Analyst Perspectives


Search within Analyst Perspectives blog:

TopBar Analyst Perspectives BottomBar

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

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

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

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

Using External Data in Planning

Posted by Robert Kugel on 12 May 2022
Organizations need to use external data in planning and budgeting, both data and third-party forecasts. This need also extends to external data in training artificial intelligence systems to assist in planning and for predictive analytics. Companies do not live in a vacuum and things occurring outside physical facilities have a direct impact on how an organization performs. Incorporating external... Read More

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

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

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

Configure, Price and Quote Software Supports Profitability Management

Posted by Robert Kugel on 07 January 2022
Pricing is an issue that almost every for-profit company confronts – and usually agonizes over. Chief financial officers must play a part in setting the strategic direction of pricing in their organization. They should not be involved in tactical pricing decisions because they are not close enough to markets and customers, but they should be part of the strategic design of pricing, especially as... Read More

Topics: Office of Finance, Analytics, Financial Performance Management, Digital Commerce

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

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

Meet the Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) Reporting Challenge

Posted by Robert Kugel on 30 August 2021
Environmental, social and governance reporting by public corporations has become a top-of-mind issue for senior executives and boards of directors as countries increasingly consider or mandate its implementation in some form. The fundamental rationale for ESG reporting is rooted in the inability of purely financial measures to capture externalities (such as greenhouse gas emissions) or provide... Read More

Topics: Human Capital Management, Office of Finance, Business Intelligence, Data Governance, Data Preparation, Data, Financial Performance Management, ERP and Continuous Accounting

Browse by Analyst

Mark Smith

Mark Smith

 Robert Kugel

Robert Kugel

 David Menninger

David Menninger

 Jeff Orr

Jeff Orr

 Keith Dawson

Keith Dawson

 Matt Aslett

Matt Aslett

 Matthew Brown

Matthew Brown

 Barika Pace

Barika Pace

Posts by Topic

see all

Posts by Month

see all