Goals Management in Dynamics CRM 2011 - Goal Charts

Colin Maitland, 26 October 2012

One of the primary ways in which Goal Progress is viewed in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is through the use of charts. There are several predefined charts provided for Goal Progress in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. These are: Goal Progress, Percentage Achieved and Todays’ Target vs. Actuals.

The following image shows an example of the Goal Progress chart as viewed from the Goals charts pane. This chart may also be viewed from the Sales Performance Dashboard.

 

The following image shows an example of the Today’s Target vs. Actuals chart as viewed from the Goals charts pane. This chart may also be viewed from the Sales Performance Dashboard.

 

The following image shows an example of the Percentage Achieved chart as viewed from the Goals charts pane. This chart may also be viewed from the Sales Activity Dashboard and the Sales Performance Dashboard.

 

Because there are two types of Goal Metric, (Amount and Count), which may be used for defining Goals, there are two versions of the Goal Progress and Today’s Target vs. Actuals charts. One for Goals based on the Amount type Goal Metric and one for Goals based on the Count Goal Metric. I.e. Goal Progress (Money), Goal Progress (Count), Today’s Target vs. Actuals (Money) and Today’s Target vs. Actuals (Count).  

As an example of these two types of Goal metric, a publication subscription sales person’s goals may be defined in terms of the revenue (money) generated from new subscriptions sold and/or the number (count) of new subscriptions sold. In the first scenario the Amount Goal Metric would be used for defining the Goal and the second scenario the Count Goal Metric would be used for defining the Goal. I will be blogging on Goal Metrics in more detail in a subsequent blog.

The following is a brief description of four important values displayed on the Goal charts:

• Target: This value is shown by the blue bulls-eye on the Goal Progress chart, and indicates the target, or goal, to be achieved by each person, team or department within the defined period. The Goal Progress chart shown in the first image shows that Mary and Sue’s target is $125,000 and Peter’s target is $100,000.

• Today’s Target: This value is shown by the black triangle and indicates the target that should have been achieved or exceeded by the end of today. Mary, Sue and Peter have each passed this point indicating that their sales are on track for achieving their goal within the period being measured. Mary and Sue’s target for today is $75,000 and Peter’s is $13,043. 

• Actual: This value is shown by the green portion of each column and indicates the actual value of successfully completed sales for each person. Mary has completed $75,000, Sue has completed $35,000 and Peter has completed $17,000 of sales in the period shown.

• In-Progress: This value is shown by the purple portion of each column and indicates the estimated value of in-progress sales for each person. Mary has $85,000, Peter has $33,000 and Sue has $35,000 of in-progress sales.

Importantly, the combined Actual and In-Progress values for each person when compared with the target value indicate whether or not they will be able to achieve their target, if not already achieved, without the need for additional in-progress sales to be added to their sales pipeline.

Two other important pieces of information that aid in the correct interpretation of these charts are:

• Goal Name: The name of each Goal displayed on the chart is displayed below each column. In the example, these are named Mary Q4 $, Sue Q4 $ and Peter Q4 $. This naming convention makes it easy to discern which sales person and which period each goal is for. If each goal was named Sales Revenue, for example, then the charts would be confusing as shown in the following images of the Goal Progress and Percentage Achieved charts. In the first two images, it is not clear which users, teams, departments or periods these goals are for!

 

 

 

 • View Name: The view name, either displayed on the chart of at the top of the selected view, indicates which particular goals have been selected for display on the chart. In image below the views are My Goals for this Period and My Groups Goals for This Period.

 

In my next blog I will be writing about how the Goal Progress charts may be customised to display the Stretch Target in addition to the Target as shown in the following image: