Stimuli

What this solution does

The Stimuli module is designed to motivate employees to achieve Key Performance Indicators (KPI). KPI is a quantitatively measurable indicator reflecting actual results of activities and progress toward specific goals. Effective planning and analysis of company operations require using indicators derived from business system requirements. These metrics are not abstract constructs; they are generated directly from processes that enforce necessary actions. Large enterprises typically develop their own KPI calculation methodologies and implement them within their organizations. However, in practice, sales data often enters one system, planned indicators enter another, and final charts are manually constructed in a third, requiring additional effort to process the information.

The Stimuli module (lion.stimulus) implements automatic KPI calculation on the corporate portal based on data transmitted from adjacent systems. Department heads can view staff performance metrics in real time with a few clicks, while employees see their projected income for the current month. The core of the module is a bonus calculator designed to determine the employee's bonus amount. KPI calculation data is fetched from the data lake on a schedule and displayed on the user's personal page upon each visit. The module allows creating as many KPIs as needed, all assigned to employee groups ranging from a single user to all portal users. Multiple KPIs can be configured for the same group; the user's personal page displays data from the KPI with the lowest sort order number. This capability supports maintaining multiple KPI scenarios on the portal and switching between them easily, for instance, when a new season begins.

To create KPI indicators, a user belonging to the KPI Moderator or Administrators groups must navigate to the Stimuli section and then to the KPI subsection.

In the KPI subsection of the Stimuli section, clicking the Add KPI button opens the Create KPI side panel. To create a record, fill in all required fields in this panel and then click the Save button.

Figure 2 shows the fields to fill when creating a new KPI. Clicking the Save button adds the new KPI record to the KPI list. By default, a summary formula named Payroll Fund is created along with the KPI and can be edited later. However, calculations require unique data for each user assigned targets. These targets are user properties, so they must be defined in the User Properties subsection (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Subsection "Custom Properties" within the "Stimuli" section.

Before creating custom properties, you must first define property groups and their units of measurement. This setup ensures convenient selection of parameters in the bonus calculator. Property groups may be named, for example, "Base", "Reserve", or "Seasonal". Units of measurement include kilograms, liters, meters, pieces, dekaliters, degrees, and similar values.

Once at least one property group is created, you can proceed to create the property itself. Click the "Add Property" button. The "Create Property" side panel will open (Figure 4).

The side panel page titled "Create property" displays a form for data entry. The list of fields is shown below.

1. Name (string, required). Field for entering the user property name. The maximum length is defined in the module settings on the "Limits" page. The default limit is 50 characters.

2. Symbolic code (string, required). Field for entering the unique property code. The maximum length is also defined in the module settings on the "Limits" page. The default limit is 10 characters.

3. Measurement units (dropdown list, required). Available options are "Not selected", "Units per month", and "Days". If "Units per month" is selected, the "Units" field becomes visible.

4. Units (list, optional). The list is populated from records in the "User property measurement units" table.

5. Group (dropdown list, optional). The list contains user property groups available on the "User property groups" tab.

User groups

Dropdown list. Required field. The first item in the list is "Not selected". The list displays user groups for which KPI calculations are performed. The list of available user properties is generated on the "User properties" tab (see the "Import of personal indicators" section). The symbolic code of a property not linked to a group involved in KPI calculation is unavailable for selection when building formulas. It is also impossible to detach such a property from the relevant group.

Description

Text area. Required field. The maximum length is defined on the "Limits" page in the module settings. The default limit is 300 characters.

Sorting

Integer. Optional field. Records with a lower sorting number appear higher in the list. If sorting numbers are equal, the record with the lower ID appears first. The maximum possible sorting number is limited by the standard capabilities of Bitrix24.

Display on the graph on the user page

Checkbox. Optional field.

When this option is enabled, data for the custom property becomes available to the user in a pop-up window on the 'My Page' screen when hovering over the letter 'i'. Enabling this option reveals two additional fields for configuration: 'Position relative to adjacent property' and 'Adjacent property'.

The 'Position relative to adjacent property' field is a list containing the options: 'Not selected', 'Above', 'Below'. If the value 'Above' is selected, in a pair of custom properties on the chart within the 'KPI Indicators' pop-up window, the data for this property will be displayed above the data from the adjacent field.

The 'Adjacent property' field contains a list of all custom fields with the data type 'Units/month' that have a matching value in the 'Units' field, as well as the option 'Not selected'.

Figure 5 shows the lower part of the 'Create Property' side panel page during the creation of a new custom property.

Figure 5 shows the lower section of the side panel on the Property Creation page. Once the required number of custom properties has been created, you can proceed to set up KPIs. A KPI moderator returns to an existing KPI record. Clicking the hamburger menu button next to the desired KPI entry and then selecting the Configure button opens the side panel titled KPI Formulas: [KPI Name].

You must create formulas for calculated coefficients, intermediate values, and the final result in sequence. The demonstration content includes an example KPI with its calculated coefficients and formulas. The core of the module is a specialized calculator that enables formula construction. Figure 6 displays the calculator used to create one of the coefficients.

Figure 6. Using the calculator to create a coefficient

After all formulas are created, the KPI moderator switches to the "Test" tab. The page displays fields for entering data for the corresponding user properties. Entered values can be saved to a preset, allowing them to be reused multiple times without re-entry. Note that at least one preset must be created before saving to a preset. For a complete picture, demo salary data for the employee over the last 12 months must also be filled in. Clicking the "Demo Payroll" button opens a pop-up window for entering this data.

Once all fields on the page are filled, click the "Check KPI Calculation" button. The calculation result appears immediately upon clicking and is shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7 shows an example of calculating key performance indicators (KPI) and their metrics. Similarly, information about the expected labor cost fund and KPI values is displayed on the user's "My Page" screen. Figure 8 illustrates the display of user KPI information.

Figure 8 presents information about the user's key performance indicators (KPI).

General iT can handle the implementation of “Stimuli”, from installation to configuration and compatibility checks.