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...
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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...
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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...
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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
On October 25, IBM introduced Cognos 10 at its Information on Demand and Business Analytics Forum in Las Vegas that I attended to review the technology closer from my examination at its recent IBM Business Analytics analyst summit in September. According to Rob Ashe, IBM’s general manager of business analytics, Cognos 10 has been developed for over six years. You’re probably aware that in that period IBM made a variety of acquisitions including Cognos itself. These acquisitions and their impact...
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Topics:
Enterprise Data Strategy,
Performance Management,
Planning,
IT Performance,
Business Analytics,
Business Intelligence,
CIO,
IBM,
Information Management
It turns out that some consumer goods manufacturers and retailers are having a hard time finding space on container ships and even finding containers to ship in. This has driven up the cost of shipping these items and at times resulted in deliveries arriving too late for scheduled promotions or seasonal demand peaks. This, during a time of constrained consumer spending in North America and Europe and an extended period where the Baltic Dry Index (a measure of shipping rates for bulk commodities...
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Topics:
Planning,
Budgeting,
IBP,
Operational Performance,
Financial Performance
Anyone who has had to regularly produce a written business forecast that goes out more than a couple of months understand all too well Yogi Berra’s famous observation: “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future.” Certainly the economic events of the past two years have regularly made forecasts obsolete in a very short period of time. Using the wisdom of crowds can help the accuracy of forecasts in some cases because the impacts of individual biases are largely cancelled out....
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Topics:
Big Data,
Planning,
IBP,
Operational Performance,
Business Performance,
Financial Performance