ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives | Robert Kugel (8)

A Finance Department Data Strategy for ESG Compliance

Posted by Robert Kugel on 31 October 2022

Sensitivity to environmental, social and governance issues – or ESG – has grown over the years and with it, increasing attention by some investors and government entities urging organizations to measure and disclose ESG metrics. The discussion about ESG reporting is now focused on high-level issues such as what data to gather, how to use it in reporting, and perhaps how to manage the disclosure... Read More

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

The Rising Expectations for Finance Analytics

Posted by Robert Kugel on 26 October 2022

It’s likely that finance analytics trace back to when people first began to record transactions on clay tablets. Financial analytics were given a boost with the codification of double-entry bookkeeping, an elegant system for recording transactions that facilitate the assessment of the performance and health of an organization. Further advances were achieved with the first mechanical – and then... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management

Planful Acquires for Marketing Performance in Planning Suite

Posted by Robert Kugel on 19 October 2022

Planful recently acquired Plannuh, a marketing-performance management application, to integrate into the Planful platform so that organizations can connect their marketing planning and analysis group with the finance department. There’s the old story of a CEO who said, “I know half my marketing spend is wasted, I just don’t know which half.” Plannuh is designed to answer that question. Since... Read More

Topics: Marketing Performance Management, Office of Finance, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, intelligent marketing

Profitability Management Conquers Inflationary Pressures

Posted by Robert Kugel on 11 October 2022

A year ago, I wrote about how technology could be useful in an inflationary period, correctly anticipating the world we live in now. Responding effectively to changes in costs is always challenging, but even more so because of the choppy and chaotic nature of the current environment. Many organizations have a limited or no ability to raise prices, and are forced to find ways to minimize the... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Financial Performance Management, Revenue Performance Management

Building a More Predictive Finance Department

Posted by Robert Kugel on 05 October 2022

A predictive finance department is one that can command technology to be more forward-looking and action-oriented while still fulfilling its core role of handling the financial elements of its organization including accounting, treasury and corporate finance. Beyond just automating rote tasks, technology also facilitates a shift toward becoming a predictive finance organization. Greater amounts... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Intelligence, Data Management, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, ERP and Continuous Accounting, AI and Machine Learning

Workday Rising Shows Advances for the Office of Finance

Posted by Robert Kugel on 28 September 2022

Workday held its first in-person Rising user group meeting since 2019 in Orlando. Three topics are worth commenting on: Workday’s Extend offering, its industry accelerators and its progress with the Workday Adaptive Planning offering. Extend: One important addition to Workday’s offering is Extend, a set of software development tools that helps organizations develop, deploy and manage new apps... Read More

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

Kinaxis Extends Platform into Supply Chain Execution with MPO Acquisition

Posted by Robert Kugel on 21 September 2022

Kinaxis recently announced it has acquired a Netherlands-based company, MPO, a cloud-based software offering that orchestrates multiparty supply chain execution. The combination is designed to enable Kinaxis to extend its concurrent planning platform to handle core elements of supply chain execution. Kinaxis acquired all the shares of MPO for approximately US$45 million, with some of the final... Read More

Topics: Business Intelligence, Business Planning, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, continuous supply chain, AI and Machine Learning

External Data Supports a More Predictive Finance Department

Posted by Robert Kugel on 15 September 2022

Organizations do not live in a vacuum and things happening outside their walls have a direct impact on how they perform. So, it is essential for them to incorporate external data in their forecasting, planning and budgeting, especially for predictive analytics and machine learning (ML) to support artificial intelligence (AI). I use the term external data to include any information about the world... Read More

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

Straight-Through Processing Reduces Friction and Builds Trust

Posted by Robert Kugel on 09 September 2022

General Omar Bradley is credited with saying, “Amateurs study strategy, professionals study logistics.” This is a battlefield commander’s perspective on the often-overlooked importance of mastering the nitty-gritty in achieving military objectives. I think the same is true when it comes to data in business computing because, in my experience, it is often an overlooked or secondary consideration.... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Digital Commerce, ERP and Continuous Accounting

Fluence Technologies Automates for Fast Close-to-Report

Posted by Robert Kugel on 31 August 2022

The lockdowns of 2020 forced accounting departments to adapt to managing their close-to-report cycle without face-to-face contact, prompting many to adopt digital technologies to facilitate the process. It gave further impetus to the digital transformation of the department, which aims to eliminate unnecessary manual tasks such as consolidations and reconciliations using software automation. And,... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, ERP and Continuous Accounting

To Attract the Best Talent, Make Accounting Cool

Posted by Robert Kugel on 24 August 2022

Especially in the United States, baby boomer retirements and fewer graduates with accounting degrees is posing a growing challenge to finance department executives in attracting and retaining the best accounting talent. The solution, which may not seem obvious, is to make accounting cool, again. Wait, what? Was accounting ever cool? Well, maybe it depends on what you think is cool. Double-entry... Read More

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

Sourcing and Purchasing Need Digital Transformation

Posted by Robert Kugel on 17 August 2022

“Digital finance transformation” became an even more important topic over the past two years as finance and accounting departments have had to cope with an unrelenting set of new challenges that have had a profound impact on business operations, financial markets and regulatory environments. Digital technologies enable organizations to cope with change and improve performance by increasing... Read More

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

Anaplan at a Crossroads

Posted by Robert Kugel on 10 August 2022

Anaplan offers a cloud-based business planning platform that incorporates a modeling and calculation engine. The tool makes it relatively easy to add or expand the scope of plans that can be connected and monitored on a single platform. This Integrated Business Planning (IBP) approach enables organizations to use the software for financial planning or budgeting, sales, supply chain, workforce,... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Continuous Planning, Business Intelligence, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, continuous supply chain, AI and Machine Learning

FP&A Needs a Data Strategy for Meeting Internal ESG Goals

Posted by Robert Kugel on 03 August 2022

Environmental, social and governance issues have grown increasingly pressing over the past few years as investors and government entities urge organizations to measure and disclose ESG metrics. I’ve already covered the broader topic as it relates to external reporting and how financial planning and analysis groups are likely to own this mandate going forward. (It’s mainly been a marketing and... Read More

Topics: FP&A, Office of Finance, ESG

Adopt the Fast Follower Paradigm for Finance

Posted by Robert Kugel on 26 July 2022

Although the digital transformation of the finance department was a topic of discussion before 2020, it became a front-and-center issue as organizations locked down and in-office interactions became impossible. Finance and accounting departments were immediately confronted with a challenge because of their limited adoption of technology that would support a virtual working environment. As our... Read More

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

A Faster Close Fixes Other Accounting Issues

Posted by Robert Kugel on 21 July 2022

Since its inception 20 years ago, Ventana Research has advocated for a shorter accounting close because it can improve the performance of the entire organization, not just finance and accounting. An important benefit of a shorter close is increased staff time for analysis and the preparation of reports and narratives that improve communications with the board and outside investors. Similarly, the... Read More

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

Finance Research Reveals No Progress to a Shorter Close

Posted by Robert Kugel on 19 July 2022

We conducted our recent Smart Close Dynamic Insights Research in part to assess to what extent the substantial disruptions of the pandemic have impacted the accounting close. When office lockdowns began in the first quarter of 2020, many finance departments were challenged by having to do their quarterly close remotely without their normal face-to-face interactions. In the United States, the... Read More

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

OneStream’s Sensible ML Tasks AI for Business Planning

Posted by Robert Kugel on 15 July 2022

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. For me, the most significant announcement at the company’s recent user conference was the unveiling of its Sensible ML (Machine Learning) offering, which is in limited... Read More

Topics: Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, ERP and Continuous Accounting, AI and Machine Learning

A Data Pantry Speeds Development of Machine Learning Models

Posted by Robert Kugel on 12 July 2022

A few years ago – somewhat tongue in cheek – I began using the term “data pantry” to describe a type of data store that’s part of a business application platform, created for a specific set of users and use cases. It’s a data pantry because, unlike a general-purpose data store such as a data warehouse, everything the user needs is readily available and easily accessible, with labels that are... Read More

Topics: Data Management, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, ERP and Continuous Accounting, AI and Machine Learning

AI Will Create Strategic Advantage for the Office of Finance

Posted by Robert Kugel on 24 June 2022

Artificial intelligence using machine learning has passed through the bright, shiny object stage and software vendors are well into the process of making the concept a reality in their offerings. Ventana Research defines AI as the use of technology to process information in much the way humans do, including improving accuracy in recommendations, actions and conclusions as more data is received. I... Read More

Topics: Planning, Machine Learning, Budgeting, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, forecasting, AI and Machine Learning

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