Understanding how to evaluate and use data to show results is becoming an increasingly critical skill set for local managers.

<p><strong>By Stacy L. Waters, The Waters Consulting Group, Inc.</strong</p>
<p>It’s strange how a change in one’s normal routine can alter an entire perspective.
These days I spend much of my free time learning to think like a “forensic accountant.” That is, to learn how to better utilize the information gleaned from financial statements in order to more quickly respond. In short, forensic accounting trains one to look beyond the numbers and deal with the business reality of the situation. </p>

<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><I><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">By Paul Marsh and Meredith Kennedy for Trilogics Technologies, Inc.<BR><BR>The Scorecard Concept<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></I></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 12pt; tab-stops: 18.8pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">An infrastructure scorecard is a valuable tool for an asset manager to determine whether or not an asset is delivering more revenue over the term of its service life that it costs. Understanding whether a particular asset is a winner or a loser is valuable from a planning perspective as it allows operators to move away from focusing on age as an asset’s defining attribute for assessment.<o:p></o:p></SPAN>