ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

Looking forward to Oracle OpenWorld

Posted by Robert Kugel on 28 November 2010

Looking forward to Oracle OpenWorld, I was recalling that about 20 years ago, when I started covering the software industry as a Wall St. analyst, I paid a visit to the company. There were many fewer database-shaped glass buildings there in Redwood Shores then but the lack of corporate focus on business applications and users remains unchanged. Right after that first visit, I told another... Read More

Topics: Sales Performance, Supply Chain Performance, IT Performance, Operational Performance, Business Intelligence, Business Performance, Enterprise Software, Financial Performance, Information Management, Information Technology, Oracle, Workforce Performance

Oracle Hopes Mark Hurd Brings New Herd of Business

Posted by Mark Smith on 28 November 2010

At the eye of the tornado of accusations, rumors and gossip in Silicon Valley that began with CEO Mark Hurd’s departure from Hewlett-Packard are the internal politics and lack of management procedures and oversight at the company. I have pointed out a connection not discussed elsewhere to issues around the enterprise software efforts at HP (See: “HP Scandal Reflects on Enterprise Software... Read More

Topics: Sales Performance, Operational Performance, Business Performance, Enterprise Software, Information Technology, Oracle

ADP Acquires Workscape to Consolidate Talent Management Market

Posted by Mark Smith on 28 November 2010

Consolidation activity increased in the market for applications in talent management or what I call workforce performance management as ADP announced and now has closed the acquisition of Workscape. ADP is a $9 billion outsourcing provider that is well known for providing employer and payroll services; the company has been expanding its breadth of services for employers by responding to demand... Read More

Topics: Performance Management, Kenexa, Business Performance, Financial Performance, Workforce Performance, Compensation, Talent Management

Host Analytics Performance Management is Sweet in the Cloud

Posted by Robert Kugel on 28 November 2010

Most large corporations have embraced some form of “performance management” software – perhaps even multiple forms – including business analytics to help create key performance indicators, reporting systems for graphically presenting information in a useful context (such as dashboards, scorecards or a recurring performance report) as well as planning systems to create budgets and forecasts or... Read More

Topics: Financial Close, Host Analytics, Business Performance, Financial Performance, Financial Performance Management

Kenexa Advances in Talent Management and Saves Salary.com

Posted by Mark Smith on 28 November 2010

Today was another inflection point for the talent management market and buyers of HR applications with the announcement that Kenexa is acquiring salary.com (NASDAQ: SLRY) pending shareholder and SEC approval. Kenexa is offering a cash-per-share agreement that should work to complete the transaction. More complicated will be figuring out how to retain the talent at salary.com; that company has... Read More

Topics: Performance Management, Kenexa, Business Performance, Financial Performance, Workforce Performance, Compensation, Talent Management

Dashboards for Continuously Improving the Close

Posted by Robert Kugel on 27 November 2010

Accelerating the completion of the accounting cycle remains an important objective for Finance organizations. Research shows that about half of the midsize and larger companies take more than five business days to close their books on a monthly or quarterly basis; some much longer. A fast, accurate close is important if only because it enables companies to provide financial feedback to executives... Read More

Topics: Financial Close, Business Performance, Financial Performance, Financial Performance Management

Maxager Figures What it Costs for Improved Profitability

Posted by Robert Kugel on 27 November 2010

Activity Based Costing (ABC) is one several popular techniques to apply marginal cost analysis to arrive at a more accurate measure of a product’s true economic cost. It became popular in the United States starting in the 1980s (earlier in Germany) as it became clear to many that traditional cost accounting techniques do not reflect the true, economic cost of production in complex, multi-product... Read More

Topics: Supply Chain Performance, Operational Performance, Business Performance, Financial Performance, Cost Management, Maxager, Profitability

Workforce Analytics is Easy and Simple with Accero

Posted by Mark Smith on 27 November 2010

To utilize a workforce effectively requires information about it and the ability to analyze that in the context of the business’s needs. Yet it has long been the case that the use of analytics and business intelligence (BI) is least advanced in the human resources function. It remains so even as organizations introduce talent management applications to supplement or replace legacy human resource... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Business Performance, Financial Performance, Workforce Performance, Talent Management, Workforce Analytics

Australia Adopts XBRL for "Standard Business Reporting"

Posted by Robert Kugel on 27 November 2010

In July, Australia adopted what it calls "Standard Business Reporting" (SBR), which is designed to reduce the reporting burden imposed on businesses by the country's federal and state governments by streamlining the information submission ("lodging" for the Oz) process. In essence, the country is on its way to a file-once-use-many approach whereby companies provide data using a single secure... Read More

Topics: XBRL, Business Performance, Financial Performance, finance, SEC

Integrating Strategic Planning With Jonova

Posted by Robert Kugel on 27 November 2010

I’ve focused attention of integrated business planning for the past several years as our benchmark research on business planning and other related topics consistently finds companies are not getting enough of a return on the considerable amount of time and effort they spend on budgeting and planning. Moreover, the current economic climate makes substantive contingency planning more important than... Read More

Topics: Jonova, Operational Performance, Business Performance, Financial Performance, Financial Performance Management, Integrated Business Planning

HP Scandal Reflects on Enterprise Software Issue

Posted by Mark Smith on 27 November 2010

The recent turmoil at Hewlett-Packard that went public with news of the resignation of CEO Mark Hurd is only superficially about the facts of the scandal or the question of who will be the new CEO, sexy as those issues may be. What it really shines a light on is the performance of the company itself. I wrote earlier this year (See: “HP Takes Technology Portfolio to the Clouds with New Growth... Read More

Topics: IT Performance, Operational Performance, Business Intelligence, Business Performance, Enterprise Software, HP, Information Management, Information Technology

Intacct Gives Professional Help

Posted by Robert Kugel on 27 November 2010

Intacct, which offers cloud-based accounting software for small and smaller midsize companies is starting to put more emphasis on addressing the needs of project-oriented, professional services businesses. One of the challenges that these companies face is getting their accounting systems to support their business at a functional level. To be sure, any ERP system can account for projects, in the... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Performance, Cloud Computing, Financial Performance, Financial Management

Taleo Brings New Intelligence to Talent Management

Posted by Mark Smith on 27 November 2010

Today’s intense competitive pressures demand that organizations utilize their human capital more effectively. Taleo has been steadily growing as a provider of talent management by offering its applications and platform through software as a service (SaaS). Now it has advanced into what they call Talent Intelligence that can help organizations gain new insights on their workforce and individual... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Business Performance, Financial Performance, Workforce Performance, Talent Management, Taleo

Adapting and Planning Your Way Out of the Recession

Posted by Robert Kugel on 27 November 2010

Anyone who has had to regularly produce a written business forecast that goes out more than a couple of months understand all too well Yogi Berra’s famous observation: “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Certainly the economic events of the past two years have regularly made forecasts obsolete in a very short period of time. Using the wisdom of crowds can help the... Read More

Topics: Big Data, Planning, IBP, Operational Performance, Business Performance, Financial Performance

Infor24 Makes Applications Simpler To Acquire and Integrate

Posted by Mark Smith on 27 November 2010

The advent of cloud computing and renting of applications has provided another realm of opportunity for applications software vendors. Infor, which already is the third-largest in the world, is taking advantage of it. Infor announced Infor24, an initiative to bring its role-based applications into the cloud. It will use the Infor ION platform that supports other new Infor applications, including... Read More

Topics: Supply Chain Performance, Enterprise Applications, Operational Performance, Business Performance, Cloud Computing, Infor

Research Finds New Adoption and Interest in Mobile Business Intelligence

Posted by Mark Smith on 27 November 2010

The demand for access to business information and applications through mobile technologies such as the Apple iPhone and iPad, devices running Google Android or using RIM Blackberry is surging as consumer preferences and behavior spill over into the business workforce. The massive growth of adoption of these technologies around the world as consumers seek instant access to information has many... Read More

Topics: Mobile, IT Performance, Operational Performance, Business Intelligence, Business Performance, Mobility, Digital Technology

IBM’s Advances Business Analytics and Optimization in First Year

Posted by Mark Smith on 27 November 2010

At its Business Analytics and Optimization (BAO) analyst summit in Washington, D.C., IBM provided direction on the state of its software and services in this category of business technology. This annual event goes back to 2005 when IBM started making BAO-related software acquisitions in earnest. I have written before about IBM’s focus on analytics and optimization (See: “IBM Fuses New Generation... Read More

Topics: Operational Performance, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence, Business Performance, IBM

Plateau Advances Talent Management in the Cloud

Posted by Mark Smith on 27 November 2010

The market for talent management continues to grow as organizations realize that they have not invested enough to make their workforces more productive and valuable. Not many human resources organizations have enabled innovation in their workforce processes or taken the next step to work more strategically with finance and operations executives. Now savvy HR organizations have been renting a new... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Plateau, Business Performance, Workforce Performance, Talent Management

Microsoft Hopes for a Miracle with Windows Phone 7

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

Mobile computing isn’t new anymore. The capabilities of smartphones, among other things, enable businesses to run applications across an enterprise and workers to collaborate across business and social networks. In this endeavor Microsoft was early to market with its Windows CE devices that provided e-mail and Web browsing to phones. For the first years it was a low-level battle among Microsoft,... Read More

Topics: Microsoft, Mobile, Mobile Applications, Mobile Technology, Operational Performance, Business Performance, Business Technology, CIO, Information Management, Mobility, Digital Technology

Saba Dedicates Itself to People and Collaboration

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

At its annual user conference in Boston, Saba provided insights to industry analysts on its progress over the last year and its direction for 2011. Best known for its learning management system (LMS), collaboration and more recently its talent management applications, Saba now has more than 19 million users in 1,400 customer organizations that are mostly in the public sector, have 5,000 or more... Read More

Topics: Human Capital, Human Resources Management, Learning, Mobile Applications, Performance, Business Performance, Cloud Computing, Workforce Performance, Compensation, Saba, Talent Management, Workforce Analytics