Insight is the power to see into a given situation. As such, it requires a combination of experience and analytics to enable better decision making. Insight helps small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) uncover opportunities and expose shortcomings, thus establishing the basis for corrective action. Read about continuing on the path toward greater insight and developing a long-term business intelligence (BI) strategy.
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Any project represents significant effort in terms of justifying resource allocation and expense. Project failure may not only diminish or eliminate expected benefits, but also damage existing tools and processes. There are ten key steps for project success; many of these steps occur concurrently, and are important focal points for teams and executives contemplating initiating projects.
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The concept of getting business requirements right sounds straightforward. However, flawed requirements trigger 70 percent of project failures. The larger the number of stakeholder groups involved, and the more complex the processes, the more likely a project will fail. Success in large projects is not just about completeness, but also about getting complete requirements information early in the development process.
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Ask any three people in an organization why they budget and you’ll get three different answers. But no one says they budget in order to direct the way in which their organization will achieve its strategic goals—the intended purpose of the budget. For budgeting to become the relevant process it was meant to be, this gap must be fixed.
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Aligning your business plans with your method of execution requires more than a peek at financial metrics. Initiatives, tasks, people, and metrics must be aligned with corporate goals. Find out how strategy management software, alone or as part of a performance management solution, can provide clear visual links between individual initiatives and broader goals, and ultimately enhance your business’s overall performance.
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A failed software implementation can cost companies millions in wasted time and money. To ensure your software selection project isn’t a sorry statistic, use the right metrics to gauge your success. Time, budget, and functionality aren’t enough--focus your efforts on requirements analysis and definition. Take measures to ensure your software meets your needs, and discover how to perform accurate requirements analysis.
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The implementation of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to automate business processes is a strategic investment. Buying the right system and choosing the best vendor for you are critical to a successful ERP implementation. As a decision maker, you need to quickly identify your ERP requirements, effectively communicate these needs to vendors, and successfully compare various product alternatives. Learn how.
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The Internet creates new opportunities for mischief—and new challenges for managers. How do you balance individual access with the overall good of the business? What’s the right balance between monitoring and blocking? Learn about a Web security solution that can allow you to monitor and enforce your Internet usage policies, bringing site monitoring and filtering together with anti-virus and anti-spyware protection.
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The old approaches for collecting, assimilating, and delivering business intelligence (BI) data have not kept pace with today’s increasing demand for rapid decision making. Many companies use static reports and ad hoc queries, but fewer companies use dashboards and portals—which often lack the interactivity required for navigation and visualization of business data. Learn how a next-generation dashboard solution can help.
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Business process management (BPM) software implementations are now moving into the mainstream. Many early adopters are already using BPM to foster business innovation. You can benefit from the knowledge gained by BPM leaders and innovators, and their prerequisites for BPM success. These findings can serve as best-practice guidelines for your BPM initiative, so you can derive maximum value from your BPM investment.
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In today’s competitive global business environment, nearly all firms work hard to analyze alternatives and create strategies that enable competitive advantage. But 9 out of 10 companies fail to implement strategy effectively. How can you communicate the strategy effectively and assure that the entire company is aligned behind it? Discover how business performance optimization systems can help you make better decisions.
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For IT departments drowning in complex and expensive software maintenance chores, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model can ease the burden. SaaS reduces complexity by outsourcing most of the infrastructure needed to run software applications, and reduces costs by charging only for what is consumed. But you can also adopt a hybrid SaaS model, in which some systems are outsourced and others are kept in-house. Learn more.
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Survey data shows that companies want to improve their strategic business partnerships. Reflecting on lessons learned from past business relationships, 60 percent of respondents say that in future they’ll place more emphasis on developing personal relationships and setting expectations with business partners. Find out how these companies are creating collaborative networks that include business partners and consumers.
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Chief financial officers (CFOs) are under greater pressure, scrutiny, and accountability at companies large and small. An ideal CFO is a steward of decision-support information, cost controller, and more. With data supplied by some of the world’s most successful CFOs, get insight into what CFO responsibilities should be today to achieve extraordinary results, and how they should change to meet future challenges.
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How can you ensure that you make the right choice when purchasing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software? The answer: take all the critical components into consideration. ERP selection is not just about what different people in your organization want or don't want, it's about getting what you need for now and the future. Remember, you're not just buying software; you're buying into a vendor and its company culture.
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It’s no secret that winning and retaining customers is the key to growth and success. But that’s no small feat, with ever-increasing customer demands, as well as the difficulty of implementing and enforcing processes to support your interactions with prospects, customers, and partners. Eight proven customer relationship management (CRM) best practices can help you create a customer retention strategy. Learn more.
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The basic spreadsheet and accounting programs you’ve relied on ’til now won’t help your growing business eliminate decision-making bottlenecks, reduce IT costs, increase productivity, or improve the customer experience. To do all that requires an enterprise-wide, integrated software system. Learn how an integrated system can help take your business to the next level, and how to ensure you get the right system for you.
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Organizations need technology that can unlock the value of information. Information can drive new insights to help transform and significantly improve the business, especially critical in an uncertain economy. This paper highlights common mistakes companies make in a down economy and discusses how organizations can use business intelligence to avoid them. A self-assessment questionnaire is included.
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One company executive has a growing influence in today’s boardroom—the chief financial officer (CFO). And the role of the finance organizations that these CFOs lead is expanding as well. Examine the changing role of the finance organization in today’s business environment, learn how your CFO can take on a more prominent role in defining company strategy, and find out how you can develop a best-run finance organization.
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The role of the chief financial officer (CFO) is evolving, but due to pressures to meet financial reporting requirements, there’s still a strong pull toward “chief bean counter” responsibilities. But CFOs can find opportunities to become true business leaders. With help from technology, five key strategies can enable the CFO to have a significant impact on the direction and success of the business. Learn more.
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