For Business Process & Applications Professionals

The Forrester Wave™: Business Performance Solutions, Q4 2009

IBM Cognos, Oracle, SAP, And SAS Lead, With Clarity Systems In Close Pursuit

by Paul D. Hamerman, November 19, 2009

In Forrester's 89-criteria evaluation of business performance solutions (BPS) vendors, we found that IBM Cognos, Oracle, SAP, and SAS Institute led the pack because of their breadth of functionality and strength of their business intelligence (BI) foundations. . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Market Overview: The Business Intelligence Software Market

Advanced Analytics Will Drive Growth To $14 Billion By 2014

by Holger Kisker, Ph.D., October 23, 2009

Business intelligence (BI) software is the tip of the application software pyramid. Pure functionality, no matter how sophisticated, is no longer sufficient to successfully support the changing business requirements of today. BI provides business guidance . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Transparency Is The Next Step In Compliance . . . Bring On Enterprise Content Management

Compliance Processes Remain Untamed And Short On Insight

by Craig Le Clair, Chris McClean, August 28, 2009

Milestones in regulation such as the USA PATRIOT Act, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act, and amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) helped drive substantial enterprise content management (ECM) enhancements for better document management and . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Untamed Business Processes: When Even The Best Of Intentions Go Awry

by Craig Le Clair, August 21, 2009

A business process — at its highest level — is any activity that helps an enterprise achieve its goals. Packaged and industry-specific applications form the transactional backbone for most critical business processes in enterprises and small and medium-size . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

IT Compliance: From Painful To Pleasant

by Khalid Kark, July 31, 2009

With increasing workforce mobility and the extension of the business supply chain globally, organizations are struggling to keep up with increasing corporate and regulatory compliance requirements. Regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability . . .

For CIOs

Inquiry Spotlight: IT Chargeback, Q2 2009

Drivers And Challenges Of IT Cost Transparency

by Craig Symons, July 8, 2009

Charging back for IT services has been a controversial practice for many years, so much so that a significant number of organizations have either never implemented IT chargeback or have stopped the practice. Past crude allocation mechanisms provided no . . .

For Vendor Strategy Professionals

Market Momentum: Business Application Software, H2 2008

Software Supermajors Set The Trend For Integrated Solutions

by Holger Kisker, Ph.D., July 7, 2009

Various prominent mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in early 2008 significantly changed the face of the business application software market, leading to the rise of the software supermajors. In the second half of 2008, vendor activities focused on product . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

TechRadar™ For BP&A Professionals: Financial Management Applications, Q2 2009

Essential Business Needs Drive High Levels Of Value And Adoption

by Paul D. Hamerman, June 30, 2009

Financial management applications range from essential and ubiquitous tools for accounting and financial reporting to specialized solutions for optimizing process efficiency and cash flow. Compliance is a major requirement underlying several of the solutions, . . .

For Security & Risk Professionals

Topic Overview: Governance, Risk, And Compliance

by Chris McClean, April 29, 2009

Successful businesses universally strive to achieve better corporate governance, more effective measurement and management of risk, and greater assurance that compliance requirements are met. Whether or not these efforts bear the governance, risk, and . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Accounting Systems: The Nucleus Of Your Recession And Recovery Command Center

by Paul D. Hamerman, March 24, 2009

As corporate and government organizations battle the current economic crisis, the finance department holds the keys to controlling costs, assessing performance, managing risks and compliance obligations, and forecasting expected results. At the heart . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

Look To Network Access Control (NAC) To Streamline IT Compliance

Maximize Your NAC Deployment To Aid In GLBA, HIPAA, PCI DSS, And SOX Efforts

by Robert Whiteley, February 24, 2009

Did your organization just fail an audit test, and were you, the IT manager, blamed for not keeping your infrastructure or IT operations up to snuff? The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Choosing The Best Fit Finance Transformation Providers For Your Enterprise

by Paul D. Hamerman, February 13, 2009

A successful finance transformation provides a framework to improve finance functions and business efficiency but also overall enterprise performance. Even though enterprises must take ownership of a financial transformation project, the process of finance . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Economic Insights For Process And Apps Pros

Plan For Inevitable Project Reprioritizations

by Elisse Gaynor, Sharyn Leaver, February 12, 2009

Given the gloomy economic climate, businesses large and small have difficult decisions ahead on the path to fiscal responsibility and stability. IT shops will be tempted and coerced to cut back in order to mitigate the effects of this downturn. However, . . .

For Information & Knowledge Management Professionals

Vendor Snapshot: Boardwalktech Applies Collaboration And Controls To Spreadsheets

by Sheri McLeish, February 12, 2009

As collaboration and enterprise 2.0 vendors promote the latest must-have innovations to improve information worker productivity, Silicon Valley startup Boardwalktech turned its focus to something a little more commonplace: spreadsheets. Boardwalktech's . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Microsoft Ditches PerformancePoint Product

Performance Monitoring Is A Bonus For SharePoint; Look Elsewhere For Planning

by Paul D. Hamerman, January 29, 2009

In a surprise move, Microsoft announced that it is changing its strategy with respect to the hotly contested business performance solutions (BPS) market. After investing in developing and launching Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 (PerformancePoint), . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Business Performance Solutions: Clash Of The Titans

The Market Remains Vibrant Following Vendor Consolidation

by Paul D. Hamerman, January 20, 2009

Business performance solutions (BPS) — a software category consisting of applications for budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting, profitability analysis, and performance measurement — has seen dramatic growth and vendor consolidation over the past . . .

For Security & Risk Professionals

Trends 2009: Governance, Risk, And Compliance Hit The Big Time

The Economic Crisis Of 2008 Makes GRC A Business Priority

by Chris McClean, December 23, 2008

Another bubble burst. The chain reaction stemming from the credit crisis caused an implosion of the global economy. Political, corporate, and economic leaders have argued ferociously about how we can reverse the damage, questioning business ethics, the . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Controls To Mitigate Spreadsheet Risk

by Scott Tiazkun, December 22, 2008

Financial business processes run on spreadsheets. The widespread usage of spreadsheets should cause concern for all enterprises. The ability to discover, assess, and control spreadsheets, however, greatly mitigates their risk and drives enterprises to . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Trends 2009: Financial Performance Management

Macroeconomic Conditions Present Challenges And Opportunities

by Paul D. Hamerman, Scott Tiazkun, November 21, 2008

Financial management professionals stand in the spotlight as the economic downturn continues and companies cope with weaker demand, price pressures, rising costs, and credit constraints. Amidst this bleak macroeconomic picture, executives will look to . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Topic Overview: Business Intelligence

by Boris Evelson, November 21, 2008

Business intelligence (BI) is a set of methodologies, processes, architectures, and technologies that transform raw data into meaningful and useful information. It allows business users to make informed business decisions with real-time data that can . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Finance Transformation: A Practical Guide To Streamlining Finance Functions That Pay Off

by Scott Tiazkun, November 18, 2008

Finance transformation has helped companies achieve cost savings and process efficiency across multiple finance functions — especially those with global operations facing redundancy and undue complexity. Drivers for finance transformation extend beyond . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

XBRL: Finding Purpose Beyond Regulatory Reporting

by Scott Tiazkun, November 10, 2008

In the US, eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) is promoted largely through the efforts of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and is currently pending guidelines for reporting of annual and quarterly financial statements. But once . . .

For Infrastructure & Operations Professionals

How To Stay Compliant When Times Are Tough

Best Practices: IT Control Testing, Reporting, And Integration

by Simon Yates, October 24, 2008

In the midst of an economic downturn that seems at least partly caused by inadequate enforcement of regulations, the demand for IT controls is increasing. IT professionals must monitor an ever-expanding array of IT assets and track their compliance to . . .

For Business Process & Applications Professionals

Preparing For New SEC Reporting Guidelines

Financial Reporting Goes Interactive

by Scott Tiazkun, October 23, 2008

Corporate finance and IT need to prepare now for new financial reporting guidelines. In tandem, they need to devise how the enterprise will create interactive data reports that satisfy the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Acting as an enforcer, . . .

For Security & Risk Professionals

Best Practices: IT Control Testing, Reporting, And Integration

by Marc Othersen, October 2, 2008

Control testing and reporting are the foundations of IT compliance, while integration is critical for sustainability. To uncover best practices for IT control testing, reporting, and integration, Forrester spoke with companies from a variety of industries . . .