It is important to recognize that the definition of the Balanced Scorecard is not a complex thing – usually no more than about 20 measures spread across a mix of financial and non-financial topics, and easily reported manually (on paper, or use a simple Office software).
The process of collecting, reporting, and distributing Balanced Scorecard information can be labor-intensive and prone to procedural matters (eg, making all relevant persons to return information required by the date required). The simplest mechanism to use is to delegate this activity to an individual, and many Balanced Scorecards are reported via ad-hoc methods based on email, phone, and office software.
In more complex organizations, where there are multiple Balanced Scorecard to report and / or the need for coordination between the Balanced Scorecard outcomes (for example, if one level of Balanced Scorecard reports relies on information collected and reported at the lower level) that the use of the Balanced Scorecard individual reporters are problematic. In this condition the organization using the Balanced Scorecard reporting software to automate the production and distribution of reports.
A recent survey found that approximately one third of organizations use office software to report on the Balanced Scorecard, 1/3 using software specially developed bespoke for their own use, and a third using one of the many commercial packages are available. Currently there are more than 100 software vendors are suitable for Balanced Scorecard reporting (that supports data collection, reporting and analysis)