at Nimdzi if you have any questions about how you can start putting your data to work today.
Sound like your cup of tea? Sign up for the Nimdzi Learning course on Account Management, and learn about QBRs, soft skills, stakeholder management, and more.
Since ChatGPT’s launch in November 2022, media outlets have been churning out article after article about how generative artificial intelligence (AI) is coming for our jobs. Nearly every week, a new piece comes out in publications like The Atlantic or Business Insider about how ChatGPT will “destabilize” the job market, making certain workers redundant.