Cloudera’s recent Hadoop World 2011 event confirmed that the world of big data is getting even bigger. As I wrote of last year’s event, Hadoop, the open source large-scale data processing technology, has gone mainstream. And while 75% of the audience attended this year for the first time and so may not have realized the breadth of Hadoop’s acceptance, statistics announced in the opening keynote show widespread use of it. Mike Olson, Cloudera CEO, reported that the event was sold out, with 1,400...
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Datameer,
MapR,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloudera,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Hortonworks,
Informatica HParser,
Karmasphere,
NetApp,
Workforce Performance,
Strata+Hadoop
At its 2011 KronosWorks annual user conference, the workforce management application provider advanced its agenda with the introduction of new applications to further its global presence. From my visit, and from looking back at my analysis of its 2010conference, it seems the company’s focus is to simplify management of an hourly workforce.
Read More
Topics:
Human Capital Management,
Kronos,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
HRMS,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics,
Workforce Management
Read More
Topics:
SAP,
Human Capital Management,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Oracle,
Workforce Performance,
HRMS,
Infor,
SumTotal Systems,
Talent Management,
Workday,
Workforce Analytics,
Workforce Management
As Workday continues to expand and the likelihood of its IPO becomes a more frequent topic of discussion, so does the movement of ERP systems to the cloud. Thus far, only a minority of companies have chosen to put their ERP and accounting systems in the cloud, but the numbers are growing and there’s evidence of success. NetSuite, for example, reported a 26 percent increase in its revenues to $145 million in the nine months up to Sept. 30, 2011. To be sure, this is not close to Salesforce.com’s...
Read More
Topics:
Microsoft,
Sales,
Supply Chain Performance,
ERP,
NetSuite,
Office of Finance,
Dynamics,
Epicor,
Lawson,
QAD,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
IBM,
Oracle,
Workforce Performance,
Infor,
financial software,
Intacct,
PeopleSoft,
Software
At first thought, it seems as if having a mountain of cash to manage is a problem most companies would like to have, but it’s a real problem nevertheless. To be sure, the large majority of companies are able to deal with their cash and short-term and longer-term monetary investments because the amounts are small enough to be manageable. Indeed, many companies, especially smaller ones, face the opposite problem and spend more time focused on their uncertain funding requirements. Still, over the...
Read More
Topics:
Performance Management,
Office of Finance,
credit,
Tax,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Risk,
cash management,
GAAP
IBM’s Information on Demand (IOD) event showcased its products for both information management and business intelligence. I’ve covered the information management aspects of IOD in a separate post. In this post I’ll look at the business intelligence aspects. Earlier this year IBM made predictive analytics a major focus of its Business Analytics analyst summit, an event that often foreshadows the IOD messages. In addition to predictive analytics, IBM emphasized both large-scale “big” data and a...
Read More
Topics:
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance
IBM made more than two dozen announcements in conjunction with its recent Information on Demand (IOD) event. In this post I’ll address the impact of IOD from an information management perspective and in a separate post shortly from an analytics perspective. Trying to organize the mass of information IBM brought forth at IOD 2011, I group the announcements into three general categories of enhancements and extensions to InfoSphere, big data (which is technically part of InfoSphere) and databases.
Read More
Topics:
Predictive Analytics,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance
Host Analytics is taking advantage of one of the inherent advantages that vendors of software as a service (SaaS) have compared to on-premises ones: It’s easier for them to offer their customers data services and shared data repositories. The company’s Decision Hub has been available since last summer. Although it doesn’t break new ground, it is a solid offering of this type and its value should be considered in any evaluation of Host’s offering.
Read More
Topics:
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Reporting,
Budgeting,
closing,
Consolidation,
Host Analytics,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Data,
benchmark,
Decision Hub,
Financial Performance Management,
SEC
Informatica recently introduced HParser, an expansion of its capabilities for working with Hadoop data sources. Beginning with Version 9.1, introduced earlier this year, Informatica’s flagship product has been able to access data stored in HDFS as either a source or a target for information management processes. However, it could not manipulate or transform the data within the Hadoop environment. With this announcement, Informatica starts to bring its data transformation capabilities to Hadoop.
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
MapReduce,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Data Integration,
Financial Performance,
Information Management,
Workforce Performance,
Strata+Hadoop
As Workday held its annual Workday Rising conference this week, it’s a good time to note the accomplishments of the company and to provide a fair and balanced coverage that has yet to be spoken by my industry peers for some reason. Co-founder and co-CEO David Duffield, who founded PeopleSoft, champions a set of core values in its culture and leads a workforce that has built a new generation of ERP applications for deployment in the cloud computing environment. The suite brings together human...
Read More
Topics:
SAP,
Human Capital Management,
Kronos,
NetSuite,
Recruiting,
Zuora,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Oracle,
Workforce Performance,
Cornerstone OnDemand,
Digital Interviewing,
Hiring,
HRMS,
Saba,
SumTotal Systems,
Talent Management,
Taleo,
Tidemark,
Workday,
Workforce Analytics
As its name suggests, demand-based pricing is a method that uses the buyer’s demand, based on an estimate of a good’s or service’s perceived value to the buyer, as the central element in setting price. Pricing strategies are most important because they can have a disproportionate impact (positive and negative) on a company’s bottom line. Managing prices has always been an activity of keen interest, but it has become even more so over the past decade as a result of the constrained pricing...
Read More
Topics:
Performance Management,
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Human Capital Management,
Office of Finance,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Price Optimization,
Profitability,
Software
QlikTech recently introduced QlikView 11, the latest version of its business intelligence (BI) software, which emphasizes new collaboration features as well as enhancements to its user interface. In an about-face, though, in its approach to mobile access, the company has moved away from its native iPad application to a browser-based app using HTML5 technology.
Read More
Topics:
Mobile,
QlikView,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Collaboration,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Digital Technology
I recently attended Kinaxis’ users’ group meeting and learned some interesting things. The company, which has been around since 1995, provides software for large corporations with complex supply chains. Over the past decade its product has evolved well past its roots as a material requirements planning (MRP) support tool. It is now an analytics suite that facilitates supply and demand planning, analysis and optimization with a focus on sales and operations planning (S&OP). This is a discipline...
Read More
Topics:
Planning,
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Office of Finance,
Budgeting,
Kinaxis,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Supply Chain,
demand management,
Integrated Business Planning,
S&OP
In today’s economy, all companies are contending with a dynamic business environment characterized by volatile commodity prices and exchange rates, a shaky global financial system and slow growth in many countries. Many of them rely heavily on desktop spreadsheets to support the data collection and analysis related to their capital-asset planning. However, spreadsheets have inherent limitations that make them the wrong choice.
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Planning,
SAP,
Office of Finance,
Planview,
Budgeting,
contingency,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
IBM,
Oracle,
agile,
capital spending
In a move that may indicate the beginning of a new wave of activity in the business intelligence (BI) market, Oracle has announced its intention to acquire Endeca. Founded in 1999, Endeca originally focused on search capabilities for online commerce. Users selected a product attribute, and the software automatically revised the remaining selection criteria based on products matching the previous selection. We have been covering Endeca as part of the BI and information applications marketing....
Read More
Topics:
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Applications,
Workforce Performance
Attendees at the SuccessFactors Insights conference and those of us on Twitter socializing with the Insights11 hashtag in San Diego this week was designed for Plateau customers who came to the final conference that was scheduled prior to its acquisition by SuccessFactors. The conference provided educational and customer content in an agenda focused on developments in the previous Plateau learning management system (LMS) and new products that SuccessFactors is integrating with it. SuccessFactors...
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Human Capital Management,
Learning Management System,
Recruiting,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Digital Interviewing,
Hiring,
HRMS,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics
A vendor I have been tracking and got to examine at the recent HR Technology Conference has a tool to help businesses improve their talent management that I had profiled this company in my talent management guide for the event. HireVue’s Digital Interview Platform records interviews and enables hiring managers to review candidates’ responses to critical questions.
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Human Capital Management,
Recruiting,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Digital Interviewing,
Hiring,
HRMS,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Data Warehousing,
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Teradata,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Digital Technology
Oracle made several announcements at its recent Open World event demonstrates its strengths in the business computing market but also that it is standing on the shoulders of giants. The company has developed the expertise, processes and market share to scale out the ideas and innovations of others. Don’t get me wrong: That statement is not an indictment. Large organizations often have challenges with innovation. They are not as nimble as their smaller competitors. On the other hand, small...
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
NoSQL,
Oracle,
Workforce Performance,
Strata+Hadoop,
Digital Technology
I hadn’t thought about the exact definition of “driver-based planning” until the question came up in the context of our planning benchmark research showing that only 6% of companies with more than 100 employees do driver-based planning. Broadly defined, the term could be applied to the use of any spreadsheet-planning model because these almost always have built-in volume-times-price formulas, which are components of driver-based plans. However, this is not what most people have in mind when...
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Modeling,
Office of Finance,
Budgeting,
driver-based,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
best pracices,
business value,
cash management,
challenge,
financial planning
My colleague Mark Smith and I have frequently commented on the artificiality of the emerging software category governance, risk and compliance (GRC). To be sure, once stand-alone categories of software (IT governance, audit documentation and industry-specific compliance management, to name three examples) have started what I expect to be a long convergence process. Moreover, since just about all controls and risk management efforts require a secure IT environment to be effective, there is a...
Read More
Topics:
Customer Experience,
Governance,
GRC,
Office of Finance,
enterprise risk management,
ERM,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
compliance,
Risk,
controls,
IT governance
In the last year some software vendors have been developing a new generation of workforce analytics that leaves pie and bar charts behind in their dashboards and reports in favor of a more intuitive approach. One such company, Visier,is now demonstrating such a fresh approach, which exemplifies what business analytics in general and especially those used to optimize and understand the workforce should look like. I spent time at the HR Technology Conference and Expo in Las Vegas this week...
Read More
Topics:
Mobile,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Human Capital Management,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
HRMS,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics
About 30 years ago, perhaps on this very day, I was sitting in front of an Apple II working on a VisiCalc spreadsheet. At the time, I don’t think I even knew who Steve Jobs was. I wasn’t in the software industry yet. I was working for a public accounting firm. The Apple II sat in a corner of the office “typing pool.” For those of you who don’t know what a typing pool was, there was no swimming involved – it was a group of full-time employees with dedicated equipment who did all the typing and...
Read More
Topics:
Mobile,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Visualization,
Workforce Performance
Oracle unveiled its Social Network at Open World, but it seems most in the industry weren’t aware of it – or maybe Oracle does not want them to pay much attention to it. My synopsis is that Oracle Social Network is definitely a work in progress that, even by Oracle own yardsticks of marketing and accessibility, is not ready to for enterprise use.
Read More
Topics:
Mobile,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Oracle,
Workforce Performance
The assessment of a major focus of Oracle Open World by my colleague David Menninger sums up what I also see as the key strategic element of the event: the new appliance including that called Exalytics. My focus as an industry analyst is on the needs of the line-of-business user, not IT. And that’s the source of my ongoing frustration with this event: It’s not an application user’s conference, especially compared to the PeopleSoft and Hyperion annual gatherings of the past before Oracle...
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Hyperion,
Open World,
Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Oracle,
financials,
Fusion Applications
I did not go to Oracle OpenWorld this year because it seemed the company was fixated on appliances and technology with little emphasize on its Fusion applications business, which the focus on business is a major interest of our firm. Based on the reports of my colleagues on its applications discussion (See: “Apps Hard to Find at Oracle Open World“) and Oracle Exalytics (See: “Oracle Unveils BI Appliance Called Exalytics“) and my review of Oracle’s online materials and keynotes, I was right to...
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Mobile,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Hyperion,
Open World,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Oracle,
Workforce Performance,
financials,
Fusion Applications
I read a blog post by Ben Lamorte, VP of marketing and sales at Alight Planning who delivers business and financial planning applications, who askswhy financial reporting tools deliver no business value. This led me to think that there are more than a few ways to waste money buying software, but I want to focus on one of the most common ones: assuming that having a new application will automatically improve your business (or believing a vendor who tells you that it will).
Read More
Topics:
Planning,
Sales,
Reporting,
Budgeting,
Operational Performance,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance
The HR Technology Conference and Expo in Las Vegas that begins today will showcase an array of new business technology innovations for human capital management and talent management. The business technology to help human resources professionals is evolving dramatically, and this is a place for HR and workforce management professionals to find new methods that help increase productivity and optimize business outcomes. Early this year our firm defined five business technology innovations that...
Read More
Topics:
Mobile,
Performance Management,
Social Media,
Human Capital Management,
Metrics,
Recruiting,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics,
Digital Technology
The HR Technology Conference and Expo in Las Vegas that begins today will showcase an array of new applications for talent management. The array of applications and advancements to help human resources professionals is evolving dramatically, and this is a place for HR and workforce management professionals to find new methods that help increase productivity and optimize business outcomes. The five business technologyinnovations that will be vitally important in this decade for HR as well as...
Read More
Topics:
Mobile,
Performance Management,
Social Media,
Human Capital Management,
Metrics,
Recruiting,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics,
Digital Technology
The HR Technology Conference and Expo in Las Vegas that begins today will showcase an array of new applications for talent management. The array of applications and advancements to help human resources professionals is evolving dramatically, and this is a place for HR and workforce management professionals to find new methods that help increase productivity and optimize business outcomes. The five business technologyinnovations that will be vitally important in this decade for HR as well as...
Read More
Topics:
Mobile,
Performance Management,
Social Media,
Human Capital Management,
Metrics,
Recruiting,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics,
Digital Technology
Oracle kicked off its Open World 2011 conference with the announcement ofExalytics, a new data warehouse appliance specifically for business intelligence (BI). Three years ago when Oracle introduced the Exadata product line it was based on hardware from Hewlett-Packard. Since then it has acquired Sun Microsystems and replaced the HP components in Exadata, assuming complete control over the hardware and software included in the appliance. Oracle also introduced two other appliance products:...
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Exalytics,
Financial Performance,
Oracle,
Visualization,
Workforce Performance,
Digital Technology
Improving worker/manager collaboration becomes a top priority as organizations realize the impact of such collaboration on workforce productivity and profitability. One way to enhance that collaboration is to make tasks such as scheduling, time and attendance and task management accessible through smartphones and tablets. The management team at Dayforce has experience with workforce management applications and now into the next generation of collaboration and mobility. The company uses...
Read More
Topics:
Mobile,
Performance Management,
Social Media,
Human Capital Management,
Metrics,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
dayforce,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics,
Digital Technology
Retaining talent and managing financials related to compensation should be a top priority for the HR and finance functions of companies, and many of them realize this. In our recent benchmark research in total compensation management, 72 percent of participants said it’s important or very important to have a compensation system aligned to their processes. One newer provider to the market, Excentive, started in 2002 in Europe and expanded globally in 2009. Its Excentive Compensation Cockpit...
Read More
Topics:
Performance Management,
Sales Performance,
Human Capital Management,
Sales Compensation,
Sales Operations,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
Excentive,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics
This has been the year of the cloud for MicroStrategy. After ignoring early competition from cloud-based business intelligence (BI) providers, the company has jumped on the cloud BI bandwagon. At MicroStrategy Worldearly this year it announced a program called Cloud Intelligence and this summer introduced MicroStrategy Cloud, a complete BI platform with the option of using either IBM Netezza or ParAccel as the database and Informatica as the data integration environment. Now the company has...
Read More
Topics:
MicroStrategy,
SaaS,
Sales Performance,
Software as a Service,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Visualization,
Workforce Performance
PivotLink introduced version 5 of its Business Intelligence (BI) product, which it delivers in the cloud computing environment and available through software as a service (SaaS) at its user conference. Demonstrating one of the unique benefits of providing it a SaaS approach, PivotLink did not require any of the attendees to request a download, get a new license file or do any type of software upgrade to receive the new version. It had already been done for them. One purpose of the conference...
Read More
Topics:
Retail Analytics,
SaaS,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance
Sales proposals can determine whether a deal is booked or lost. In most organizations the process of creating and delivering a proposal is manual and one-off, with many potential places for mistakes. This lack of rigor and efficiency impairs many organizations’ ability to leverage their resources. Proposal Software helps sales organizations with an application called PMAPS that addresses sales management and operations.
Read More
Topics:
Mobile,
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Salesforce.com,
Social Media,
Marketing,
Sales Force Automation,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Collaboration,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
CMO,
CRM,
DF11,
Sales Performance Management,
SFA
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Data Warehousing,
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Karmasphere,
Workforce Performance,
Strata+Hadoop
Cloud computing has changed the fundamental economics of business software, bringing new capabilities within reach of large numbers of small and midsize companies for the first time. Cloud-based ERP, for example, enables many midsize companies that in the past might have continued to use an entry-level accounting package to have more capable and sophisticated systems. The investment in software and IT capabilities to implement an ERP system on-premises is considerable enough that midsize...
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
ConnectWise,
Consulting,
NetSuite OpenAi,
PlanMill,
ProjectHelp,
Projector,
PSA,
Unanet Technologies,
Operational Performance,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
FinancialForce,
Professional Services,
Professional Services Automation,
Project Management
A key component of workforce management software is to aid in scheduling and tracking time and attendance, streamlining interactions between managers and employees regarding these aspects of the job and promoting compliance with corporate and regulatory policies. WorkForce Software has been growing rapidly over the last decade while meeting these needs with an application suite that covers issues from leave management to case management. Its product helps businesses deal with overlapping...
Read More
Topics:
Performance Management,
Social Media,
Human Capital Management,
Metrics,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics
To retain talent, organizations must ensure that their workforce’s compensation is comparable to that of their industry peers. As part of this effort, they should integrate compensation reviews with goal and performance reviews to ensure employees are paid their fair market value; otherwise the best talent will become a flight risk. Many organizations understand this; in our performance management for talent management benchmark research, two-thirds said they want to integrate compensation with...
Read More
Topics:
Performance Management,
Social Media,
Human Capital Management,
Mercer,
Metrics,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics
I was reminded by a recent piece in InformationWeek about the need to manage the mounting cost of software more carefully that this issue never seems to become old news. I have read variations of it in IT trade publications for two decades now, reminding me of the quip attributed to Mark Twain: Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody ever seems to do anything about it. (Like many of Twain’s “quotes,” he wasn’t the author of this one either.) I believe that at the heart of this issue is a...
Read More
Topics:
assets,
Office of Finance,
Portfolio Management,
contract management,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Software
Alight has announced that it is partnering with Scope Systems to provide the mining industry with planning and financial reporting systems tailored for extraction companies. Scope creates ERP solutions for companies engaged in mining, drilling and natural resource exploration.
Read More
Topics:
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Office of Finance,
driver-based,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Integrated Business Planning,
Spreadsheets
At this year’s Taleo World conference in San Francisco, more than 1,600 Taleo customers learned about the company and its suite of talent management applications. A major theme of the conference was the company’s investment in mobility and social media and the intersection of those trends with collaboration tools.
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Social Media,
Human Capital Management,
Metrics,
Mobile Applications,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
Talent Management,
Taleo,
Workforce Analytics
As the third calendar quarter draws to an end, most companies will be preparing their financial close, which is part of the ongoing accounting cycle. Periodic closing is a core finance function. Since companies found they could substantially shorten their closing intervals with computer-based accounting systems in the 1990s, there has be an ongoing focus to keep shortening the time it takes to close, and for good reason. For companies that must file financial statements with investors, closing...
Read More
Topics:
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
closing,
Consolidation,
Fast close,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
benchmark,
Financial Performance Management,
financial reporting,
SEC
The globalization of business is having a profound impact on corporate taxation worldwide, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who covers international tax laws. The impacts on corporations operating in multiple national jurisdictions (which today, especially in Europe, includes a large number of midsize companies) are both positive and negative. Positive in the sense that corporate tax rates, tax benefits, reporting and other aspects of tax regulation are subject to competitive moves by countries...
Read More
Topics:
Office of Finance,
Tax,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
CFO
I recently participated in a panel discussion about the rise in the use of rolling forecasts in corporate planning. I’m not surprised by this trend; I have encouraged it. Ever since the financial crisis started three years ago, I’ve been writing that companies should rethink how they plan and budget to respond to increasing business volatility. Rolling forecasts are useful because they continually extend the formal planning horizon out more than a year rather than having it stop abruptly at the...
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Office of Finance,
Budgeting,
IBP,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
COO,
Integrated Business Planning
At the Dreamforce conference, Salesforce.com (NYSE:CRM) CEO Marc Benioff unveiled the latest evolution of the company’s strategy and supporting technology for cloud computing and mobile technologies. Its aim is to enable businesses to engage with customers and prospects via social media channels – what Salesforce calls the “social enterprise” – and empower employee and customer social networks to operate individually and together. Note I did not mention CRM, which doesn’t have a role in this...
Read More
Topics:
Mobile,
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Salesforce.com,
Social Media,
Marketing,
Sales Cloud,
Sales Force Automation,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Chatter,
Cloud Computing,
Collaboration,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
CMO,
CRM,
DF11,
Sales Performance Management,
Service Cloud,
SFA
IBM’s announced pending acquisition of Algorithmics is an important addition to the company’s portfolio of business applications aimed at financial services companies, and it is thematically consistent with its other acquisitions in risk management and analytics such as IBM’s OpenPages risk management documentation that I have already assessed. It’s also a good fit for IBM’s professional services organization, which has a significant position in the financial services industry.
Read More
Topics:
GRC,
Office of Finance,
Dodd-Frank,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
compliance,
capital adequacy,
financial regulation,
Financial Services
This year’s Dreamforce is likely include a focus on the value of moving a company’s accounting systems and related record management processes (for instance, invoicing and ordering) to the cloud. Salesforce.com’s annual conference is never short on hyperbole and promotion of everything cloud, which can be off-putting to staid finance department types (like me). And while some departments (notably Sales) have been quick to seize on the advantages of using the cloud, others (notably Finance) have...
Read More
Topics:
Office of Finance,
finance cloud,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
finance,
accounting software,
financial systems
Sales organizations strive to maximize the performance of their staffs to meet quotas and revenue targets in an efficient manner. This focus is part of my agenda to help organizations innovate and maximize revenue in sales. To achieve this requires automation of various sales activities including compensation, incentives, quota development, territory optimization, channel management, analytics and planning. Varicent is focused on these aspects of sales, offering software deployable in three...
Read More
Topics:
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Marketing,
Revenue Performance,
Sales Force Automation,
Sales Operations,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
CMO,
CRM,
Sales Performance Management,
SFA,
Varicent
Salesforce.com’s 2011 Dreamforce conference is under way. If you’re in sales and you use the company’s application, here’s how to gain the most value from your time at the conference.
Read More
Topics:
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Salesforce.com,
Social Media,
Marketing,
Marketo,
Merced Systems,
Qvidian,
Revenue Performance,
Sales Force Automation,
Sales Operations,
Zilliant,
Zyme Solutions,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Callidus Software,
Camelon Software,
CFO,
ChannelInsight,
Cloud9 Analytics,
CMO,
CRM,
Sales Performance Management,
SFA,
Varicent,
Vendavo,
Xactly
In addressing the needs of their sales and operations teams to automate and improve performance, many organizations turn to providers of sales applications designed for specific activities. Many of these activities, including sales compensation, incentives, commissions, quotas, territories and others, Xactly has been delivering for years. This company is no newcomer to the market, with significant experience in meeting the needs of small to midsize sales organizations, and more recently...
Read More
Topics:
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Marketing,
Revenue Performance,
Sales Force Automation,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
CMO,
CRM,
Sales Performance Management,
SFA,
Xactly
Looking to make your sales force more effective by automating its operations? Merced Systems can provide the traction your sales team needs. The company has been providing applications for more than a decade to customer service and more recently sales organizations, helping both measure and manage performance. Several years ago Merced Systems made a substantial investment to expand to the sales organization with new applications and now offers analytics and reporting, compensation and...
Read More
Topics:
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Marketing,
Merced Systems,
Revenue Performance,
Sales Compensation,
Sales Force Automation,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
CMO,
CRM,
Sales Performance Management,
SFA
If you want to hit the booking and revenue targets required to operate a business, you have to manage your sales forecast and pipeline. Optimally you should be able to monitor and act upon them any day of the week and make adjustments whenever you need to. Unfortunately, most organizations have to wait until they finish their manual efforts at the end of the month or quarter, or they miss critical changes in deals and behavior because they rely only on reporting from their sales force...
Read More
Topics:
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Salesforce.com,
Social Media,
Marketing,
Revenue Performance,
Sales Force Automation,
Sales Forecasting,
Sales Operations,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
Cloud9 Analytics,
CMO,
CRM,
Sales Performance Management,
SFA
The largest cloud computing conference, Dreamforce 2011, operated by Salesforce.com, is now upon us. This year attendance is estimated to be over 40,000, and there will be more technology- and developer-focused attendees and dialogue than marketing material. Unlike past years, I expect marketing professionals to be a small percentage of attendees, so I thought I would offer them a guide through the circus of activities at the conference.
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
Salesforce.com,
Social Media,
ExactTarget,
HubSpot,
Manticore Technology,
Marketing,
Marketing Automation,
Marketing Planning,
Marketo,
Pardot,
Revenue Performance,
Sales Force Automation,
Operational Performance,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
IBM,
CFO,
CMO,
CRM,
Demand Generation,
Eloqua,
SFA,
Unica,
Digital Technology
Qvidian entered the market for applications in sales performance management in 2011. The company, formed from the merger of The Sant Corp. and Kadient, has introduced a new suite of applications for proposals and playbooks that sales departments should examine if they’re looking to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. These applications are part of what we at Ventana Research call a sales performance management blueprint that helps optimize sales related activities and processes.
Read More
Topics:
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Marketing,
Revenue Performance,
Sales Force Automation,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
CMO,
CRM,
Sales Performance Management,
SFA
I recently got an update on mobile applications and strategy for smartphones from ADP, the $9 billion provider of applications and services in human resources, payroll and benefits. By acquiring and partnering with organizations, ADP has become the largest provider in this segment while focusing on providing added value and new offerings to its customers. For some companies, being such a large business human capital management and talent management software could inhibit its agility, but ADP...
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Human Capital Management,
Mobile Applications,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics,
Digital Technology
We cite collaboration as one of five key technology influences on the business intelligence (BI) market, and I get many questions about collaboration and BI from end users and vendors alike. The rise of social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter has raised awareness of collaborative platforms and created a critical mass of participants, which is a necessary ingredient for successful collaboration. However, I have to point out that consumer-oriented social media tools do not provide all...
Read More
Topics:
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Collaboration,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance
In preparation for conducting a benchmark research study on predictive analytics, I’ve been speaking with vendors in this market segment to gather background. One of them is Opera Solutions, which I was not familiar with despite having worked in predictive analytics for more than 10 years. I was surprised to learn the company claims to be generating $100 million in revenue annually. Founded in 2004, Opera provides predictive analytics as a service, employing a staff of approximately 150 data...
Read More
Topics:
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance
Just when it seemed that Hewlett-Packard’s new management team led by CEO Leo Apotheker had a growing and solidifying technology agenda that included mobile computing, yesterday it all changed.
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Sustainability,
Google,
Business Technology Innovation,
IT Performance,
IT Research,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Collaboration,
Customer & Contact Center,
Enterprise Software,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
HP,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Information Technology,
Location Intelligence,
Mobility,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
HP Touchpad,
Digital Technology
I recently attended Teradata’s Third-Party Influencers Meeting (Twitter Hashtag #TD3PI) in Las Vegas where the company updated industry analysts and consultants on upcoming product plans and the status of two product lines it added via acquisition in the past year. Randy Lea, Teradata’s VP of product management and marketing, provided a company overview recapping highlights and defining the corporate strategy building on its work in 2010 that my colleague assessed. Teradata focuses on three...
Read More
Topics:
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance
It is evident that business analytics is now a core business process in most organizations, but as our benchmark research on the topic shows, many have a lot of room to improve in how they use it. A dedicated provider of analytics tools, eThority continues to advance its technology to supply flexibility for the needs of a range of professionals from business management to analysts.
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Social Media,
Human Capital Management,
Metrics,
Mobile Applications,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics
Our recently completed benchmark research on how finance departments use analytics makes clear that while they have a distinct competence in this area and execute the basics well, a majority of companies are immature in their use of advanced finance analytics. Regardless of industry or geography, few finance departments use predictive analytics or delve into important areas such as strategic profitability management. This is of note because these undertakings are no longer difficult to pursue:...
Read More
Topics:
Predictive Analytics,
Office of Finance,
Finance Analytics,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
CFO
Hans Hoogervorst, who just succeeded Sir David Tweedie as the chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), recently said he is “optimistic the SEC will move to fully incorporate IFRS [International Financial Reporting Standards] shortly.” I find it hard to see why, unless one has a fairly elastic definition of “fully,” “incorporate” and “shortly” (or at least two out of three). Then again, one shouldn’t fault the head of an organization for expressing undue optimism since...
Read More
Topics:
Office of Finance,
Reporting,
Consolidation,
FASB,
IASB,
IFRS,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
GAAP,
SEC
SnapLogic, a cloud-based data integration vendor, has extended its product linewith new data quality capabilities. This is worth comment because SnapLogic sits at the intersection of two recent trends in information management.
Read More
Topics:
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Management,
Workforce Performance
Ventana Research recently completed groundbreaking benchmark research on how finance organizations use analytics these days. Of course, analytics have been a mainstay of finance organizations since people started using accounting ratios to assess the health and performance of a business. Yet perhaps because traditional analytics are so deeply entrenched, finance departments execute the basics well but don’t take the next step to fully utilize the power of information technology to use analytics...
Read More
Topics:
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
SAP,
SAS,
Office of Finance,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
IBM,
Oracle,
Cognos,
Financial Performance Management
I had the pleasure to drop into the 63rd annual conference of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in Las Vegas where over 18,000 human resources professionals came to learn, engage with peers and also enjoy a variety of entertainment. It was the definitely the place to be if you wanted to mix Hollywood with HR. From Sir Richard Branson in Sunday’s opener to music from Keith Urban to controversial political commentator Arianna Huffington and finally actor Michael J. Fox for the...
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Social Media,
Human Capital Management,
Metrics,
Mobile Applications,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics
Many companies have automated their sales and use tax processes to cut the effort required to execute them and to reduce the number of errors and their cost in dealing with a fiendishly complex set of rules and rates. This is one step in bringing tax into the mainstream of finance, which we advocate. Most people are familiar with sales tax; a “use tax” is a form of excise tax assessed on otherwise tax-free goods purchased by a resident of the assessing state regardless of where it was...
Read More
Topics:
Sales,
Office of Finance,
Tax,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance
I stopped into the Yahoo Hadoop Summit (Twitter: #HadoopSummit) to see how far the open source Hadoop technology has progressed. This open source community has been advancing for years with support from Internet titans like Yahoo, eBay and Facebook. Hadoop, as my colleague David Menninger has written, is now ready to play a large role as organizations try to cope with data on a large scale and solidify their information management agenda.
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Strata+Hadoop
For months the speculation was rampant, and now the rumors have proven to be true. Yahoo has officially announced that it will become a player in the emerging Hadoop market. Hadoop provides distributed computing capabilities that enable organizations to process very large amounts of data quickly. Backed by Yahoo and Benchmark Capital, a new entity called Hortonworks has formed around a team from Yahoo that consists of more than 20 key architects of and contributors to the Apache Hadoop project....
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Strata+Hadoop
This week the management of Peopleclick Authoria renamed the company PeopleFluent, reoriented its vision and launched a new suite of applications. This effort is intended to hone its focus on the intersecting aspects of talent management and respond to the increasing importance of mobility in this field. This move indicates the dynamic changes that are occurring as the software industry tries to meet the expectations of the next generation of workers and managers. PeopleFluent will rely on not...
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Social Media,
Human Capital Management,
Metrics,
Mobile Applications,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics
Two software applications I follow, price and revenue optimization (PRO) and sales compensation and incentives, can be highly complementary when used together. Unfortunately, since they typically are developed and sold by different kinds of software vendors, scant attention has been paid to the value of using them in tandem. I advise companies that have adopted a PRO strategy to use an incentive management application also to support and reinforce their optimization efforts. It is also part of...
Read More
Topics:
Predictive Analytics,
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Human Capital Management,
Office of Finance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Price Optimization,
Profitability
The recent buzz around business analytics has generated resurgent conversation about what businesses need from their data to optimize business processes and make better decisions. Our benchmark research on business analytics in more than 2,500 organizations produced unprecedented information about business and IT usage and competency with analytics. It confirmed that effective use of business analytics requires a balance of people and skills, processes, information and technology not just to...
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Sustainability,
Business Technology Innovation,
IT Performance,
IT Research,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Uncategorized,
Workforce Performance,
Business Planning,
CFO
InetSoft is a business intelligence vendor that is not well-known but has more than 3,000 customers. Why do you need to know about another BI vendor? As I’ve written in the past, there’s a place in this market for both the megavendors and smaller vendors. InetSoft, one of the latter, has developed a broad set of capabilities over the years that have resonated with its customers. It recently announced and brought to market a significant new release, Style Intelligence 11.
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
InetSoft,
Information Applications
As recently as two years ago, Pentaho was all about open source business intelligence. The company used an open source business model to build a base of more than 1,200 paying customers and establish more than 8,000 production deployments. It still has an open source business model, but the company has created a broad yet integrated product line that deserves to be evaluated on its features, not just its licensing scheme. This week Pentaho announced version 4.0 of its BI suite along with...
Read More
Topics:
Pentaho,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
OLAP,
Visualization,
Workforce Performance
At this year’s Information Builders Summit, the company’s annual conference for users and analysts (Twitter: #Summit2011) in Dallas, the long-time supplier of business intelligence and information management software showed how it has been able to sustain double-digit revenue growth thanks to highly accessible and scalable software that operates on a variety of platforms and data sources. Its recent expansion into information management, master data management and integration helps...
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Sustainability,
Google,
Playbook,
RIM,
Business Technology Innovation,
IT Performance,
IT Research,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Builders,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Mobility,
Operational Intelligence,
Uncategorized,
Workforce Performance,
Digital Technology
I recently attended IBM’s analyst summit on business analytics. Since last year’s event was largely a preview of Cognos 10, which was several years in the making, I wondered what this year’s event would be about. IBM focused much of the attention on predictive analytics, strengthened by its acquisition of SPSS. My colleague Robert Kugel covered another theme from the event in his post on Cognos Planning.
Read More
Topics:
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance
Predictive analytics can be valuable tools for performance management. When the term is applied to planning or forecasting, many people take it to mean the ability to automate plans or forecasts. It’s true that using predictive analytics correctly is likely to enhance their accuracy, but these techniques do not eliminate the need for judgment; in practice, many organizations may realize more value from applying predictive analytics to assess results than to forecast outcomes. Moreover, as...
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Planning,
Predictive Analytics,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Budgeting,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Management,
Workforce Performance,
Financial Performance Management,
Integrated Business Planning
I think one of best epigrams attributed to Mark Twain is, “Everyone talks about the weather but nobody ever does something about it.” This also has relevance to the situation with corporate planning and budgeting. Bemoaning its lack of value and calling for some sort of change goes back a long way, but few companies have matured their process. In the 1970s something called “zero-based budgeting” was all the rage in business and accounting periodicals. It was energetically advocated by President...
Read More
Topics:
Planning,
Predictive Analytics,
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Office of Finance,
Budgeting,
contingency planning,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
CFO,
finance,
Financial Performance Management,
Integrated Business Planning
Over the past six years big technology corporations have been acquiring all sorts of software companies, accelerating a general consolidation of the software industry since the dot-com boom ended in 2001. The consolidation has been driven in part by the deceleration of technology innovation in the business software market. Technology evolution, however, has been steady and progressed far enough now that I think we’re about to witness a revolution in how companies use analytics in business...
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Mobile,
Planning,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Budgeting,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
IBM,
In-memory,
Workforce Performance,
Cognos,
acquisition
At this year’s SAPPHIRE NOW conference (Twitter: #SAPPHIRENOW) SAP demonstrated its in-memory computing technology and applications. SAP’s High Performance Analytic Application (HANA), which I think of as a high-availability network appliance, is part of the technology industry movement to increase the performance and scalability across a range of applications, from analytics to transactions, to drive timely insights on data or real-time interactions across a business value chain that includes...
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
SAP,
Supply Chain Performance,
Sustainability,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Business Technology,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Information Technology,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
COO
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Sustainability,
Google,
Playbook,
RIM,
Smart Phones,
IT Performance,
IT Research,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Location Intelligence,
Mobility,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
Sybase. Mobile Industry,
Tablets,
Digital Technology
At SAP’s annual SAPPHIRE NOW conference (Twitter: #SAPPHIRENOW) this month, the company introduced a new portfolio of human capital management applications that will be available on many devices and added mobility options for users, including offerings for smartphones and tablets and cloud computing. This move beyond the traditional on-premises approach of SAP’s ERP Human Capital Management product suite is a critical step forward for SAP if it is to remain relevant for HR organizations.
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Sustainability,
Human Capital Management,
Metrics,
Mobile Applications,
Business Technology Innovation,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Management,
Workforce Performance,
data mart,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics
To maintain a productive workforce, businesses need to be able to put information in front of users at every level, from executives to front-line managers. Mobile technologies such as smartphones and tablets can provide analytics and business intelligence (BI), but so far this market niche has been dominated by publishing dashboards and reports that conform to the limits of mobile platforms. Analytics and BI software developers usually opt to publish charts and tables to Web pages on a...
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
SAP,
Supply Chain Performance,
Sustainability,
Google,
Smart Phones,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Mobility,
Workforce Performance,
Roambi,
Sybase. Mobile Industry,
Tablets,
Digital Technology
At the SAPPHIRE NOW conference this week, SAP released the production version of the cloud-based Sales OnDemand software that it unveiled earlier in the year. There has been a lot of the esoteric commentary of SAP Sales OnDemand from those that exclusively cover the IT industry. Unfortunately the majority of them have never worked in sales or held a quota that prevents a provide a deeper perspective on the relevance to the sales organization and what it can provide to existing SAP customers or...
Read More
Topics:
Sales,
Sales Performance,
SAP,
Sales Compensation,
Sales Force Automation,
Sales Forecasting,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
CRM,
Sales Performance Management,
SFA
Less than a week after attending ADP’s industry analyst day, I flew to Washington, D.C., to attend Mercer’s analyst forum, which gave me a chance to compare another human resources juggernaut. While ADP is known primarily for payroll and business process outsourcing, Mercer is known for HR consulting and benefits outsourcing. Mercer is not as big as ADP, with $3.5 billion in annual revenue and over 27,000 customers, most of which are large multinational and midmarket companies, servicing over...
Read More
Topics:
Performance Management,
Human Capital Management,
Metrics,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
data mart,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics,
Workforce Planning
Workforce planning is a business process that done right ensures an organization of suitable access to talent to ensure future business success. At a Mercer analyst summit I attended recently, which I wrote about in “Mercer Promotes Possibility of the New Empowered Workforce,” one of the sponsor execs kept challenging the HR industry analyst community to do more research on workforce planning, since her company and its customers are spending more time and money on just that.
Read More
Topics:
Performance Management,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Human Capital Management,
Metrics,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
data mart,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics,
Workforce Planning
At the SAPPHIRE NOW annual conference, (Twitter: #SAPPHIRENOW) the advantage of the mobile technology SAP gained through its acquisition of Sybase is becoming evident. In a blog before the conference I touched on the importance of mobility to the company’s future. From walking around, assessing keynotes and sessions and talking to companies using SAP, it seems that the big bet that SAP made on mobility is paying off.
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
SAP,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Google,
Smart Phones,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Mobility,
Workforce Performance,
Sybase. Mobile Industry,
Tablets,
Digital Technology
It is no easy task to change the culture of a global technology company, especially one that has a very demanding customer base with high expectations for advancing its widespread product lines. This is the challenge that SAP faces as it transitions from a company of three-letter-acronym collections of applications including CRM, SCM and ERP to one that focuses on specific business processes and needs. (My colleague recently discussed the problems in forklift migrations of ERP.) This transition...
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
SAP,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Sustainability,
Business Technology Innovation,
IT Performance,
IT Research,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Business Technology,
CIO,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Information Technology,
Location Intelligence,
Operational Intelligence,
Workforce Performance,
CFO,
COO
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Social Media,
Human Capital Management,
Metrics,
Mobile Applications,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Financial Performance,
Information Management,
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
data mart,
Talent Management,
Workforce Analytics
Going into ADP’s industry analyst day, I was curious about where a 61-year-old “payroll” company fits in today’s market for human capital management. It certainly has a presence, with over 550,000 customers across multiple lines of business – HR, payroll, tax and benefits administration – and nearly $9 billion in revenue with three consecutive quarters of growth coming out of the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Read More
Topics:
Big Data,
Performance Management,
Sales Performance,
Social Media,
Supply Chain Performance,
Human Capital Management,
Mobile Applications,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
Talent Management
The earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant trifecta that devastated Japan has had a negative impact also on companies that embraced the concept of managing a lean supply chain – one that minimizes inventories at each stage. If news accounts are to be believed, there seem to be legions regretting that decision as disruptions caused by the disasters have a ripple impact, hampering manufacturers’ ability to deliver goods worldwide. But although current events are a wake-up call highlighting the...
Read More
Topics:
Performance Management,
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
Sustainability,
Human Capital Management,
Marketing,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Analytics,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Workforce Performance,
Supply Chain
At this year’s user conference, it was clear that change is afoot at MarkLogic, whose technology platform enables users to access information more easily accessible within applications and devices. Last month the board of directors appointed a new CEO, Ken Bado, created the new position of chief marketing officer (CMO) and named a head of global services and alliances, all within three weeks. The Silicon Valley software company has been growing in the last several years but appears not fast...
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
Supply Chain Performance,
MarkLogic,
Reporting,
XML,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Workforce Performance,
Content Management,
Document Management,
Information Platform,
Search
Consolidation in the human capital management software market is in full swing. Recently Peopleclick Authoria acquired Aquire Solutions, and just this week Golden Gate Capital and Infor agreed to buy Lawson Software for about $2 billion, which my colleague Robert Kugel commented.
Read More
Topics:
Performance Management,
Sales Performance,
Human Capital Management,
Learning,
Learning Management System,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Business Mobility,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Workforce Performance,
Compensation,
Talent Management,
Workforce Planning
Turning data into information for taking actions and making decisions has bedeviled businesses throughout the computer age. Many organizations have data in dozens of applications and legacy systems along with many reports in various business intelligence systems. The challenge is to get data from each of the reports and assemble it into contextualized views of information for particular business needs. In our benchmark research on what we call information applications, only 11 percent of...
Read More
Topics:
Sales Performance,
Sustainability,
Reporting,
Business Technology Innovation,
IT Performance,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
Business Performance,
Cloud Computing,
Customer & Contact Center,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
Information Applications,
Information Management,
Workforce Performance,
Datawatch,
Document Management
Companies (especially in high technology) that sell through an indirect channel face a difficult challenge because global sales channels are complex, fragmented and changeable, with different business practices and customs than direct channels. Keeping track of which products have sold in and sold through which partners can be a difficult task. Unless a company is working with only a handful of channel partners, just collecting the data is time-consuming. Not only is the data complex, much of...
Read More
Topics:
Sales,
Sales Performance,
Salesforce.com,
Human Capital Management,
Zyme Solutions,
Operational Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Collaboration,
Financial Performance,
Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC),
channel,
CRM