ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

Planful Invests in Finance and Accounting Effectiveness

Posted by Robert Kugel on 13 June 2023

Planful, a financial planning and consolidation software vendor, held its annual Perform23 user conference in May. The event showcased the company’s ongoing investments to provide finance and accounting departments with the means to improve effectiveness by enhancing efficiency. Over the past four years, Planful has steadily improved its planning platform to address the growing demand for... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Data is the Strategic Raw Material of Finance Departments

Posted by Robert Kugel on 07 June 2023

The Office of Finance can be compared to a numbers factory where the main raw material, data, is transformed into financial statements, management accounting, analyses, forecasts, budgets, regulatory filings, tax returns and all kinds of reports. Data is the strategic raw material of the finance and accounting department. It is the key ingredient in every sale and purchase as well as every... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, embedded analytics, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Management, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, data operations, analytic data platforms, AI and Machine Learning

Accounts Receivable Automation is More Valuable Than You Think

Posted by Robert Kugel on 30 May 2023

Ventana Research expanded its core Office of Finance focus areas this year to reflect new and important opportunities to use technology to gain effectiveness through greater efficiency. The focus area we caption as “Purchasing, Sourcing and Payments” also includes receivables. Doing a better job of record-keeping and organizing paperwork, especially in a minutiae-laden process like order-to-cash,... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance

Improving Supply Chain Management in the Post-Pandemic World

Posted by Robert Kugel on 24 May 2023

In early 2019, I first wrote about the escalating strategic challenges facing organizations resulting from the decade-long dismantling of the liberal global trade environment and the shift to more restrictive regimes. Supply chain management was upended in 2020 as a series of extraordinary events, especially the pandemic-induced supply chain shocks, compounded the tactical challenges facing... Read More

Topics: Continuous Planning, Business Planning, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, Continuous Supply Chain & ERP

Technology Enables Working Capital Optimization

Posted by Robert Kugel on 10 May 2023

We’ve experienced an unusual, decades-long monetary policy in the developed world that emphasized interest rate repression as well as supply chain practices designed for lowest cost. This has produced a generation of chief financial officers likely unprepared to address the impact of fundamental changes now shaping a new, technology-driven approach to working capital optimization. Today’s CFOs... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Enterprise Resource Planning, continuous supply chain

OneStream Advances Generative AI to Improve Productivity

Posted by Robert Kugel on 01 May 2023

OneStream offers a platform designed to serve the needs of accounting and financial planning and analysis organizations. The software handles financial close and consolidation, planning and budgeting, analysis and reporting. The most notable part of the company’s presentations at its annual user group meeting – Splash – was the strategy and roadmap for its two artificial intelligence initiatives,... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, AI and Machine Learning

Using Continuous Accounting to Improve Performance

Posted by Robert Kugel on 26 April 2023

In 2015, I began using the term continuous accounting to call attention to technology advances that enable finance and accounting departments to improve performance. These advances have continued, making an even more compelling case for adoption of continuous accounting. In my definition, the approach rests on three pillars: Managing processes end-to-end to reduce workloads, using workflows while... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, ERP and Continuous Accounting

Reasons Your Midsize Organization Needs a Finance Technology Update

Posted by Robert Kugel on 05 April 2023

The chief financial officer of a midsize organization faces a different set of challenges than those in larger or smaller enterprises. These organizations have grown to the point of requiring capabilities similar to larger businesses, but typically lack the staff or financial resources afforded to bigger organizations. The past decade of IT innovation – especially the expansion of cloud computing... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting

Now with the Miracle Ingredient AI!

Posted by Robert Kugel on 30 March 2023

Early last December, just before ChatGPT became the new, bright, shiny object, The Economist magazine ran a story proclaiming that we had finally arrived at the age of boring artificial intelligence (AI). From my perspective, it’s unfortunate that didn’t last and that AI has been relegated back to the buzzword league. AI will be an increasingly important feature of business software through the... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Intelligence, Business Planning, Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, natural language processing, continuous supply chain, AI and Machine Learning

Close Automation is Essential for Digital Finance Transformation

Posted by Robert Kugel on 28 March 2023

As a rule, I dislike terms like “digital finance transformation” because there’s a wave-the -magic-wand quality to it that obscures the not-so-simple people and process elements necessary for true transformation. Six of the most common – and expensive – words used in an accounting department are “we’ve always done it this way.” Persuading staff to change can be a struggle, even if change makes... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance

The Continuous Audit Improves Quality and Efficiency

Posted by Robert Kugel on 22 March 2023

An external audit examines an organization’s performance of accounting tasks. It validates the soundness of accounting systems and policies and compliance with generally accepted accounting principles in preparing financial statements – chiefly the income statement, balance sheet and statements of cash flow and equity. The auditor certifies that there are no material errors or omissions, and that... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance

Our Focus on Close, Consolidate and Report in Finance

Posted by Robert Kugel on 14 March 2023

For 2023, the Office of Finance practice of Ventana Research introduced Close, Consolidate and Report as one of its six focus areas. The change reflects the recent evolution of technology that supports this part of the finance department calendar. Ventana Research expects that the increasing investment in software to streamline these processes will, by 2026, result in two-thirds of finance and... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance

Accounts Payable Automation is More Valuable Than You Think

Posted by Robert Kugel on 10 March 2023

We added purchasing, sourcing and payments to our core Office of Finance focus areas this year to reflect new and important opportunities to use technology to gain effectiveness through greater efficiency. Doing a better job of record-keeping and organizing paperwork – especially in a minutiae-laden process like source-to-pay – may seem trivial. Yet digitally transforming core business processes... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, ERP and Continuous Accounting

Our Focus on Purchasing, Sourcing and Payments in 2023

Posted by Robert Kugel on 08 March 2023

Digitally transforming core business processes became essential as organizations locked down in early 2020 because of the pandemic and the need to operate remotely presented a set of new challenges that were best addressed by software. Especially in the areas of sourcing, purchasing and payments, software has the ability to streamline processes, shorten process cycles, reduce unnecessary costs,... Read More

Topics: ERP, Office of Finance, continuous supply chain

Foundational Blockchain Founders as TradeLens Shuts Down

Posted by Robert Kugel on 02 March 2023

Maersk is closing its TradeLens joint venture with IBM that began in 2018. It was intended to enable port operators, customs authorities, freight forwarders and importers to track containers and their contents. The system was designed to substantially reduce the inefficiencies and delays created by paper-based systems used for customs, trade finance, tariffs and taxes as well as supply chain and... Read More

Topics: Operations & Supply Chain, blockchain, continuous supply chain

More Effective Contingency Planning Improves Agility

Posted by Robert Kugel on 28 February 2023

We live in a time of uncertainty, not unpredictability. Managing an organization in uncertain times is always hard, but tools are available to improve the odds for success by making it easier and faster to plan for contingencies and scenarios. Software makes it possible to quickly consider the impact of a range of events or assumptions and devise a set of plans to deal with them. Dedicated... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Data Management, Business Planning, AI and Machine Learning

Cloud ERP is the Path Forward for Manufacturing and Product Companies

Posted by Robert Kugel on 22 February 2023

The cloud has come to dominate many business software categories, but until recently, enterprise resource planning for manufacturing and product-focused organizations has been a notable laggard. Cloud-based systems can be less costly to operate, perform better, be more secure and shift maintenance and update chores from the IT department to the vendor, freeing IT teams to concentrate on more... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, continuous supply chain

insightsoftware Enables a Predictive and Effective Finance Department

Posted by Robert Kugel on 14 February 2023

insightsoftware provides applications for finance departments and other business users in midsize and larger organizations, offering a broad range of functions including analysis, internal and regulatory reporting, planning, consolidation, tax provision and treasury. The software brings together applications that enable business users to maximize data collected in existing systems and streamline... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, embedded analytics, Business Intelligence, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, ERP and Continuous Accounting

Trintech Streamlines a Transformed Record-to-Report

Posted by Robert Kugel on 09 February 2023

Trintech provides finance departments in midsize and larger organizations with software to accelerate their accounting close processes. This record-to-report (R2R) cycle is complex because it involves the coordination of numerous people, many systems and multiple sources of data. There are iterative portions that involve cycles of reviews and multiple levels of approvals. These include... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Financial Performance Management, ERP and Continuous Accounting

Intercompany Financial Management for Accountability and Accounting

Posted by Robert Kugel on 07 February 2023

Ventana Research coined the term intercompany financial management (IFM) to define a discipline for structuring and handling transactions within a corporation and between its legal entities designed to maximize staff efficiency and accounting accuracy while optimizing tax exposure, minimizing tax leakage and ensuring consistent tax and regulatory compliance. Technology has advanced to a point... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, ERP and Continuous Accounting