In this latest release of globalscorecard.net, we have introduced a number of enhancements to help joint working between trading partners.

When you create a new scorecard, you can either choose to register it as a single company assessment or a joint assessment with a trading partner.

If you choose a single company assessment, you fill a scorecard profile page with details about your company, product category, location and distribution channel. You can then complete your scores and save your scorecard for later retrieval, action planning and benchmarking.

If you choose a joint company assessment, you must enter the user name of your trading partner. If you do not know the user name, you must contact your trading partner and get them to give it to you. If your trading partner does not have a user name, they must set one up for themselves before you can proceed.

Both you and your trading partner will have entered email addresses as part of your user profiles. These e-mail addresses are used to send alert message whenever the scorecard progresses from one stage of completion to the next.

For the entry level capability assessment and the KPIs, a single scorecard passes back and forth between trading partners according to the diagram below. A number of iterations may be necessary before both parties can agree on the scores and action plans. The scorecard can therefore have one of 4 statuses:

• Draft
• Edited by originator
• Edited by trading partner
• Jointly agree

Either company can edit a jointly agreed scorecard, in which case its status will revert to that company's assessment.

Every time a company changes the status of a scorecard, an e-mail message is automatically sent to the trading partner alerting them to the change of status.

The workflow for the joint intermediate level capability assessment differs from the entry level and KPIs in that each company fills in its own assessment independently from the other. Once both companies have submitted their assessment, the system combines them into one document for discussion at a review meeting.

At the review meeting, representatives of both companies are required to be logged onto the same computer at the same time and must therefore be in the same room at the same time.

In summary, the workflow for the intermediate level scorecard requires a face to face meeting, whereas the entry level scorecard doesn't.

Deleting a Joint Scorecard

A company is not able to delete a joint scorecard without the agreement of its trading partner. Any company wishing to delete a joint score card must initiate a deletion request. The trading partner may choose to agree to the request, in which case the scorecard will be deleted, or to deny the request in which case the scorecard will remain unchanged.