Analysing Financial Performance with Quarterly Data Using Self- Organising Maps

The purpose is to analyse the quarterly financial performance of telecommunications companies with the help self-organising maps. In this report the three major actors on the telecommunications market is evaluated and benchmarked on the basis of seven key ratios, calculated for seven consecutive quarters between the first quarter of year 2000 to the third quarter of year 2001. To conduct benchmarking with several financial key figures in changing business environment is difficult and time consuming for today’ s managers and there exists a need for an easy and quick tool to accomplish this task. We argue that by using self-organising maps and quarterly data managers and other interested parties receive up to date information on companies’ financial performance in an easily interpretable way.