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The Decision Factor offers insightful comments and observations on analytics—from views on new technology approaches and market dynamics to the latest industry trends driving demand for faster, smarter information analysis. This blog contains personal views, thoughts, and opinions from SAP employees, mentors, and friends working in the area of analytics. It’s not endorsed by SAP nor does it constitute an official communication of SAP.

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Integrated Business Planning — the Inevitable Journey for Finance

Integrated Business Planning -- the Inevitable Journey for Finance It should come as no surprise that the next mile of finance is upon us – changes are afoot in the world of budgeting and forecasting. Traditionally, this has entailed the finance organization accumulating information at a high level of aggregation from their business partners (sales, HR, marketing) and other cost and responsibility centers. This information feeds into budgeting, forecasting, and strategic planning models with most of the emphasis on revenues and expenses. But many of these models lack collaboration, clarity, and timeliness. In …
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Are You Ready to Mobilize Your Finance Organization?

Are You Ready to Mobilize Your Finance Organization?

Recently, I walked into a family owned coffee shop and ordered my latte. It was a very pleasant experience, but it was also atypical—the sweet lady took my order on an iPad and asked if she could enter in my e-mail address so they could send me a survey link and periodic e-mails. As a technology user and evangelist, I agreed without any hesitation.

Intrigued by this experience, I wondered why this small coffee shop was adopting a mobile-based system …
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Is Cost Management Out of Step with the Needs of Global Manufacturing?

Is Cost Management Out of Step with the Needs of Global Manufacturing?Manufacturing has changed dramatically over the last 50 years with the de-industrialization of the west and a significant shift in production towards countries such as China and India. These were once the world’s source of low-cost manufacturing capacity but are now rapidly evolving into the world’s best growth markets with McKinsey forecasting that they could account for nearly 70% of global demand for manufactured goods by 2025. (see “The $30 Trillion Decathlon”). If western brands are going to …
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‘Thrive’ While Others ‘Survive’ with EPM and BI

‘Thrive’ while others ‘Survive’ with EPM and BITo find out how some companies have thrived during the last five years of difficult trading conditions while other have simply languished, Ernst & Young commissioned a research project that during the last five years has surveyed about 1,500 senior executives. Their report – Growing Beyond: How high performers are accelerating ahead – is now available and has some valuable insights for Finance. 

The study compared the relative high and low performance in various sectors based on EBITDA and revenue growth over …
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IT Priorities: Nothing Changes in the Face of New and Big Changes

Towards the end of the year, McKinsey releases its global survey on IT. In these surveys, they ask “executives across all functions, industries, and regions about their companies’ use of, expectations for, and spending on IT.” It’ll be interesting to see this year’s focus given how the big three new technology paradigms—mobility, cloud, and big data – are dominating IT mindshare.

Top of the list last year was the need for IT to continue improving both the effectiveness and efficiency of business processes, keeping a lid on costs while simultaneously serving …
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Enabling Performance Management Part Four: Best Practices in Key Performance Indicators

Key performance indicators (KPIs) would seem, on the surface, one of the most straightforward topics to grasp. However the process of defining a meaningful set of KPIs is a lot harder than it might seem and one of the reasons companies are always on the lookout for pre-existing content they can apply to their business.

Why Do We Need Performance Information?

The obvious answer is that it tells us whether or not we’re meeting our objectives. When we’re dealing with scorecards as oppose to dashboards (a topic in its own …
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IT Costs Are Going Up and Not Enough Is Being Done to Control Them!

Demand and spending on IT have increased dramatically in the last 50 years—but the resources, skills, and methodologies that are needed so that IT can manage itself effectively and deliver more business value simply haven’t occurred. According to CIO Magazine’s “State of the CIO” survey, less than half of IT departments are perceived as a business partner or better.

If IT is going to manage itself like a business, it needs to raise its game—not an easy task, given it’s probably the most complex business function:

IT controls a myriad …
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Enabling Performance Management Part Three: Metrics and KPIs

Measures, metrics, key performance indicators (KPIs). Unsure about which term to use? You’re not alone; and in all likelihood, you hear these terms bandied around interchangeably. Try doing a Web search, and you’ll come up with a bunch of definitions that probably won’t clear up matters much. In the same way we misuse grammar, perhaps it doesn’t matter too much if we use these terms incorrectly, so long as we get our message across. I’m sure I’ve been guilty about misusing them in the past, but this is how I correctly …
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Rethinking Analytics for the Enterprise

In the last post, I shared some research showing there is still a gap to close with analytics in most organizations still being the domain of experts rather than a what the Tapscott Group – founded by Don Tapscott who is one of the world’s leading authorities on innovation, media, and the economic and social impact of technology – call a ‘social enterprise’ – a vibrant ecosystem where all team members actively participate in collecting and acting upon information. Personally I find their choice of the word ‘social’ …
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CIOs CFOs: Tell Me What I’ve Got Wrong?

Both CIOs and CFOs report they want to be more involved with corporate strategy. This makes perfect sense. Determining strategy is one of the most rewarding activities for anyone with an interest in running any kind of business. Unfortunately, it would appear “business as usual” gets in the way as usual.

Let’s take one widespread, pernicious problem: the alignment of IT with business.

According to the American Institute of CPAs, “IT Strategic Alignment is the implementation of information technology (IT) in the integration and development of business …
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