World’s First Free Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Map Software Implemented with ComponentOne Studio for .NET

Applied PC Systems, a company who provides business-planning software, developed Strategy Map, a refreshing alternative to current balanced scorecard and strategy map software. This program is great for keeping track of business plan objectives and initiatives as well as defining each step for goals with the utilization of a Strategy Map. It was created with ComponentOne Studio for .NET and has been made available to thousands of users who otherwise could not afford it. Additionally, it provides the users with a free quality version that has no “nag” screens.

To save costs and enable user flexibility and user configurability, Applied PC Systems created this solution by using the .NET C# language along with timesaving, easy-to-use WinForms components such as ComponentOne Studio for .NET. Prior to this, Applied PC Systems used Visual Studio .NET 2003, but without third party components.

"You currently cannot make a professional, commercial WinForms software product efficiently without the use of quality third party software tools.” said Phil Best, Manager at Applied PC Systems.

ComponentOne FlexGrid, included in Studio for .NET, enabled Applied PC Systems to easily add essential features to the 20 DataGrids in their application. The standard DataGrid did not provide properties such as Cell Merge and Word Wrap, or any way to directly control the grid cells, columns and row sizes. To be able to correctly represent the Balanced Scorecard data, they needed their grids to have these features so that they could represent relational or hierarchical data within a linear grid environment. As a best practice, they avoided the unnecessary usage of Objects by conducting a small amount of hand coding and directly accessing the FlexGrid properties, therefore, avoiding overheads and resulting in a smaller and much faster program. The Cell Merge improved the user experience and made the application viable because of the relational business planning data. The Word Wrap and AutoSizeRows allowed them to reformat the grid when the user changed the column widths, and the ShowCellLabels allowed the user to condense the column widths.

“We searched everywhere for a Grid that did cell merging, word wrapping and quality printing. Once we found FlexGrid and tried it, we purchased it. With FlexGrid we also found that we could do some truly amazing things such as create a Mind Map or Concept Map by using the FlexGrid OwnerDrawCell event. This enables the programmer to breakout of the grid as each cell is drawn, so we used it to draw custom cell borders and inter-connecting lines,” said Phil Best, Manager at Applied PC Systems.

The solution was developed in C# and connects to either an SQL-2000 or an Access database. It works with a central display area that is driven by a treeview on the left and several screen buttons at the bottom.

The developers at Applied PC Systems said the ComponentOne Studio for .NET and free email support was like having an extra programmer on staff, which enabled them to easily integrate features into their Strategy Map software offering. They are currently rewriting their software to include the OwnerDrawCell event and incorporate the Mind Map as central feature to amalgamate the various Strategy Map diagrams.

About Applied PC Systems
Applied PC Systems is a provider of low cost business planning software. They help customers by providing them with innovative collaborative software solutions for their Objectives and Initiatives, as well as mapping out Visions, Values and defining Goals. A strong feature of their software is the extensive FlexGrid-based cross-referencing feature called “Drill-Down” which provides efficient staff communication and budget control.  www.StrategyMap.com.au