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Cloud Computing Realities Part 4 — Security and Governance

Posted by David Menninger on 21 December 2022
In previous perspectives in this series, I’ve discussed some of the realities of cloud computing including costs, hybrid and multi-cloud configurations and business continuity. This perspective examines the realities of security and regulatory concerns associated with cloud computing. These issues are often cited by our research participants as reasons they are not embracing the cloud. To be... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Digital Technology, Analytics and Data, AI and Machine Learning

The Planning Center of Excellence

Posted by Robert Kugel on 20 December 2022
In the face of a very uncertain future, companies have been discovering the value of rapid planning and budgeting cycles. As events unfold, they’re changing expectations for the future significantly on a daily or weekly basis. However, even when the world returns to a steadier state, companies will benefit from making their planning and budgeting processes faster, easier, more relevant, more... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, IBP, Business Planning, CFO, Integrated Business Planning

Recognize and Plan for the AI and Machine Learning Skills Gap

Posted by David Menninger on 15 December 2022
Recently, I suggested you need to “mind the gap” between data and analytics. This perspective addresses another gap — the gap in skills between business intelligence (BI) and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML). There’s a lot of hype surrounding AI/ML, and for good reason too. Our research shows that the interest in AI/ML is justified. Organizations using AI/ML report it has helped... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Business Intelligence, Digital Technology, Analytics and Data, AI and Machine Learning

Virtual Audits Improve Financial Statement Quality, Work-Life Balance

Posted by Robert Kugel on 15 December 2022
After decades of overpromising and underdelivering, technology has now evolved to the point where it is fundamentally changing how accountants work – for the better. The pandemic and resulting support of remote work set the stage for a transformation of how accounting efforts are structured and performed, all for the better. Remote audits that became routine during lockdowns are evolving into... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, ERP and Continuous Accounting

The CCaaS Business Case Shifts from Costs to Capabilities

Posted by Keith Dawson on 14 December 2022
The market and buyer landscape for contact center operating services has changed significantly since the onset of the pandemic, now almost three years ago. Three years would have been enough time for some significant shifts, even without the pressure the pandemic put on service operations. Nevertheless, with on-premises systems now taking a backseat industrywide, it’s fair to say that CCaaS,... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Voice of the Customer, Contact Center, agent management

The Business and Technology Trends for 2023 and Beyond

Posted by Mark Smith on 13 December 2022
The technology industry has established itself as a pivotal force in its ability to help organizations become more intelligent and automated. But doing so has required a journey of epic proportions for most organizations that have had to endure a transition of competencies and skills that was, in many places, transitioned to consulting firms who were hired appropriately to manage changes.... Read More

Topics: Customer Experience, Human Capital Management, Marketing, Office of Finance, Analytics, Data, Digital Technology, Operations & Supply Chain, Office of Revenue

Monte Carlo Bets on the Future of Data Observability

Posted by Matt Aslett on 13 December 2022
Earlier this year, I wrote about the increasing importance of data observability, an emerging product category that takes advantage of machine learning (ML) and Data Operations (DataOps) to automate the monitoring of data used for analytics projects to ensure its quality and lineage. Monitoring the quality and lineage of data is nothing new. Manual tools exist to ensure that it is complete, valid... Read More

Topics: Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Management, Data, data operations

Manage Your Spending Purse with Emburse

Posted by Robert Kugel on 12 December 2022
Emburse offers a single platform that enables organizations — small, midsize and larger —to manage their travel and related expenses, pay invoices and handle their corporate spend. Today, technology has the ability to significantly increase the efficiency with which organizations handle expenditures while simultaneously containing costs, increasing controls and improving visibility into where the... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, ERP and Continuous Accounting

SQream if You Want to Analyze Data Faster

Posted by Matt Aslett on 08 December 2022
One of the most significant considerations when choosing an analytic data platform is performance. As organizations compete to benefit most from being data-driven, the lower the time to insight the better. As data practitioners have learnt over time, however, lowering time to insight is about more than just high-performance queries. There are opportunities to improve time to insight throughout... Read More

Topics: Business Intelligence, Data, data operations, analytic data platforms, AI and Machine Learning

Sisense is Sensible for Embedded Analytics and BI

Posted by David Menninger on 07 December 2022
Embedded business intelligence (BI) continues to transform the business landscape, enabling organizations to quickly interpret data and convert it into actionable insights. It allows organizations to extract information in real time and answer wide-ranging business questions. Embedding analytics helps tackle the issue of extracting information from data which is a time-consuming process. Our... Read More

Topics: embedded analytics, Analytics, Business Intelligence, natural language processing, Streaming Analytics, AI and Machine Learning

Accelerate Closing with a Faster Tax Provision Process

Posted by Robert Kugel on 07 December 2022
Managing corporate income taxes is a challenge for chief financial officers and their tax department professionals. Tax codes are often complex, so tax accounting as well as the data required for tax provisions and tax compliance are different enough from statutory accounting to create significant workloads for the tax department. The provision for income tax expense and, for public companies,... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Financial Performance Management

Teradata Goes Cloud Native with VantageCloud Lake

Posted by Matt Aslett on 01 December 2022
Organizations are increasingly utilizing cloud object storage as the foundation for analytic initiatives. There are multiple advantages to this approach, not least of which is enabling organizations to keep higher volumes of data relatively inexpensively, increasing the amount of data queried in analytics initiatives. I assert that by 2024, 6 in ten organizations will use cloud-based technology... Read More

Topics: Teradata, Data Governance, Data Management, Data, data operations, analytic data platforms, Vantage platform

Vena Provides Practical Support for Integrated Business Planning

Posted by Robert Kugel on 30 November 2022
Vena Solutions offers organizations a platform for financial planning, analysis and reporting as well as software to manage accounting consolidation and close processes. From the start, Vena has designed its applications to meet the needs of midsize organizations, which typically have the same requirements as large enterprises but with significantly fewer resources to acquire, manage and maintain... Read More

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

IBM Builds on Analytics and BI Foundation

Posted by David Menninger on 29 November 2022
In today’s data-driven world, organizations need real-time access to up-to-date, high-quality data and analysis to keep pace with changing market dynamics and make better strategic decisions. By mining meaningful insights from enterprise data quickly, they gain a competitive advantage in the market. Yet, organizations face a multitude of challenges when transitioning into an analytics-driven... Read More

Topics: embedded analytics, Analytics, Business Intelligence, IBM, IBM Watson, AI and Machine Learning

Oracle NetSuite Goes Full Suite Ahead to Deliver Customer Value

Posted by Robert Kugel on 25 November 2022
The theme of this year’s Oracle NetSuite SuiteWorld was “Full Suite Ahead,” with content aimed at demonstrating to customers (and prospective buyers) the value of using more of what NetSuite has to offer. The business logic behind this concept goes beyond the obvious objective of upselling existing customers to increase the average annual recurring revenue. As is often the case with subscription... Read More

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

Three Trends in Digital Learning for 2023

Posted by ISG Research on 23 November 2022
The pandemic years saw an exponential rise in organizational investment in digital learning, and for good reason. With in-person learning no longer an option, organizations were forced to quickly adapt to the changing world of work in order to ensure workers were prepared with the knowledge and training necessary to operate in ways they had never before seen. Beyond operational imperatives,... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Learning Management

The Arguments For, and Against, In-Database Machine Learning

Posted by Matt Aslett on 23 November 2022
Almost all organizations are investing in data science, or planning to, as they seek to encourage experimentation and exploration to identify new business challenges and opportunities as part of the drive toward creating a more data-driven culture. My colleague, David Menninger, has written about how organizations using artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) report gaining... Read More

Topics: Data Governance, Data Management, Data, data operations, analytic data platforms, Analytics and Data, AI and Machine Learning

Cloud Computing Realities Part 3: Business Continuity

Posted by David Menninger on 22 November 2022
In my previous perspectives on cloud computing, I addressed some of the realities of cloud costs as well as hybrid and multi-cloud architectures. In the midst of the pandemic, my colleague, Mark Smith, authored a series of perspectives on considerations for business continuity in general, beginning with this look at some of the investments organizations must make to mitigate the risk of business... Read More

Topics: Business Continuity, Cloud Computing, Digital Technology

Technology Puts the ‘A’ Back in FP&A

Posted by Robert Kugel on 22 November 2022
The starting point of an era is never precise and rarely conforms to neat calendar delineations. For example, the start of the 20th century is associated with the outbreak of war in 1914. So I expect that decades from now, the consensus will hold that what became known as the 21st century began in the year 2020, with the pandemic serving as a catalyst that accelerated already existing trends and... Read More

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

IBM Planning Analytics Enables Agility Based on Insight

Posted by Robert Kugel on 18 November 2022
IBM Planning Analytics with Watson is a comprehensive, cloud-based business planning application that supports what Ventana Research calls integrated business planning. We coined this term in 2007 to describe a high-participation approach to business planning that integrates strategy, operations and finance. Our Next Generation Business Planning Benchmark Research demonstrated the value of IBP:... Read More

Topics: Predictive Analytics, Office of Finance, embedded analytics, Business Intelligence, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, Watson, Digital transformation, AI and Machine Learning

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