ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives | ERP and Continuous Accounting (5)

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

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

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

Sage Intacct Moves into Manufacturing to Spur Growth

Posted by Robert Kugel on 06 May 2022

Sage recently announced that it is expanding its Sage Intacct software offering to support discrete manufacturing, with its initial foray into this competitive market centered in France. The move supports the company’s strategy of building out the scope of industries served by its cloud applications to include product-oriented business models and expanding Sage Intacct’s geographic footprint. The... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, ERP and Continuous Accounting

Reordered Global Trade Requires Agile Sales and Operations Planning

Posted by Robert Kugel on 29 April 2022

I first wrote about a new era of trade a few years ago to make the point that the period of optimizing supply chains for the lowest cost was over, and that companies needed to redesign them to achieve greater resiliency. That observation proved correct. Now we are hearing about “the end of globalization,” a hyperbolic phrase describing the effects of ongoing changes to the international political... Read More

Topics: Continuous Planning, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, continuous supply chain

Unit4 Expansion Targets Enhancements for People-Centric Organization

Posted by Robert Kugel on 09 March 2022

I recently attended an analyst conference held by Unit4, an enterprise resource planning vendor focused on midsize organizations in people-centric industries. The conference was intended to communicate the company’s strategy, product updates and roadmap. The meeting took place shortly after announcement of the availability of Unit4 Industry Mesh and the acquisition of Compright, which does... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Office of Finance, Business Planning, Talent Management, Financial Performance Management, ERP and Continuous Accounting, Total Compensation Management

Automate the Close Cycle for Consistently Better Performance

Posted by Robert Kugel on 03 March 2022

Software that automates the full scope of the accounting close, including reconciliations, consolidation and reporting, has grown more capable and affordable over the past five years. By enabling consistent process management that captures best practices, and by automating rote, repetitive activities to boost staff productivity, these applications enable organizations to shorten the close, make... Read More

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

Progress for AI in Office of Finance Applications

Posted by Robert Kugel on 18 February 2022

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) using machine learning (ML) will be the single most important trend in business software this decade because it can multiply the investment value of such applications and provide vendors an important source of differentiation to achieve a competitive advantage in what are today very mature software categories. I assert that by 2025, almost all Office of... Read More

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

The Office of Finance Market Agenda for 2022: Effectiveness and Profits

Posted by Robert Kugel on 09 February 2022

Ventana Research recently announced its 2022 Market Agenda for the Office of Finance, continuing the guidance we have offered since 2003 on the practical use of technology for the finance and accounting department. Our insights and best practices aim to enable organizations to operate with agility and resiliency, improving performance and delivering greater value as a strategic partner. We craft... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Intelligence, Collaboration, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, ERP and Continuous Accounting, Revenue, blockchain, robotic finance, Predictive Planning, AI and Machine Learning, lease and tax accounting

Evolving ERP Systems Redefining Office of Finance Operations

Posted by Robert Kugel on 03 December 2021

Over the past decade, how organizations manage processes and record data related to transactional events captured by an enterprise resource planning system has undergone a significant evolution. Some of the more recent changes have been the result of a steady migration to the cloud, since these systems are typically updated frequently, require less maintenance, have better performance and are... Read More

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

Digitize Tax Departments for Increased Strategic Value

Posted by Robert Kugel on 26 October 2021

Managing corporate income taxes is a challenge for chief financial officers. 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. Today, the worldwide trend to higher taxes and growing tax code complexity is increasing the payoff for... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Financial Performance Management, ERP and Continuous Accounting, Revenue, lease and tax accounting

BillingPlatform Bolsters the Rise of Subscription Services

Posted by Stephen Hurrell on 22 September 2021

Subscription management and billing services help organizations offer unique benefits and enhance delivery to customers. By making services more personalized, organizations can acquire – and retain – more customers. Many business-to-business companies are shifting to a subscription business model to remain competitive, imposing new requirements on vendors to support pricing models that address... Read More

Topics: Sales, Office of Finance, Continuous Planning, embedded analytics, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Business Planning, Product Information Management, Digital Commerce, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, natural language processing, revenue and lease accounting, continuous supply chain, Subscription Management, partner management, Process Mining, Streaming Analytics, Supplier Relationship Management, AI and Machine Learning

Managing Price Inflation Effectively with Technology

Posted by Robert Kugel on 21 September 2021

A looming challenge for companies in the developed world is price inflation, an issue periodically fretted over – but not experienced at a macroeconomic level in most developed economies – over the past four decades. Price inflation has been a frequent bugaboo that never emerged because of persistent disinflationary forces in the world economy over the past forty years. It remains to be seen to... Read More

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