ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives | Financial Performance (28)

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

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

Contingency Planning, Now More than Ever

Posted by Robert Kugel on 27 November 2010

It turns out that some consumer goods manufacturers and retailers are having a hard time finding space on container ships and even finding containers to ship in. This has driven up the cost of shipping these items and at times resulted in deliveries arriving too late for scheduled promotions or seasonal demand peaks. This, during a time of constrained consumer spending in North America and Europe... Read More

Topics: Planning, Budgeting, IBP, Operational Performance, Financial Performance

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

SuccessFactors Takes a Calculator into the Cloud?

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

SuccessFactors is known for applications in performance and talent management but has been working to expand its portfolio more broadly into business. This year the company expanded its focus to workforce analytics with the acquisition of Inform, which I assessed. I have assessed that Inform needed to improve the usability of its tools to compete better which is now more easily possible with a... Read More

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

Sneak Preview and Analysis: Oracle Fusion Applications for Human Capital Management

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

At Oracle OpenWorld this week the company announced its next generation of business applications call Oracle Fusion Applications , which Larry Ellison touted in his closing day keynote at last year's conference, as I noted then. Oracle's head of strategy, Gretchen Alarcon, and head of development, Clive Swan, presented the introduction to one of the seven Fusion families, Human Capital... Read More

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

IBM Opens a Page for GRC

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

IBM has announced its intention to acquire OpenPages, a privately held, Massachusetts-based software company focused on governance, risk and compliance (GRC). I noted that after the deal finishes, the business will reside within IBM’s analytics group rather than in document management; this arrangement signals IBM’s intention to integrate its collaboration and communications around performance... Read More

Topics: GRC, Open Pages, Operational Management, Operational Performance, Business Performance, Financial Performance, Financial Management

Oracle Hopes Mark Hurd Brings New Herd of Business

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 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, Business Performance, Customer & Contact Center, Enterprise Software, Financial Performance, Information Technology, Oracle

ADP Acquires Workscape to Consolidate Talent Management Market

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 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

Kenexa Advances in Talent Management and Saves Salary.com

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 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

Workforce Analytics is Easy and Simple with Accero

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 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

Taleo Brings New Intelligence to Talent Management

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 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