Oslo prison's main management steering tool is Balanced Scorecards (BSC).

What is BSC? (translated from the definition provided by the Norwegian State Consultancy organization: 'Statskonsult'):
”Balanced Scorecards represents a method for transforming the strategy of an organization to operative measures. The purpose is to secure that the goals derived from the strategy are actually reflected in the parameters used to steer the organization. 
The word 'balanced' infers the establishment of parameters for several different areas of focus (critical success factors) in order to achieve a more unified overview and a better balance for the steering of activities. 
Good parameters make is easier to recognise whether the organization is moving in the right direction, and we focus on aspects that the organization must be good at in order to achieve its goals.
The goals and the areas of focus (critical success factors) are depicted in a strategic map - a visual description of the organization's strategy, where the individual goals, and their underlying steering parameters, are distributed across the different areas of focus (critical success factors). On the basis of the steering parameters strategic initiatives can be implemented in order for the organization to succeed in achieving its goals." 

In addition to adopting Balanced Score Cards as a tool for implementing strategies (according to the definition's focus), our Eastern Region of the Norwegian correctional Services ("Kriminalomsorgen"), which encompasses Oslo Prison, has also chosen to include its steering parameters in our system. In this way we will achieve a unified and unambiguous steering system, in which we not only capture the strategies and steering parameters of the Norwegian Correctional Services at national and regional level, but also those of our own organization at Oslo Prison.  

In other words, a fully integrated system.

Currently, Oslo Prison has a Balanced Score Card system that is functioning at top management level. The Reception Unit (Department B and the Residential Unit (Department A) are in the process of implementing their local systems, while "Stifinner`n" ('Pathfinders') (Department C), the Activity Unit and the Administrative Unit will have implemented their local systems in the first half of 2007. During the course of 2007 all underlying departments at Oslo Prison will have implemented their systems. When this is achieved the full system will have been implemented at Oslo Prison.

Balanced Scorecards - Background information

In 1992, Robert S. Kaplan and David Norton introduced the balanced scorecard, a concept for measuring a company's activities in terms of its vision and strategies, to give managers a comprehensive view of the performance of a business. The key new element is focusing not only on financial outcomes but also on the human issues that drive those outcomes, so that organizations focus on the future and act in their long-term best interest. The strategic management system forces managers to focus on the important performance metrics that drive success. It balances a financial perspective with customer, process, and employee perspectives. Measures are often indicators of future performance.

Since the original concept was introduced, balanced scorecards have become a fertile field of theory and research, and many practitioners have diverted from the original Kaplan & Norton articles. Kaplan & Norton themselves revisited the scorecard with the benefit of a decade's experience since the original article.

1. Implementing the scorecard typically includes four processes:
2. Translating the vision into operational goals;
3. Communicate the vision and link it to individual performance;
4. Business planning;

Feedback and learning and adjusting the strategy accordingly.

A Comprehensive View of Business Performance

Balanced Scorecard is simply a concise report featuring a set of measures that relate to the performance of an organization. By associating each measure with one or more expected values (targets), managers of the organization can be alerted when organizational performance is failing to meet their expectations. The challenge with Balanced Scorecard is, and has been since it was popularized by an article in 1992 published in the Harvard Business Review, deciding on which measures to choose.

From the outset, the Balanced Scorecard has been promoted as a tool to help organizations monitor the implementation of organizational strategy. In the mid 1990s an improved design method emerged. In the new method, selection of measures was based on a set of 'strategic objectives' plotted on a 'strategic linkage model' or 'strategy map'. With this modified approach, the strategic objectives are typically distributed across a similar set of 'perspectives' as is found in the earlier designs, but the design question becomes slightly more abstract. Managers have to identify the five or six goals they have within each of the perspectives, and then demonstrate some inter-linking between them by plotting causal links on the diagram. Having reached some consensus about the objectives and how they inter-relate, the Balanced Scorecard's measures are chosen by picking suitable measures for each objective. This type of approach provides greater contextual justification for the measures chosen, and is generally easier for managers to work through. This style of Balanced Scorecard has been the most common type for the last ten years or so.

Several design issues still remain with this modified approach to Balanced Scorecard design, but it has been much more successful than the design approach it supersedes.

Balanced Scorecard is a performance management tool: although it helps focus managers' attention on strategic issues and the management of the implementation of strategy, it is important to remember that Balanced Scorecard itself has no role in the formation of strategy. Balanced Scorecard can comfortably co-exist with strategic planning systems and other tools.

Actual Usage of the Balanced Scorecard

Kaplan and Norton found that companies are using the scorecard to:

• Clarify and update budgets

• Identify and align strategic initiatives

• Conduct periodic performance reviews to learn about and improve strategy.

In 1997, Kurtzman found that 64 percent of the companies questioned were measuring performance from a number of perspectives in a similar way to the balanced scorecard.

Balanced scorecards have been implemented by government agencies, military units, corporate units and corporations as a whole, nonprofits, and schools; many sample scorecards can be found via Web searches, though adapting one organization's scorecard to another is generally not advised by theorists, who believe that much of the benefit of the scorecard comes from the implementation method.

____________________________________________

Business Intelligence inside the walls:
Captivating results in Oslo

____________________________________________

FROM SAS INSTITUTE:
Customer Success Video
Check out this video to learn more about Oslo Prison and its successes with SAS.
Oslo Prison Uses SAS to Support a Balanced Scorecard and Improve Results.

____________________________________________

Strategy-Map

____________________________________________