The Ledger

Forward-Thinking CFOs are Investing in Robust Analytics Platforms

Today’s technological advances are enhancing companies’ ability to increase efficiencies and anticipate trends and events that impact operations and the bottom line. In response to these advances, companies are investing more money in these technologies. The motives behind these analytics investments are to understand their customer data (for better experience, retention and service), data visualization and reporting to better understand business performance, trends and opportunities. However, the challenge is knowing what technology best suites their individual business needs.

Read More at The Wall Street Journal >

Advanced Visibility and Collaboration Creates Efficient Manufacturing Processes

In today’s competitive environment, companies are always looking for ways to differentiate themselves from the competition and improve the customer experience. For machinery, equipment, and asset manufacturers, this often starts with developing smarter products to capture more information about how they are operating and performing around the globe. A large German machinery manufacturer found that as their global customer base grew, they needed to find a way to improve transparency across their products, while improving visibility and transparency into pump and component details globally. By leveraging a technology that promoted company-wide collaboration and visibility, they were able to become more efficient and reduce overall risks of their business.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

New Priorities For Modern Cost Management

According to Deloitte’s global cost management survey, cost reduction is now a global imperative, with 86% of global respondents saying their companies are likely to undertake cost reduction initiatives over the next 24 months. Cost management ha become a strategic enabler with the power to disrupt entire industries and fundamentally change how companies do business and remain competitive. To help avoid falling behind, companies in every part of the world should understand the potential impact of digital so they can position themselves to capitalize on the opportunities, particularly regarding automation, analytics and cognitive technology. Now we are seeing the rise of advanced, next-generation cost management solutions that harness the power of digital technologies to dramatically improve efficiency and effectiveness, and to enable fundamentally new business models and new ways of working.

Read More at The Wall Street Journal >

Six Elements of a Robust Business Analytics Platform

 “As companies face a thinning margin for decision error, the ability to use business analytics effectively—everything from correlation, segmentation, clustering, regression analysis, as well as forecasting and predicting outcomes—is becoming mission-critical.”

There is a strong need for business leaders to gain insights, foresight and inferences from their data. However, with the amount of data they are managing, they need a business analytics tool with visualization to quickly gain real-time insights. So, how do you know what software tool is right for your business. There are six key components that, when embedded with analytics, provide powerful decision support.

Read More at The Journal of Accountancy >