For four years Adaptive Planning has been building out its cloud-based financial software. Starting with budgeting, planning and forecasting, it added analytics, data visualization, dashboards and alerting as well as flexible reporting and collaboration tools. It recently announced the general availability of consolidation functionality in its cloud-based suite. This addition eliminates a notable gap in the company’s functionality, giving it a more complete financial performance management...
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
close,
Consolidation,
Controller,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
CFO,
Data,
Financial Performance Management
Ventana Research recently completed an in-depth benchmark research project on long-range planning. As I define it, long-range planning is the formal quantification of the more conceptual strategic plan. It makes specific assumptions and expresses in numbers how a company expects its strategy will play out over time. Almost all (95%) of those participating in the research see a need to make improvements to their long-range planning process. The research shows that one useful improvement is ...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
CEO,
Financial Performance Management,
FPM
To comply with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA or Affordable Care Act), which survived a Supreme Court test and a presidential election, all employers with more than 50 full-time employees must be ready by January 2014 to deal with the lion’s share of the law’s employer mandate requirements. Our recent benchmark research on governance, risk and compliance indicates that many of those employers have significant concerns about compliance issues: 53 percent of participants...
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Topics:
HCM,
Office of Finance,
Obamacare,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
compliance,
Spreadsheets,
HR Management
A recent news release by Robert Half, a staffing company that specializes in accounting and finance personnel, covered what it sees as the most important attributes required for auditors in the 21st century. “7 Attributes of Highly Effective Internal Auditors” covers the people dimension of the profession and focuses on the non-technical requirements of the role, including relationship-building, teamwork, and diversity. No doubt these skills are a must for just about anybody working in a modern...
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Topics:
Fraud,
Governance,
GRC,
Office of Finance,
audit,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
compliance,
Infor,
Risk,
HANA,
Oversight Systems
SAP recently announced its new Fraud Management analytic applications. Currently in “controlled” (limited) release, it’s a promising start for the product and a good example of the type of business process revolution that’s possible when companies can execute complex analytics on big data sets using in-memory and other advanced processing techniques. Over the next several years a wide swath of basic corporate processes will be transformed by the shift to in-memory processing and big data...
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Topics:
SAP,
Fraud,
Governance,
GRC,
Office of Finance,
audit,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
compliance,
Risk,
HANA
Organizations succeed through continuous planning to achieve high levels of performance. For most organizations planning is not an easy process to conduct. Planning software is typically designed for only a few people in the process, such as analysts, or organizations might use spreadsheets, which are not designed for business planning across an organization. Most technologies only allow you to examine the past and not plan for the future. For decades organizations have tried to focus planning...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Mobile Technology,
Operations,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Cloudera,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Workforce Performance,
Business Planning,
CFO,
finance,
Tidemark,
Workday
Cloud computing has given business a new way to improve the effectiveness of business processes and ultimately the outcomes of their efforts. In the last five years, business across marketing, customer service, sales, human resources, finance and other areas have embraced the practice of renting access to the applications and technology they need when they need them. Organizations’ use of operational expense budgets helps them get what they need and avoid IT politics or standards that impeded...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Mobile Technology,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Management,
Workforce Performance,
Business Applications
This is annual report season, the time of year that a majority of European and North American corporations issue glossy paper documents aimed at investors, customers, suppliers, existing and prospective employees as well as the public at large. (Some countries have different conventions; in Japan, for instance, most companies are on a March fiscal year.) In reviewing some of the annual reports that are available on the Web, I was struck by the absence of advanced reporting technology used on...
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
extended close,
US-GAAP,
XBRL,
Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
CFO,
compliance,
financial reporting,
SEC,
Digital Technology
One of the most important IT trends over the past decade has been the proliferation of ever wider and deeper sets of information sources that businesses use to collect, track and analyze data. While structured numerical data remains the most common category, organizations are also learning to exploit semistructured data (text, for example) as well as more complex data types such as voice and image files. They use these analytics increasingly in every aspect of their business – to assess...
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Topics:
Planning,
Predictive Analytics,
Customer,
Human Capital Management,
Office of Finance,
Budgeting,
close,
closing,
Finance Analytics,
PRO,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
CFO,
Risk,
costing,
FPM,
Profitability
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Mobile Technology,
Vitria,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Complex Event Processing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence
I’m wondering whether the rapid rise in earnings restatements by “accelerated filers” (companies that file their financial statements with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that have a public float greater than $75 million) over the past three years is a significant trend or an interesting blip. According to a research firm, Audit Analytics, that number has grown from 153 restatements in 2009 to 245 in 2012, a 60 percent increase. What makes it a blip is that the total is still less...
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Topics:
Customer Experience,
Governance,
GRC,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
audit,
close,
Consolidation,
Controller,
Tax,
XBRL,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
CFO,
compliance,
FPM,
SEC
SAS Institute held its 24th annual analyst summit last week in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The 37-year-old privately held company is a key player in big data analytics, and company executives showed off their latest developments and product roadmaps. In particular, LASR Analytical Server and Visual Analytics 6.2, which is due to be released this summer, are critical to SAS’ ability to secure and expand its role as a preeminent analytics vendor in the big data era.
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Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
SAS,
Supply Chain Performance,
LASR,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
SAS institute
I recently attended the annual SAS analyst summit to hear the latest company, product and customer growth news from the multi-billion-dollar analytics software provider. This global giant continues to grow its business and solutions to help with fraud prevention, marketing and risk. It lets users apply its analytic and statistical technology in practical applications for business. SAS can meet midsized businesses’ demand with packaging and pricing to ensure it is not seen as only affordable to...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
SAS,
Fraud,
GRC,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Data Integration,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Operational Intelligence,
Risk
I’ve frequently commented on the artificiality of the emerging software category of governance, risk and compliance (GRC). The term is used to a cover a combination of what were once viewed as stand-alone software categories, including IT governance, audit documentation and industry-specific compliance management, to name three examples. While it’s still common for specific types of software to be purchased piecemeal by different departments, these disparate areas have started a long...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Predictive Analytics,
Customer Experience,
Governance,
GRC,
Management,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
compliance,
finance,
Risk,
financial risk management,
IT Risk Management,
Sarbanes Oxley,
SOX
Big data analytics is being offered as the key to addressing a wide array of management and operational needs across business and IT. But the label “big data analytics” is used in a variety of ways, confusing people about its usefulness and value and about how best to implement to drive business value. The uncertainty this causes poses a challenge for organizations that want to take advantage of big data in order to gain competitive advantage, comply with regulations, manage risk and improve...
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Topics:
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
SAP,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
IBM,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Data Discovery,
big analytics
Ventana Research recently completed an in-depth benchmark research project on long-range planning. As part of the research we had discussions with CFOs and those involved in financial planning and analysis about their company’s strategic and long-range planning processes, which pointed to the need for clarity in using the terms “strategic planning” and “long-range planning.”
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Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
CEO,
Financial Performance Management,
FPM
Platfora has gained a lot of buzz in the Big Data analytics market primarily through word of mouth. Late last year the company took the covers off of some impressive and potentially disruptive technology that takes aim at the broad BI and business analytics ecosystem, including the very foundation on which the industry is built. It recently demonstrated its software at the Strata Conference where the audience that is fixated on big data was in attendance.
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Topics:
Big Data,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Applications,
Platfora,
Strata+Hadoop
I was discussing the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) mandate with a former head of investor relations at a Fortune 100 company. His take on it is much the same as that of everyone else involved with corporate reporting: it doesn’t produce much value and costs a bundle to comply. I related to him my thoughts on the lack of progress I saw in making the XBRL mandate more useful to corporations and investors alike. Making XBRL...
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
extended close,
US-GAAP,
XBRL,
Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
CFO,
compliance,
financial reporting,
FPM,
SEC,
Digital Technology
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
enterprise spreadsheet,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Visualization,
Workforce Performance,
Risk,
benchmark,
Financial Performance Management
The challenge with discussing big data analytics is in cutting through the ambiguity that surrounds the term. People often focus on the 3 Vs of big data – volume, variety and velocity – which provides a good lens for big data technology, but only gets us part of the way to understanding big data analytics, and provides even less guidance on how to take advantage of big data analytics to unlock business value.
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Topics:
Big Data,
Microsoft,
SAP,
SAS,
Excel,
designed data,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
IBM,
Information Applications,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Oracle,
SPSS
I’ve been using electronic spreadsheets for more than 30 years. I consider this technology among the 20th century’s top five most important advances in business management. Spreadsheets have revolutionized every aspect of running any organization. A spreadsheet (specifically, VisiCalc) was the original “killer app” that made business people feel the necessity to buy a personal computer.
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Topics:
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
enterprise spreadsheet,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Visualization,
Workforce Performance,
Risk,
benchmark,
Financial Performance Management
Profit Velocity Solutions’ PV Accelerator is an analytic application designed to enable capital-intensive companies to consistently achieve substantially wider margins and higher return on assets (ROA). Companies in industries such as specialty chemicals, building materials, integrated steel mills and silicon chip fabrication (to name just four) routinely fail to make the right decisions about pricing, production and sales management because they use analytic methods that, from an economic...
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Topics:
Performance Management,
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Human Capital Management,
Office of Finance,
PV Accelerator,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Price Optimization,
Profit Velocity,
Profitability,
Software,
S&OP
Business intelligence software is supposed to help businesses access and analyze data and communicate analytics and metrics. I have witnessed improvements to BI software over the years, from mobile and collaboration to interactive discovery and visualization, and our Value Index for Business Intelligence finds a mature set of technology vendors and products. But even as these products mature in capabilities, the majority lack features that would make them easy to use. Our recent research on ...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Mobile Technology,
Natural Language,
Business Technology Innovation,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
Discovery
One of the important lessons company executives should have learned over the past 15 years is that it’s dangerous not to do contingency planning, a subject that I’ve written about before. By this I mean real, think-outside-the-box contingency planning (not just extrapolating), which is especially important when doing long-range planning. The past decade or so has been punctuated by periods of elevated volatility in financial and product markets, and there’s a good probability it will occur...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Planning,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
Budgeting,
contingency,
currency,
driver-based,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Financial Performance Management,
Integrated Business Planning
Read More
Topics:
Office of Finance,
extended close,
US-GAAP,
XBRL,
Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
CFO,
compliance,
financial reporting,
SEC,
Digital Technology
IBM this week announced its pending acquisition of the Star Analytics product portfolio. Star Analytics is a privately held company that offers products designed to provide easy access to and integration with Oracle Hyperion data sources. While Star Analytics has a good product and solid references, it has lacked critical mass to support more effective sales and marketing efforts. Star Analytics’ strategic value to IBM lies in its ability to unlock data held in Oracle Essbase multidimensional...
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Topics:
Reporting,
closing,
Essbase,
Hyperion,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Data Integration,
Financial Performance,
IBM,
Information Management,
Oracle,
Financial Performance Management,
Star Analytics,
TM1
The electronic spreadsheet is among the top five most important advances in business management to come along in the last hundred years. It revolutionized almost all aspects of running an organization. It was the original “killer app” that made it necessary for people to go out and buy a personal computer. Yet our recent benchmark research project Spreadsheet Use in Today’s Enterprise confirmed advice we have been giving for the past decade: Spreadsheets are a fabulous tool but they have...
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
enterprise spreadsheet,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Visualization,
Risk,
benchmark,
Financial Performance Management
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Human Capital Management,
Kenexa,
Learning,
Performance,
Recruiting,
Smarter Analytics,
Smarter Workforce,
Social Business,
Social Collaboration,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
IBM,
Workforce Performance,
Compensation
Taxes – both indirect (sales or value added taxes, for example) and direct (income taxes) – are one the largest expense items on the corporate income statement. In recent years it has become common for large and even midsize companies to automate their indirect tax management process, but direct tax management has remained a bastion of manual processes built on a heap of desktop spreadsheets. In previous blog posts I discussed this issue and the role of the tax data warehouse as a necessary...
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Topics:
ERP,
GRC,
Office of Finance,
audit,
finance transformation,
Tax,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Management,
CFO,
Vertex,
FPM
The proper use of technology enables businesses to be more efficient. Our recent research into technology for business innovation found that 56 percent indicate innovative technology is very important, yet only 9 percent are very satisfied with theirs, showing plenty of room for improvement. As we enter 2013, businesses have more choices than ever for technology to improve business and IT. Our firm has identified six key technologies that give organizations significant competitive advantages:...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Mobile Technology,
Social Collaboration,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
CMO,
COO,
CTO
Banking giant JP Morgan raised eyebrows in 2012 when it revealed that it had lost a substantial amount of money because of poorly conceived trades it had made for its own account. The losses raised questions about the adequacy of its internal controls, and broader questions about the need for regulations to reduce systemic risk to the banking system. At the heart of the matter were the transactions made by “the London Whale,” the name given to a JP Morgan’s trading operation in the City by its...
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Topics:
Sales,
Sales Performance,
GRC,
Office of Finance,
error,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Information Management,
Data,
controls
Actuate this week announced BIRT Analytics, and thereby puts itself firmly into supporting a range of business analytics needs from data discovery and visualization to a range of data mining and predictive capabilities that allows itself new avenues of growth. Actuate has long been a staple of large Business Intelligence deployments; in fact the company claims that ActuateOne delivers more insights to more people than all other BI applications combined. This is likely true, given that Actuate...
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Topics:
Data Scientist,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Financial Performance,
Information Applications,
Operational Intelligence,
Data Discovery,
commodity model,
Quinterian
SAP just released strong preliminary quarterly and annual revenue growth, which in many ways can be attributed to a strong strategic vision around the HANA in-memory platform and strong execution throughout the organization. Akin to flying an airplane while simultaneously fixing it, SAP’s bold move to HANA may at some point see the company continuing to fly when other companies are forced to ground parts of their fleets.
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Topics:
Sales,
Sales Performance,
SAP,
Supply Chain Performance,
Business Objects,
Business Objects predictive analytics,
Crystal reports,
Operational Performance,
Visi,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
IBM,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
cognos insight,
SAP predictive analytics,
Sybase IQ
Managing the access, storage and use of data effectively can provide businesses a competitive advantage. Last year I outlined what the big deal is in big data, as the initial focus on the volume, velocity and variety of data – what my colleague Tony Cosentino calls the three V’s – is only one small piece of how organizations should evaluate this technology. The more balanced approach is to include what he calls the three W’s – the what, so what and now what, which shifts the focus to an...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Master Data Management,
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
MDM,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Data Governance,
Data Integration,
Financial Performance,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Product Information Management
Did you catch all the big data analogies people used in 2012? There were many, like the refinement of oil analogy, or the spinning straw into gold analogy, and less useful but more entertaining ones, like big data is like a box of chocolates, or big data is like The Matrix (because “there’s no way Keanu Reeves learns Kung Fu in five seconds without using big data”). I tend to like the water analogy, which I’ll use here to have a little fun and to briefly describe how I see the business...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
Data
Most organizations see improving the effectiveness of sales as a way to increase productivity. Those organizations that take advantage of the latest sales applications and technology are finding themselves with a competitive advantage, but many organizations lack the time and resources to assess and deploy appropriate platforms. That’s a shame, since most sales organizations have plenty to improve in their selling, forecasting, incentives and planning according to our latest research on sales...
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Topics:
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Marketing,
PIM,
Sales Compensation,
Sales Forecasting,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
CPQ,
CRM,
Product Information Management,
SFA
Read More
Topics:
Mobile,
Predictive Analytics,
Real-time,
Sales Performance,
SAP,
Supply Chain Performance,
ERP,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
In-memory,
Workforce Performance,
CRM,
finance,
Social,
Business Suite,
Financial Performance Management,
HANA
Businesses always see a lag between when technology makes some advance possible and when a majority of companies actually adopt it. There’s even a longer lag between the emergence of an advance in a business process or technique and the time it takes to become mainstream. When we write our research agendas at the top of each year, we have to strike a balance between focusing on the new and different, which is still many years away from general acceptance, and the mainstream, which has been...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Planning,
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
Governance,
GRC,
Office of Finance,
Budgeting,
close,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
In-memory,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
Risk,
CEO,
Financial Performance Management,
FPM
Happy New Year to all my readers and followers. I hope everyone has gotten some rest and is ready for a great 2013. 2012 was a busy year in which we saw a critical inflection point, where an elevated focus on new methods and innovative technological approaches such as big data, business analytics, business and social collaboration, cloud computing, mobile technology and social media become part of the mainstream business and IT dialogue. These technologies are beginning to be part of or...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Market Research,
Mobile Technology,
Social Collaboration,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
Technology
As I’ve noted before, it’s common for CFOs of companies that are transitioning from being a small to a midsize business (that is, when they grow past about 100 employees) to find that the entry-level accounting package that they have been using no longer fits their needs. This software may be inexpensive to purchase and easy to use but it lacks many of the customization and business process management capabilities that become increasingly important as organizations grow. The transition from...
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Topics:
Planning,
Salesforce.com,
ERP,
Human Capital Management,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
close,
closing,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Financial Performance Management,
FinancialForce.com
Ventana Research does benchmark research that assesses the maturity of organizations across four dimensions: people, process, information and technology. We examine business issues along those dimensions because we recognize the interconnected relationships among them. Especially in larger companies, data issues such as accuracy and accessibility are often a root cause of poor performance of a core function. It may be a factor in such areas as poor customer service, sales execution or...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
Budgeting,
driver-based,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Financial Performance Management,
Integrated Business Planning
This is the third in a series of blog posts on what CEOs (and for that matter, all senior corporate executives) need to know about IT and its impact on running a business. The first covered the high-level issues. As I noted, it’s not necessary for a CEO to be able to write Java code or master the intricacies of an ERP or sales compensation application. However, CEOs must grasp the basics of IT just as they must understand basic corporate finance, the production process and – at least at a high...
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Topics:
Planning,
Predictive Analytics,
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Customer,
Human Capital Management,
Office of Finance,
Budgeting,
close,
closing,
PRO,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Management,
CFO,
CEO,
FPM,
Profitability,
SPM
Increasingly, global financial markets compete on speed, so much so that high-speed trading capabilities have become a performance differentiator for the largest financial services firms and some investment funds. Transmitting messages with quotes, prices and trade data is a core capability for currency dealers. Informatica recently introduced Ultra Messaging, which is designed to offer global currency traders an efficient, high-throughput, lower-latency (that is, faster) and more secure method...
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Topics:
Sales,
GRC,
credit,
currency,
LAN,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Informatica,
finance,
WAN
When they were first introduced three decades ago, electronic spreadsheets provided a major advance in corporate planning compared to the paper spreadsheet-and-adding-machine systems they replaced. However, time passes and, as our research shows, desktop spreadsheets often hamper productivity because they were designed for personal productivity, not for managing repetitive, collaborative, enterprise-wide processes such as financial planning. The finance organization at the University of Central...
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Planning,
Human Capital Management,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
Budgeting,
driver-based,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Financial Performance Management,
Integrated Business Planning
Business software is beginning to undergo a design revolution comparable to the seismic shift from the green screen to the graphical user interface (GUI) that began in the mid-1980s. Three forces are at work. One is the retirement of large numbers of members of the baby-boom generation and the rise of a generation that grew up with computers and computer games from a young age. Also, software and technology vendors have been recognizing the need to “consumerize” business applications as mobile...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
Salesforce.com,
Supply Chain Performance,
OpenWorld,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Oracle,
Workforce Performance,
Dreamforce,
finance,
Tidemark,
Business,
design,
development,
GUI
Businesses need to simplify HR and compliance processes to save time and reduce risk. Talx, which helps employers address concerns in hiring, pay and compliance, has now assumed the name of its parent company and become Equifax Workforce Solutions [PDF]. HR and finance professionals should recognize the parent company’s brand from its work in the consumer credit industry. The company hopes these professionals will see that Equifax Workforce Solutions offers a better approach to governance, risk...
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Topics:
Equifax,
eThority,
GRC,
I9,
Office of Finance,
Operational Performance,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
Compensation,
compliance,
finance,
Hiring,
HR,
TALX,
Workforce Solutions
Effective planning has always been a challenge for companies, and it’s all the more so today. Even when companies deploy dedicated planning applications, they often do not or cannot use them to full advantage. I had a chance to learn more about 3M Corp. use of business planning in our recent 2012 Leadership Awards, who is the diversified global manufacturer of consumer and industrial products, several years ago acquired a dedicated planning application, but because the system could not scale to...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Human Capital Management,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
Budgeting,
driver-based,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Financial Performance Management,
Integrated Business Planning
We recently completed our benchmark research on next-generation business intelligence. Ventana Research looks as next-generation BI as a function of traditional BI that is converging with new technologies such as mobility, collaboration and cloud computing. Just a few years ago business intelligence might have been considered a mature category with incremental growth, but now it’s growing in new directions and it’s difficult today to call business intelligence mature.
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Topics:
Mobile,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Collaboration,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance
IBM Watson blends existing and innovative technology into a new approach called cognitive computing. At the simplest operational level it is technology for asking natural language-based questions, getting answers and support appropriate action to be taken or provide information to make more informed decisions. The technology relies on massive processing power to yield probabilistic responses to user questions using sophisticated analytical algorithms. A cognitive system like Watson accesses...
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Topics:
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Machine Learning,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
IBM,
Information Management,
Workforce Performance,
Cognitive Computing,
Expert Systems,
IBM Watson
Earlier this year we published our Trends in Developing the Fast, Clean Close benchmark research findings. The most significant was that, on average, it takes longer for companies to close their books today than it did five years ago. In 2007, nearly half (47%) we closing their quarters within five or six days, but now only 38 percent can do it as quickly.
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
close,
closing,
Consolidation,
Controller,
effectiveness,
XBRL,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
CFO,
Data,
Document Management,
Financial Performance Management,
FPM
Big data was big news in 2012 and probably in 2013 too. The Harvard Business Review talks about it as The Management Revolution. The Wall Street Journal says Meet the New Boss: Big Data, and Big Data is on the Rise, Bringing Big Questions. Given big data’s popularity in the press, you might think that the technology market is only about big data and how companies use the vast and growing amount of data now available to organizations. While this technology can provide a significant opportunity,...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Data Warehousing,
Predictive Analytics,
Social Media,
Harvard Business Review,
Wall Street Journal,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Management,
Technology Innovation,
Strata+Hadoop
I recently started a series of blog posts on what CEOs (and for that matter, all senior corporate executives) need to know about IT. The first covered the high-level issues. As I noted there, it’s not necessary for a CEO of a company to be able to write Java code or master the intricacies of an ERP or sales compensation application. However, CEOs must grasp the basics of IT just as they must understand basic corporate finance, the production process and – at least at a high level – the...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Mobile,
SaaS,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Customer,
ERP,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Complex Event Processing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
In-memory,
Information Management,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
CEO,
PaaS
I’ve been examining how corporations plan and budget for more than decade. One clear pattern that has emerged is the difficulty that using desktop spreadsheets imposes on the process. Ventana Research recently published findings from our trends in business planning benchmark research, and the research once again confirms this observation. It shows that companies that use dedicated applications are consistently more satisfied (and much less dissatisfied) with the software they use than users of...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
Budgeting,
driver-based,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Financial Performance Management,
Integrated Business Planning
Many people enjoy mystery stories or crime thrillers; in the same vein of savoring the whodunnit and howdunnit, I like a good accounting scandal. My fascination with cooking the books started when I was young with the “great salad oil swindle”, which wound up causing losses in excess of $1 billion in today’s money and even threatened a Wall Street collapse. This disaster was averted by the assassination of President Kennedy, which kept markets closed on Monday, November 25, 1963, and gave the...
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Topics:
Fraud,
Governance,
GRC,
Office of Finance,
audit,
IFRS,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Hewlett Packard,
Meg Whitman,
SEC
Business analytics has become the highest ranked technology innovation, according to our benchmark research on business technology innovation, but a lack of trained resources and inefficient technology have hampered the best of organizations when they attempt to roll out analytics. Our benchmark research on business analytics in 2012 found that the majority of analysts in organizations spend more of their time on data-related activities than on analytic tasks, and our 2013 research on business...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Narrative Science,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Workforce Performance,
Expert Systems,
Digital Technology
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Twitter,
Workforce Performance,
CMO,
COO,
Industry Analyst,
Technology Vendors
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
SAP,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Peoplefluent,
Planview,
Research,
Splunk,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
IBM,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
Ceridian,
CFO,
CMO,
COO,
Datawatch,
Saba,
Technology
The business/IT divide is a barrier that prevents most companies from achieving their true performance potential. The divide has remained a constant impediment since the dawn of business computing six decades ago. It’s not necessary for a CEO of a company to be able to write Java code or master the intricacies of an ERP or sales compensation application. However, that CEO must master the basics of IT just as he must understand basic corporate finance, the production process and – at least at a...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Human Capital Management,
competition,
executive,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
In-memory,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
IT,
CEO,
FPM
Mobile technology continues to advance weekly, with new software releases and new versions of devices. Though it has been in the headlines frequently in recent weeks, can Microsoft really change the mobile technology dynamics in the business world?
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Topics:
Microsoft,
Sales Performance,
Google,
Microsoft Windows Phone,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Workforce Performance,
Digital Technology
People have been complaining about the budgeting and planning processes in their organizations for decades. If you’re old enough, you may recall President Carter’s failed attempt to use something called zero-based budgeting to impose discipline in federal outlays. (In his first year in office the federal government reported a whopping $54 billion deficit.) Some complaining is almost inevitable, but some reflects the one-way nature of the process. People spend time on creating a budget and don’t...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
Budgeting,
driver-based,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Financial Performance Management,
Integrated Business Planning
Organizations engage in a range of forward-looking activities. Sales organizations have pipelines to forecast sales. Manufacturing organizations set and reset demand plans and near-term production schedules, often in response to longer-term production plans that determine what they will make and where and how they will make it. Logistics people plan inbound and outbound shipments. Marketing departments plan advertising and promotion campaigns. HR departments project staffing requirements and...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
Budgeting,
driver-based,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Financial Performance Management,
Integrated Business Planning
The idea of devising and using maturity assessments to improve business performance has been a staple of management, functional and strategic consultants for decades. It’s based on two unassailable principles. One is the general assertion that companies differ in their ability to do anything along a range from nonexistent to advanced. The second is that at any time it’s possible for a knowledgeable individual to construct a scale of competence for some business function from least to most...
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Topics:
Performance Management,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Customer Experience,
Governance,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
benchmark,
FPM
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Topics:
discovery tools,
exploratory analytics,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Operational Intelligence,
Cognos,
cognos enterprise,
cognos express,
cognos insight
Ventana Research has just released the 2012 Value Index for Business Intelligence, in which we evaluate the competency and maturity of vendors and products. Our firm has been researching this software category for almost a decade. Our latest benchmark research in business intelligence found that new technology advancements in business intelligence are critical to its future; more than two-thirds of organizations will use BI on mobile technology in the next year, and more than a fifth will do so...
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Topics:
Microsoft,
MicroStrategy,
Pentaho,
QlikView,
Sales Performance,
SAP,
SAS,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
IT Performance,
Jaspersoft,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
IBM,
InetSoft,
Information Applications,
Information Builders,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Oracle,
Tibco,
Workforce Performance,
arcplan,
LogiXML,
Spago Solutions
SAP has inaugurated a new series of business applications it calls Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) OnDemand as a cloud-based subscription service. The applications are part of SAP’s EPM version 10 suite, which it introduced last year. It’s a first step in what is likely to be a portfolio of general-purpose, lightweight and relatively low-cost apps designed to be used on mobile devices. Using HANA on the back end, the applications can deliver high performance in accessing masses of...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Sales Performance,
SAP,
Supply Chain Performance,
Office of Finance,
expense,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Business Applications,
FPM,
HANA
There weren’t any headlines (or even many tweets) about Oracle Fusion Financials emanating from this year’s Oracle OpenWorld (#OOW12) conference. Maybe that’s by design, because it’s not in Oracle’s best interest to kick up a lot of dust about ERP migration. The financial applications software market is mature, and market share leaders such as Oracle have less interest in getting customers to upgrade than they did a decade ago. For a software vendor with a large installed base, cashing rich...
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Topics:
Performance Management,
ERP,
Office of Finance,
financial,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Oracle,
Workday,
JD Edwards,
PeopleSoft
This week I’m at the 2012 HR Technology Conference (Twitter: #HRTechConf) where the scene is more than cool – it is hip. In the past several years technology for human resources – now more often called human capital management – has transformed from administrative software to applications anyone in the workforce can use to access information about their company, job, goals, performance, pay, benefits and even what they can do to advance in the organization. HR technology is embracing the six...
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Topics:
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Human Capital Management,
Mobile Technology,
Social Collaboration,
Operational Performance,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
HR,
Talent Management
Unless you have some combination of a very strong credit rating, a high income-to-debt payment ratio and a relatively low loan-to-value ratio, it’s not especially easy to refinance a mortgage these days. That’s a shame, because there are plenty of people who have stayed current in meeting their credit obligations and whose mortgages are comfortably below current market value who could benefit from today’s record low interest rates. One major reason they can’t refinance is the collapse of...
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
XBRL,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
finance,
capital markets
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Market Research,
Research,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
CMO,
Industry Analyst,
Influencers,
Technology Vendors
Salesforce.com’s recent Dreamforce user conference got me wondering about how far the market for cloud-based software has come. To answer that question, I looked to our own research. For the past several years Ventana Research has routinely asked participants in its benchmark research what preference, if any, they have for deploying software they use to support the activity we are benchmarking. The choices we offer are on-premises, software as a service (SaaS – that is, in the cloud), hosted on...
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Topics:
SaaS,
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Salesforce.com,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Software
Two key themes that emerged from Larry Ellison’s Sunday night keynote at this year’s Oracle OpenWorld were faster processing speed and cheaper storage. An underlying purpose to these themes was to assert the importance of Oracle’s strategic vertical integration of hardware and software with the acquisitions of Sun. I try to view technology keynotes like this from the perspective of a practical business user. Advancements such of these are important because enhancing the performance and...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Customer Experience,
executive,
IT Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Data Management,
Financial Performance,
In-Memory Computing,
Information Management,
Business Process Management,
Data,
FPM
Informatica is a Hot vendor when it comes to our Value Index for Data Integration. When it comes to meeting the business need for consistent and high-quality product information, Informatica just raised its prospects with its announced takeover of Heiler Software. Until now, Informatica has lacked a product information management (PIM) offering. Germany-based Heiler Software, whose presence has continued to grow in Europe and North America, was recently ranked as a Hot Vendor in our Value Index...
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Topics:
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
MDM,
PIM,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Customer & Contact Center,
Data Governance,
Financial Performance,
Information Management,
Product Information Management
Effective capital planning and capital investment are vital to a company’s long-term success. The choices a company makes – how much to invest and in which facilities or projects – have a profound effect on its long-term success. For that reason, companies take pains to ensure that these decisions support their long-term strategies and are made as rationally as possible. Because Ventana Research is frequently involved in software acquisition discussions, return on investment is a topic we...
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Topics:
Planning,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
finance,
capital budget,
capital spending,
FPM
Exactly what is the relationship between workforce analytics and big data? Most of the use cases for big data seem to revolve around marketing, social media and customer service initiatives where unstructured data sources reveal big value. Our research into big data analytics suggests a prime benefit of big data is in the ability to retain and analyze larger amounts of data and to increase the speed of analysis. However, workforce analytics does not suffer from an overwhelming amount of data,...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Human Capital Management,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance
I was at the Salesforce.com Dreamforce conference this week to hear about the latest advancements from the cloud computing software giant. Salesforce has helped revolutionize cloud computing for business, and its social media and collaborative technologies help advance business processes in sales, customer service and improve the interactions between employees, partners and customers. Salesforce has made great advancements in cloud, social and mobile technology, as I have assessed and my...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Predictive Analytics,
QlikView,
Sales Performance,
Salesforce.com,
Social Media,
Gooddata,
SnapLogic,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
InetSoft,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
KXEN,
Operational Intelligence,
Cloud9 Analytics,
Domo,
Information Builder iway,
Roambi
I cover the meat-and-potatoes aspects of corporate computing. I also pay attention to the special needs of midsize companies (by our definition, those with between 100 and 999 employees), which are unlike those of either small business or large corporations. After attending this year’s Dreamforce conference, Salesforce.com’s annual user meeting held this week in San Francisco, I can appreciate how difficult it is for executives and people who work in back office functions to cut through the...
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Topics:
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Salesforce.com,
Social Media,
ERP,
Office of Finance,
CRM customer service,
SMB,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Dreamforce,
finance,
Security,
FPM
The annual Salesforce.com Dreamforce conference (Twitter: #DF12), just underway, may be the largest software conference ever, with attendance, physically and on the Internet, expected to be 90,000. Certainly, as one of the largest software events of 2012, this conference will be heavily covered via social media, while under the roof of the Moscone Center and surrounding hotels Salesforce will be demonstrating the power of using social media concepts in the enterprise and combining those...
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Topics:
Sales Performance,
Salesforce.com,
Supply Chain Performance,
Research,
SFDC,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
Dreamforce
I attended Taleo World to see how well Oracle is integrating Taleo after acquiring the company in 2012. I assessed the announcement by Oracle earlier this year; it was clear then that Oracle needed to make this acquisition to boost its cloud computing and talent management efforts. In the three-hour keynote session, a business overview and software demonstrations indicated what Oracle has in store for the applications and how it plans to fuse its applications and technology to add value to...
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Topics:
Social Media,
Human Capital Management,
Recruiting,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Oracle,
Workforce Performance,
HireVue,
Hiring,
HR,
JobVite,
Talemetry,
Taleo
Ventana Research has just released the 2012 Value Index for Data Integration, in which we evaluate the competency and maturity of vendors and products. Our firm has been researching this software category for almost a decade. Our latest benchmark research in information management found that data integration is a critical component of information management strategies, according to 55 percent of organizations. Our benchmark research on organizations using this software not only uncovers best...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Master Data Management,
Microsoft,
Pentaho,
Sales Performance,
SAP,
SAS,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Talend,
SnapLogic,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Data Governance,
Data Integration,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
IBM,
Informatica,
Information Applications,
Information Builders,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Oracle,
Workforce Performance,
Syncsort
Budget season is about to open at most companies that operate on a calendar year, so this is probably as good a time as any to rethink the process. Almost all companies will undertake the construction of a budget this year the same way they did it last year, despite widespread complaints that it is a monumental waste of time. One major reason why budgeting never changes is that it isn’t important enough to be worth serious rethinking. Another reason is that too many vested interests are aligned...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
Budgeting,
Controller,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
CFO,
Compensation,
cash management,
FPM,
Integrated Business Planning
If you’re considering purchasing a financial performance management (FPM) suite, you shouldn’t overlook a recent entrant in the category, Tagetik (which sort of rhymes with “magnetic”). The company, which was founded in 1986 and is based in Lucca, Italy, began by focusing mainly on Europe, but has extended its efforts in the United States in the past two years. Tagetik 4.0 is an elegant implementation of a financial performance management suite running on Microsoft’s SharePoint infrastructure.
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Topics:
Big Data,
Planning,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
Budgeting,
close,
Consolidation,
Controller,
SharePoint,
XBRL,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Dashboards,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
Tagetik,
FPM
I had a refreshing call this morning with a vendor that did not revolve around integration of systems, types of data, and the intricacies of NoSQL approaches. Instead, the discussion was about how its business users analyze an important and complex problem and how the company’s software enables that analysis. The topic of big data never came up, and it was not needed, because the conversation was business-driven and issue-specific.
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Topics:
Big Data,
Datameer,
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Planview,
SuccessFactors,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
IBM,
Information Management,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
PivotLink
One of the community groups to which I donate my time is an organization that puts on a Concours d’Élegance – a vintage car show. Such Concours date back to seventeenth-century France, when wealthy aristocrats gathered to see who had the best carriages and most beaudacious horses. Our Concours serves as the centerpiece to a broader mission of raising money for several charities. There a many such events in the United States and elsewhere, but this one, which has been held every year since 1956,...
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Topics:
Big Data,
GRC,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Financial Performance,
Information Management,
Operational Intelligence,
CFO,
finance,
Talent Management,
FPM
IBM has announced its intention to acquire Kenexa as part of IBM Smarter Workforce initiative and social business software division. It’s a billion-dollar-plus investment to bolster IBM’s social business and give the company more depth in the human capital management software market that comprises human resources, talent management and workforce management. A lot of surface-level analysis I’ve seen on this announcement is not worth reading, but the deeper review below may help Kenexa and IBM...
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Topics:
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Human Capital Management,
Kenexa,
Recruiting,
Operational Performance,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
IBM,
Workforce Performance,
Talent Management
Our research consistently finds that defects in data are the root cause of a wide range of problems encountered by modern corporations. The magnitude of the problem correlates with the size of the company: Big companies have bigger headaches than midsize ones. Data issues diminish productivity in every part of a business as people struggle to correct errors or find workarounds. Issues with data are a man-made phenomenon, yet companies seem to treat bad data as some sort of force of nature like...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
GRC,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Management,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
finance,
FPM
Midsize businesses “pay” for their use of entry-level accounting systems by not having the essential information they need readily available and by using up valuable time that could be better spent generating business, finding issues or responding to opportunities sooner or simply enhancing the efficiency of the organization. Nevertheless, the transition from an entry-level accounting package such as QuickBooks to an on-premises system can be daunting for companies whose entry-level software no...
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Topics:
Sales Performance,
Customer Experience,
ERP,
Office of Finance,
end-to-end,
finance cloud,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Business Process Management,
CFO,
finance,
accounting software,
business process execution,
financial systems,
FPM
In my last rant, on business analytics and the pathetic state of dashboards, I pointed out significant flaws in business intelligence software created by technology providers and in how it is being deployed by business and IT. Now I want to follow up with some insight on disconnects to a critical asset that is essential to the success of business analytics. I mean key performance indicators (KPIs), a term used in inaccurate ways that have diminished the value of the concept for business.
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Topics:
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Sustainability,
KPI,
IT Performance,
Key Performance Indicators,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance
Over the last several months, my colleague VP and Research Director Tony Cosentino and I have been assessing vendors and products in the business intelligence market as part of our upcoming Value Index. Tony recently wrote about the swirling world of business analytics, covering many of the dynamics of this industry. He and I have been reviewing the breadth and depth of over 15 of these vendors using our Value Index methodology, which examines the products closely in terms of usability,...
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Topics:
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Dashboards,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
Expert Systems
For the past several years Ventana Research has focused more on analytics and their importance to improving business performance. We’ve done extensive benchmark research in business analytics, detailing how they are used generally in business and in major functional areas of companies as well as their application in specific industries. We adopted this focus because technology advances are changing the landscape of analytics. Its use in business management, for example, is getting new scrutiny...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Human Capital Management,
Modeling,
Office of Finance,
Budgeting,
driver-based,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
In-memory,
Workforce Performance,
best pracices,
business value,
cash management,
challenge,
financial planning
In this second in a blog series on business analytics I focus on the increasingly important area of predictive analytics. Our benchmark research into predictive analytics shows that while the vast majority of companies see this technology as important or very important for the future of their organizations, most are not taking full advantage of it. This finding suggests that there is an opportunity for companies to gain competitive advantage by implementing predictive analytics in the near term.
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Topics:
Big Data,
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance
People used to use the phrase “the last mile” solely to refer to a condemned prisoner’s path to execution. Then the telecommunications industry picked it up to describe that part of a circuit between a major trunk line and a subscriber. Later still a defunct software company, Movaris (now part of Trintech), used the phrase in an analogy to refer to the set of activities that take place between when a company closes its books and the point where it finishes its external reporting activities,...
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Topics:
Customer Experience,
Governance,
GRC,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
audit,
close,
Consolidation,
Controller,
XBRL,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
CFO,
compliance,
FPM,
SEC
When it comes to managing product information, organizations know they have room for improvement; only 27 percent trust their efforts completely, and less than a fifth (19%) are very satisfied with them. Almost half (48%) say they have too many incompatible tools, while 41 percent do not have a centralized information repository and 45 percent use a manual process to create a single complete, consistent and reliable product record. All of these facts and more from our product information...
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Topics:
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
MDM,
PIM,
Operational Performance,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Management (IM),
Product Information Management
When it comes to the task of managing performance, many organizations still find themselves fixated on the past rather than planning for improvement in the future. When performance management processes operate efficiently, technology to support activities such as modeling and analytics can optimize outcomes and help align them to targeted goals and objectives. This might seem trivial or easily done, but the reality is that most organizations lack a unified platform that anyone in the enterprise...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Planning,
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC)
What does it cost to run an IT department? That’s an easy question to answer, but for most companies, why it costs that amount is not. IT departments often complain that most of their budget is devoted to funding daily operations and basic maintenance (“keeping the lights on”), but often, one big overlooked problem is the chargeback process that most companies use to assign IT department operating costs.
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Topics:
Sales,
Office of Finance,
Budgeting,
chargebacks,
Operational Performance,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
IT cost
Our benchmark research on business analytics suggests that it is counterproductive to take a general approach to the topic. A better approach is to focus on particular use cases and lines of business (LOB). For this reason, in a series of upcoming articles, I will look at our business analytics research in the context of different industries and different functional areas of an organization, and illustrate how analytics are being applied to solve real business problems.
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Topics:
Big Data,
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance
Our recent benchmark research on information management uncovered some startling facts about the level of technology adoption necessary for efficient information-centric organizations. Chief information officers (CIO) are responsible for the availability of information to their businesses in a consistent and timely basis, but in most organizations, information management is seen as just a delegated set of tasks and is not the CIO’s top priority. This unfortunate outlook can have a lasting...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Customer & Contact Center,
Data Management,
Financial Performance,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Data,
IT
For several years the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has mandated that filers apply eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) tags to their financial statements. XBRL was developed to make it easier for investors to use a company’s financial information. Now XBRL US has kicked off its second annual XBRL Challenge, a contest designed to encourage development of open source analytical tools that can use XBRL-formatted corporate financial data from the SEC’s EDGAR database....
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
closing,
XBRL,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Information Management,
finance,
Financial Performance Management,
SEC
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Topics:
Master Data Management,
Sales,
Sales Performance,
SAP,
Supply Chain Performance,
Enterworks,
Hybris,
Stibo Systems,
Webon,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Data Governance,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
IBM,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Oracle,
Heiler,
Product Information Management,
Riversand
Our research agenda for 2012 in human capital management outlined the importance of workforce management for all organizations. One provider, WorkForce Software, provides systems that support scheduling, time and attendance, leave and absence and fatigue management. As I noted in my last analysis on WorkForce Software, the company’s focus on the fatigue aspect of workforce management, especially in white-collar environments such as transportation, utilities and healthcare, has provided them...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
SAP,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Sustainability,
Human Capital Management,
SuccessFactors,
Business Technology Innovation,
IT Performance,
IT Research,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
HTML5,
Time & Attendance,
Workforce Management
Usually, just figuring out how to start the process of change is a major barrier to improvement in business. I think that’s especially true when it comes to integrated business planning (IBP). I started using that term six years ago to differentiate that process from financial budgeting and the many other forward-looking activities used in companies. IBP applies to a longstanding objective: bringing together the disparate strands of forward-looking activities across a corporation to foster...
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Topics:
Big Data,
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
Budgeting,
driver-based,
Operational Performance,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Financial Performance Management,
Integrated Business Planning