At the heart of the system is a Data Warehouse.  A key component of CPM Management Studio^© is its Data Warehouse Engine which can dynamically import information from any range of systems in varying formats.

The Metric Studio manages the definition and creation of the Workforce Metrics.  Metrics can be created for any number of periods, Weekly, Monthly, Year-to-date or Rolling 12 Month. 

From the Metric Studio and the Database Studio, the Report Studio manages the on-line viewing and analysis of the information.  The Report Studio is built around a library of Report and Chart definitions.  From this library, any number of specified Workforce Reports and Charts can be established and deployed.

Integral to the deployment the Metric Reporting is the Security Studio. The Security Studio controls the access to the array of Metric Reporting Models available and the information to be presented.

The Import Studio allows for multiple sources and formats to be imported into a single Master Data Set such as an Employee Details Table.  Here one Company could be providing Employee Data via a Spreadsheet, another by Flat File whilst another could be coming from a direct link to an external Database.

The Import Studio also contains an Import Scheduler which enables the automated scheduling of Information uploading.  This can happen Daily, Weekly, Monthly or On Request. The time at which the Import is to be scheduled can also be specified.  Using the Scheduler, key Management information can be imported on a daily basis without any intervention, providing the business with up-to-date Reporting.

Another aspect of the Import Studio are the Translation Tables.  These allow for the transformation of multiple definitions and codes into a single concise set of data names.  For example numerous definitions of Casual Employment (CA, C, CAS, CASUAL) can all be transformed to a single definition of Casual.

Where some sources of data may not be as rich as others, the Translation Tables can be used to fill gaps in the data.

The Database Studio maintains the configuration of all the Master Data sets.  The Master Data can be both reported on directly or used to generate Metric Data.

The Metric Studio maintains the configuration of all the Metric Data sets.  It also contains information on the frequency that this Metric relates to.  Metrics can be generated by Period, Monthly, Year to Date, Rolling 12 Months, or to report on Master Data.

Each Metric Data set can be configured to consolidate information into summary rows where detail is not required.  There is also a comprehensive Function Library from which specific Metric elements can be incorporated in the Metric Data sets.  Functions include items such as Staff Service length, Service Length of Leavers, FTE calculations, Voluntary Leavers, Overtime Ratio’s etc.

During the building of the Metrics there is also the ability to incorporate Banding Data from a Banding Library.  This is where broad grouping may be required for reporting such as Salaries in Bands ( < $20,000  ,  $20,000-$30,000 , $30,000-$50,000 , …etc). Bands can be established for any form of data such as Age Bands, Service Bands, Leave Entitlement Bands.

The Report Studio is made up of two key aspects, a Report Library and Report Definitions.  The Report Library maintains the definition of all the CPM Management Studio Report Templates.

The Report Templates are then attached to the required Metric and Master Tables through the Report Definitions.  As part of creating a Report Definition, any Metric Value available in the Metric Table can be selected for Reporting such as the Monthly Earnings, Monthly Hours, Monthly FTE, etc.  By linking the Metric Values to Template Reports, any number of reporting options can be achieved, Monthly Hours as a Pie Chart,  Monthly FTE History as a Line Graph, etc.

As well as the flexible Report and Charting definitions, there are also a number of redefined Metric Reports such as Payrun and Monthly Trend Reports, Attrition Statistics Reports, Leave Liability and Leave Liability Trend Reports.

With all reporting being delivered by Reporting Services there is the ability to export any Report or Chart to Excel, PDF, TIFF or CSV formats.

Using a sophisticated Dashboard Accumulator modeler, any number of Dashboard accumulators can be defined for each Metric.  An accumulator is a collection of values for selected records.

This could be for filtering out the Annual Leave Balances for Permanent Staff from a Leave Liability Metric where the Dashboard Metric is the Average Balance for Permanent Staff.  Another example could be the selection of Service Length for Permanent Staff from the Staff Attrition Metric to provide the Average Service Length of Permanent Staff, or maybe the Service Length of Leavers to provide the Average Service Length of Leavers.

The Dashboard Accumulators are generated at the same time as the Metric Table from which the Accumulator is derived.

The accumulators are then used in the definition of the Dashboard Metric.  In defining a Dashboard Metric, accumulators from two different Metric Tables can be used to create the Dashboard Result.  An example may be to use the Permanent Full Time FTE’s Paid for a Month from the Monthly Manhours Metric compared to the Permanent Full Time Head Count from the Monthly Staff Demographic to derive the Ratio of Permanent Full Time FTE’s paid to the Permanent Full Time Headcount.

Any number of Dashboard Metrics can be defined for inclusion in a Dashboard.  Two layers of Dashboard Metrics are supported, Parent Dashboard Metrics and Child Dashboard Metrics.  Parent Metrics will appear on the main Dashboard, whereas supporting Child Metrics can be accessed by clicking on a Parent Metric.  Each Child Metric needs to be associated with a Parent Metric.