An Aberdeen study from 2010 revealed that respondents were still in the early stages of mobile business intelligence (BI) adoption. But now, many companies are gearing up to deploy mobile BI throughout the organization to empower their front-line workers. This Aberdeen report highlights the challenges ahead, and brings focus to issues that organizations need to consider to successfully deploy mobile analytics to their front line.
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Creating and maintaining a successful digital experience that drives business results requires the right research insight, design, technology, and ongoing optimization. Forrester conducted an online survey of 209 digital experience professionals in the US to evaluate current practices around Web site monitoring and digital experiences. Read about the adoption, benefits, and challenges of current data-driven design processes.
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Most organisations are sitting on IT equipment that is not supporting the business optimally, yet the received wisdom is to sweat the assets to gain as much perceived lifetime value from them as possible. However, IT assets have inherent value which can change significantly through each asset’s lifecycle—whether this is through its hard resale value or just through its scrap value. By applying a full IT lifecycle management (ITLM) approach to the complete IT platform, a business-optimised platform can be created—one where business value overrides the embedded concept of sweating assets.
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Most manufacturing enterprises use enterprise resource planning (ERP) as their main business system. It has always been assumed is that companies strive to have one single ERP system to unify all their parts and processes, but a survey shows that the average manufacturing company has 1.9 separate and distinct systems. This paper looks at how overall ERP strategy relates to companies’ performance.
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This case study recaps a nonprofit organization’s business challenges and the benefits it realized upon adopting a business intelligence (BI) solution. The organization needed to combine its data and improve its reporting capabilities for various data types. The BI solution significantly improved the decision-making capabilities of the organization’s executive team, mid-level managers, and employees.
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Social media is providing organizations with a plethora of data about their customers. This paper explains how to leverage business intelligence software and advanced analytics to change the way business is conducted. The end goal should be to personalize marketing messages in a way that allows organizations to narrowly target specific customers based on the knowledge of the customer they already have.
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This guide introduces you to the key concepts of business intelligence, including data modeling, data warehouses, online analytical processing (OLAP), and more. The author debunks many of the prevailing myths that scare small to medium businesses from investigating the use of business intelligence, and explains how the very same techniques and technologies used by massive enterprises are now available to them.
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Sophisticated enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business intelligence tools have made it possible to quickly calculate and report key performance indicators and metrics. In this white paper, learn about a balanced approach, applying lean and Six Sigma concepts, to business process re-engineering, assessing the alignment of your policies and strategic goals, and implementing systems and organizational structures, to support a culture of measurable improvement.
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This Aberdeen report examines the connection between collaborative knowledge sharing and analytical activity. Based on direct feedback from 231 respondents around the globe, results demonstrate that best-in-class companies are leveraging collaborative tools and techniques to share decision context inside and outside their organizations, ultimately leading to substantially improved business performance. Download this report to learn more.
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With clear visibility into financial and operational performance information, financial executives can quickly identify variables that contribute to failed objectives as well as factors that enable success. This report provides guidance for implementing effective business performance management and the corresponding capabilities and enabling technologies that help improve financial and operational control.
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The widespread adoption of smartphones and tablets, the growth of cloud computing, and the increased need for convenience printing means that organizations must provide employees with a secure and simple managed approach to mobile printing. Read this report and learn about the market drivers for mobile printing in the business environment and some of the best practices for building a mobile print strategy.
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Expense management in the legal sector can be complex and burdened with problems. Expense errors in claims sent to clients can not only result in time being spent in sorting out resulting issues, but can also impact the trust between the client and firm. Legal firms must ensure expenses are dealt with accurately, effectively, and in a timely manner. Download this paper for Quocirca’s recommendations for a chosen system.
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Social networks offer many opportunities for businesses to gain a closer engagement with their customers. This appears to be an unstoppable bandwagon that all organizations must leap on before they are left behind, but is it that simple? The social network landscape is packed with choices and pitfalls for the unwary, so a careful and appropriately nuanced response is required. Read more on how to best use social media.
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Semiconductor manufacturers can work more closely with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and expand into new markets by using Web 2.0 technologies. Infosys' experts reveal "white spaces" in semiconductor marketing strategies that can be addressed by digital and mobile capabilities. They demonstrate how best practices in information and customer experience embedded in Infosys' Semiconductor Digital Engagement Maturity Model can deliver a competitive advantage.
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Sage 100 Standard ERP (formerly Sage ERP MAS 90), v. 4.5, is TEC Certified for online evaluation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for services in the ERP Evaluation Center. The certification seal is a valuable indicator for organizations relying on the integrity of TEC research for assistance with their software selection projects. Download this report for product highlights, competitive analysis, product analysis, and in-depth analyst commentary.
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Real-time business intelligence (BI) delivers information about business as it occurs. While traditional BI presents historical data for analysis, real-time BI compares current business events with historical patterns to automatically detect problems or opportunities. This paper explains how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can establish a competitive advantage by tapping into the power of real-time BI.
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Many companies don’t have adequate metrics or information technology systems to see how well growth strategies and activities perform in real time. This white paper addresses the lack of supply chain synchronization: the ability for a manufacturer to cost effectively respond to changes in demand and then signal everyone in the supply chain. Synchronization closes the gaps in a supply chain that lead to costly wastes.
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Performance management allows companies to align business activity with corporate objectives. This research examines the different levels of business performance achieved by mid-market companies compared with larger firms, as well as the differences in strategy, capabilities, and technologies used. Key recommendations are drawn for mid-market businesses to increase the value they derive from performance management.
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Establishing the right metrics framework as part of an overall performance management strategy means companies can break down enterprise-level goals—such as order fulfillment and forecast accuracy—into department-level metrics such as on-time delivery and plant utilization. Read about a model that makes it easier to identify, communicate, and replicate the most effective practices.
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The increased complexity of global supply chains has led to longer lead time, more pipeline inventory, and the need to control downstream and upstream logistics. Growing supply chain complexity is a top business pressure, contributing to increased supply chain management costs. This report focuses on gaining visibility into critical elements across the end-to-end logistics network for improving cost and service.
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Read about the technologies in IBM's comprehensive, unified business analytics system and how they work together to help organizations grow in analytics maturity—that is, their ability to use analytics to improve business outcomes.
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Learn why analytics-driven organizations outperform their peers.
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Organizations that have the most success with business intelligence (BI) typically approach it incrementally. Discover a step-by-step strategy for success in this white paper featuring research from Gartner.
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While new technology trends are invading the business intelligence (BI) space, technology shifts and hype do not necessarily equate to the ability to exploit the best tools for enhancing business performance. To select a best-fit BI solution, an organization needs to be able to realistically assess the maturity of its BI infrastructure. This allows them to discover where they are, what their BI requirements are, and how to determine the best BI solution or strategy. Download the full report now.
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Sentiment analysis is the method of extracting subjective information from any written content. It is being widely used in product benchmarking, market intelligence, and advertisement placement. In this paper, we demonstrate the process by analyzing a movie review using various natural language processing techniques.
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With recent advancements, publishers and advertisers need to know how to get the right message to the right customer and in the right place to achieve their campaign goals. This report explores the emergence of data-driven audience targeting and reveals some of the ways that publishers are embracing newer ‘actual data’ tools to create dynamic audience segments that are more flexible and truly able to meet advertisers’ needs.
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With the volume of data exploding and the form of data becoming more unstructured, a good analytics system is vital to help an organization do business better. The “big data” environment not only encompasses large volumes of unstructured data, it also calls for real-time analysis of data. In this white paper, Wipro’s K R Sanjiv suggests a three-tier form of architecture to manage the big data environment.
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Power over ethernet (PoE) allows network administrators to deploy VoIP phones, WLAN access points, IP security cameras, and other powered devices without having to install AC outlets, pull cables, or modify building plans. By eliminating the need for separate electrical wiring and power outlets, PoE technology can deliver savings of up to 50 percent compared to traditional network powering infrastructures. Learn more now.
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The Proximity Hotel in Greensboro, North Carolina, is the first hotel in the US to receive Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification at the platinum level from the U.S. Green Building Council. Combining luxury with energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, the hotel places the highest priority on guest comfort. The owner's goal is a sustainable, energy-efficient hotel that never compromises guest comfort. Learn more now.
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When an enterprise considers the benefits of a business intelligence (BI) solution, it must anticipate the questions involved in approval of any solution purchase or budget to build a solution. Should the organization spend precious resources, time, and money on a BI solution or some other pressing need? Download this white paper to learn about the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches.
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Security Information and Event Manager (SIEM) users face the pressure of high costs related to the selection of a SIEM product, its deployment, integration and day-to-day use. Such cost pressure stems from substantial initial cost of the product, additional expenses for specific hardware and third-party product licenses, etc. In the end, what was initially considered as an affordable price for the chosen SIEM solution may turn out to be a large hole in the budget with an enormous total cost of ownership. Download this white paper to learn different approaches for resolving them successfully.
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Business intelligence (BI) solutions can help businesses to become more intelligent about key operations and processes. But BI solutions are only as valuable as the data that is fed into them and the key performance indicators (KPIs) they monitor. Well-chosen KPIs and quality data ensure that BI solutions generate reliable, actionable information. Find out how to get the best information into and out of your BI solutions.
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This paper discusses the requirements for coupled structural-acoustic simulation and demonstrates the application of this technology to cell-phone
acoustic design. Due to the smaller volume sizes, the low frequency response of the cell phone is affected. The frequency response rolls off faster at low frequencies when smaller microphone back volumes are used. The present work deals with studying this effect on a simple cell phone model with the finite element package, Abaqus. The results from the simulation can be used to better design cell phone cavities for optimum performance.
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Security breaches are perpetrated by a wide variety of external and internal sources, including hacktivists, targeted attackers, and profit-motivated
cybercriminals, as well as through mundane everyday occurrences, such as missing laptops and thumb drives. To address these compliance and privacy issues, organizations have responded by adding layers of controls and integrating them with varied results. Now, those organizations realize that making security simpler is the ultimate strategy for ensuring end user adoption of new security measures and meeting multiple, overlapping regulatory requirements. This paper is a review of DigitalPersona Pro, its integrated approach, and its features and efficiencies in these areas.
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The growing adoption of laptops and other portable devices is changing the foundation of traveling and telecommuting. Laptops have overtaken desktops as the computer of choice for business users. While endpoint protection has been traditionally associated with solutions like antivirus and firewalls, these technologies don’t adequately protect data against theft, loss or unauthorized access. Learn more. Download this white paper now.
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We live in an era of the “intelligent economy.” Organizations are recognizing the need for better intelligence about their business. But how far have we come? And what are the best practices that distinguish companies where employees bring intelligence to decision making? This report considers the use of analytics and business intelligence for improving decision making, and the benefits of prebuilt analytic applications for achieving this.
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While ERP solutions and enterprise business applications may integrate information from legacy systems and specialized best-of-breed software, most enterprise solutions do not provide a simple dashboard or analytical approach to information presentation. Standard reports provided by business applications do not satisfy the need for on-the-fly, end-user reports that enable the kind of sophisticated decision-making and monitoring power you need. This white paper suggests an integrated solution that will offer more value to the end-user and eliminate the frustration of working with standardized enterprise application reporting, and reporting software packages, and spreadsheets, and the expense and delays incurred by customized reporting requests.
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Storing data in the cloud using Riverbed Technology’s Whitewater cloud storage gateway overcomes a serious challenge for IT departments: how to manage the vast, and ever-growing, amount of data that must be protected. This paper makes the business case for cloud storage, outlining where capital and operational costs can be eliminated or avoided by using the cloud for backup and archive storage.
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Text analytics automates the extraction of business value from Web sites and social media content, from e-mail and survey responses, to regulatory filings and corporate documents. These sources and others capture information from and about customers, prospects, products, companies, and competitors in human readable form. Download this white paper for a handy guide to understanding—and profiting from—enterprise text analytics.
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Traditional voice of customer (VoC) analytics for understanding and predicting customer behavior relies on two types of data sources—structured (customer feedback surveys, focus groups, etc.) and unstructured (blogs, forums, etc.). Data is then organized for use by diverse teams across an organization. Read about how companies can use data captured from customer actions or on-board diagnostic (OBD) systems for VoC analytics.
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In business, much depends on the timeliness of report¬ing. But one of the largest financial institutions in the Czech Republic was struggling in this regard. “We had been working on a single report for about one month and were facing two ways out: request the report from IT, or outsource the reporting to an external supplier.” Find out how GE Money dramatically reduced reporting times with an automated reporting solution from SAS.
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Riverbed Whitewater leverages WAN optimization technology to provide a complete data protection service to the cloud. The appliance-based solution is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing backup technologies and cloud storage provider APIs to provide rapid data retrieval, and replicate data to the cloud to provide an off-site storage location for disaster recovery. Read the ESG Lab report of the appliance's features.
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The explosive growth of enterprise data poses new storage and data management challenges for enterprises. This white paper details how organizations can leverage cloud-based storage offerings as part of their data protection plans. The paper also takes a closer look at solutions offered by Riverbed that allow organizations to integrate cloud-based storage within solutions that address a growing set of data protection demands.
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TheMIGroup is a provider of relocation and assignment management programs for companies relocating their employees nationally and internationally. While the company had made some standard reports available online, it needed to enable clients to tailor both reporting formats and the information presented to their changing needs. See how the Illumiti-implemented solutions helped TheMIGroup deliver outstanding customer experience.
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Illumiti helps its clients achieve optimized operations in key areas at the core of their business, by implementing custom-fit SAP® systems and other solutions faster, at a lower cost, and at a lower risk than other alternatives. Illumiti leverages proven and highly-effective methodologies to maximize business results. This data sheet shows how Illumiti’s products and services can support your critical functionality needs.
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Are you getting all the information you need to really understand how well your company is performing right now? How quickly do you get the information you need? Having timely and complete information allows people with good judgment to make better decisions more consistently. Know the options that can help executives in mid-size companies get the information about their businesses faster and more reliably than they can today.
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Planning and budgeting are critical components of any company’s performance management initiative, as they are a means of translating strategy into a coherent set of initiatives and provide a basis for objective assessment and alignment. But how well are companies achieving this? Read this benchmark research that examined the process, technology, and other components that reveal how effective planning and budgeting are.
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Planning, forecasting, and reporting are among the business processes that, if strengthened with analytic software, can help companies improve their performance. Due to time and expense of implementation, many mid-sized have been slow to aggressively adopt business performance management (BPM) solutions. See how on-demand BPM software is a low-cost, low-risk BPM solution that is likely to lead to an “early payback.”
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Business performance management (BPM) applications, particularly budgeting, forecasting, and reporting (BFR) solutions, bring high value to a mid-size company. But embarking upon a BPM initiative can seem daunting. There are many factors to consider, including potential benefits, expected costs, etc. Read this step-by-step guide that helps these companies navigate through these factors and move forward with a BPM solution.
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Corporate budgeting, forecasting, and reporting presents a formidable challenge to most companies, regardless of size or industry. Companies that are able to address budgeting obstacles and improve their process will not only be rewarded with more accurate budgets, more timely re-forecasts, and improved decision-making, but also foster a disciplined financial management culture that will deliver a true competitive advantage
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A volatile economy demands superior financial planning and management. Adaptive Planning’s Recession Survival Kit is designed for planning during difficult times. It allows companies to quickly and successfully gain control of their financial outlook, evaluate the potential business and cash impacts of strategic and tactical actions, and reset financial plans to deal with a global downturn. And it goes live in under a week.
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Why aren’t most companies able to achieve exceptional performance given that they have standard budgeting, analysis, and forecasting processes in place? It is because they don’t have a unified, integrated financial management process. Discover the benefits of a unified approach and the technologies that enable companies to adopt business performance management (BPM) best practices in just days or weeks, at an affordable price.
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This white paper describes some of the common challenges associated with protecting data on laptops and at home and remote offices and portrays proven solutions to the challenges of protecting distributed business data by establishing a private cloud/enterprise cloud. Learn which best practices can ensure business continuity throughout an organization with a distributed information technology (IT) infrastructure.
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Mid-size organizations have been conducting their budgeting and forecasting through a readily-available, inexpensive, and easy-to-use application—the spreadsheet. But spreadsheets fail to support complex planning processes, which involve multiple people, require real-time access to data, and demand comprehensive security. Discover how the Adaptive Planning budgeting and planning application can help you meet these needs.
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Organizations combine their historical data with current data from operational systems to satisfy business intelligence analysis and government reporting requirements. This paper discusses the importance of data integration and helps you identify key challenges of integrating data. It also provides an overview of data warehousing and its variations, as well as summarizes the benefits and approaches to integrating data.
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In a well integrated identity environment, SiteMinder handles web access management, authentication, single sign-on (SSO), secure session management, and flexible policy definition. SiteMinder functions well when data exists in a relatively homogeneous state; this blueprint shows users how to extend an existing SiteMinder infrastructure across additional heterogeneous applications, identity sources, and constituents.
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Enterprises are looking for incremental change to their infrastructure. The value of your portal lies in delivering a rich and secure experience across multiple applications. The more information you provide, the more valuable your portal is to stakeholders across your organization. Developed by the inventors of the virtual directory, identity and context virtualization is the next generation integration solution.
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No portal is an island—or at least, it shouldn’t be. While SharePoint is great for sharing documents, it doesn’t integrate easily with the rest of your enterprise. To be truly useful, your portal needs to bring together all your users and connect to all your applications. Read about identity and context virtualization—a next-generation integration solution.
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In most organizations today, corporate information is managed by many tools and teams, but there’s a trend toward enterprise information management (EIM), a practice that coordinates teams and integrates tools. EIM is a best practice for creating, managing, sharing, and leveraging information in an enterprise, holistic manner that’s aligned with strategic, data-driven business objectives. See how you can achieve this.
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Overlooking how an application fits into your overall IT landscape can lead to costly implementations. But addressing data management with middleware solutions that work seamlessly with existing applications in your company’s IT environment can lead to significant benefits. Explore the value of technology decisions that support and maintain infrastructure-wide interoperability with regard to your data management solutions.
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Although most executives recognize that an organization’s data is corporate asset, few organizations how to manage it as such. The data conversation is changing from philosophical questioning to hard-core tactics for data governance initiatives. This paper describes the components of data governance that will inform the right strategy and give companies a way to determine where and how to begin their data governance journeys.
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For web single sign-on (SSO), and consistent enforcement of authorization across all applications, many web access management (WAM) packages offer an excellent and proven approach. However, they assume a relatively homogeneous identity environment. This white paper describes how virtualization solves the issue of directory integration with an approach that is cost effective, nonintrusive, and easy to deploy.
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Data quality is an elusive subject that can defy measurement and yet be critical enough to derail any single IT project, strategic initiative, or even a company. Of the many benefits that can accrue from improving the data quality of an organization, companies must choose which to measure and how to get the return on investment (ROI)—in hard dollars. Read this paper to garner an overall approach to data quality ROI.
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Many large business initiatives and information technology (IT) projects depend upon the successful migration of data—from a legacy source, or multiple sources, to a new target database. Effective planning and scoping can help you address the associated challenges and minimize risk for errors. This paper provides insights into what issues are unique to data migration projects and to offer advice on how to best approach them.
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This paper explores the following best practices for leverage price management and optimization: Fine-tune prices for all products and services. Analyze historical and live transaction-level data. Develop and implement effective cost-to-serve strategies. Establish well-defined customer segments. Empower your sales force with rich customer information and enforce negotiation policies.
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Enduradata's Content Distribution Software is a cost effective and secure solution that allows businesses and governments to distribute data and applications files from one computer to one or more computers. The file size can vary and no additional hardware or software is required. EDWADDS combines the solution with work flow automation to achieve significant operational efficiencies and low total cost of ownership.
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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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In successful organizations today, putting the “horse before the cart” means performance must drive development goals and learning priorities—not the other way around or one without the other. Learning management should be less about coordinating resources and serving up just-in-time courses, and more about how worker development is intrinsically a part of a larger organizational development process to impact the bottom-line.
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Read about affordable business intelligence (BI) software for midsize companies that includes solutions that address BI requirements from operational reporting to flexible ad hoc query reporting and analysis, to dashboards and visualization, to powerful data quality and integration, to planning and budgeting. The solution provides an intuitive BI experience for where and how you work.
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Chief financial officers (CFOs) and other senior managers are under tremendous pressure to maximize profitability, reduce operational costs, minimize risk, and improve stakeholder confidence. Read about an application that can help you streamline operations, instill confidence, and reduce risk. The solution provides planning, budgeting, and forecasting and supports financial consolidation and reporting operations.
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Business agility means that everyone—from C-level executives to front-line workers—needs to execute on the changing business environment and the requisite changes to business plans. As a midsize company, agility is even more critical; you need to react quicker than your larger counterparts to survive and thrive. Read about an application that empowers users at all levels to align resources to execute on strategies.
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This paper examines the imperative for midsize companies to not only move away from the use of spreadsheets but ensure they use unified solutions in the core performance management disciplines of financial consolidation and planning. Unified planning and consolidation refers to systems that are specifically architected to use a common platform and data structure with a common user interface.
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Pervasive business intelligence (BI) results when organizational culture, business processes, and technologies are designed and implemented with the goal of improving the strategic, operational, and tactical decision-making capabilities of a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. Read about creating a BI strategy and improving your BI competency.
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The administration and management of printing can be time-consuming, often relying on manual processes. Many businesses are rethinking their approach to managing the print environment, by either adopting a managed service or implementing centralized print management tools. This can ensure the high availability, reliability and manageability of printing resources, while leaving IT staff free to focus on core activities.
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Computing infrastructure today though versatile must be used wisely. Intelligent workload management (IWM) allows for efficient consumption of computing resources while ensuring business tasks are supported by all needed resources—and that this is all done securely. IWM tools support the building, management, monitoring, and securing of workloads. See how to run your cloud computing system with leading-edge technology.
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To effectively transform succession planning from a manual, paper-based process to one that is systematic and technology-enabled, CEOs must focus on laying a solid foundation supported by strong executive leadership. Read this CEO guide to get five key tips to jump-start your succession planning efforts to better manage risk and ensure business continuity and to know how a strong succession strategy can impact your company.
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This business management solution is an affordable offering that supports profitable growth, enables business agility, and empowers your employees. It’s comprehensive, easy-to-use software that supports all stakeholders across your company as well as your extended ecosystem. Read about how you can grow your business, develop relationships, accelerate innovation, and streamline operations.
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As your company grows and faces new challenges, you must continually evaluate whether your work processes and information technology (IT) solutions can address these issues and help grow your business. Read here on how to perform a preliminary gap analysis to determine whether you need to upgrade your IT solutions and business processes to meet your current business requirements as well as adapt to future requirements.
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Managing mobile costs is a challenge for all organizations and becomes more complex and problematic for those organizations spanning across countries or using multiple suppliers within one country. Getting to grips with these costs in a way that does not undermine the value of mobile flexibility is paramount, and organizations need to gather sufficient detail to effectively manage and analyze their mobile costs. See how.
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Old-style, one application per physical server data centers are not only nearing the end of their useful lives, but are also becoming barriers to a business’ future success. Virtualization has come to the foreground, yet it also creates headaches for data center and facilities managers. Read about aspects of creating a strategy for a flexible and effective data center aimed to carry your business forward.
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As product lifecycles continue to shrink and product complexity increases, reducing the time it takes to introduce new products has become a strategic imperative for companies. Businesses must have clean and accurate product data that’s consolidated across sales channels and back-end systems. Find out why product information management and master data management platforms are key to getting products to market faster.
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The advent of powerful yet inexpensive computers and global connectivity has produced data everywhere. Relevant data needs to be identified and brought into court. E-discovery essentially requires a professional approach to managing a project, with application of general principles to the legal world. Read this paper for a review of Electronically Stored Information (ESI) technology used for litigation and e-discovery.
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Companies must meet GRC criteria defined by internal and external policies, as failing to do so can have business and legal consequences. Although management of travel and entertainment (T&E) expenses is often seen as being of low importance for overall GRC, poorly managed T&E can lead to unforeseen issues with long-term business impact. See why using an external T&E management provider is the best way to adhere to GRC.
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Comprehensive management and protection of information can be achieved only when both data centers and end points are controlled by managed service providers (MSPs). MSPs must change their thinking and embrace end point management, ensuring IT availability, data security, and business continuity. See how MSPs with the right tools and services are well positioned to strengthen customer relationships and grow market share.
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The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) recently released the Global Technology Audit Guide (GTAG) 14: Auditing User-developed Applications. Read how the Prodiance Enterprise Risk Manager (ERM) suite of user-developed application (UDA) software tools and related professional service offerings enable organizations to fully comply with IIA’s guidelines for identifying, risk ranking, testing, and controlling critical UDAs.
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Business intelligence—or decision support—allows you to better understand, analyze, and predict what’s occurring within your company. BI turns data from financial, manufacturing, and sales systems into useful and meaningful information and then distributes it to people who need it. Midsize organizations have limited resources, so a BI solution should deliver low cost of ownership through off-the-shelf integration.
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Rapidly changing market dynamics in the consumer products industries mean price management is critical to a positive bottom line. This white paper examines the evolving role of the pricing and revenue manager and how the field of market price intelligence is powering a new era of price management. With pricing intelligence, today’s pricing managers are able to make highly-responsive decisions based on sound data analysis.
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The past year has taught executives everywhere that business will never again be “business as usual.” Manufacturers, in particular, must focus more than ever on satisfying customers while removing waste and unnecessary costs from their organizations. And they need to do so faster and better than their competitors. This white paper highlights how companies are doing just that by relying on strategic lean concepts.
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Technology is at a point where organizations must make decisions about where the IT platform future lies. Will existing architectures be sufficient to see a business through the next few years, or will cloud computing—built on the proven approaches of Web services and service-oriented architecture—be a better way forward? By modeling and predicting future states, organizations can make the right decisions. Find out how.
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This white paper summarizes how the Prodiance Enterprise Risk Manager (ERM) suite of user-developed applications (UDA) software tools and associated professional service offerings enable organizations to fully comply with the Institute of Internal Auditors’ (IIA’s) guidelines for identifying, risk ranking, testing, and controlling critical UDAs.
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This paper showcases an approach currently in use with the largest, and smallest, game changers across the country to maximize business insight: analytical assessment approach (A3). Learn the three steps defined in A3, as well as uses of the approach across companies of varying sizes and industries. Two cases-in-point are also featured—an American financial services company and a diversified and public manufacturer.
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Reporting 2.0 is the new era in web-based business reporting where end users can create, interpret and extend their reports or analyze report data in real-time with no IT overhead. Find out more.
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Studies indicate that a majority of chief information officers (CIOs) see significant change coming over the next few years as they prepare to meet rising business expectations for IT. A top priority in meeting this changing business need is to treat information as a strategic asset. Read about the five must haves in your information management strategy.
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What should occupational health and safety (OHS) managers be looking for as they consider taking their incident reporting capabilities to a more robust online solution? This white paper takes you through a number of key issues that need to be dealt with, the best way to solve these issues and, finally, what online solutions are available today, including their pros and cons.
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This white paper discusses explanation of benefits (EOB) and electronic remittance advice (ERA – ANSI 835). It also highlights iTech’s automated ERA processing solutions.
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Business intelligence (BI) is no longer just for back-office analysts. More people are using BI in their daily tasks than ever before. This white paper explains how job scheduling makes data warehousing—the key component in modern BI—more efficient, relevant, and accurate. It also outlines how one company used job scheduling to unify its data warehousing chores, free up IT resources, and increase its BI effectiveness.
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Read this white paper to learn about the most common mistakes companies are making during a down economy—and find out how you can use business intelligence (BI) to avoid these same mistakes. Plus, take a quick quiz to evaluate your own company’s BI quotient and find out which BI approach will help you avoid these blunders.
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Prospects for the global economy remain precarious. But effective financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting can enable successful decision making even in periods of unprecedented change. Dynamic financial planning enabled through five key elements—process, organization, knowledge management, technology, and performance management—give business leaders the tools to take action and emerge even stronger. Find out how.
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Dashboards have become a standard business tool over the last decade. Dozens of dashboard-building solutions have sprung up to meet the demand. Yet in the flurry of technology and enthusiasm, little attention has been paid to how to design focused, thoughtful, and user-friendly dashboards. This guide will show you concepts and best practices for creating a high-impact dashboard that people love to use.
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Retail and credit banking specialist LaSer Cofinoga wanted to implement personalized dashboards in order to closely monitor its business activities. The company opted to rethink its legacy infrastructure and choose a next-generation tool. Learn how LaSer Cofinoga’s new dashboarding solution helped the company increase productivity and give managers the ability to measure the efficiency of their departments and processes.
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Today’s finance executives must meet a growing number of complex demands and economic challenges to enable their company’s growth, profit, and risk objectives. Performance management (PM) capabilities such as financial modeling, profitability reporting, planning, budgeting and forecasting, and delivery of key performance information across the enterprise to a broader audience is more important than ever. Find out why.
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It doesn’t make sense to buy software based on price alone. Selecting a specific preferred vendor or spending as little as possible is the wrong choice if people will not use the purchased product and it winds up as “shelfware,” or if it hampers productivity and is an ongoing drain on resources. Learn the five questions financial professionals should ask before choosing a financial performance management (FPM) solution.
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Consolidation in the enterprise performance management (EPM) market has led to a glut of misleading, and sometimes overstated, vendor claims. This has served to confuse end users evaluating solutions, just at the time when an EPM strategy is so important—particularly for organizations looking to broaden their EPM strategies. Find out what you need to know before you start evaluating EPM solutions for your organization.
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Business performance management (BPM) is a set of processes, frameworks, and systems for planning, measuring, communicating, and monitoring business results. In July 2009, Forrester conducted evaluations of 10 business performance solutions (BPS) vendors: Board International, Clarity Systems, Host Analytics, IBM Cognos, Infor, Longview Solutions, Oracle, SAP, SAS Institute, and Tagetik. Find out what they learned.
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Organizations may find it easy to accumulate data from their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, but that information often remains unusable to decision makers. A popular solution is to deploy automated tools for reporting, planning, and budgeting, as well as applications like business intelligence (BI) and performance management (PM). Find out how IBM Cognos BI and PM solutions work with SAP ERP systems.
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Managing performance requires that business and IT, working collaboratively, develop a vision of how to integrate information and technology to improve the performance of the organization’s people and processes, and then act on that vision. Using common performance management (PM) tools and systems—designed to ensure the effective use of consistent information—is critical to the success of the business. Find out why.
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Executives are placing greater demands on the finance department—and the chief financial officer (CFO) —to provide an accurate picture of the financial health of the enterprise, offer insight into how emerging shifts in key market factors will affect the organization, and establish timely scalable measures of corporate performance that align across functions. Learn how BI solutions can help finance departments deliver.
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Companies require an agile enterprise performance management (EPM) strategy to ensure they have information to support effective decisions. The more information companies generate, the more they need software that places the information in the right context and optimizes the decision-support process. Learn to identify software that can help your organization find the best path to continual performance improvement.
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This white paper is a transcript of a webinar hosted by SAP Insider and presented by IBM Cognos Software. In it, you’ll Discover how Nike—a leading global manufacturer and marketer of athletic footwear, apparel, and equipment—leverages SAP with IBM Cognos solutions to improve its planning and financial performance management process, driving additional business value.
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Managing performance means understanding results, setting metrics, fixing plans, and making decisions. Based on best practices, performance management (PM) solutions help coordinate planning, budgeting, reporting, analysis, ad hoc queries, dashboarding, and scorecarding to support decision-making. Learn how PM solutions facilitate the flow of the right information to the right people at the right time.
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IT professionals must fulfill a vast array of business user information needs in a fast-changing technical environment. To succeed, the technology companies choose must meet with a high rate of user adoption and satisfaction. Learn the challenges facing IT and find out how to provide users with the flexible, self-service business intelligence (BI) and planning capabilities that they need for performance management (PM).
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Performance management (PM) solutions can increase agility, improve corporate performance, and increase competitive advantage. But they can also limit you. If they don’t address your real business needs, and aren’t flexible enough to help you find reliable and innovative answers to key business questions, they can hinder rather than help. Discover how business users can manage their performance on an SAP infrastructure.
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This paper details the challenges chief information officers (CIOs) face when seeking performance management (PM) capabilities from their enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. It details the advantages of implementing a PM system separate from the existing ERP solution in order to achieve greater results and improve efficiency and usability. The paper provides real-world examples and offers recommendations.
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FiberMark, a producer of specialty fiber products, had a data problem. Even though the company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system was managing data well, management still had to run thousands of pages of reports to glean any insight from that data. Learn how FiberMark’s new business intelligence (BI) solution allowed management to see and interact with data in ways that would not have been possible before.
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In most organizations today, data are managed in isolated silos by independent teams using various data management tools for data quality, integration, governance, and so on. In response to this situation, some organizations are adopting unified data management (UDM), a practice that holistically coordinates teams and integrates tools. This report can help your organization plan and execute effective UDM efforts.
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Turning piles of data into timely, actionable information dominates business and IT agendas. This new focus means companies must think strategically about information management in order to contain costs and retain their competitive advantage. It also means a greater emphasis on processes and tools used to assure data quality. Discover what business and IT executives are doing to address these data management issues.
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The quantity of information in the world is soaring. Merely keeping up with, and storing new information is difficult enough. Analyzing it, to spot patterns and extract useful information, is harder still. Even so, this data deluge has great potential for good—as long as consumers, companies, and governments make the right choices about when to restrict the flow of data, and when to encourage it. Find out more.
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All employees in your company are responsible for making sound decisions, and they must base their decisions on relevant and timely information. When users encounter difficulties accessing key business data, it can have a lasting impact on the organization’s performance and bottom line. Learn about a business intelligence (BI) solution that can help you bring BI to all information workers and reduce the burden on IT.
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The need for accurate data management such as upload or download of data between a company’s data sources and SAP systems is more critical than ever. Users are relying on manual operations, which are inherently error-prone, and time- and resource-intensive. Today's environment requires enterprise-class automation to overcome these challenges of data management. Learn about one solution that can help improve SAP data management.
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SAP BusinessObjects Edge is now TEC Certified for online comparison of business performance management (BPM) solutions in TEC's Evaluation Centers. The certification seal is a valuable indicator for organizations relying on the integrity of TEC research for assistance with their software selection projects. Download this report for product highlights, competitive analysis, product analysis, and in-depth analyst commentary.
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Business process management (BPM) consists of software and expertise, designed to improve the performance, visibility, and agility of business processes. With the right BPM solution, organizations can break down silos of information, streamline workflows, and help business professionals work better by working together. Learn about BPM solutions designed for rapid deployment and quick return on investment (ROI).
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The National Geographic Society’s (NGS) Genographic Project is a five-year worldwide scientific study to trace the migration of humanity across the planet. After gathering over 210,000 genetic samples, NGS faced the challenge of processing the massive amounts of data collected. Learn how NGS chose a combination of solutions that helped it gather, manage, secure, store, and analyze hundreds of thousands of genetic samples.
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The chief executive officer’s (CEO’s) priority list has expanded, resulting in more risk and uncertainty. People skills are now as important as market factors. Environmental issues demand twice as much attention as they did in the past. Suddenly, everything is important, and change can come from anywhere. Learn what the enterprise of the future will look like, according to over 1,000 CEOs interviewed for this white paper.
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Traditional analytic tools run queries against a data warehouse (DW) with user queries being processed against the data stored on relatively slow hard drives. In-memory analytics leverages a significantly more efficient approach where all the data is loaded into memory. This results in dramatic improvements in query response time and end-user experience. Find out how in-memory analytics can help your organization.
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Today’s manufacturing supply chain is challenged with increasing quality mandates, cost reductions, and delivery improvements. Technology plays a key role in a company’s ability to build and manage an effective supply chain. Discover the next wave of innovative supply chain solutions, and find out how one manufacturer used them to reduce cost, lead times, and inventories throughout its entire supply chain.
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Planning at the business unit level is most commonly done in spreadsheets, with cost center inputs gathered using workbook templates that are difficult to format and consolidate. While business units can’t escape from “spreadsheet hell” using a corporate business performance management (BPM) system, they can streamline planning and analysis processes with the right software solution. Find out how.
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With its globally distributed operations, Stiebel Eltron—a manufacturer of high-end heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment—needed to streamline its processes and rationalize data management so teams could work together faster and more efficiently. Discover how implementing new product data management (PDM) and visualization solutions helped the company stimulate new product introductions.
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SAP's business intelligence solution, SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI, is now TEC Certified. The certification seal is a valuable indicator for organizations who rely on the integrity of TEC’s research services for assistance with their software selection projects. Download this 24-page TEC report for product highlights, competitive analysis, product analysis, and in-depth analyst commentary.
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Making information broadly and easily available to more users throughout an organization—and beyond the organization to customers, partners, and stakeholders—has never been more imperative. More enterprises are coming to understand the value of placing consistent, integrated data into the hands of everyone who needs it. Learn how a data mart consolidation program can help you improve decision making while cutting costs.
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Digital Britain is the UK government’s strategic plan for the UK’s digital economy. While social inclusion and rights protection are major themes, the plan will also have a significant impact on businesses—encouraging the distribution and virtualization of business functions, and interconnectivity between companies, customers, suppliers, and employees. Learn how to minimize any harmful impact on your business.
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The convergence of business intelligence (BI) and mobility has been well under way for some time. As more professionals begin using smart phones and other mobile devices to keep up to date with business information, your company’s work force will start seeing mobile access to business data as the rule rather than the exception. Discover the benefits that are in store for an organization that embraces mobile analytics.
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Although companies typically find it easy to accumulate data from their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, it often remains unusable or unavailable to the decision makers who need it. Learn how deploying automated tools for report building, planning, and budgeting, as well as other applications such as business intelligence (BI) and performance management (PM) can help your company make the most of its ERP data.
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Many senior managers of small and medium-sized businesses hesitate at the cost and complexity of adopting technology such as business intelligence (BI) and performance management (PM). But these companies cannot postpone the adoption of BI or PM indefinitely. This research note explains how smaller companies can benefit from adopting a BI and PM solution, and makes the case for adopting IBM Cognos Express.
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Midsize organizations are uniquely positioned to take advantage of a performance management (PM) approach to business. Compared with larger companies, they have more agility to bring information and people together and respond faster to changing market conditions. Learn how PM can help midsize companies turn disconnected data into information, turn information into valuable insight, and turn insight into action.
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Most companies have an incredible amount of data living in transaction-based, distributed systems and databases. But these databases are often not designed to communicate with one another, allow users to explore data in unusual ways, or quickly provide high-level summaries of data. Learn how business intelligence (BI) systems can provide these and other benefits, and how to implement BI in your organization.
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In 2001, a leading North American resort owner purchased a 50 percent interest in Blue Mountain Resorts. To prepare for the demands of being part of a publicly held company, Blue Mountain began evaluating business intelligence (BI) and performance management (PM) systems. Find out how the company’s chosen solution helped improve reporting, avoid head-count additions, reduce labor costs, and decrease inventory levels.
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In 2006, Envision Credit Union’s new chief financial officer (CFO) was looking to improve the visibility, efficiency, and accuracy of the company’s accounting and finance functions. Find out how a new business intelligence (BI) and analytics solution helped Envision reduce administrative costs, increase the average amount of overnight cash investments, and improve operational visibility, without adding staff.
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For effective decision making, information workers need quick answers to off-the-cuff questions, better understanding of the business, and fast access to relevant information. But IT departments can’t react quickly enough to meet the dynamic needs of the organization while keeping costs within budget. Learn about business intelligence (BI) solutions that can help you extend the reach of BI to all information workers.
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To realize the full benefits of their investments in enterprise computing systems, organizations must have a detailed understanding of the quality of their data—how to clean it, and how to keep it clean. The companies that approach this issue strategically are the companies that will be successful. Learn the six factors that go into a good data quality strategy, and find out how to go from strategy to implementation.
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Business intelligence (BI) tools are now affordable for midsize companies, and accessible to non-technical business users. Managers can use BI to analyze complex information and support their decision-making processes—combining data from many sources into an integrated, up-to-date view. Find out what midsize companies need to know to select the right BI product, the right BI vendor, and the right approach to BI.
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For many organizations in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, the cost of high product volume sales is extreme data complexity. This affects line-of-business managers in marketing, sales, manufacturing, and procurement, who must derive tangible business value from this quagmire of data. Find out how business intelligence (BI) solutions are helping CPG managers get faster access to relevant business data.
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Tracking and reporting stimulus fund spending are difficult tasks for chief information officers (CIOs). The US government’s accountability demands are forcing organizations that are spending American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to analyze floods of data. Discover how automated ARRA reporting systems can help you comply with reporting requirements without excessive labor costs or data management headaches.
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Many significant business initiatives and large IT projects depend upon a successful data migration. But when migrated data is transformed for new uses, project teams encounter some very specific management and technical challenges. Minimizing the risk of these tricky migrations requires effective planning and scoping. Read up on the issues unique to data migration projects, and find out how to best approach them.
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To stay competitive, organizations are looking for ways to facilitate a smoother and more optimized global supply chain. But while companies are turning to business intelligence (BI) tools, many lack the ability to escape the gravity well of becoming data-rich while remaining information-poor. Learn how leading companies have eliminated the obstacles that hinder their ability to make better business decisions.
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IT investment continues to grow, as do the solutions that are funded by it. So far, this growth has contributed more to complexity than simplification. Standardizing on enterprise solutions can help companies manage this complexity and focus on their number-one priority: enabling business intelligence (BI). The use cases presented in this whitepaper highlight ways that your company can benefit from standardization.
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ABB, a specialist in energy and automation technology, needed a business intelligence (BI) and corporate performance management (CPM) solution in order to support varied business needs and processes such as sales control, management reporting, and planning. But the BI software ABB chose couldn’t cope with all the requirements for integrating analysis, planning, and reporting. Learn about the new BI solution ABB deployed.
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Charlotte Russe, a women’s clothing retailer, had complicated processes for sales, markdown, and performance analysis. These processes often resulted in missed deadlines, and so the company searched for a way to automate and improve them. By implementing a business intelligence (BI) and corporate performance management (CPM) solution, the company reduced sales analysis and markdown planning from days to minutes.
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Mitsubishi Electric Europe thought its enterprise resource planning (ERP) would address all of its reporting requirements. But long-term, this proved difficult to sustain, due to the company’s ever-changing procedures. So Mitsubishi decided to invest in a tool that would integrate data from disparate systems, speed up the delivery of information, and provide dashboard, analysis, and reporting capabilities. Find out more.
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Providing accurate and timely analytical information to health care professionals is critical to the success of PH Tech, provider of health care benefits administration services. PH Tech opted to integrate a business intelligence (BI) solution that allows its clients to make better-informed decisions leading to improved performance, lower costs, and enhanced patient and provider goodwill. Learn more about its BI software.
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Interdyn, a solution integrator specializing in the Microsoft Dynamics line, showed an insurance brokerage how to access the data locked in its customer relationship management (CRM) system. After being shown a business intelligence (BI) solution made just for Dynamics CRM, the client immediately saw the value of having its CRM data presented in visual reports using dashboards showing multiple metrics. Learn more.
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High Concrete encountered several challenges in trying to understand its customer relationship management (CRM) data. Its CRM reporting involved lengthy and error-prone processes. After seeing a demonstration of a business intelligence (BI) application specifically designed for its Dynamics CRM system, the company knew integrating the two systems would be easy—and provide flexible reports, quickly and accurately.
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Arysta LifeScience, one of the largest privately held crop protection and life sciences companies in the world, needed a business intelligence (BI) and business performance management (BPM) solution that would give users access to information from multiple systems, across multiple business areas. Learn how TEC’s software evaluation and selection methodology helped Arysta select the winning solution in only three months.
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When Lockheed Martin sells technology such as aircraft to its customers, it also provides training systems for both pilots and maintenance personnel. The training system must handle student and instructor registration, and training records and certifications—with scheduling for students and resources. Find out about the learning management system with simulator training functionality that the company chose.
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According to Nucleus Research, IBM Cognos business intelligence (BI) software can help companies make better use of their data when performing tasks related to reporting, financial statements, budgeting, and analysis. Learn about some of the barriers to better data use, as well as the key features and functions of this BI solution—and how you can improve data access and analysis, employee performance, and productivity.
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Sole-sourcing business intelligence (BI) software from enterprise resource planning (ERP) vendors is an alluring option for many companies. But in addition to the benefits, there are drawbacks. A study of 100 enterprises from the United States and the European Union that have deployed BI and ERP from the same vendor investigates whether customers are experiencing what sole-sourcing promised to deliver. Learn more.
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Businesses of all sizes need real insight into operations and customers—to do their planning, forecasting, modeling, and adjusting based on data that’s current, accurate, and accessible. This is at the core of today’s expanding business intelligence (BI) and enterprise performance management (EPM) markets. Find out more about how BI software or an EMP solution can help you improve your financial analysis and reporting.
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Many successful midsized companies reach a point when transitioning to a tier-one enterprise application system is necessary. Transitioning to a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a challenge—but it may not be as complex as you think. Learn common myths about tier-one ERP systems, as well as how ERP solutions can help you manage regulatory compliance and track performance with key performance indicators.
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Extending the capabilities and value of SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse is a concern for users. To improve data use and fact-based decision making, and reduce stranded spreadsheets, SAP users can choose a business intelligence (BI) software solution such as IBM Cognos 8, with budgeting, planning, and forecasting functions. Find out more about how you can improve your business performance management content with BI.
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Finance professionals who plan, budget, and forecast in an SAP environment always need to drive additional value from their SAP solutions. One of the most pressing challenges is extending SAP functionality with a planning, budgeting, and forecasting solution that offers critical modeling and analytic capabilities for improved financial performance management. Learn how a business intelligence (BI) solution can help.
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Acts of cyber aggression could lead to a cyber war or worse. Capitol Hill is giving attention to this security issue, and vendors are creating new offerings and expanding existing programs—creating new opportunities in the defense industry and opening doors for new players. Learn more about the blurring between information security vendors servicing the private sector and those in the defense and intelligence industry.
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To drive improvements in operating profit and customer service, you need to use business intelligence (BI) dashboard tools both tactically for operational visibility—and strategically for more forward-looking analysis. But you also need to ensure the use of BI is pervasive across the enterprise. Get insight into three discrete datasets that can help you examine the value of pervasive BI and drive business improvement.
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You’ll increase your chances of business intelligence (BI) project success and overcome technical and other challenges if you follow a methodology. To begin with, evaluate any BI vendor based on specific features and functionality, service offerings, support structure, and other considerations. Learn more about how to ensure you choose a BI solution that suits your company—and how to ensure a successful implementation.
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Far from being a philanthropic “nice to have,” top-performing companies view sustainability as a “must-have” strategy for long-term success. Sustainability encompasses strategies to ensure optimal performance related to the business, the environment, and society. This road map can get you started: learn how to match environmental and social stewardship to actionable, and measurable improvements to your bottom line.
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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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In times of economic uncertainty, you need to actively seek out best practices in how to adopt practical working capital optimization to improve financial performance while maintaining customer satisfaction. Learn about the three key performance criteria that define best-in-class organizations, and how they’re making their focus within the supply chain on working capital—primarily by optimizing inventory management.
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If you’re not on top of the range of business intelligence (BI) functionality that has evolved over the past 15 years, this framework can help. There’s a fundamental shortcoming in most BI tools today, as a single architecture cannot support the full range of BI functionality—leading to excessive costs, delays, and user dissatisfaction. Learn about a solution that covers the five different styles of BI functionality.
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If you’re in the midst of evaluating business intelligence (BI) software, this datasheet sheds light on a BI solution based on a relational online analytical processing (ROLAP) architecture that can provide high scalability and interactivity. Find out more about ROLAP, as well as how BI solutions can support all levels of BI initiatives, including migration from departmental BI toward a more cohesive enterprise framework.
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Data mining and predictive analysis applications can help you make knowledge-driven decisions and improve efficiency. But the user adoption of these tools has been slow due to their lack of business intelligence (BI) functionality, proactive information distribution, robust security, and other necessities. Now there’s an integrated enterprise BI system that can deliver data mining and predictive analysis. Learn more.
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Because today’s IT budgets are under increasing scrutiny and business requirements have become more complex, buyers of business intelligence (BI) solutions must evaluate total cost of ownership (TCO). The BI architecture can be an asset to IT departments, meeting a range of user needs while minimizing the amount of IT maintenance and administration. Learn more about how to do TCO analysis of a BI system—before you buy.
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To achieve operational excellence, process manufacturers must be able to control costs while meeting customer expectations. Best-in-class process companies provide visibility into manufacturing operations while using real-time interoperability between manufacturing systems and business systems. Discover how best-in-class process manufacturers accomplish this, as well as other characteristics that help them succeed.
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According to a recent study, 82 percent of respondents are cutting budgets in response to the current recession. Companies are attempting to increase customer loyalty to reduce customer churn at a time when the customer relationship may be the only reliable source of revenue. Discover how operational business intelligence capabilities can help top-performing companies better focus on operational processes and performance.
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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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Spreadsheets can provide rudimentary business performance management (BPM) capabilities. But there are many reasons to leave them behind: improved collaboration among users with data security and audit capabilities, greater accuracy of analysis and reports, real-time information, and more. Discover other benefits, as well as how you should approach and carry out the transition from spreadsheets to a BPM solution.
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New economic conditions are driving companies to become increasingly cautious about the near future. But focusing on improving flexibility to dynamically account for change shifts focus away from budget accuracy—putting you at risk of falling short of shareholder expectations. To achieve best-in-class status, you must plan, budget, and forecast more efficiently for improved agility, accuracy, and corporate performance.
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Every record that fails to meet standards of quality can lead to lost revenue or unnecessary costs. A well-executed data quality initiative isn’t difficult, but it is crucial to getting maximum value out of your data. In small companies, for which every sales lead, order, or potential customer is valuable, poor data quality isn’t an option—implementing a thorough data quality solution is key to your success. Find out how.
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Without data that is reliable, accurate, and updated, organizations can’t confidently distribute that data across the enterprise, leading to bad business decisions. Faulty data also hinders the successful integration of data from a variety of data sources. But with a sound data quality methodology in place, you can integrate data while improving its quality and facilitate a master data management application—at low cost.
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By geocoding your address data, you have the location intelligence that helps you see patterns and create new opportunities to grow your business. There are three levels of positional accuracy, based on budget and business needs, as well as more enhanced levels of geographic accuracy. Learn more about geocoding, and how you can use it to perform market-specific data analysis—to strengthen customer relationships and more.
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Most document security companies concern themselves solely with the prevention of unauthorized access to content. Online publishers, on the other hand, struggle to find a balance between document security and a satisfactory reader experience. A new approach to document security can give online content publishers the ability to protect their content without adding unnecessary complexity to document access. Learn more.
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Communication between companies is critical for smooth and effective commerce. Delays in information delivery may seriously affect a company’s profitability. But many companies don’t see that automating business communications can improve document delivery, and still rely on slow methods. Find out how you can improve the efficiency of your document delivery process by using common applications to simplify forms and more.
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Developed based on the role-tailored integrated business planning model (RTIBPM), the Microsoft Dynamics NAV integrated business planning system automates much of the planning process. This white paper explores the history of integrated business planning (IBP), and discusses software solutions like Microsoft Dynamics NAV that can help your company improve performance planning.
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Reporting has been significant to businesses by providing a platform for users to get immediate access to business information via using simple analysis. However, business intelligence (BI) caters to strategic, tactical, and operational needs, providing a platform for comprehensive performance management. Compare standard reports and BI in terms of functionality, capability, architecture, process, and management benefits.
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Kempe, a provider of innovative engineering solutions and services for a variety of industries, was using separate systems to manage the financial and operation aspects of the business. These systems were out of date and made accurate financial reporting almost impossible. With the help of a value-added reseller (VAR), Kepme implemented a centralized, integrated solution that stores information in real time. Learn more.
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To survive in today’s ever-changing business environment, you need to make decisions and act quickly. To thrive, you need to do so more quickly than your competitors. Business intelligence (BI) solutions can support your ability to identify business opportunities and challenges, and to address them fast. Learn about a BI product that can help you identify challenges and opportunities and take action to capitalize on them.
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Enterprise feedback management (EFM) is the process of systematically collecting, analyzing, consolidating, and using all sources of feedback to improve your company and your overall profitability. EFM includes not only aggregating feedback from multiple stakeholders, across multiple channels, but also getting real-time, actionable information to where it’s relevant in the company. Learn more about implementing EFM.
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Sadly, a division exists between business analysts and IT—they often perform separate data-related duties. There are benefits for companies that unite business analytics with business intelligence. But the adaptive information cycle—a model linking the center-out approach of traditional data warehousing to the emergent prototyping typifying today’s analytic environment—is not as complex as it may sound. Learn more.
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For a full picture of the business environment and make the best decisions, middle managers must have access to business intelligence (BI). You can’t focus on only the functional level—you must see the relationships among various business components. And you can—with a BI tool that’s easily accessible no matter where you reside in the enterprise, and that’s flexible enough to meet each department’s reporting needs.
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No matter the size of your company, you need critical business information and integrated reporting. Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) shouldn’t discount the importance of business intelligence (BI). In fact, most SME owners make decisions based on a best guess, and don’t know the value of business intelligence (BI) systems. But you don’t have to empty your coffers—new BI software is Web-based and affordable. Learn more.
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Business intelligence (BI) exists in many corners of a company, and even outside its walls. BI is hidden in industry publications, staff knowledge, market research, sales data, project schedules, spreadsheets, and packaged and legacy software applications. Without a true and complete picture of all available data and information, you cannot effectively plan for success or appropriately leverage a BI system. Learn more.
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Transactional onboarding aims to achieve value by optimizing, perfecting, and controlling specific tasks in the employee onboarding process. Tasks that help meet these objectives fall into three categories: automating paperwork and forms, automating the flow of data, and ensuring compliance. Learn more about these tasks, their processes, and how an automated onboarding system can help you manage your recruitment process.
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Unfortunately, leaders often lack the visibility to predict workforce needs in difficult times, and human resources (HR) professionals often lack the business acumen to answer detailed data-driven workforce questions. As a result, many companies are currently operating in crisis mode, reacting to economic turmoil by downsizing their workforce. Find out how you can use workforce analytics for strategic workforce planning.
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Most enterprises have accumulated a surfeit of workforce and employee data. Only leading-edge companies are making extensive use of data to drive human capital management (HCM) decisions the way most companies use financial and marketing data to make strategic business decisions. Learn more about why—and how—you should be making fact-based workforce planning decisions that will help you survive the current recession.
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The consequences of fleeting customer attention—as companies with complex sales cycles know only too well—include lengthening sales cycles, stalled opportunities, and quarters that bring unpleasant surprises. The easy answer is to spend more time with your customers. But a better answer is having more comprehensive visibility into the sales pipeline and a complete understanding of the end-to-end sales process. Learn more.
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Today, businesses must work smarter, not just harder—and to do it, they must use information to compete. With growing demands on data resources, companies need to derive greater value from their existing information. But this information is often scattered throughout the organization. To survive in the current tough economic environment means building successful enterprise information management strategies. Find out how.
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Brydens, an importer and distributor based in San Juan (Trinidad), needed a way to integrate the operational and functional aspects of the business, as well as turn raw data into useful information for better decision making. With a new warehouse management system (WMS), Brydens benefits from tracking and order fulfillment capabilities, for better inventory management. Discover the other benefits of the WMS solution.
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Wist, an office supply company offering over 40,000 products, was running an outdated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The primary concern was the system’s lack of flexibility, which incurred unnecessary labor costs. As well, errors were common and prevented Wist from getting the information needed for data analysis. With a new ERP for distribution, Wist has streamlined operations and reduced costs. Learn how.
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IT managers realize that service-oriented architecture (SOA) projects are no longer an “if”—they’re a “when.” SOA can help achieve your number-one goal: aligning IT with business. If you’re in the consideration and planning stage, you’ll need some practical strategies for a business-driven SOA deployment. Find out how packaged solutions can accelerate SOA deployments, ease the burden of SOA management, and more.
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The concepts of return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) have been used for decades in enterprise evaluations of IT investments, including enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. However, with the emergence of important new technological advances, executives are now expanding these traditional formulas to account for new opportunities. Learn more about their new methods for measuring ERP value.
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To do their jobs, knowledge workers use the gamut of media and technologies. However, although the proliferation of new means to locate and access data has multiplied the amount of information available to these workers, it’s also made the efficient dissemination, management, and processing of data more burdensome. Find out more about how collaborative tools are—and aren’t—being used in the information-sharing workplace.
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In today’s challenging economic environment, no company can afford to be rash. But can the “do nothing” approach really pass as sound business strategy? As in the best of times, companies need to understand the nature of the pressures they face and take clear action to address them head-on. Discover how to see clearly, think clearly, and act clearly—focus your energy on developing clarity and transparency in your company.
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“Financial close” is a company’s ability to complete accounting cycles and produce financial statements for internal management and external legal reporting—and is still a key part of today’s global finance function. Do you know how to overcome the barriers to a fast, high-quality close? Discover solutions that can help you improve your close times and address the challenges of automating and testing internal controls.
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Rising data volume is not the only reason companies are concerned with issues of data integration and data quality. The growing numbers of disparate systems that produce and distribute data add to the complexity. But in many companies, data quality management has not kept pace with the growth of data integration projects, and its use is immature. Find out how moving toward a single data services architecture can help.
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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), designed to quickly stimulate economic recovery in the US, also marks the start of a new era in the regulation, oversight, and accountability of the use of public funds. Agencies at all government levels will be challenged to maintain focus on programs that achieve long-term results—while ensuring they adhere to the complex requirements for stimulus funds. Learn more.
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Better. Faster. Cheaper. Every company is grappling with these concepts today as economic uncertainty spreads. Though many are focusing on what to eliminate in their operations, leading firms are redoubling their efforts to find new ways to execute with greater efficiency—to achieve operational excellence without sacrificing the value their customers expect. Learn more about improving your strategic competitive advantage.
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Are you moving beyond the need to comply with legislation like the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), to focus instead on driving sustainability and control in your processes? Do you have an initiative to support the fast close—or does your ability to complete your accounting cycles and close your books need a boost? Learn about technology and a methodology that can help you deal with the intercompany reconciliation challenge.
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In today’s economy, executives face declining revenues and tough cost-cutting decisions. However, cost reductions alone are not enough to survive, especially for midsize companies, which often lack the resources needed to sustain a market downturn. Yet midsize companies can be much more agile—if they have the right information. Discover how you can improve performance with a business intelligence (BI) solution.
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An unsettled economy needs a different approach to managing revenues. Companies must identify their most profitable customers and the most effective marketing and sales vehicle for reaching them—with a shrinking budget. And shifts in customer spending demand a fresh look at the value proposition of your current products and services. Find out how you can stay close to your customers as their needs change.
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The role of the finance team has changed recently, due to increased oversight from regulators, more active investors, and company-specific changes in business operations. What steps are companies taking to respond to the internal and external forces? Find out how finance often repairs core finance and operating activities, as exposed in the results of a survey and a series of interviews among senior finance executives.
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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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Workers spend on average close to 80 percent of their workday with some combination of enterprise applications and desktop tools. Best-in-class companies have already found ways to improve productivity. Learn more about the convergence of enterprise applications with desktop tools, and the role it plays in providing visibility to enterprise data, improving communication, and facilitating real-time decision making.
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Driving sustainable growth requires profitability-focused planning and performance management. Most companies have some type of profitability reporting—but many are investing a lot of effort to produce this information. And the limitations to the information companies currently compile may have a significant impact on decision making. Learn how automating profitability reporting can help your company improve decisions.
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Organizations are beginning to wake up to the fact that the data they collect and manage should be viewed as a corporate asset. Data is the one thing that separates you from your competitors—and the quality of your data can be your competitive advantage or disadvantage. Discover six key steps you can take and put into effect to help you realize a tangible return on investment (ROI) on your data quality initiative.
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New data sources, unstructured data, and greater volumes of data than ever before are creating an information overload. Plus, customers’ demands for faster service stress front-office applications, while parallel demands from internal users place greater demands on back-office systems. Before you discover that your data quality has been rendered ineffective, consider adopting enterprise information management (EIM).
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Data quality has always been an important issue for companies, and today it’s even more so. But are you up-to-date on current industry problems concerning data quality? Do you know how to address quality problems with customer, product, and other types of corporate data? Discover how data cleansing tools help improve data constancy and accuracy, and find out why you need an enterprise-wide approach to data management.
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To move your sales team to the next level, you need to find answers to several questions. For example: How do you determine which customers provide the best opportunity for a successful sale? Can you develop and present a comprehensive view of your value position to a prospect? What is the role of IT in driving a best-run sales organization? Find out how leading companies have answered these questions—and how they excel.
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The success of direct marketing, measured in terms of qualified leads that generate sales, depends on accurately identifying prospects. Ensuring data accuracy and data quality can be a big challenge if you have up to 10 million prospect records in your customer relationship management (CRM) system. How can you ensure you select the right prospects? Find out how an enterprise information management (EIM) system can help.
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If you can’t see how your business is performing, how can you make the right decisions? For a company to thrive, operations and analysis must work together. The ability to access and integrate all your data sources is the start to getting the complete picture—and the key to not compromising your decision-making process. Learn more about how data integration can help consolidate your data so you can use it effectively.
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Accurate forecasting requires many different views of the business. Increasingly, the finance department must make the links between forward-looking data from core operations and explain to stakeholders how this will impact the balance sheet and cash flow statement. How can chief financial officers lead the effort to make their operational and financial planning more agile, detailed, reliable, and efficient? Learn more.
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Sustaining profitability in a landscape of volatile prices and exchange rates is difficult for even the best-run companies. One key challenge is to understand the real economic costs in your business and of your products so you can make accurate decisions about sourcing, substitutions, pricing, and logistics. Find out how to use the right costing methodology and have the right information—and the right analytical tools.
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MISTRAL Engines, founded in 2001, has a line of engines to meet the needs of 21st-century aviation. MISTRAL looked for a data management system that was flexible enough to adjust smoothly and on an ad hoc basis to a company in constant growth and with continuously evolving processes. Find out how its new product lifecycle management (PLM) solution helps the company throughout the full product development process.
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Need a model to help calculate an estimate of manpower needs by role, timeline, and labor cost to build a data mart based on user-supplied variables? Here’s a calculator that provides two estimates. The first is based on using the traditional “develop by committee,” and the second on developing the same data mart at the developmental level. The model needs minimal input and can be changed to fit your needs. Find out more.
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Midsize retailers recognize the value of business intelligence (BI), but many feel BI solutions are beyond their reach. Nowhere is this need more keenly felt than in the midsize retail business, where the right decisions can mean all the difference between success and failure. With limited budgets and staff size, there’s little margin for error. So, how should midsize companies approach these issues? Learn more.
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Early in 2004, software service provider Vermont Information Processing (VIP) saw an opportunity to help beverage producers drive down costs, improve productivity, and increase the accuracy of their business processes through automated supply chain communication solutions—or electronic data interchange (EDI) solutions. Find out why VIP chose Inovis’ suite of EDI solutions, and how it and its clients are benefiting.
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Achieving perfection in all of its transactions is important for shipping companies like Yantian—perfection that can only come with automation. While Yantian uses industry-standard electronic data interchange (EDI) to exchange transaction documents, it must accommodate the wide variety of media, formats, and protocols shippers use. Find out how Yantian used a server solution to simplify its trading partner management.
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Today’s Web applications exist in an environment vastly different from when businesses first entered the Internet. Few companies have a comprehensive Web application security program to prevent Internet-borne security breaches. Learn how security concerns for Web applications are different than for traditional applications, and how to build a Web security program that curbs costs and provides effective security.
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Taleo, provider of software as a service (SaaS), was reaching $120 million (USD) and had more than 600 employees. Yet, in finance, the company was not quite so dynamic. The new director of finance recognized the need to move to a financial reporting system that featured technology advances. Find out about the online analytic processing (OLAP) server Taleo chose as part of its businessModify performance management strategy.
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Best practices for reporting have often been overlooked. Most of the time we focus on eye candy—such as dashboards—and overlook report generation and report production, which are crucial concepts at the heart of business intelligence (BI). Learn more about the current reporting situation, and learn about ways to use reporting tools to improve the reporting processes in your company and make them more efficient.
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Most companies recognize that business intelligence (BI) is critical to business process improvement and decision making, because these BI tools turn data into actionable information. However, many companies fail to put BI tools into the hands of users who would most benefit from them. Find out how IT executives can leverage today’s less complex BI tools to empower your company from top to bottom.
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Many business intelligence (BI) tools are designed for professional analysts and not business users. As a result, executives find they still don’t have the information they need to make decisions quickly and effectively. In order to maximize your potential in BI, you must embed it into the daily routine of your entire company. Find out about a BI solution that can help you, with functionality like interactive reporting.
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Compliance is often treated as a necessary evil that creates costs, disruption, and complexity. But these pains often result from dealing with compliance in a clumsy way due to a lack of resources and the absence of a compliance strategy. There’s a better way: using standards-based data management solutions that integrate with existing infrastructure and leverage automation to embed compliance at all levels. Find out how.
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If you’re considering investing in business intelligence (BI) software, you need to know about the features and functionalities BI solutions offer, and how to use them to improve your business performance. The Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition Plus (OBIEE Plus) is a suite of BI products with a range of capabilities. Find out if OBIEE Plus offers your company the BI tools you need.
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The key to enterprise performance management is to identity a company’s value drivers, focus on them, and align the company to drive results. But there are many management methodologies—such as the balanced scorecard, performance prism, and five forces. What is the right framework for your business? Find out about six management processes and the tools that can help you asses which metrics framework will work for you.
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A strong identity management platform plays dual roles: gatekeeper and guardian of business intelligence (BI) and data. Midsize businesses can’t operate effectively without the ability to control access to their networks and business systems. And, many midsize companies must report on this information for compliance purposes. Learn about the factors driving midsize companies toward stronger identity management systems.
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Oracle Database 11g is a database platform for data warehousing and business intelligence (BI) that includes integrated analytics, and embedded integration and data-quality. Get an overview of Oracle Database 11g’s capabilities for data warehousing, and learn how Oracle-based BI and data warehouse systems can integrate information, perform fast queries, scale to very large data volumes, and analyze any data.
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Monitoring, measuring, and reporting on the financial health of a company is a basic need that requires effective tools and processes to optimize the end result. Underpinning this is the requirement for planning capabilities, using scenario and what-if analysis with simulations and other forward-looking capabilities. The new primary research presented in this report shows that most organizations still have much to do.
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A Japan-based department store chain was experiencing fast growth, opening new stores in commercial complexes at prime locations. The company’s existing business intelligence (BI) tool took up to 12 hours to update sales data from the point of sale (POS) systems. Discover how the company reduced this time, while providing managers the reporting abilities they needed to control sales and improve customer satisfaction.
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By adopting traditional business intelligence (BI) tools, companies have gained valuable insights into past activities and results. However, with operational BI that is different from standard and tactical BI, promptness of information and data in real-time or near real-time is established. Learn how operational BI can boost the timeliness and accuracy of business decisions, and improve operational efficiency and results.
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For a company that has grown to the point where an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is the logical next step, there are enormous benefits to be realized, such as centralizing key business data. ERP helps to alleviate pressures on the company by integrating all data and processes. Find out about the critical components of selecting and implementing an ERP system, so you can get the data management tools you need.
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Founded in 1951, Photo Continental is the southern hemisphere’s largest destination camera store. With over 81,000 products available to customers, the company recently decided to upgrade its business management system to meet the challenges of the digital era. Learn how the Pronto enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, customized for the photography industry, gave the company complete visibility over its business.
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Established in 2002, Fibrelogic is now Australia’s leading fiberglass pipe company. Recognizing that its spreadsheet-based systems—for everything from inventory management to financials—were delaying month-end reporting, the company implemented the PRONTO-Xi enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Learn how the new system helped Fibrelogic access information for strategic decision making and improve customer service.
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After a number of acquisitions, it was vital that testing, inspection, and asset care provider PearlStreet have a solution to integrate each business and consolidate key company and financial information in one system. PearlStreet deployed a range of PRONTO-Xi modules, including project costing. Now, the company has greater operations visibility, more effective reporting, and the ability to analyze business performance.
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Enterprise resource planning (ERP) should provide all employees with information that helps them perform their jobs. But process manufacturing is very complicated, so your ERP software must be robust enough to support your information needs. While no packaged ERP can meet everyone’s needs perfectly, finding the best fit for your needs is key. Learn seven things not to do during your ERP software selection project.
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Business intelligence (BI) and business performance management (BPM) are two disciplines that become critical as companies progress through the midsize stage. BI and BPM provide key capabilities that every midsize company should have, to answer fundamental questions about performance, now and in the future. Learn how your operations are affected by specific challenges—and how a BI/BPM solution can help address them.
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You can have the best sales pitch in the world, but if you don’t know who your audience is, or what they’re looking for, your strategy is based on chance. Marketing—smart, cost-effective marketing—is about listening to what a specific person or group of people are looking for and responding to their needs or desires. Learn how to use analytics to focus your marketing efforts, for more effective and efficient results.
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As companies grow, their organizational structure and decision-making processes may outgrow managements’ ability to run that business by the “seat of their pants.” To make complex decisions, you need systems that collect information offering true business intelligence (BI). Discover the ways two solutions can meet complex BI capabilities for chart of accounts, financial reporting tools, and other key BI solution elements.
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Small and midsized companies may need help configuring Google Analytics installations to aid their clients in the real estate, vacation rental, and resort markets—and to measure and enhance the effectiveness of their online marketing programs. If you’re tired of being kept in the dark about the effectiveness of your Internet marketing programs, then it might be time to implement a comprehensive Google Analytics program.
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Today’s rigorous reporting requirements suggest there’s a crisis of trust among companies’ stakeholders. But scrambling reactively to implement one-off responses to each new set of compliance regulations won’t rebuild stakeholder trust—such short-sighted solutions just cost a lot of money. An integrated approach to governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) offers a path to better decision making. Learn how.
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Master data management (MDM) solutions are not new. But what is new is that companies are realizing that master data needs to be managed and integrated outside of the traditional business transaction and business intelligence (BI) environments. Learn more about the current status of MDM, and get suggestions for planning, building, and deploying an MDM environment that can work in conjunction with BI tools.
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Data migration has proved to be one of the greatest threats to continuous applications and data availability. Migrating to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 can create challenges on top of the usual time-consuming efforts. Find out about the common difficulties reported by companies that have set up Exchange Server 2007, and migration tools that help ensure your data remains protected during the journey to your new platform.
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To close the gap between strategy, risk, and execution, companies need to build strategic alignment across all aspects of the business. Learn how your company can benefit from deploying strategy management software as part of a larger corporate performance management solution—encompassing business planning and consolidation, profitability and cost management, spend analytics, and governance, risk, and compliance.
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Noble Trade, a wholesale distributor of industrial materials, lacked a customer relationship management (CRM) system. Customer data wasn’t organized, and customer activity history was being lost. To address these issues, managers selected Microsoft® Dynamics CRM Online as the company’s CRM solution. One of the benefits is better collaboration between sales and service, leading to increased customer satisfaction.
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When you upgrade enterprise application software, you want to realize expected benefits as quickly as possible and minimize costs, disruption, and risk. In tough economic times, there is absolutely no room for budget overruns and the potential disruption to business operations—which are always risks of an application upgrade. An end-user management solution can help you realize return on investment (ROI). Find out how.
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The strength of a company can be traced to the value of its brands. Brand marketing managers seek to create and develop brand value by converting consumer insights into consumer loyalty. How can you overcome the challenge of developing effective marketing campaigns that convert consumer information into revenue and profit? Leverage the value of your brand with an integrated approach to brand management. Find out how.
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Accessing the right information is a crucial step in achieving operational excellence. But companies can examine performance in so many ways—and deliver that information through so many platforms—that it’s hard to know where to begin. Learn how your company can move toward operational excellence, following the three key steps of internal assessment, competitive benchmarking, and resource prioritization and acquisition.
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In addition to traditional duties like financial planning, reporting, and governance, chief financial officers (CFOs) and financial managers are being tasked with more strategic responsibilities. Learn how the right data, performance management applications, and resources can help finance managers improve operational efficiency, ensure regulatory compliance, and control performance for maximized profitability.
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Because sustaining a strong relationship with customers is essential for future growth, the most successful companies work hard to ensure that their customers don’t feel shortchanged. But the benefits of customer satisfaction extend beyond gaining more business with a single account. Find out how to get a better understanding of your customer information, such as customer spending, for more reliable sales growth.
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Master data management (MDM) comprises a set of processes and tools that define and manage the non-transactional data entities of an organization (also called reference data). MDM provides processes for consolidation, quality assurance, and distribution of such data throughout a company to ensure consistency and control in the ongoing maintenance and use of this information. Discover the benefits of an MDM system.
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Along with the increasing sophistication of BI capabilities comes an increase in data volume—yet companies want to improve time-to-information for users. Data storage and data retrieval decisions are now often made based on cost instead of business needs—leading to compromises that impact performance. Find out the BI strategies, capabilities, and technologies best-in-class companies are using to address these challenges.
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Data analysis is critical to your company’s survival. But efforts to collect data about your organizational processes, financial situation, and business performance—and consolidate and analyze it—are hampered by inconsistent data sources, problems with data quality, and a lack of clarity about how to use it. Learn about four trends that are now shaping the ways companies use BI and BI systems to improve their operations.
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The IT investments that have allowed firms in process industries to increase the efficiency of their operations and supply chains have also created vast stores of data. Unfortunately, many companies are still unable redeploy that data to drive innovation. Learn how the next generation of business intelligence (BI) tools can help your company gain a competitive advantage by harnessing the information IT systems generate.
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Despite significant investments in data collection and integration, few companies can redeploy accumulated data to drive business performance. To succeed, they need new business intelligence (BI) tools that can integrate and analyze huge amounts of internal and external data. Learn how such tools can help your company understand customer needs, identify trends, and use the resulting lead time to seize opportunities.
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Many chief financial officers (CFOs) have started to take on new strategic roles. Their goals are to enforce stricter controls to ensure legal and regulatory compliance, offer strategic insights into the internal and external business environment, and connect the business strategy with daily operations through performance tracking. Learn more about the changing role of the CFO in today’s finance organization.
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Business intelligence (BI) is not a new concept. What’s new is that BI tools are now accessible for midsize companies. Managers can use BI to analyze complex information to support their decision-making processes, combining data from a variety of sources to get an integrated, 360-degree view of the company. Find out how to select the right BI software, the right vendor, and the right approach to implementing BI.
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Hospitals around the world are facing increased pressure to improve operations from multiple directions. Legal requirements, aging populations, and an ever-growing need to be service-oriented are forcing hospitals to do more with less. Hospitals could be doing more to coordinate, analyze, and use data to improve operational performance. A new generation of business intelligence (BI) tools, such as dashboards, can help.
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Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies have made big investments in data collection and integration. But, much of the data from their IT systems hasn’t been well analyzed or used. What’s needed is a new generation of business intelligence (BI) tools that can integrate cross- and inter-enterprise processes and data. Learn how BI can help you make better decisions, change business processes, and drive overall performance.
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Commercial open source business intelligence (BI) is becoming an alternative to proprietary open source BI for medium and large companies. However, commercial BI solutions have major demerits compared to proprietary BI, and have a long way to go to compete in the market. Discover the advantages and disadvantages of commercial open source BI compared to proprietary BI, and which one may be better for your company.
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Software vendors and users often view advanced data visualization and dashboard capabilities as the “sizzle” that helps sell the product. This over-simplification misses the key point that ADV delivers the “steak” (i.e., the relevant information) users need to make accurate assessments that optimize business results. Discover how ADV and dashboards can help you keep your company focused on its core mission.
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Today, visionary companies focus on building service and product platforms, and allowing third parties to add creativity, choice, and differentiation. Organizations should create channel strategies that integrate partner resources into an internal sales and marketing system. Partner relationship management (PRM) facilitates mutually beneficial partner relationships with definitive performance metrics. Learn more.
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Designed to be agile and dependable, financial analysis solutions can bring clarity to the reasons behind your company’s growth, and help steer you toward future growth. Learn how financial analysis solutions enhance the value of your existing business support systems, and distill enterprise-wide information to answer the question: How can we increase revenue, maximize profits, and increase our competitive advantage?
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Spreadsheets once provided a foundation for analysis and competitive advantage. But spreadsheets can lack integrity, traceability, consistency, and security, which erode business confidence in data and results. However, business intelligence (BI) tools can empower users with streamlined quality data, and strong analytics and reporting—enabling them to make smarter decisions. Learn how you can benefit.
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Managing product images is frustrating. Typically, images are not documented nor linked to the associated product information. Worse, suppliers and retailers rarely have a system to exchange images, forcing retailers to reshoot photos that suppliers already had. Learn how including product images in your data synchronization process helps make product information, including images, accessible to anyone who needs it.
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The number of steps involved in getting materials or products from suppliers to buyers makes inbound logistics an error-prone process. Each mistake costs you time, labor, money, customer satisfaction, and, ultimately, your competitive position in the marketplace. Learn how implementing a partner performance management program can help your company reduce the number of inbound-logistics problems, and minimize their impact.
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Based in Houston, Texas (US), Commonwealth provides engineering and construction management services for chemical process industries. Aiming to drive operational efficiencies and enable cost-effective growth, the company chose to centralize project management and accounting, and turned to Microsoft® Gold Certified Partner, New Vision Consulting Group, to deploy Microsoft® Dynamics® SL. Learn how the company benefited.
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This white paper highlights key challenges facing the professional services industry, and discusses how the 2007 Microsoft® Office system can help professional services firms enhance business performance by maximizing employee contributions. It also offers examples of firms realizing business impact from their early use of the 2007 Office system, which provides innovative and powerful enterprise-scale capabilities that extend far beyond improving personal productivity.
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In the late 1990s, TDIndustries had disparate business systems that kept the company from increasing efficiency and performance. Today, nearly all business activities run through Microsoft Dynamics SL, which helps to simplify financial management and empower employees with real-time data. And, to enhance Dynamics SL, the company built a business intelligence (BI) solution that helped save $3 million (USD). Find out more.
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Researching over 200 companies using more than 250 PCs and one or more Microsoft Dynamics applications, Microsoft found several key pain points. One was rapid growth and how it’s hindered by systems that can’t scale to support it. Another point was integration problems, especially with customer and partner systems. Find out how these companies used Microsoft Dynamics to support rapid growth and drive business success.
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Microsoft recently researched the experience of nearly 200 companies with more than 250 PCs that have deployed one or more of the applications in the Microsoft Dynamics line of business management solutions. Among these companies, a common issue was growth via mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Find out about the pain points, and how Microsoft Dynamics can help support growth via M&A to drive business success.
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Unsurprisingly, research shows that the majority of companies see their future predicated on how well they can innovate. However, just throwing IT technology at issues in the hope that innovation will happen is not viable. Ideas are ephemeral and easily crushed within the wrong environment. Creating a suitable culture, allied with a well implemented idea management approach combined with strong leadership, is required.
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Midsize companies seeking high annual growth rates rarely have the resources to pursue risky new businesses or markets. Instead, they must start by protecting their existing businesses and further penetrating existing markets, while keeping an eye out for possible product diversification or extension into new markets. Find out how your company can avoid disaster by properly preparing for new products and markets.
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Financial performance management—often categorized as one aspect of enterprise performance management—can help chief financial officers (CFOs) maximize their companies’ profitability, protect against non-compliance, and optimize efficiency by ensuring delivery of information when it is needed, in context. Learn more about a solution that can help you adapt to rapid business change and predict future financial performance.
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The insurance industry’s turn from an underwriting-oriented vision to a customer-centric view has been painfully slow. Success isn’t just a matter of delivering superior products and services, but of incorporating customer insight into enterprise strategy on an ongoing basis. Learn how you can use your customer segment data for customer analytics that can help you determine which segments to grow and which to retain.
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Chief financial officers (CFOs) are moving beyond administrative and transactional tasks and becoming catalysts to improve business performance. In collaboration with business units, they are developing the metrics and data required to track and meet business goals. Find out how they’re capturing and disseminating the information needed to make operating and management decisions, and provide decision support to finance.
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Master data is instrumental in determining how an organization produces, buys, and sells its goods and services. Inaccurate master data can lead to improper business decisions, loss of revenue, and noncompliance with regulatory and quality mandates. Find out how an Enterprise data management (EDM) strategy can help your company avoid these pitfalls by achieving clean, consolidated, and consistent master data.
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If there's one constant in any business today, it's pressure. And dealing with pressure can lead managers toward the temptation of taking complete control. However, this often stifles the one element that enables companies to break away from the pack: employee-driven innovation. Learn why empowering your customer-facing employees is the new path to achieving extraordinary, sustainable results—and find out how to do it.
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The latest sales tracking software allows you to manage sales deals more effectively and efficiently. But without the right guidance, some veteran salespeople might view lead tracking software as burdensome. Sales database implementation specialists recommend focusing teams on the five most powerful outcomes of customer relationship management (CRM) tools. Find out what they are and how to use them for better leads.
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Island Hearing, Canada’s largest network of registered audiologists, aims to be efficient and cost effective. Essential to this goal is efficient data management, including the ability to access data quickly. But the company found data retrieval difficult with its existing tools. Learn how it implemented a business intelligence (BI) solution that “sliced and diced” the needed financial, sales, and budget information.
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Nissin Foods has a long list of successful and innovative ramen products. In order to maximize profit, it is very important for Nissin to determine which products sell in which areas. Find out how the business intelligence (BI) solution Nissin adopted allows the company to make more precise forecasts, predict its key performance indicators (KPIs), and report important business information quickly and easily.
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At the Westye Group, managing performance is a key factor for running the business efficiently. Traditionally, access to company data has been limited, and employees didn’t have enough insight into how business was going. Learn how Westeye improved performance management by implementing a business intelligence (BI) suite that finance, sales and service, operations, inventory, and can all use to generate detailed reports.
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Chief information officers (CIOs) must provide timely, accurate, and consistent enterprise-wide information, to support business goals and stay competitive. But with data in multiple disparate applications, this is a challenge. Learn best practices for developing an information management strategy that can help you gain a comprehensive view of data and processes—to enable real-time visibility and better decision making.
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Customer relationship management (CRM) issues can often be traced to ineffective processes involving human communication. But you can overcome the limitations of marketing, sales, and service processes. With communication-enabled business processes—powered by communications systems integrated with business applications—you can have more visibility into interactions and improve your end-to-end performance. Learn more.
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Faced with longer sales cycles, declining sales productivity, and increasingly discerning customers, companies are being forced to streamline and automate how sales information is processed, and change the mechanics of deal-making. Learn more about the strategies that best-in-class (BIC) companies are employing to improve sales effectiveness, boost productivity, and ultimately remain competitive.
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E-discovery is the extension of the discovery process to include identifying, preserving, collecting, reviewing, and analyzing electronically stored information. Today, it represents 35 percent of the total cost of litigation. Companies that fail to produce e-mail in a timely manner face paying fines and other risks. Learn how you can develop an e-discovery plan to better manage your electronic data discovery processes.
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Here's an all-too typical scenario. Management at a multinational company decides to implement a standardized enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. Everyone expects to cut costs and improve core end-to-end processes. But 13 months later, vital key performance indicators (KPIs) don’t improve as planned. Discover how a company focused on user performance to bring its ERP reality back into alignment with its vision.
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Are you focused on reducing costs rather than delivering differentiated experiences to your customers? Do you rely on self-serving business models, instead of the generous nurturing needed for real and lasting relationships? Do you know the costs and consequences? Find out why you should be concerned about the “cost of doing nothing,” and how to asses if your customer strategy—or lack thereof—puts your business at risk.
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Haynes Wire Company produces wire for structural and welding applications as well as medical. The company’s existing homegrown system was increasingly unable to manage and provide access to the information needed to operate the growing business, such as per-order costs. Find out how an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system helped by enhancing knowledge of costs, with increased control, visibility, and profitability.
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Spreadsheets inhibit a company’s ability to make real-time decisions. Prone to data entry errors, information delivery delays, and a lack of visibility, spreadsheets ultimately limit your ability to grow. While you can see your current budget, profit, or performance through Excel, you lack the ability to drill down further. Of course, it’s all very well to eliminate spreadsheets, but how are you going to replace them?
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Organizations are relying more and more on customer information to drive business processes. You probably spend a lot of time trying to make sure you get the right information to the right people at the right time—but is your data capture process as efficient as it could be? Learn about the issues surrounding data capture and data processing, and about a solution designed to help you address specific processing problems.
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Today’s manufacturing environment requires a relentless drive for cost reduction and efficiency gains. Initiatives like lean and six sigma can bring sustainable improvements. To make these initiatives work, you need to base operational decisions on data rather than intuition and experience. But is your data always available and accurate? Find out how a factory information system can help bring your data out of hiding.
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Escalating health fears, new global policies, and a highly competitive market means that traceability is an issue food and beverage companies cannot afford to ignore. All this has led to a need for information on quality and food safety that companies must live up to. Explore the key issues surrounding traceability in the food and beverage industry, and find out why you might need to consider a new traceability system.
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Microsoft Dynamics customer relationship management (CRM) software is designed to help enterprises get a 360-degree view of their customers across marketing, sales, and service. Scalability testing of Dynamics 4.0 shows that the solution can achieve sub-second response times running user transactions against a database of over one billion records. Learn how these results can impact the success of your organization.
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The latest customer relationship management solution from Microsoft, Dynamics CRM 4.0, is engineered to meet enterprise performance and scalability requirements. Focusing on performance and scalability, application flexibility, and network configurability, this CRM solution can help you keep costs under control while you maintain the value of customizations—so you can react quickly to changing market demands.
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Your customer relationship management (CRM) solution must be able to deliver across marketing, sales, and service while offering user scalability, data scalability, and network performance. But you may not have considered how network performance can affect other aspects of your company’s performance. Learn about a solution that has been enhanced with functionality for network bandwidth use improvements of up to 94 percent.
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The user scalability of your applications can be key to your organization’s success. Benchmark results show how a next-generation customer relationship management (CRM) system can meet the needs of an enterprise-level, mission-critical workload of 24,000 users while maintaining high performance response times. Learn how CRM can help you achieve a 360-degree customer view, adapt quickly to business change, and more.
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A service business should be managed and measured based on the maturity of the business and the specific requirements of its customers. To take this approach, you need a framework for understanding how a services company and its customer engagement should be measured. Learn about the various ways to support strategic account management at each stage of your company’s evolution, which metrics are most relevant, and more.
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Most large organizations today rely so heavily on their networked infrastructure that they believe they must move beyond troubleshooting and assume a more proactive approach to management by using performance management tools. Learn about features and functions to consider when evaluating a performance management solution, and compare and track how well the solutions will manage your complex IT environment.
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It’s common to hear that master data management (MDM) projects are difficult to initiate. But pairing up an MDM project with another initiative already on your organization’s priority list might be easier than you think. Find out some of the basics surrounding MDM itself, including what MDM can refer to, as well as how to couple it with other projects that may already have momentum in your organization.
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Real estate firm The Norris Group was holding ten years of customer history with an online e-mail marketing vendor. Costly errors, data loss, and the lack of vital features convinced the firm to find a new solution that would store data and make it available whenever needed. Find out how the new online solution safeguards, analyzes, and shares customer data with employees, while easing the IT administrative burden.
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Consistency is a common challenge for partner and supplier managers across industries and around the world. How can companies instill common messaging, brand-identity, and quality practices across this extended enterprise? A learning management system (LMS), as part of a knowledge management strategy, can help bridge this gap. Find out how LMS can help you cut training costs and ensure partner compliance in ten steps.
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Simply automating business transactions, as part of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation, doesn’t provide a measurable return on investment. The real value comes from a meaningful use of the data the ERP system generates. Find out how using business intelligence functionality can help you enhance visibility into ERP system activity and improve reporting needs with business dashboards and portals.
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Genius Project4Domino and Microsoft Project are both project management tools, and though their range of features is different, they are also complementary. Using the solutions together can bring a well-rounded project management solution to companies of all sizes. Learn how they can be used to ensure consistency and eliminate downtime, so your long-term strategic project plans are a success.
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Most small to midsize companies have found business intelligence (BI) solutions to be beyond their financial reach. But now, you don’t have to rely only on spreadsheets for data visibility—with software-as-a-service (SaaS), BI can quickly and easily be set up enterprise-wide. Find out five requirements of a scalable data warehouse strategy, for more effective data analysis and better understanding of business performance.
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The combination of cross-platform environments, added database complexity, more data, and less headcount is a challenge for database administrators (DBAs) trying to maintain high database availability and performance. Discover techniques DBAs can use to streamline and automate storage, performance, and capacity management to deliver high database performance and availability—helping to ensure overall database success.
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One of the most formidable IT challenges that companies must solve is the extreme cost of the development process. Don’t let your data warehouse development project become part of the 50 percent that’s abandoned—and don’t lose time and money. Learn how to optimize your development process and improve the performance of your database management systems through a complete examination and debugging of your database schema.
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For many companies, a challenging business event or critical business pain precipitates a conversation about business intelligence (BI). But don’t wait until you introduce new products, upgrade your IT environment, or notice that your inventory is increasing but not your sales. Find out how to build a return on investment (ROI) for your BI applications and projects, so you can leverage your own data before it’s too late.
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Multichannel retailers need visibility into data metrics in order to bring all channels, products, and customer segments together. For true visibility, you need retail software that integrates all the information from disparate systems for the most detailed data analysis possible. Discover the top six factors to consider when evaluating multichannel business software, so you can optimize your business performance.
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Your business has a better chance of withstanding the challenges of difficult economic times if it can respond quickly to change, provide accurate data, and fulfill demand in a timely way. Electronic data interchange (EDI) can help give you this competitive edge. But to make EDI work, you need to know the five worst mistakes to avoid making when you embark on an EDI integration project in your small to medium business.
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Roland, a worldwide provider of graphic design and digital music services and products, was relying on several systems for leads distribution. As a result, the process often took weeks or even months, and there was no feedback into what happened with leads once handed to a dealer. Learn about the solution that helped the company create a centralized repository of customer data and significantly reduce lead time.
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Why bother measuring your recruiting performance? The simple answer is, if you don’t measure it, you can’t improve it. Unfortunately, human resources (HR) is great at working with people, but not always so successful at driving strategic value. Turn touchy-feely comments like “our hiring managers are very happy” into hard metrics, and accurately measure your recruiting performance by following a simple six-step process.
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Even the best “best-of-breed” enterprise resource planning systems don’t give business stakeholders enough real-time visibility. And without that, you can’t ensure performance improvements. Are employees using the right transactions for business processes? Are employees efficient, or are they making huge errors? Help identify inefficiencies in your company with an end-user experience and performance management solution.
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Many frustrated executives find that despite the fortune spent on managing servers, networks, and applications, there are still complaints about the performance, usability, and availability of their customer relationship management (CRM) solutions. How do you know if your CRM system performs for each user? What does it mean when users say the system is slow? An experience management solution can give you the answers.
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Data auditing and data encryption are two key Payment Card Industry (PCI) requirements for maintaining cardholder data protection. Although the two capabilities are distinct, they’re also synergistic—in fact, PCI recommends using data auditing as a substitute for encryption. Learn more about an auditing and encryption solution that can help you make better decisions about protecting your and your clients’ sensitive data.
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Whatever your reasons for needing to capture a complete audit trail for all database activity, you want to make sure your system allows you to support three accepted approaches. This three-way auditing ability can provide auditing for all activity in your database, including monitoring, reporting, and alerting on all critical data activity across your company. Learn more about these approaches, and their many benefits.
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Structured planning can make all the difference to your business’s growth. But are you using the right tools? Spreadsheets may not be meeting your financial management and budget planning needs. Find out the risks of using spreadsheets as a planning tool, and how enterprise performance management can help consolidate your departments’ financial information and budgets to give you real-time views of business performance.
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Data auditing is a form of data protection involving detailed monitoring of how stored enterprise data is accessed, and by whom. Data auditing can help companies capture activities that impact critical data assets, build a non-repudiable audit trail, and establish data forensics over time. Learn what you should look for in a data auditing solution—and use our checklist of product requirements to make the right decision.
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Threats to data content posed by insiders. Compliance regulations entailing stringent data controls. It’s hardly surprising companies need to find more secure methods for keeping confidential data under lock and key. Learn about managing security challenges across three important layers of your IT infrastructure, and how database activity monitoring (DAM) and database auditing and protection (DAP) can help you.
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To promote fast growth, small businesses often sacrifice process control for creativity. But sooner or later, unstructured creativity compounded by fast growth leads to the inability to make fact-based business decisions. Learn about four steps to developing a business strategy that can help you run your business more effectively by applying better control over your cost structure, minimizing risk, and anticipating change.
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Data breaches and leaks are on the rise—and the consequences, from theft of identity or intellectual property, can seriously compromise a company’s reputation. Stolen laptops, hacking, exposed e-mail, insider theft, and other causes of data loss can plague your company. How can you detect (and respond!) to breaches and protect your data center? Learn about the functions and benefits of an automated data auditing system.
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All government projects must be run as efficiently as possible. Modeling and simulation tools can help maximize efficiency and predict the costs and risks associated with many government projects. Model-building templates, plus features that allow users to share and re-use models and create custom models, can help government successfully design and complete major environmental and infrastructural projects. Find out more.
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Mine evaluation studies, including those that support mine water management or environmental compliance, are rife with challenges. The biggest: to quantitatively evaluate alternative approaches for completing projects, and to identify and manage associated risks. Models must be accurate, and yet still take uncertainty into account. Learn how a simulation tool can you help forecast the behavior of complex mining systems.
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The challenge of supply chain management (SCM) is to identify and implement strategies that minimize costs while maximizing flexibility. Computer simulation can be a valuable tool along your supply chain to help diagnose problems and evaluate possible solutions, and mitigate risks. Discover the methodology for building supply chain models, and the critical criteria for selecting simulation software that fits your needs.
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Spreadsheets are great for accounting, but they simply don’t cut it when you need to build realistic and dynamic models of complex business and engineering systems. What can you do when your calculations—and your need for visibility and risk management—demand more than rows and columns? Create and manipulate data and equations, and predict the future behavior of systems, with a flexible, object-based simulation platform.
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Wellman Thermal, a make-to-contract (MTC) manufacturer of boilers and industrial furnaces, needed an information system to record actual costs and allocate resources for each project from beginning to end. It also wanted help forecasting the outcome of individual projects. The system Wellman implemented allows the company better control of factory capacity planning and high visibility into operations. Get the details.
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To accurately assess the impact that requirements have on businesses, IAG surveyed over 100 companies. What they found was that less than one-third were properly equipped to define their software requirements, and that suboptimal requirements consumed around 41.5 percent of the IT development budget. Find out what it takes to ensure your organization doesn’t fall on the wrong side of this business requirements equation.
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To keep your IT infrastructure healthy, strong operational processes are essential to managing changes—both planned and unexpected. A streamlined, integrated approach that incorporates hardware and software assets is a key foundation for meeting regulatory compliance requirements. Find out how you can benefit from applications that enable continuous compliance with operational processes and tools—and reduce your business risk.
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Do you think great IT performance is achieved through luck or chance? You can bet real money it’s not. But regardless of how you measure up to high performers, there are a few steps you can take to improve your processes—starting with controlling change. Find out how this simple and significant way to improve performance and processes can help you achieve your operational effectiveness and efficiency objectives.
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Compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is mandatory. As such, businesses must think seriously about their data storage security and the day-to-day encryption management of their customer data. As a merchant or credit card processor, will you be ready when the auditors come knocking? Learn more about the foolproof way that many businesses are passing PCI DSS audits.
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Some managers have concluded that strategic planning is nothing more than an exercise in futility, to be taken out and dusted off at annual meetings. However, strategic planning can still help direct your company and improve earnings. The trick is strategizing well—which means having all the information you need, when you need it. Find out how to hone your competitive edge with integrated business planning capabilities.
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There's a customer relationship management (CRM) solution for every business. But which one is best for yours? With so many variations in CRM modules, such as sales force management, marketing, and analytics, it can be difficult to find the one that meets your functional requirements. Read this checklist for five steps that can help you choose the CRM solution that aligns with your company's budget, scale, and goals.
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When buying customer relationship management (CRM) software, it s important to know what functionalities are offered in the wide range of solutions available. But just as important is your need to define your company's requirements in sales force management, marketing management, customer support, and analytics. Find out how to match vendor offerings with your needs with this concise guide to CRM essentials.
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Collaborative tools are becoming essential to sharing data in today’s office environment. You need a solution that can grow to accommodate new projects and uses—and a storage system that is flexible enough to meet initial demands and adapt to changes. Find out how a multiple-node storage area network (SAN) can maximize the scalability and functionality of your collaboration tools, and ease storage administration.
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To retain the integrity and availability of your key operational data, your server infrastructure must provide effective data backup and recovery. When used with a storage area network (SAN), a data protection manager (DPM) can help increase your storage space, reduce time needed to create backup, and allow for quick recovery of data when disaster strikes. Learn more about this scalable and cost-effective solution.
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Many businesses today rely on telecom expense management (TEM) for mission-critical functions ranging from sales to service to customer relationship management. But despite its overall importance, nearly one-third of a telecom staff’s time is spent on processing orders and invoices. Maximizing the potential of a telecom system requires a data-driven approach. Find out how Map-To-Win is helping businesses do just that.
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Once a revolutionary concept, data warehouses are now the status quo—enabling IT professionals to manage and report on data originating from diverse sources. But where does log data fit in? Historically, log data was reported on through slow legacy applications. But with today’s log data warehouse solutions, data is centralized, allowing users to analyze and report on it with unparalleled speed and efficiency.
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To effectively serve their customers, operations managers need to have visibility as well as control of the delivery and quality of their outsourced components. And because supply chain management is such a critical part of the manufacturing process, it’s important to have the right tools to optimize performance. Find out how real-time collaborative manufacturing is now helping to solve some key manufacturing problems.
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Is your business tangled in a maze of voice data networking equipment that burdens your staff and is cumbersome to support? If the answer is yes, then you may want to think about network convergence over Internet protocol (IP)—the foundation for IP telephony, unified messaging, and multimedia customer contact centers. Find out more about how your business can benefit from data and voice convergence solutions today.
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While a great deal of attention has been given to protecting companies’ electronic assets from outside threats, organizations must now turn their attention to an equally dangerous situation: data loss from the inside. Given today’s strict regulatory standards, data loss prevention (DLP) has become one of the most critical issues facing executives. Fortunately, effective technical solutions are now available that can help.
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University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics (UWHC) had never suffered from a shortage of data sources. But the executives felt it wasn’t effectively using this data to make decisions—leading the university to seek a solution that would help it rise above the data confusion. With an automated dashboard system from ActiveStrategy, the UWHC has aggregated its data and can now focus on issues that will help move its strategy forward.
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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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You’re planning to upgrade your business intelligence (BI) solution and can’t wait for implementation. But are you sure of how to take advantage of its key value drivers, or which functionalities are best for your organization? And can you anticipate—and minimize—implementation risks? Find out how an upgrade assessment done by experienced professionals can help you develop a proven upgrade plan and lower associated costs.
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Managing growth is a monumental undertaking—and one that Valero Energy Corporation has mastered. But as one of the largest oil refinery companies in North America, with revenues exceeding $90 billion (USD), the company needed to find a way to fit new applications into its existing infrastructure in a quick and cost-effective manner. By switching to SAP’s NetWeaver platform, Valero saved $480,000 (USD) in the first month.
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As one of the largest gear manufacturers in India, Sona Koyo knew that in order to retain its competitive edge, changes to its legacy systems would be required. On average, Sona’s employees were wasting 5 percent of their time redoing paperwork and tracking activities. Since integrating a business process management (BPM) system, Sona’s employees have cut down their tracking time down to zero hours with minimal efforts.
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There’s no doubt that competing in today’s global marketplace is tough. In order to survive, organizations must become more aware of what’s going on throughout their supply chain. While many realize the importance of supply chain visibility, some businesses aren’t sure exactly how to achieve it. Find out the five things you’ll need to put together a visibility solution that’ll give you timely, accurate, and useful data.
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The University of Maryland School of Medicine had already experienced VMware technology as a way to consolidate its servers; what it didn’t realize was that the company’s solution could also address its disaster recovery needs. By combining two storage technologies—creating a common storage area network (SAN)—the school has reduced unexpected downtime from hours to seconds and has saved thousands of dollars in hardware costs.
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As the Microsoft Exchange environment continues to grow, building and managing the underlying IT infrastructure becomes increasingly difficult for Exchange administrators. Adding more and more storage can lead to frequent system downtime and slower response times. Discover seven ways your administrators can spend less time on day-to-day Microsoft Exchange management—while planning for future growth in the process.
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As the global marketplace continues to become more competitive, enterprises are struggling with how to retain their competitive edge. While many have transferred their databases to internet protocol (IP) to replace outdated systems, some have yet to upgrade their phone systems as part their strategy. Discover how migrating to voice over IP (VoIP) as part of an overall telecommunications strategy can help your business.
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Business intelligence (BI) 2.0 is used more and more to refer to the next generation of BI solutions, which allow better access to information, and enable communication and collaboration amongst all users. But how is BI changing exactly? For one thing, BI 2.0 allows Web-based interactive reporting. Learn about other differences—and how BI 2.0 can make a difference in your organization’s data warehousing and other activities.
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Corporate information consumers now demand more dynamic reports, and expect Web-based availability wherever and whenever they need the information. Find out how to use a unified business intelligence (BI) platform to build and deliver complete and meaningful Web-based reports reliably, consistently, and affordably. You’ll also discover how to reduce costs by simplifying your IT portfolio while increasing productivity.
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Business intelligence (BI), reporting, and analysis make your business applications more intelligent, more robust, more usable, and ultimately more valuable to you and your end users. Read this white paper to learn about the far-reaching value that BI reporting and analysis can quickly bring to your business applications—and learn how to add more power and overall impact to your business applications.
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Find out why ad hoc reporting has become a critical component of the business intelligence (BI) environment—and learn how easy it is to make this type of analysis possible for the everyday business user. Along with an overview of the benefits of ad hoc reporting, this white paper will show you how the New York City Health Department makes reporting easy for its users, while eliminating the backlog of report requests for IT.
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In the world of Web-based business intelligence (BI), mashups combine two or more data sources in a single feature. Mashups are among the innovations that help spread BI wider and deeper across organizations. Known as “pervasive BI,” this concept hinges on offering features and applications that blend with—and navigate like—the familiar Web browser. Find out how pervasive BI can help your organization today.
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As businesses become increasingly dependent on technology, service quality becomes more important. With so much riding on IT’s performance, a new service-centric model has emerged: service lifecycle management (SLcM). Based on the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) principles, SLcM provides a framework that enables organizations to optimize business outcomes and facilitate continual service improvement.
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Customer information system (CIS) projects in the utilities industry have earned a reputation for being disruptive to business, very expensive, and always behind schedule. As a mission-critical cash register for utilities, it pays to examine CIS more closely. Learn about the perspectives on strategic CIS assessment frameworks and how a structured solution can help you improve the agility of CIS without a huge investment.
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Today’s configuration management tools focus on collecting and reporting statistics, logs, and failures, but fail to address the need for analyzing this data to determine best practices for improving efficiencies. That’s why Configuresoft has developed software that enables you to link core systems configuration and change management disciplines into actionable analytics. Find out how it can work for you.
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Canadian manufacturers are getting squeezed. Challenged by a rising Canadian dollar, forced to hold the line on prices in the US market, pressured by customer demand for lower prices, better quality, and quicker service, these manufacturers need a way to retain their competitive edge and increase bottom-line profitability. Find out why product data management (PDM) is a solution you can turn to in these challenging times.
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When implementing customer relationship management (CRM), organizations often lose sight of their customers and focus on efficiency gains instead of looking at the bigger picture from a customer perspective. But organizations that can build a business-centric system flexible enough to quickly respond to changing customer needs will have a sustainable competitive advantage and enjoy profitable growth for years to come.
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Construction companies often use a combination of outdated, paper-based, and software tools to manage their projects—which puts them at a severe disadvantage. Online project management, however, can provide you with a more efficient method to manage projects. Find out why these businesses are shifting to owner-centric solutions, and discover what main factors you should consider before implementing a web-based tool.
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Manufacturers today face increasing pressures to boost revenues and secure profitability. But for them to realize the full financial value of these initiatives, they must invest in a system that can quickly and easily implement or consolidate core business applications. With QAD on-demand, businesses can reduce IT complexity and costs with simplified deployment options and complete application management alternatives.
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Why choose on-demand when there are so many integrated software solutions on the market? Because on-demand packages provide a number of benefits that can help IT focus on innovation and creating true business value, rather than dealing with network headaches. But along with the benefits there are a number of challenges. Read more about these challenges and how you can manage your on-demand implementation project.
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Customer relationship management (CRM) has become increasingly popular, and provides enormous benefits to businesses that adopt it. So why does it encounter so much “what’s-in-it-for-me” resistance from frontline salespeople? Often, the reason is because they view CRM as strictly a management tool. With Oracle CRM On Demand, however, you can minimize data entry—allowing your salespeople to spend more time selling.
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Microsoft System Management Server 2003 and Operations Manager 2005 storage monitoring solutions provide the necessary tools to centrally manage and monitor Windows client and server infrastructure. Now, Sanbolic’s LaScala clustered volume manager and related products offer a complementary toolkit which enables administrators to centrally configure and assign storage assets in a storage area network (SAN) environment.
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To solve your data-intensive problems and deal with data storage tasks, you might consider a two-tier method. How? By using service-oriented architecture (SOA) to make distributed systems interoperable. Why? SOA can optimize data storage architecture, transparently and securely, to maximize and optimize access to large quantities of data. Learn about other benefits, and the steps that are best for your IT infrastructure.
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Administrative errors can and do happen, but native tools do little to aid administrators in this area. While Microsoft’s Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) is a great tool for managing group policy, it has its limitations. Discover how to implement best-practice approaches to help successfully extend the deployment of group policy to your server security settings, while reducing costs and minimizing errors.
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Decision makers use key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the present state of business and choose a course of action. But what are KPIs? And more importantly, how do you determine your company’s KPIs? Don’t neglect the customer’s perspective when doing your performance measurement metrics. And ensure data assessment is done in real time. Find out more about how to get the right KPIs for your business operations.
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The nature of software is that it constantly evolves, requiring regular updates throughout its lifetime as new features are introduced. But managing and implementing these changes is often left to experienced administrators who are often overwhelmed with other projects. Find out how moving to a delegated administration model can help your business improve its administrative productivity, system availability, and security.
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Food-borne illnesses are recognized as a significant public health problem in the US today. As such, food inspection and safety administrators have implemented Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) systems regulations. Without the proper software system, however, complying with HACCP requirements can be difficult. With Sage ERP X3 process manufacturing enterprise resource planning (ERP), it doesn’t have to be.
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Today, more and more companies are purchasing goods from overseas. But once those goods are on the water, many companies find it difficult to keep track of where they are at any given time. Ineffective container management leads to extra costs, but with Sage ERP X3’s import tracking functionality, business functions are tied together in a single database—enabling real-time access to information and improving productivity.
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CTS Cement Corporation, a manufacturer of professional-grade construction cement, operates out of 15 facilities across the US. As the company grew, it needed to address the inefficiencies of its accounts payable invoice processing, which was being keyed manually into two different systems. With this lack of connectivity between systems, CTS turned to AnyDocINVOICE solution and now indexes nearly 2,500 invoices per month.
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Inadequate data management, the result of a system that hasn’t been properly integrated—or that can’t be integrated—has serious ramifications on customer management and service, especially in financial services and health care. Master data management (MDM) solutions allow key customer data integration. Accuracy is one of the four elements vital to the success of MDM. Before implementation, learn about the other three.
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Have you ever received a call from your existing long-distance phone company asking you to switch to its service and wondered why they are calling? Chances are the integrity of its data is so poor that the company has no idea who many of its customers are. The fact is, many businesses suffer from this same problem. The solution: implement a master data management (MDM) system that uses an accurate data matching process.
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Ensuring the quality, accuracy, and security of customer data has never been more important than it is today. The growing potential for privacy breaches and tighter compliance regulations have created unique challenges and responsibilities for many data providers. Here we discuss some of the key privacy issues surrounding data management, and how partnering with a provider of master data management (MDM) software can help.
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The most common challenge companies face when it comes to achieving scalability isn’t the cost, but the difficulty of predicting that cost once applications grow beyond a certain threshold. Don’t scale up—scale out, with coherent clustered caching. Learn about caching methods that can help improve and predict scalability, as well as maintain accurate and up-to-date data, even in the face of peak user load.
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For increased revenues and improved profitability, customer data integration (CDI) should be a vital part of your business processes. CDI, unlike customer relationship management (CRM), can deliver a valuable single view of a customer, without necessitating yet another complex system needing vast technical and organizational effort. Learn about CDI’s core capabilities, and which style of CDI is your best match.
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Duke Realty Corporation—the largest publicly traded office and industrial property owner in the US—needed to find a more organized way to process the nearly 20,000 invoices its thirteen locations handled each month. To ensure data was properly captured and processed, Duke Realty turned to AnyDocINVOICE solution and has since been able to create a faster, more visible invoice process that uses 50 percent less staff.
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More than 95,000 documents arrive annually at Baton Rouge’s Department of
Finance in the form of invoices, purchase orders, confirmations, and more. In an effort to get this vast amount of documents under control, it sought an automated indexing solution that would eliminate the need for filing cabinets. Since deploying BROKERit, the department has increased productivity and realized an annual savings of $58,000 (USD).
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In order to meet the increasing need to extend services around the world, companies must be able to consolidate data centers and business applications while adhering to compliance rules and security regulations. While SAP addresses these business needs through its enterprise service-oriented architecture (SOA) solutions, the question of how to test these global enterprise SOA deployments still needs to be answered.
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Virtual private networks (VPNs) are optimized to perform specific functions within the remote access architecture. But deploying the often complex mix of approaches for managed and unmanaged devices can affect your security. Blue Coat RA provides a new approach that bridges the gap between traditional and endpoint security technologies—helping businesses meet remote access requirements in a simple, cost effective manner.
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According to Symantec, 40 percent of malicious attacks target your browser. With Web content threats quickly on the rise, there’s an opportunity for businesses to enhance their Web filtering strategies. Enforcing appropriate use policy and providing robust Web content security, however, requires a dynamic filtering solution that can mitigate a variety of content security threats—not only today but in the future as well.
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Although secure sockets layer (SSL) is a ubiquitous enabler of e-commerce and outsourcing, it creates a special challenge for network administrators and security professionals because its encryption is known to decelerate data. In order to regain control over application delivery—when everything business-related is encrypted—organizations need to look toward SSL-aware solutions that can help decipher and accelerate data.
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Customer relationship management (CRM) solutions have changed. What was once used to help sales personnel maintain records of contacts, sales-related activities, and individual team progress has now become so much more. But since CRM is now intertwined with other sales management solutions, it has left businesses that have implemented it in a bit of a quandary when it comes to the global sales market. Find out why.
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A clear customer focus is an essential part of improving business effectiveness and efficiency. But how can businesses achieve global customer visibility in today's competitive market? With the implementation of a master data management (MDM) solution, businesses can gain multidimensional, real-time visibility of their customers, resulting in improved competitiveness, higher profit margins, and reduced business risk.
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To understand the complex relationship between business and customer, there are several questions companies must ask. How much do we spend on advertising to reach out to customers? How much do our customers spend on purchasing our products? With customers scattered all over the globe, it’s difficult to know. With an organizational hierarchy management solution, finding the answer to these questions just got easier.
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What kind of tangible return on investment (ROI) can you expect from your enterprise resource planning (ERP) software? The answer: a lot more than you might expect. Purchasing ERP software represents a significant financial commitment, but in most cases, the software pays for itself within the first year—and will continue to generate cost savings for many years after. Where do these cost savings come from? Find out here.
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As the solution of choice for many companies, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have helped many manufacturers operate more efficiently and effectively. By streamlining business operations, ERP systems can solve many of the problems faced by today’s manufacturing companies—and help them become leaner and more competitive. Find out how an ERP solution can work for your company.
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Managing IT assets is a vital corporate function—and a source of potential liability if not performed properly. By effectively managing IT assets, businesses can be assured that each IT dollar has been well spent. With an asset management solution, your IT staff can monitor application usage and budgets more accurately, and improve in-house IT support and performance—resulting in greater efficiency and reduced costs.
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DiscountBeautyCenter.com, an online supplier of brand-name beauty products, wanted to test the viability of using dynamic content to generate e-mail campaigns. Although the company previously had good results with Listrak’s batch and blast e-mail campaigns, it hoped that dynamic content e-mail would increase customer response and return on investment (ROI). Find out how it launched its most successful campaign ever.
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Explosive data growth, shrinking backup windows, and unreliable restores are just a few of the issues you have to manage on a daily basis—especially if you’re using a legacy tape backup application system. But you can still use your legacy system by extending its life and enhancing its reliability with a hardware-based disk compression solution. Find out how, and considerably reduce your backup and recovery times.
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The capacity of today’s storage systems is increasing at an astonishing rate. But the truth is: the more storage you have, the more you use. So, how do you create an efficient data storage system? And how much space can it really save you? Advanced single instance storage (A-SIS) deduplication can reduce storage consumption up to 95 percent—helping you conserve disk space, while keeping your system overhead low.
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Chances are, if you’re backing up your data, you’re using backup tape as your solution. But advances in data management technologies are making disk-to-disk (D2D) backup a vital component of any sane data protection strategy. In fact, D2D backup provides answers to the challenges threatening traditional tape backup strategies. Find out how to evaluate the different advanced data protection solutions available on the market today.
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Storage system administrators are constantly battling with growing volumes of data. But can you create more space-efficient storage? You can. With a data virtualization solution like NetApp Snapshot, administrators can create point-in-time copies of data volumes—consuming only a fraction of the space normally required. Find out how using data virtualization tools can help reduce your ongoing data storage management costs.
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Accounting firm Fox and Fiorino P.A. knew there had to be a better way to take care of billing. With most of its billing being entered manually, no real-time reporting was available to ensure accuracy. So in 2003, the company implemented BillQuick. With this automated time-keeping and billing solution, Fox and Fiorino has improved the quality of its information, reduced overtime, and increased revenues and cash flow.
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For AG & Co., embracing new technology was the only way to go if it wanted to continue increasing its revenues. Although it had purchased a new computer system back in 1986, the old software products it was using were non-integrated, making it difficult to keep track of engagements and billing. Billable time meant revenue, so AG & Co. opted to implement BillQuick, and has since reduced its overhead and increased profits.
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When it comes to business-to-business (B2B) communications, two of the basic requirements for regulatory compliance are having a reliable network and a high quality dial tone. So why would you want to settle for anything less? To ensure that both are obtained, many companies are entrusting their data—and their compliance responsibilities—to the Inovis Multienterprise Expert Services Hub (MESH) platform. Find out why.
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E-mail archiving systems are no longer simply tools that focus on regulatory compliance, but instead are multifaceted systems that can help companies satisfy legal discovery requirements, improve messaging-related storage management, and assist in disaster recovery efforts. While there are several solutions available, a hosted solution can offer a number of important benefits you should consider.
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Does your business have a records management policy that addresses e-mail? Well if it doesn’t, now’s the time to consider adopting one. To meet Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) requirements, businesses must create and enforce a clear corporate messaging policy. With Fortiva’s on-demand archiving solution, your legal team can easily develop e-mail policies—making compliance with legal discovery demands much easier.
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With the recent amendments made to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), businesses must take a closer look at how they manage their electronic data. Recent studies have shown that many companies are not prepared for how these changes will affect their business. To improve their governance procedures to meet these new requirements, businesses must invest in technology that can adequately preserve electronic data.
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It’s no secret that there is a bevy of deployment options available with most customer relationship management (CRM) solutions today—ranging from customized to out-of-the-box. But with choice comes complexity. In order for CRM buyers to choose wisely, they must find a deployment approach that best matches their needs while delivering superior performance, application integration, and functionality. Find out how.
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Implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system—even for small to medium businesses (SMBs)—is a smart move. But depending on the type of business, there can be many different processes to integrate—making it difficult to know what type of system to choose. For growing project-based companies faced with the challenge of managing many complex projects, the ideal ERP system should be customizable yet scalable.
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Wi-Fi has become the access method of choice for users at the office, at home, and on the road. According to research, nearly 200 million Wi-Fi chipsets were sold in 2006 alone. But can Wi-Fi work effectively in a wireless local area network (WLAN) environment? Yes it can. To deliver Wi-Fi more reliably to increasingly diverse devices requires a self-configuring platform that covers larger areas and higher user densities.
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It is widely acknowledged that unauthorized changes made to an IT infrastructure cause up to 80 percent of a system’s unavailability. So what key ingredient is needed to reduce that percentage? By adding change control to an existing or planned change management infrastructure, businesses can improve IT service availability, lower compliance costs, and accelerate their IT infrastructure library (ITIL) implementations.
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Identity theft and credit card fraud affect all businesses—and the problem is only getting worse. In order to combat these threats, credit card companies have joined forces to introduce the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). For financial institutions, complying with PCI DSS by using real-time monitoring and selective enforcement software can help to relieve the burden of unauthorized changes.
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Before an organization can truly realize the cost and agility benefits of enterprise service-oriented architecture (SOA), there are a few concepts it should know about. By understanding the various stages of SOA adoption and by knowing what technologies are available, an organization will stand a better chance of succeeding in its SOA initiatives. With these seven steps, effective SOA can be realized.
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Corporate governance encompasses the processes and systems by which organizations operate—and it affects every business. To effectively participate in governance processes, businesses should consider closed-loop service oriented architecture (SOA). Although stand-alone applications for governance, management, and security exist, find out why they do not enable the demand and value management that closed-loop SOA offers.
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Corporate IT organizations are struggling to satisfy the demands of a constantly evolving business environment. Lowering costs and responding to changing markets are a few of the challenges they face. Another is understanding how to leverage mission-critical applications as they develop new composite applications. Find out how deploying a service-oriented legacy architecture (SOLA) can help—and save you time and money.
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Corporate IT departments and independent software vendors (ISV) alike are faced with a number of similar business challenges. One such challenge is the problem of how to derive additional value from their existing Windows and UNIX software applications and create advantage with Web-enabled solutions. Discover the pros and cons of Web-based and Web-enabled applications—and learn about the solutions that lead the pack.
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Linux operating systems are taking the world by storm, and have seen double-digit growth rates for seven consecutive quarters. With its promise of higher performance and better stability and security, Linux has become the alternative to traditional Windows-based servers. By deploying Linux in key strategic areas and taking advantage of application publishing solutions, you can lower your costs and speed time-to-market.
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Having the right IT infrastructure is critical to consistent growth and profitability for midsize companies. Sadly, many business applications don’t support changes to both business processes and a company’s organizational structure. In fact, many are inflexible and create disconnects between departments. However, there is a solution that’s built to enable growth and adaptability in all business functions and operations.
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Many business owners and managers wonder how to maintain visibility and control in order to keep ahead of the competition, focus on customers, and adapt to market changes. Are you worried your company will lose its competitive edge as it grows, because of an outmoded IT landscape? Keep your IT requirements simple and meet your company goals, with an on-demand solution that integrates support for all business activities.
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Nearly half of all US companies have serious data quality issues. The problem is that most are not thinking about their business data as being valuable. But in reality data has become—in some cases—just as valuable as inventory. The solution to most organizational data challenges today is to combine a strong data quality program with a master data management (MDM) program, helping businesses leverage data as an asset.
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The security provisions of the US Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) are complex and process-intensive, and non-compliant financial institutions and their officers have suffered penalties as a result. With QualysGuard’s vulnerability management and policy compliance solution—including on-demand auditing capabilities—financial institutions can easily meet the key security guidelines that are detailed in the GLBA.
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Despite the defensive efforts of firewalls, intrusion detection, antivirus solutions, and the like, criminals, careless employees, and contractors have exposed more than 158 million digital records of consumers personally identifiable information since 2005. With this critical need for stronger network security, Qualys has developed an on-demand solution that effectively manages these vulnerabilities.
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While most information vulnerabilities stem from external intrusion and theft of data, there remains a greater potential for information to be lost, stolen, or accidentally erased by internal sources—the employees. Don’t let this be the case with your business! Information vulnerability management (IVM) is a corporate issue—one that needs addressing. To learn how you can reduce your exposure, download this white paper.
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As with all things, there’s a good side and a bad side—the Internet is no different. Although it improves communication between businesses and customers, it can also overwhelm customers that are bombarded with marketing e-mails on a daily basis. Customers want more convenient contact channels. Smart companies understand this and are responding by adopting a multichannel approach to customer relationship management (CRM).
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One of the largest expenses for distributors and wholesalers is stock. Many have difficulty finding the perfect balance between ensuring products are available when they’re needed and not holding too much inventory. So, how is it possible to increase profitability while lowering inventory costs? By exploiting an inventory optimization system, businesses increase automation and collaboration—allowing greater profitability.
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As a provider of employee benefits, CIGNA must observe a bevy of regulatory compliance mandates. Because much of its efforts are compliance-focused, it continually embraces technology, searching for new products to better manage its benefit offerings and track its security risks. With QualysGuard’s vulnerability management solution, CIGNA has mitigated vulnerabilities and remained up-to-date with compliance regulations.
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With a vast global network that supports over 60,000 employees, vulnerability and risk management programs are crucial for Oracle GIT. To further enhance its IT system risk management capabilities, Oracle deployed QualysGuard’s on-demand software vulnerability and compliance management solution. Since its deployment, Oracle has optimized its scanning capabilities and automated its demand security auditing processes.
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As one of the largest Internet marketplaces, eBay proclaims that the trust it enables between buyers and sellers has been the key to its success. To ensure continued success, eBay wanted to standardize its network security auditing and remediation processes, and turned to QualysGuard’s vulnerability management solution. With Qualys’ automated solution, eBay can now quickly and easily remediate any network vulnerabilities.
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Corporate concern for the environment is no longer just an issue of compliancy. Businesses are becoming increasingly concerned about how much energy is required by their IT operations, especially by their data centers. Greening IT starts in the data center: find out how data center consolidation—and other solutions—can help you reduce energy consumption, and even increase productivity and efficiency.
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When it comes to data and storage management, midsize organizations often face similar issues to those of their larger counterparts. Rapid data growth, business continuity, and data archiving are just a few of the problems they must deal with. By coupling IP-based storage area network (SAN) technology with Ethernet-based SAN connectivity, however, organizations can gain higher levels of efficiency and effectiveness.
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With the increasing complexity of the data center and its dependent systems, data center automation (DCA) is becoming a necessity. To replace the costly and inefficient human aspect of managing the data center, IT departments must adopt DCA solutions. Combined with utility-based computing architectures, these solutions can provide greater dynamics in the environment and facilitate speed of response to market demands.
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What can user-driven applications like Morello and Microsoft’s Office SharePoint (MOSS) 2007 do to help your web content management strategy? By combining the two, users can develop web applications and collaborative workspaces themselves rather than acquiring IT development input. In doing so, they unlock the silos of working practices and content stores, and add significant value to the web content management strategy.
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Non-profit organization The March of Dimes realized that to continue its success, it would need to find more efficient and effective ways to work. Its human resources (HR) department was doing most of its HR and payroll processes manually—for over 1400 employees in various locations. To automate these processes, it turned to a Web-based application and has since significantly cut down on processing time and expense.
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TESTCo was accustomed to managing its issue tracking for software testing using Microsoft Excel or one of its customers’ homegrown solutions. But as operations expanded, the company realized it needed a better system to manage this process—one that could monitor issues and ensure they were resolved and documented. Using ProjectLockers Issue Manager, TESTCo has benefited by saving on maintenance hours and costs.
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For many years, S&C Electric, a global provider of electric power system equipment, used internally built tracking and Subversion data to manage source code and documents and to track viruses. But as it grew, its needs became more complex, and more maintenance time was required. A managed source control solution now manages and protects S&C Electric’s intellectual property, and saves the company a lot in man-hours.
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Software company Terra Technology’s development team often worked remotely, without a centralized development system. Managing documents manually was quickly becoming an unproductive use of the team s time—and increased its chances of making errors. Since using ProjectLocker’s document management system, Terra Technology has saved valuable time and money, and can now focus on its core competency—supply chain software.
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When crafting an e-mail marketing campaign, a few guidelines should be followed in order to maximize its effectiveness. Believe it or not, e-mail marketing is not only an art, but a science as well. Carefully balancing the needs of the audience, properly communicating your inspiring message, and using the right technology to manage the interaction are some of the key ingredients needed to make it a success.
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A customer relationship management (CRM) solution can enhance your overall business performance by integrating your front- and back-office activities, now and in the future. There are five key considerations involved in an effective CRM implementation. The first is the quality of your customer and business data. Secondly, it’s important to maximize user adoption. Learn about the other three and how you stand to benefit.
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Any geographically distributed business with three or more remote sites has likely dealt with tape-based backup systems. If this sounds like your business, then you certainly understand the complexities involved with managing growing data—not to mention the risks. The good new is that an agentless, multisite backup and recovery software solution is available that can offer a high-speed alternative to tape-based systems.
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Would spending millions of dollars and countless hours securing your data center be enough for it to pass a compliance audit? While many businesses work hard at securing their data centers, they often forget to secure remote office data. With the consequences of non-compliance ranging from financial penalties to job loss and worse, it could mean the end of your business. Don’t let compliance become your Achilles heel.
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IT managers today face plenty of problems when it comes to protecting remote office data—problems that agentless architecture could eliminate. Many organizations outsource their data protection, which can be costly. But an agentless architecture disk-to-disk (D2D) software solution can offer your business bottom-line benefits that range from lower administrative costs to pay-as-you-grow scalability and increased security.
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Information chaos is one of the primary sources of inefficiency and waste for knowledge workers. So how do you improve efficiency and make more informed decisions? There’s a new direction in content management policy that can help: semantics-based search tools that go beyond just the “find” function, to search, categorize, analyze, and extract meaningful information from unstructured data and texts.
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The quantity of business information is doubling at an alarming rate. How can a proactive manager keep on top of it? A tool that merges and unifies information from a variety of sources and formats can help. That tool should also analyze data and identify inputs as indicators of future actions or outcomes, so problems can be solved before they happen. The bottom line: better data analysis means better decision making.
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Today’s IT professionals are often challenged by unrelenting changes in the enterprise, increased data growth and compliance regulations, and geographic distribution of assets, to name a few. Keyboard/video/mouse (KVM) over Internet protocol (IP) can help by providing an effective tool that can remotely manage servers—regardless of their physical location. When looking for a KVM over IP solution, you should consider some basic requirements first.
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For many years, the various departments at Walker Foods worked independently of one another, which seriously impeded the flow of data throughout the enterprise. It was clear that an integrated system was in order, and after a few initial upgrades, the company decided on AppFinity’s WebCustomer overall online solution. Since its implementation, Walker Foods has increased order accuracy and significantly reduced expenses.
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An estimated 55 percent of users of business critical applications work in remote locations. With so many users working remotely, networks become congested and user productivity suffers. Until now, wide area network (WAN) monitoring and shaping has required special appliances, but there’s a new alternative software-based solution available that leverages the power of the user’s PC—providing unprecedented traffic control.
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Is it possible to easily migrate from legacy tape devices to encrypting tape drives and still keep costs to a minimum? The answer is yes. With a comprehensive key management storage security system, a manageable and affordable migration process is achievable with a simple 3-step process. This process includes many benefits, such as a complete feature set that enhances system auditability and minimizes operational costs.
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What can a managed Subversion solution do to help .NET businesses solve their integration problems? Subversion meets the challenge of software development by allowing teams to use branching and tagging methods that help them work better with their QA organizations. It also saves .NET businesses a lot of money over setting up and maintaining a development infrastructure in house, which keeps the cost of ownership manageable.
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Software development best practices can save you money and make your team more productive. When software development teams don’t invest in a solid development platform, it makes their work harder and often ends up costing them more money over time. A hosted platform, however, provides a level of convenience and savings that makes it the obvious choice for today’s IT development, management, and consulting organizations.
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What does Visibility’s .NET enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution have that others don’t? .NET technology. And because it contains no legacy code, it provides a system that’s accessible using a web-browser and has a user interface equal in functionality to a client-server application. In fact, any client PC with Internet Explorer 5.5 or later can operate it—without compromising the quality of the user experience.
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In their efforts to accelerate time to market and improve business process efficiency, many marketing organizations adopt customer relationship management (CRM). But CRM often falls short in exploiting the exponential growth of content associated with product and brand marketing. By using a digital asset management (DAM) solution, however, you can increase productivity and achieve a favorable return on investment (ROI).
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In today’s business world, heightened privacy concerns and tightened regulations such as the US Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act have forced organizations to improve their workflow and archival and records management processes. That's why many results-oriented organizations are now using workflow software—bringing together people, processes, and documents to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and meet compliance requirements.
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The future of customer service management (CRM) is changing—and SAP’s CRM 5.2 is a big part of the reason. SAP is known for constantly enhancing its products—whether it’s changing its tier architecture or introducing new dimensional components. But its latest in CRM technology provides many new features and functionalities, and introduces some of the latest trends. If you want to know more about SAP CRM 5.2, here it is.
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Today’s complex enterprise networks present unique challenges to those whose task it is to manage and secure them. Existing security measures that worked yesterday may not be sufficient tomorrow. But by combining Configuresoft’s Enterprise Configuration Manager (ECM) with Microsoft’s System Center 2007, businesses can secure their data, protect their bottom lines from costly downtime, and meet regulatory standards.
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IT is often characterized as distinct groups pursuing individual agendas and launching disconnected initiatives to increase operational efficiencies. To overcome this, organizations need a set of capabilities that can help improve coordination between IT and the rest of the business while facilitating effective service management. Adopting foundational technologies and a best-practice benchmark is a good place to start.
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Most businesses today depend on their own IT departments to satisfy corporate governance objectives and meet increasing customer demand. Unfortunately, many have failed to clearly demonstrate to themselves—and to their customers—that they are truly managing their business. Only when the IT department understands what the business wants can it benchmark itself and build continual improvement plans that can meet these demands.
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How can you get the most out of a customer relationship management (CRM) solution while reducing operating costs and increasing overall profitability? By purchasing a hosted CRM solution that’ll provide the benefits of an on-premise CRM solution without the need for a complex implementation or the assistance of an in-house IT team. Hosted CRM is a cost-effective solution that promises a quick return on investment (ROI).
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Manufacturers’ business needs have changed significantly over the past few years, evolving the roles that technology plays within the manufacturing process. Two key technologies—enterprise resource planning (ERP) and product lifecycle management (PLM)—have developed into key success factors for manufacturers and when combined, provide a collaborative environment that adds value and helps in maintaining a competitive edge.
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Developing a good disaster recovery plan (DRP) in today’s business world is a must. In fact, downplaying the importance of a DRP can be costly—especially if you’re a small to medium business (SMB) that is slow in adopting DRP. Recent studies have shown that 40 percent of businesses that have encountered a disaster close their doors within the following five years. To stay afloat, here are ten steps that should be taken.
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Despite all the attention the newest breed of desktop search has received in the press, here’s what the media hasn’t told you: 1) today’s newcomers aren’t ready for the enterprise; 2) desktop search is not new; and 3) you get what you pay for. Find out more—and get a 12-step checklist that will help you determine your needs, and evaluate and select the desktop search tool that’s right for you.
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A good search engine ensures that users find what they re looking for, the first time, regardless of the format or location of the information. This makes a wide variety of information available to your employees, without the need for complex navigation systems or filing conventions. Read this white paper to find out how to select an intranet search engine that addresses your needs—and use our 12-step checklist to do it.
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Organizations of all sizes face similar challenges when managing storage—not enough capacity or protection. Help has arrived with Internet small computer system interface storage area networks (iSCSI SANs)—and they're steadily gaining momentum. With iSCSI SANs, businesses can effectively manage their storage needs, while lowering costs and increasing security. Find out why many industry leaders are choosing iSCSI today.
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Enterprise search is rapidly emerging as a key component to electronic discovery, and is proving to be the very technology that organizations need to comply with US Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP). But not all enterprise search software is the same, and conducting a review of the various technologies available can be a daunting task. Find out what you’ll need to look for to ensure regulatory compliance.
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Today’s extensive use of data collection tools coupled with the easy access to communication networks has woven more devices and systems into the fabric of our daily lives. As the scale of integration and complexity grows, so does the need for the appropriate paradigm to address it. In order to scale, system software architecture must be organized around a common-shared information model that can span multiple systems.
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Information lifecycle management (ILM) is rapidly gaining acceptance as a process crucial to the success of many IT initiatives. The reason for this is the importance of managing data. With the growing demand for ILM comes a variety of solutions that follow a disjointed, point product approach. By choosing an ILM software designed to scale to its needs, a business can benefit from software built on a unified platform.
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Every day, sensitive business information finds its way into the wrong hands—through external breaches or internal theft. Such data is highly regulated, and any risks of exposure can result in stiff penalties and legal liabilities. Many of these security risks lie in the test/dev environments, and as such require a solution that protects data application clones from unauthorized access without jeopardizing its integrity.
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The growth of application data has placed an enormous burden on IT organizations to maintain acceptable application performance and availability. The weight of managing and navigating through vast amounts of inactive data has caused outages and raised budgets, among other problems. Active archiving software, however, addresses complex data management issues and delivers lasting benefits to organizations and its users.
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Data breach is a very real problem in business today. Every day, organizations store massive amounts of data inside database tables—data ranging from credit card transactions to product inventories. This valuable information is what runs the business. In order to protect this data and stay on top of compliance, an enterprise data management solution that respects information privacy regulations should be considered.
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Fax hardware plays a crucial role in the sending and receiving of business documents. With high-volume use over time, instabilities in performance can occur. Therefore, how well fax boards and fax software applications perform together becomes an important consideration. With IQ Express intelligent fax board series, fax servers send and receive corporate documents electronically—reducing costs and improving productivity.
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For automotive manufacturers and their suppliers, consumer demands are high and global competition is fierce. To compete successfully, manufacturers must meet expectations and still generate an acceptable profit margin. By using QAD’s Just-in-time (JIT) Sequencing process together with its Manufacturing Execution Workbench (MEW) tools, automotive manufacturers will have the foundation needed to meet these challenges.
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Three strikes—your out; that’s what lockout management does. But employees often forget the many passwords needed to access information. What ensues is a flood of calls to the help desk that, over time, can become a huge administrative burden. Adopting a strong password policy is critical. By implementing a lockout management strategy via automated management solutions, businesses enhance security and improve workflow.
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Financial service institutions spend thousands of dollars every year on securing their networks from external breaches, but often fail to think about possible internal threats. Employee fraud has become a growing problem in the financial sector—one that many institutions are not fully prepared to handle. Implementing automated detection technologies, however, can be their first line of defense to eradicating this problem.
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Are virtual appliances really more advantageous than physical appliances? For businesses looking to decrease server complexity, increase load balance, and optimize scalability and mobility, the answer is yes. Virtualization has brought distributed computing to a new level and provides many key benefits. This white paper looks at four of those benefits and uncovers why more organizations need to consider making a change.
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The Web has forever changed the global business landscape, and often a company’s web site is its most valuable tool to generate revenue. In fact, for many Internet-based businesses, it’s their only tool. As such, it’s vital to go beyond basic navigation to provide site visitors with a direct path to the information they seek. Find out how to leverage the full potential of search technology in four commonsense steps.
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Quicker than you can say “Sarbanes-Oxley” or “regulatory compliance,” the enterprise search market has gone from a relatively quiet existence as a nice-to-have technology to playing a critical role in today’s emerging information management solutions. This means that the need for search now extends far beyond satisfying the demands of the public sector. Find out how to make sense of the market and its players.
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While virtualization technology can simplify server management and reduce operating costs, in production environments it presents a disaster-recovery challenge. The problem: simply backing up a host server doesn’t always ensure that data within virtual machines is recoverable. With Acronis’s True Image, IT managers can rest assured their data, settings, applications, and operating systems are protected against disaster.
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Aerospace and defense (A&D) has unique security needs. Avoiding the unauthorized sharing of technical information and intellectual property is essential. Product development systems (PDSs) provide the secure, real-time collaboration A&D needs, including extended and secure collaboration of distributed product development processes. PDSs control access to intellectual property, mitigating information sharing risks.
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When it comes to data, it’s all about location. Although more than 80 percent of enterprise data has a geographic dimension—such as stores, customers, and competitors—it’s rarely used in traditional business intelligence (BI) analysis. In order to react faster to market changes and to improve competitive advantage and operation efficiency, businesses should consider adding location intelligence tools to their BI platform.
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To boot or pre-boot, that is the question. There’s no doubt that operating systems (OSs) are complicated given the sheer amount of code that must be flawlessly interfaced and the potential vulnerabilities that can ensue. While full disk encryption (FDE) is one step closer to a more secure OS, encryption without strong authentication isn’t enough. For security-conscious users, pre-boot authentication is the only way to go.
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Looking for a supply chain management (SCM) strategy that will give you a competitive advantage and ensure that projects yield results? Want to make sure that your SCM solution will allow continuous improvements? Already using six sigma and lean thinking practices, but want a way to bring them together and maximize their functions? Find out how a business process reference model can amplify your existing architectures.
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The Internet has made information transfer faster and easier. But alongside, hacking and data theft are increasing threats to organizations’ security. How can files be delivered safely within an organization or far beyond its walls? Secure file transfer reporting and tracking tools help keep sensitive data in the right hands—and help organizations comply with government regulations.
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On top of the many challenges faced by IT managers today comes yet another challenge: ensuring efficient and secure user access to SAP. Because of the unencrypted communication between users’ workstations and the backend servers, the SAP environment—and the confidential data it stores—become vulnerable. With a secure single sign-on solution to SAP, however, you can significantly improve the security of this environment.
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Protecting your company’s data is not only wise, but often legally necessary. In order to beef up their data security programs, more companies are implementing full disk encryption (FDE). In the past, FDE was software based, which left it open to greater security risks. With the advent of new technology, however, it is now possible to migrate from software- to hardware-based FDE while still protecting your existing systems.
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What would you do if a critical error occurred during production—all because the wrong data was input into your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system? You’d probably be asking “how could this happen?” The ability to communicate information between teams can mean the difference between production success and failure. Avoid these snafus with a system that can integrate the data of both the design and ERP systems.
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Insecure data. Heavy fines due to non-compliance. Loss of customers and reputation. It adds up to a nightmare scenario that businesses want to avoid at all costs. However, this nightmare is preventable: knowledge base-driven data security solutions can be critical tools for enterprises wanting to secure not only their data—but also their status in the marketplace.
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You think you’re doing right by copying data so it’s available for production support. But did you know copied data is often at risk of insider theft or tampering? And that database management tools, such as encryption and digital certification, aren’t always deployed properly, thereby increasing the risk? Using a solution that centralizes database security policies can help. Find out more—before your data is desecrated.
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Microsoft Dynamics is a business management solution designed to allow your employees to customize and automate their Microsoft Office system user interface according to their preferences and work styles. Microsoft Dynamics helps your employees and your business work more efficiently—giving you a faster return on investment and an effective and profitable business.
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The open architecture of Microsoft Dynamics GP provides a flexible solution for organizations implementing a business management system. The foundation is provided by the Dexterity runtime engine and Microsoft SQL Server, helping Microsoft Dynamics GP offer many features and benefits. These include an extendable architecture allowing add-ons and vertical enhancements—so that organizations can grow today and tomorrow.
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With ever-changing technology, businesses often spend too much time and money trying to sustain their outdated systems. But is it possible to maintain a legacy system without the substantial costs of frequently updating it? By adopting service-oriented architecture (SOA)—which provides a suite of automated tools and services for migrating and extending legacy platforms—businesses can maximize quality and minimize costs.
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Business intelligence (BI) is not only an imperative for big companies. Growing and midsized organizations also require visibility into all aspects of the business for their day-to-day decision-making, with accurate, reliable, and up-to-date information. We outline the issues, business ramifications, and solutions for the BI requirements of growing companies.
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Traditionally, data centers have been seen as a mix of servers, operating systems, applications, and data. Moreover, the data, applications, and operating systems have been inextricably tied to the hardware on which they reside, impeding the optimal use of server resources, whether physical or virtual. Find out how to adopt a more unified approach to managing workloads in the data center—today.
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IT organizations today are faced with the constant pressure of reducing costs at the service desk, while at the same time ensuring optimal customer service. To accelerate their IT infrastructure library (ITIL) initiatives, many are implementing service resolution management (SRM) systems. With the addition of SRM, these organizations can address the core issues required to operate an efficient and strategic service desk.
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As products become more complex and customer expectations continue to rise, service and support become increasingly difficult. So how can service and support managers transcend these problems and use each customer interaction to build customer loyalty and drive service leveraged revenue? By empowering customers with Web 2.0 technology and enabling users to manage their own experiences. Find out how.
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Server and data center consolidation has never been more important. Issues such as server sprawl and increasing costs have made consolidation the number one priority among IT managers. New virtualization technologies, however, are helping data centers combat these problems. Learn about the factors that are driving consolidation initiatives today, and find out what best practices can be used for ensuring its success.
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As your business grows, so too does the complexity of your data center. Along with this complexity, there are problems such as the inflexibility caused by operating systems, applications, and associated data, which are bound to the hardware they are installed on. Discover eight ways to optimize the infrastructure in your data center using virtualization products designed to work with your current technologies.
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Today’s data centers are an increasingly complex mixture of server platforms, hardware, operating systems, data, and applications that have accumulated over time. So how do you take your data center from a tangled mess of suboptimal servers which may be hampering your service levels, to one that can maximize performance? With the use of virtualization technology, data center optimization can become a reality.
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Worldwide, various standards have been created to provide some form of structure with respect to delivering products and services. Over time, however, the adoption of industry compliance guidelines has seen many pitfalls, specifically with the advent of technology. Developing a sound compliance strategy requires a unified solution—one that includes all the necessary components, but also keeps the business users in mind.
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Whether you’re a manufacturer, vendor, or customer service company, the increasing pressure to make sales and decrease service costs affects you. The key to its success is to look at your customer experiences as repeatable life cycles. Instead of viewing sales and service as independent challenges—solved by using disconnected software packages—an integrated solution that accelerates the total life cycle may be the answer.
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Knowledge management (KM) can mean different things to an organization depending upon the nature of the initiative. KM is not a technology or set of methodologies, but a practice or discipline that involves people, processes, and technology. If implemented correctly, a KM initiative can improve the productivity and efficiency of an entire organization. With these ten basic principles, your organization can learn how.
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Today’s support organizations often face the challenge of providing efficient and effective customer service. Without the right tools, it can become an uphill battle. To gain true scale and effectiveness in service and support, many organizations are now turning to knowledge management initiatives like knowledge-centered support (KCS)—a business process that directly addresses the root causes of support inefficiencies.
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Supplemental product or technical data is typically delivered separately from the information contained within portable document format (PDF) files. This can make it difficult for users to locate the additional content for download. With the CopyFILE plug-in application, however, companies can integrate supplemental product information by using links within a PDF file—thus allowing content to be easily distributed.
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Registry cleanup is inarguably an integral component of PC maintenance. However, many PC users may be wasting time and effort cleaning their registries more often than necessary, depending on the age of their computers, as well as how often software and other utilities are installed. In order to save time and get the most out of your PC, there are a number of myths about registry cleanup you ought to dispel.
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Bridging the gap between an application’s problem domain and its code can be difficult, even for the best software engineers. Bridging these two diverse worlds—each with its own language—requires a finished application that creates an intersection between the two. By building a domain-specific modeling (DSM) language and generator using MetaEdit+, engineers close the gap and pave the way to better productivity.
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The world is focusing on environmental awareness, and reducing greenhouse gases is now an inevitable part of doing business. But how can you conform to compliance regulations and still remain competitive? Green-centric asset management implementations—valuable tools in resource conservation—are helping companies increase productivity and improve their bottom lines. Maybe getting greener isn’t so hard after all.
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For thermosetting resins producer Hexion Specialty Chemicals, a portfolio of over 50,000 stock keeping units (SKUs) created unique supply chain efficiency challenges. Hexion needed better supply chain management—the key to sustaining growth and profits. In adopting Zemeter solutions, Hexion reduced inventory by more than 20 percent and increased margins—exactly what Hexion needed to stay competitive on a global scale
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For dried fruit producer Sunsweet, a spreadsheet-based planning system just wasn’t working. After reviewing several solutions, Sunsweet selected the Zemeter supply chain planning suite to eliminate the repetitive work involved in spreadsheet management. Zemeter’s accurate forecasting and planning process ended up saving Sunsweet money by increasing production line efficiency and reducing overruns by 18 percent.
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For cheese producer Mozzarella Fresca, producing multiple products was a scheduling challenge, and it needed a solution that could do more than Excel-based tools. The Zemeter Scheduler solution was able to add 15 percent capacity by optimizing scheduling processes. In fact, from molding to packaging, Zemeter Scheduler increased efficiency without Mozzarella Fresca needing to invest in new equipment.
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Forecasting and planning conventions dictate that planning far into the future is a necessity. But is long-term planning really the most productive way to organize your business? No, not really. Detailed forecasts and plans are needed only inside the “planning time fence”—a critical period for acquiring specific components and building certain products—and for many companies, only four to eight weeks into the future.
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There is no single antivirus engine on the market today that is the fastest and most effective at identifying viruses, spam, or other threats. According to a recent survey, 97 percent of organizations have antivirus software installed, yet 65 percent have been infected at one time or another since. One way to reduce the chance of virus infection is to install multiple antivirus scanners at the mail server level.
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Is it beneficial to use multiple types of virtualization software together? The answer: yes. Combining complementary virtualization technologies provides a stronger, more robust solution that reduces costs, maximizes return on investment (ROI), and minimizes the number of servers to manage. By consolidating these technologies, organizations can get the most out of the application, hardware, and operating system (OS).
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Customers, employees, and partners are an integral part of any business—each playing an important role in its success. But how is it possible to share vital information between them? In order to access information, understand trends, and build better processes, a system that enables multi-user collaborative technologies is required. Without these collaboration tools, business process management (BPM) cannot be successful.
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There was a time when picking out a book meant going to a library and signing one out. Today, readers expect content to be available through a variety of distribution channels—in both print and digital formats. To be successful, publishers must be able to observe the intellectual property rights of authors for each format and channel of distribution they offer. With a digital publishing management solution, it’s possible.
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Today more than ever, retailers are faced with the challenges of selling locally while competing globally. To be successful, they must provide a shopping experience that inspires customer loyalty. Retailers that understand their customers’ shopping habits can build strategic global supply chains that anticipate demand. One way to achieve this is with a scalable technology platform based on industry standards.
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As the creator of performance apparel, Under Armour has become the fastest-growing designer and distributor of its category of apparel in the world. In 2005, to sustain growth and compete on a global scale, it needed a flexible IT landscape that could offer better visibility to data and scale over time. With an out-of–the-box scalable solution, Under Armour is on its way to reaching the $1 billion (USD) revenue mark.
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Just when you thought you had all your security measures figured out, along comes the portable storage device to make you question them all over again. With the popularity of portable consumer products—and their ever-increasing storage space—comes a greater risk of losing sensitive corporate data. To secure corporate data, companies must not only focus on perimeter security, but on internal security weaknesses as well.
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In 2004, there were 1.3 billion credit cards in circulation in the US. With fraud incidents on the rise, credit card companies are at constant risk of losing sensitive cardholder data. At the same time, strict payment card industry (PCI) requirements are forcing companies to put better systems in place to ensure clients are adequately protected. By implementing the right software tools, achieving compliance is possible.
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Benchmarking is a process where companies compare their performance over time against their competition. In doing so, they can identify where their strengths lie and where improvement may be needed. The point of benchmarking is to focus on areas that will yield the best return. For companies to succeed in their benchmarking efforts and gain a sustained competitive advantage, five key steps should be considered.
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Improving the supply chain is essential for any company that wants to gain or maintain a competitive edge. To do this, companies are adopting sales and operations planning (S&OP) strategies. Years ago—when the pace of market change was slow—S&OP was a nice-to-have; today it’s a business imperative! But it doesn’t have to happen overnight. By taking a five-step approach, companies can implement S&OP at their own pace.
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As with any hot market, point-to-point wireless is bait for the pathologically
opportunistic. In this atmosphere—often termed "anarchy"—trust can t be a matter of faith. To get in on the wireless opportunity without getting shafted, you need to know a few basic and incontrovertible facts concerning the difference between licensed and license-free wireless. In fact, a successful outcome depends on choosing the right one.
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"Wild West" is a metaphor often used to describe the wireless wide area network (WAN) business. But it s worse than that. In the Old West, everyone had a gun. In this business, customers are defenseless. What s going on? Well, for one, vendors are playing fast and loose with terminology that should mean something. Wireless is compelling, but how do you decide what s right for you—and who do you trust?
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As a supplier to Wal-Mart, appliance manufacturer Haier America was required to implement a radio frequency identification (RFID) tagging system. To satisfy this requirement and to keep costs to a minimum, Haier needed a solution that would seamlessly integrate with its current enterprise resource planning (ERP) application. That’s why it turned to a custom-designed modification package. But was it enough for Wal-Mart?
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Research shows that between 65 and 95 percent of all e-mail is considered spam. On an individual level, spam is an annoyance more than anything else, but on a company-wide basis, spam causes significant problems—and the cost to manage it is sizeable. Spammers are always one step ahead of antispam vendors, so to combat this persistent problem, companies need a single-source product that can eliminate spam for good.
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Over the past few years, vulnerabilities have exploded across all types of platforms—leaving IT security and operations teams scratching their heads. Today, many companies use the scan-and-patch method for managing vulnerabilities—a reactive security process that should be avoided. By combining assessment and remediation, companies create a vulnerability management program that can rapidly respond to emerging threats.
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Storage area networks (SANs) are complex structures that contain an infinite number of configuration possibilities—making the process of configuring the devices to be installed into the SAN a lengthy one. To simplify the process, QLogic’s configuration wizard provides users with some basic tools to guide them through common SAN tasks, enabling them to easily build stable and secure SAN fabrics for their storage solutions.
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The days of storage area networks (SANs) built with hubs and based on private, arbitrated loops are gone. Today’s fully public switches—which include a variety of switch features—make managing large SANs a lot easier. The key to a flexible SAN is the switch’s ability to create zones, which allows the SAN to be partitioned into various groupings and enables SAN managers to allocate storage where it makes the most sense.
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Portable document format (PDF) files are used by businesses worldwide to streamline business processes and secure archives. In order to comply with ever-changing government rules and regulations, many companies have come to rely on the security and ease of use that PDF formats provide. With Print2PDF 7.0 Server Edition, documents are easily converted into secure, industry-standard PDF files that can be viewed by anyone.
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Research shows that the occurrence of multivendor Internet protocol telephony (IPT) environments is on the rise. As such, an increasing number of companies are faced with the challenges of using multiple tools to manage these environments. With a single, specialized IPT management solution, companies gain a unified view across the entire voice infrastructure—which can significantly impact total cost of ownership (TCO).
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Now that you have planned and assessed your new system, it’s time to explore the next phase of the integration process: design and pre-deployment testing. Part 4 of this 4-part e-book series provides a basis for the exploration of network design. In addition, it includes a report card that will help you select the appropriate design and validation software tools for your Internet protocol telephony (IPT) system.
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When deploying any new system, preparation is key—and Internet protocol telephony (IPT) systems are no exception. Part 3 of this 4-part e-book series provides some basic steps you can take to successfully deploy voice and data network services. A complete capabilities inventory has been included to help you ensure that every feature of your current system will be considered for inclusion in your new system.
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Chapter 2 of this 4-part e-book explores the Internet protocol telephony (IPT) life cycle, and discusses how understanding the key phases of this packet-based system can increase implementation success. By harnessing your knowledge about this system's natural rhythms, you will begin to establish key concepts that you can put into action—facilitating the management of the system and reaping its long-term benefits.
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Data loss can be damaging to a business—hurting short-term stock prices, impacting customer relationships, and reducing revenues. As more companies conduct business via network communication, the need to protect their customer data and intellectual property becomes greater. With a data protection solution, organizations can secure their data in motion—without introducing unmanageable cost and complexity into the network.
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When it comes to security architecture, choosing a system that’s scalable and applicable to a broad set of security needs is a wise move. New security services for Internet protocol (IP) networks are emerging that enable new levels of scalability and manageability—while remaining completely transparent to the network. By applying this type of system, you build an optimal framework for future security applications.
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Spam considerably lowers user productivity, as it delivers unwanted, irrelevant, or anonymous e-mail messages. The best way to manage the incidence of spam is to measure it. The Spam Index—a tool for measuring improvement in spam control systems and for comparing spam control performance with competitors—is a method used by businesses worldwide to achieve lower spam levels and improve business performance.
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E-mail is a powerful business tool that most enterprises can’t live without. Unfortunately, along with its capability of accelerating commerce, productivity, and social interactions, there are some drawbacks—such as spam! Companies that rely on e-mail to do business simply can’t afford the negative affects of spam. However, new technology is emerging that helps stop spam and allows users to get on with business.
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In this new era of corporate governance, risk avoidance, and responsibility, organizations are more than ever held accountable if their data is not properly protected. As such, many are finding new ways to address security risks, by developing multiple layers of defense to reduce points of weakness. Deploying data encryption technology is a good place to start—but the key is making the right choice.
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Heightened awareness of vulnerabilities in sensitive stored data has resulted in the increased application of encryption technology. To secure data at rest, a well-defined process for handling the keys used to encrypt data—as well as the keys used to safeguard the data encryption keys—is essential. With the proper key management controls in place, companies can ensure that data is effectively secured and recoverable.
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You can’t pick up a business or IT magazine today without seeing numerous articles about the growth of mobile and wireless technologies. Why are these technologies so trendy? The answer is simple: developments in mobile computing, wireless communication, bar codes, and other data collection and communications technologies help businesses extend visibility and control over the operations that really matter to them.
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It s hard to go anywhere these days and not see ads for mobile wireless carriers. But the technology is so confusing and the choices so overwhelming, it can be impossible to know which solution to choose. Before making the wrong choice, it’s best to have a basic understanding of mobile wireless communication—how it is currently being used in the industry, and how it can benefit your organization in the future.
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How can you establish a priority-based mobile networking system that provides workers access to company and customer records that they can manipulate from the field? By employing a total solution system that provides various methods of transmitting data. While this type of system may be more costly to implement than a stand-alone pager or cell phone, the benefits it offers can directly impact your bottom line.
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When it comes to two-dimensional (2D) symbologies, less is more. While 2D bar code symbols may be less costly to print, they are considerably more expensive to read, because of the complexity of developing decode algorithms. However, with the integration of public domain 2D symbologies into a range of application standards, solutions employing these codes are beginning to reach their full potential.
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For manufacturers, improving internal processes and supply chain responsiveness can help maintain profitability. That is why many are tuning into radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. With RFID, the benefits are immediate throughout the supply chain, and organizations that take the time to understand its capabilities and limitations can increase their inventory visibility while streamlining their operations.
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The supply of multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) services and service providers has grown exponentially with the demand for Internet protocol (IP) and Ethernet services. But while MPLS enhances packet processing speed and network performance, it lacks in security. As government and industry compliance regulations increase, organizations must invest in tools that can ensure security without affecting network performance.
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Small to medium businesses (SMBs) often face the same challenges as large businesses—just on a smaller scale. One such challenge is finding a business solution that manages expansion and addresses complex reporting and compliance issues. Many SMBs are now adopting enterprise performance management (EPM) solutions—complete with tools to help them meet the current and future needs of their growing business.
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Wide area networks (WANs) are essential to the majority of businesses, enabling effective communications within the organization and with customers, partners, and suppliers. As more bandwidth-intensive applications are added to the mix, these networks are expected to handle the extra load—which can decrease its performance. Ensuring WAN usage is well-managed eliminates unwanted traffic and accelerates business activity.
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In any organization, people remain one of the largest sources of value when it comes to business processes. But providing them with tools that can be easily accessed and used has its challenges. As we move into the era of service-oriented architecture (SOA), portal and collaboration software now delivers the essential people-focused capabilities businesses need, while adding significant value to the organization.
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How can a budget administrator, burdened with the task of gathering data from hundreds of spreadsheets from all over the organization, manage this monumental undertaking? Additionally, how to avoid using a costly packaged budget application that doesn’t take the organization’s business rules into consideration? The solution: a spreadsheet automation tool that easily adapts to the organization’s unique corporate processes.
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Today, companies are looking to improve work processes, comply with legislation, and increase productivity—and they’re implementing electronic document management systems (EDMS) to help them effectively manage their information. By deploying EDMS—which are capable of capturing, storing, and retrieving records, files, and folders—these companies are achieving unprecedented levels of control, efficiency, and automation.
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Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology can provide a strong return on investment (ROI) when combined with improved business processes that reduce labor and prevent errors. But mobile RFID systems, with forklift-mounted readers, can be implemented for a fraction of the cost of traditional infrastructure configurations. They can improve supply chain visibility, reduce capital expenditure, and slash labor costs.
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Scanning technology has changed dramatically over the years with new, more powerful, and reliable imaging scan engines now surpassing the laser scan engines of yesterday. Although both laser and imaging technologies continue to improve, there’s a debate on which technology is superior. When researching data capture equipment, you may be asking yourself, “How do I choose the best scanner for my application?” Here’s how.
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Carefully tracking components and assemblies throughout the manufacturing process can prevent costly production and sequencing errors, but executing these procedures can be difficult. While bar codes provide accurate, efficient product identification, they are not viable in many common industrial processes. Specialized RFID tags, however, are optimized for use on or around metal, and are an effective and viable alternative.
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Radio frequency identification (RFID) has been around for more than thirty years, and today’s manufacturers are using this technology to help connect trading partners and align supply chains. But just as businesses need to look beyond the manufacturing supply chain to see the benefits of investing in RFID, they need to look beyond the tag to understand how RFID will create value and provide a return on investment (ROI).
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Technology has fundamentally changed the way industrial and manufacturing companies manage their businesses. Sophisticated solutions like warehouse management and enterprise relationship management (ERP) systems—with their advanced data capture and wireless networking tools—enable companies to squeeze more efficiency out of their operations by providing real-time data to all interdependent parts of the supply chain.
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In today’s global market, providing quality products and services is essential for any manufacturer’s continued growth—but maintaining a competitive edge is not always easy. For success, quality awareness must begin at the conception of the product and continue throughout the various stages of its development. To improve in this area, many manufacturers are now adopting the total quality management (TQM) approach.
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Any organization that deploys multiple same-application servers with regularity could benefit from virtual appliances. Virtualization solutions eliminate the need to copy an operating system (OS) and application into each virtual environment, by creating a single, centrally installed master copy instead. It saves time on installation and enables greater levels of efficiency, manageability, flexibility, and resource use.
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To be certain its materials management functions were up to par with industry best practices, a South African fertilizer plant obtained the services of an inventory optimization firm. In doing so, it was able to identify weak links in its inventory control processes, and achieved a savings of over $2 million (USD)—an impressive return on investment (ROI) considering it had invested less than 4 percent of that amount.
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An important question facing IT professionals today is how best to harness computing power to further improve automated business processes. This is especially critical in business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce. While service-oriented architecture (SOA) delivers the benefits of IT integration to business, it needs a programming language—such as Lisp—that can optimize its capabilities and scale in size and complexity.
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One person’s freedom to pirate is another person’s loss of royalty revenue. Every day, millions of Internet users are downloading copyrighted materials—music, movies, TV shows, and more. Although this is illegal under most countries’ copyright laws, it doesn’t stop them. What’s worse is they don’t even see themselves as criminals. Piracy isn’t going away, and content owners and governments need to regain control.
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C# is a modern object-oriented language for application development. In addition to object-oriented constructs, C# supports component-oriented programming with properties, methods, and events. WinA&D is a complete Unified Modeling Language (UML) tool enriched with C#-specific details used to generate source code. This white paper discusses how C# constructs are represented by UML—for forward and reverse engineering.
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Understanding how a system really works is the first step toward using, improving, automating, or explaining it to others. The basic concept of a system is that it is driven by cause and effect—but there is so much more to understanding its full complexity. The best place to start is by learning how causal loop diagrams (CLDs) are used to model dynamic systems by identifying variables and causal effects.
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Interactive web sites are event-driven. With each user click, a menu selection or keyboard action initiates a thread of execution that runs many lines of code. Many Web projects start as small code snippets gathered from open source sites, but as the web site grows, new developers are added to the mix. Without design and documentation tools, the project can become unmanageable, unreliable, insecure, and costly to expand.
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As a business employing IT, you may have encountered situations where the software application you purchased didn’t come with a help file. With no time to write complete documentation yourself and no budget to hire a professional technical writer to do it for you, what do you do? By applying the basic principles of cost-effective documentation, your business can develop impressive documentation quickly—for a minimal cost.
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While service oriented architecture (SOA)-based systems are great for re-using the existing IT infrastructure to implement newer business processes, they only help IT professionals. Thus, an SOA-based system is a technical answer to a business challenge—but in order to help businesses react to business changes, existing business rules management system (BRMS) technology should be included in the mix.
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Enterprises are using business rules engines (BREs) as a means to reduce the costs of managing change. However, because these business rules are stored separately from the application code, many questions need to be answered: Can you track changes to policies? What risks are involved in having business policies outside of code? And how can you minimize these risks?
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Your competitors are adopting business rules management solutions (BRMS) to achieve agility and reduce maintenance costs. With enhanced ability to store all business rules in one central location, enterprises have a unique opportunity to use non-conventional methods to test these rules, as well as their interactions with each other—without tying up their mission-critical software.
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Today, 70 to 80 percent of costs for processing loan applications are people-related. From a mortgage company’s perspective, this results in increased costs and decreased revenues. With ever-changing loan products, enterprises are forced to build or buy new loan origination systems periodically. And to meet these challenges, they’re choosing technology that focuses on solving business problems, not technical problems.
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For many years, business intelligence (BI) has proven to be invaluable for enhancing database information in the retail and banking sectors. But to be truly useful in the manufacturing sector, the manufacturing environment’s existing technology information structure needs to continually inform the BI system. This can now be accomplished more efficiently by embedding BI into the enterprise software itself.
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Customer-facing processes are challenging to manage because they are always changing. Conventional workflow automation and stand-alone business process management (BPM) technologies lack many critical components found in customer relationship management (CRM). However, converging BPM and CRM provides the responsiveness, cost-effectiveness, and manageability to achieve optimal results. The converged approach helps align priorities enterprise-wide, reduce risks, and unblock revenue growth potential.
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When businesses commit to implementing customer relationship management (CRM), they commit to realigning their entire organizations around the customer. More specifically, they commit to collecting the right data—and using it the right way at the right time. But if you’re the manager championing CRM in your organization, how do you create the CRM buzz and obtain executive buy-in?
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Customer process management (CPM)—the convergence of customer relationship management (CRM) and business process management (BPM)—can deliver significant gains in efficiency and standardization for insurance companies. Whether it’s providing real-time quotations for insurance policies, identifying cross-selling and renewal opportunities, or managing claims, CPM extends across the enterprise to ensure that each customer interaction becomes an opportunity for service excellence.
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As competition in the financial sector increases, many financial services providers are seeking ways to improve customer service and profitability through process efficiency. By developing rich integration between customer data and allowing that data to be managed by the business users, customer process management (CPM) enables financial services organizations to adapt to changing market demands and maximize their competitive edge.
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Choosing the right customer resource management (CRM) application involves looking at its ability to solve many business challenges—both expected and unexpected. Analyzing CRM applications for their problem-solving acumen can help your business successfully select a platform that improves the way you do business, drives profits, and reduces risk, while minimizing IT resource requirements.
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SpectraSite is in the business of making wireless and broadcast communications pervasive. One process it was looking to improve, however, was its in-building antenna approval. The current process was time-consuming, and its faxing technology inadequate. But by implementing a business process management (BPM) solution, SpectraSite dramatically reduced the process cycle, from almost sixty days to a maximum of ten days.
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In the past few years, the number of county employees at the Prince William County Government in Virginia (US) has grown significantly, but with few additions to the administrative staff. Prince William County needed a system that would help its agencies process personnel action forms (PAFs) more efficiently, reduce mistakes, limit paper use, and provide a central repository for PAFs.
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Business strategy execution requires the control and automation of complex processes, and the ability to quickly analyze data relevant to the enterprise. Companies have to address these processes in a responsive, flexible way. However, this cannot be achieved simply by optimizing local activities. Multiple activities from different departments must be synchronized, toward the overall goal of increasing organizational profitability.
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Information management, which includes both data and content management, is an essential element of service-oriented architecture (SOA). Taking a service-oriented approach to information data can thus help you achieve greater value from your information assets. Implementing master data management (MDM) services can provide a multiplier effect, by delivering high-value business services over and above information integration services.
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Traditional business intelligence (BI) software has not been available to line-of-business managers, frontline employees, or external stakeholders, but that is no longer the case. New BI solutions unite transactional and analytical worlds. Knowledge workers and executives can now analyze operational processes in real time. Decisions can be made and entered back into operational systems combining BI and performance management strategies.
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Paying skilled professionals to massage, scrub, and manipulate data is a huge waste of valuable resources. And while having clean data is essential to driving Six Sigma projects, the act of getting that data adds absolutely no business value. That’s why organizations that focus first on making accurate, actionable data available in real time have more effective Six Sigma programs.
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Mine business planning is a time-consuming and complex task involving many participants, systems, and separate processes. It is often extremely difficult to precisely replicate a planning process from budget to budget, or to trace the origin of figures in consolidated reports. However, a sensitively deployed and fully integrated end-to-end solution can go a long way toward solving these problems.
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In the relentless search for ever-improving returns on investment and market competitiveness, some of the world’s biggest corporations are applying a model known as the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model to maximize supply chain efficiency. Simply gathering SCOR metrics information is one thing—but how do you actually make this information available to allow optimal decision-making for your business?
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The most advanced business process management (BPM) applications bridge departmental and geographic boundaries, and manage the flow of documents and data according to sophisticated process rules. And while many would suggest that an on-demand BPM service offering would most benefit small businesses, a real case can be made that such offerings might be more valuable for medium and large businesses.
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While the idea of enterprise-wide data management is conceptually simple, it is extremely difficult to implement in most organizations, due to differences between heterogeneous databases and applications. However, conventional integration software is not required to achieve consistent management of customer data. In fact, integration appliance technology can greatly simplify and reduce the cost of master data management (MDM).
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Some four decades after early “data processing strategists” realized the importance of a comprehensive, manageable approach to truly integrated information, the typical organization is no closer to achieving those objectives. The question must be asked, then: will we ever achieve true, well-architected enterprise-scale information management? And if so, when? The answer (and the good news): probably—and soon.
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On any given day, your interactions with a few strategic customers will make a huge long-term difference. But which few customers? A new type of analytic application, customer value management (CVM), answers the need to identify, analyze, and predict customer behavior. Using CVM enables companies to shift from campaign-centric to customer-centric analysis, and develop more individualized and profitable customer relationships.
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As is generally the case with such issues as the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX), the quick fix is often too good to be true. Leading companies are thus using SOX as an opportunity to restructure the way they run their business. What’s more, they’re finding they already have much of what they need—including the right people, processes, and technology.
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Chances are that SAP applications play a role in your enterprise. SAP’s prowess at managing large volumes of transactional data has made it the leader in enterprise resource planning (ERP). As of January 2003, SAP claims more than 56,000 installations. Yet despite their popularity, SAP applications in many organizations remain semi-isolated and untapped for the business intelligence (BI) they contain.
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To realize the benefits of enterprise performance management (EPM), the focus needs to be on facilitating collaboration between senior management and business unit management. In practice, most organizations do not programmatically incorporate two-way communication into the planning process. Yet this is where many organizations find the greatest benefit in improving business performance—and the most difficulty in making the change.
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Can you deliver integrated and reliable information in a format that all users can understand? Are you able manage that from a single console that allows you to support your performance management, reporting, and query and analysis requirements? By extending the reach of knowledge within the organization, you can efficiently and effectively manage your operations through better visibility and transparency.
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Business intelligence (BI) is often an area of friction between information technology (IT) (who provide information) and the business users (who need it to do their jobs). By allowing you to connect goals, metrics, and people across the enterprise, an enterprise BI standard helps organizations manage and optimize information flows like other business processes, leading to improved alignment and transparency.
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Interactive Data Corporation is a provider of securities pricing, financial information, and analytic tools to institutional and individual investors. The company supplies time-sensitive pricing, dividend, corporate action, and descriptive information. However, as a result of global growth, Interactive Data faced the challenge of finding a forecasting and budgeting solution that would generate more comprehensive and less manually intensive performance reports.
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Brady Corporation is a world leader in identification solutions that help companies improve safety and security. Founded in 1914, its divisions operate some twenty enterprise resource planning systems. However, even with Brady’s move to centralize about half its financial information on SAP R/3, serious data inconsistency issues were hampering reporting reliability. To resolve these issues, Brady turned to OutlookSoft Everest.
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When BellSouth and SBC merged to become Cingular Wireless in 2000, four issues concerned everyone: centralizing the storage of business information; improving access to, and reporting from, performance management processes; streamlining and standardizing analysis tools; and integrating data sources with different systems and platforms to create a "single version of the truth." The solution: OutlookSoft’s unified business process management application.
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Wholesale distributor United Pipe & Supply had a problem. Its use of standard Excel spreadsheets for reporting and budgeting was time-consuming, expensive, and dysfunctional. The company was losing control over content and reliability, simply unable to produce something as simple as profit/loss statements for multi-branch business units. Its ability to grow was hampered. United Pipe & Supply needed to change.
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A diverse company with multiple business units, US Sugar was looking for relief in the financial reporting and budgeting areas. Defining the related metrics and ensuring they were consistent enterprise-wide was thus a critical need. US Sugar required a comprehensive planning and performance management solution that would enable financial reporting, monthly forecasting, cost allocations, consolidations, actuals analysis, and strategic planning.
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While optical technology has become the default removable storage medium on the desktop (CD and DVD), in enterprise storage the evidence of failure is unmistakable. After fifteen years, optical technologies in the enterprise storage market account for only a fraction of 1 percent of enterprise storage hardware spending. There is a dramatically different future, however, for some optical storage subsystems.
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Applications such as SAP provide significant value and perform critical functions inside an organization. However, they cannot be expected to do everything, just as an airplane cannot be expected to drop you off at your door like a taxi. Organizations must plan for multiple systems to handle the various types of business processes they have to manage and improve.
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Business process management (BPM) is ultimately about people, not technology. While technology enables BPM, it is people who lead, manage, and participate in business processes. However, BPM vendors have not traditionally focused on human-centric needs. A human-centric perspective can transform BPM from a cold automation system into an intuitive, user-friendly tool that eliminates redundancy and accelerates how work gets done.
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Business process management (BPM)—the discipline of modeling, automating, managing, and optimizing business processes—is one of the hottest market segments in the software industry today. Its rapid growth is driven by the increasing recognition that success is driven by the efficiency of your organization’s business processes. But what exactly is a business process—and how can BPM improve it?
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A full member of the Barclay’s Group, UK-based FIRSTPLUS Financial Group specializes in personal loans and loan refinancing. As with all businesses that experience rapid growth from the outset, its critical processes had evolved without much structured planning. That’s why FIRSTPLUS needed a strategic business process management (BPM) solution for structural process implementation and automation across different areas and functions.
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Bernstein AG, established in 1947 and headquartered in Porta Westfalica (Germany), builds and sells components and systems for industrial automation peripherals. In 2002, it began the task of selecting and implementing a flexible, web-based business process management (BPM) system. One of the most important technical requirements was the universal integration of the BPM suite into its existing IT infrastructure.
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The Biological and Biotechnological Research Council (BBSRC) is the UK’s principal public funder of basic bioscience research. BBSRC needed an automated business process management (BPM) system to handle grant application processes more efficiently. In particular, the chosen solution had to manage the complexities of the grant application and grant round processes, with 6000 applications within a 12-month period.
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To automate processes, business users and IT must work together as a team. The combination of technology infrastructure, process flow, and business requirements all needs to be translated into a process map to enable automation to occur. This process discovery effort, and adjusting the process map to manage change, is the most significant challenge of business process management (BPM) projects.
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Just behind fire and the wheel in a list of the world’s greatest inventions comes information lifecycle management (ILM). Without a doubt, ILM will revolutionize every facet of the computing landscape. And along the way, it will probably generate more hype than all the high-tech buzzwords of the past five years combined. But does it solve a real problem?
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Novell has made it clear to its NetWare customers that they must begin planning for transition. However, there is no guarantee that its customers will stay the Novell course. Few observers would disagree that many of those transitioning from NetWare will be moving to Microsoft. But operating system platform changes are no picnic—even in the most standard of environments.
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Companies today are managing ever-increasing amounts of data. Traditional solutions have involved increasing server space by adding more hard drives. Strategically, however, this is like building storage rooms in your house, with no thought as to what will be stored where. That’s why you need an intelligent approach to data management, which doesn’t involve “building more rooms” in your systems.
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A new trend is emerging in the world of storage management, and it’s called information lifecycle management (ILM). Just what it is, however, varies significantly from vendor to vendor. Generally, ILM is a strategy for policy-based information management. Its mandate: to provide centralized management of all information assets, aligning storage resources with the value of the data residing in them.
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In recent years, industry-leading companies have identified process innovation as a real competitive advantage, since outsourcing can provide “virtual scale” to companies of any size. While every company has examples of a select few projects or product launches that were stellar and considered best-in-class, what sets best-process companies apart from the rest is their continued business process innovation and scale.
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Most chief executive officers (CEOs) have developed strategies that push their companies to achieve certain goals. So why are so many companies failing to achieve these goals? Because their twenty-first century vision is being held back by twentieth century processes and IT systems. The missing ingredient: information. And the key to facilitating the flow of information lies in integrated processes.
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Thanks to recent accounting scandals and an increasingly competitive environment, many chief financial officers and the finance organizations they lead have started to take on new roles within the enterprise. However, given the current state of the finance function in US companies, companies first need to understand the challenges to finance—and the road map to increasing its strategic capabilities.
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Installing a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is both challenging and exciting. Yet many organizations do not recognize that one of the largest threats to such a project is a failure to focus on process improvement. If process change is not seen as a necessary element of the project, it will never be as successful as it should be.
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Increased global competition, pricing pressure, and the need to rationalize resources have made business and operational measurement vital on all organizational levels. That’s why business intelligence and data warehousing tools are no longer only for the exclusive use of financial controllers. Instead, they are everyday tools across company divisions, giving relevant and efficient information overviews of all areas of responsibility.
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Although service-oriented architecture (SOA) provides greater flexibility for organizations, connectivity within SOA is a major issue, and must be addressed at an early stage. The use of a bus architecture provides a high level of abstraction, and minimizes the number of adaptors required, while data transformation and intelligent data mapping help to lower time spent on retro-testing and maintenance costs.
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As businesses move away from buying applications to buying the means of facilitating business processes, a different approach to technology assets is required. Service-oriented architecture (SOA) will enable organizations to run business from a process point of view. Tooling must therefore allow existing investments to be used within the SOA environment, enabling business processes to be easily and effectively modeled.
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Conversion can be defined as the process of manipulating data from one format or system to another format or system. It is not “sexy.” It requires extraordinary attention to detail. Done incorrectly, the project fails. Done correctly, the organization will enjoy the confidence provided by a streamlined, efficient, and accurate system, with processes ensuring the data stays that way.
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As companies demand more from their decision support systems, unified business performance management (BPM) will play an increasingly important role in planning and decision-making. Thus, predictive analytics, applied with BPM, bridges the gap between real-time activity monitoring and calculated execution. Before embracing predictive analytics, however, companies should know that only a unified solution can help capitalize on this promising technology.
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To be reliable, cost and profitability analysis must be underpinned with an activity-driven view of how an organization’s products, customers, and channels consume resources and incur costs. However, activity-based costing (ABC) contributes to more reliable customer, product, and channel profitability analysis. In fact, without this foundation, such analyses are critically flawed, and can result in inappropriate decisions and choices.
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To derive maximum value from your data, you need a strong data governance program that helps develop and manage data as a strategic business asset. The success of a data governance program thus hinges upon a robust data integration technology infrastructure. Developing the right technology infrastructure is critical to your ability to automate, manage, and scale your data governance program.
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The data migration phase can consume up to 40 percent of the budget for an application implementation or upgrade. Without separate metrics for migration, data migration problems can lead an organization to judge the entire project a failure, with the conclusion that the new package or upgrade is faulty--when in fact, the problem lies in the data migration process.
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The potential value of centralized data integration is enormous. Once implemented, integration systems promise to deliver more accurate and higher quality data. However, for those who venture into the world of implementation, the promise rarely matches the reality. Avoiding the “data integration migraine” requires careful planning to reduce the risks associated with data relationship, transformation, and map discovery.
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Building, maintaining, and leveraging customer data feeds is expensive and difficult. Customer data can be sent in a variety of formats, using a number of delivery methods. Amid this variety of data, outsourced service providers must be able to provide high-speed “provisioning” of customers. Businesses capable of accepting customer data regardless of format will thus have a significant competitive edge.
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Bad data threatens the usefulness of the information you have about your customers. Poor data quality undermines customer communication and whittles away at profit margins. It can also create useless information in the form of inaccurate reports and market analyses. As companies come to rely more and more on their automated systems, data quality becomes an increasingly serious business issue.
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Dashboards are a popular means to deliver important information at a glance, but their potential is rarely realized. The best software in the world will not produce a useful dashboard without effective visual design. To better understand the concept of business intelligence dashboards in the first place, it is thus vital to understand the common pitfalls of dashboard design.
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The ability to extract and present information meaningfully is vital for business management. Indeed, business intelligence tools enable companies to make better decisions, by providing the right information to the right people at the right time. Moreover, employees increasingly suffer from information overload, and require solutions that make informed decisions a more natural part of the everyday work experience.
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The demands placed on executives to balance compliance requirements with those of the market have increased dramatically over the past few years. However, balancing the rigidity of compliance with the flexibility that allows people to create a better organization can be achieved through a solid understanding of how compliance requirements are integrated into people-ready and agile business process systems.
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Essai is a leading US manufacturer of semiconductor test products. But Essai needed a solution that could support rapid business growth, maintain stringent quality requirements, and support the development and design of high-mix products. Essai worked with Microsoft Certified Partner Oztera, which implemented Microsoft Dynamics NAV 3.7 and customized the solution to achieve complete automation of all business processes.
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Spreadsheets are used in the calculation of sales commissions in most businesses. This is particularly true for small and mid-market businesses that cannot afford more robust systems. Given the common use of spreadsheets, it would be wise to understand the consequences for businesses that depend on them. In fact, the ramifications of errors in spreadsheets can be serious and dramatic.
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Even though business operations have consistently moved towards packaged applications, some still consider building their own solutions. This is sometimes the case even for such standard operations as sales commission calculations. But it is clear that in the case of most applications—and sales commission applications in particular—buying a packaged application is a much better decision than the alternative.
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To simplify and greatly improve their BI shortlist selection processes, companies should focus on the business value and ongoing expenses that different solutions create—measured across a few key variables. This paper outlines key criteria that companies should consider when creating their business intelligence shortlists—and when making their ultimate selections.
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Functionality comparisons for different enterprise resource planning (ERP) modules from different vendors often leads to unbalanced disparities among their approaches, which in turn makes it hard to properly evaluate the solution. On the other hand, a process-oriented ERP system is much easier to evaluate, and its degree of match with company needs is visible from the beginning.
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Imperfect product data can erode your gross margin, frustrate both your customers and your employees, and slow new sales opportunities. The proven safeguards are automated data cleansing, systematic management of data processes, and margin optimization. Real dollars can be reclaimed in the supply chain by making certain that every byte of product information is accurate and synchronized, internally and externally.
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Most service delivery managers and executives quickly realize that there are a number of 'pain points' involved in trying to manage service delivery efficiently, which can lead to a complete inability to manage business. However, the Service Network Optimization (SNO) model from ServicePower is a set of service offerings and technology designed to help service organizations make the right decisions.
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With today’s strategic focus on data, a significant challenge facing companies is the ability to use data to create a single customer view (SCV). An SCV means that a company has a accurate and complete view of their customers across all applications, databases, and customer touch points. The financial, operational, customer satisfaction, and regulatory effects of unreliable SCVs are overwhelming.
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Customers are a company’s true source of value creation, and maintaining their trust is imperative. When companies understand this, privacy protection will become an important business tool, rather than just a regulatory requirement (as many companies think of it). Obtaining, using, and especially protecting customer data has never been more important to the strength and positioning of a company’s success.
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The US Sarbanes-Oxley Act has significantly impacted budgets, personnel allocation, business processes, and documentation. But leveraging a technology solution can smooth the overall compliance process. By investing in a content-centric business process management solution, organizations can automate and improve their compliance. This leads to an effort that is more effective and more efficient, and that ultimately saves money.
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The evolution of global discrete manufacturing is ongoing. How executives at manufacturing companies answer questions and anticipate what will be the right answer six months, a year, or two years from now will determine the success of their company. Infor examines current industry trends and identifies what it believes to be the seven trends producing the greatest stress and change in discrete manufacturing today.
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NexPress, a mid-sized company specializing in print solutions and services, needed to integrate its business processes across its supply chain. It also wanted to increase inventory visibility, and control and eliminate redundant data maintenance. By implementing mySAP and SAP SI s MaxValu, it reduced its operating costs by more than $1 million (USD) in just sixteen weeks.
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When it comes to customer relationship management (CRM), it’s important to understand all the benefits of an integrated CRM system before beginning your selection process. This guide is designed to help you build the business case for a CRM system, form an effective project team, ask the right questions, identify the challenges involved and much more.
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Before beginning your selection process for a customer relationship management (CRM) system, it’s important to understand all the benefits of an integrated CRM system. These 17 “rules of the road” for CRM were collected from executives, managers, employees and consultants and provide useful information when choosing a CRM system.
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Implementing standard enterprise resource planning (ERP) products and other enterprise applications is risky. Industry statistics show that more than 60 percent of implementations fail. A common reason for failure is that the purchased software does not support one or more critical business processes. However, a change-on-demand system ensures that incomplete or changing business requirements are met through adjustments in the application model.
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The globalization of discrete manufacturing is forever changing the notion of what a "small manufacturer" is. Even companies that are considered relatively small in revenue, employment, or client base, must now operate like the largest corporations when structuring and conducting their businesses. Infor examines how today's mid-market manufacturers are transforming themselves—focusing on business processes and employing ERP systems for their own operations.
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The lifeblood by which executives in professional services organizations (PSO) manage their businesses has traditionally centered on the concept of realization, measured through metrics. Predictive Service Execution enables firms to deliver consistent and timely services while maximizing cash flow, engagement profitability, and customer satisfaction.
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Faced with mounting competitive pressures and product customization, Davis Controls, a representative and assembler for international manufacturers needed to provide its sales force with business analytics and intelligence. With Exact Business Analytics, Davis Controls transformed corporate data into business information, accessible from wherever it resided within the organization without the need for a data warehouse or data mart.
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Alltech, a multinational biotechnology company providing natural solutions to the feed and food industries, needed to turn the data in its system into useful business information. Exact Business Analytics allowed Alltech to improve the management and distribution of business information. It eliminated approximately 1,200 different reports and turned Alltech’s 60 distinct databases into a valuable business asset.
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To successfully obtain the budget and organizational support for an electronic documentation management systems (EDMS) and electronic records management system (ERMS) project you need to know the pain points of all the departments in your organization. By asking the right questions of each department you’ll be able to develop your business case and create a persuasive analysis on the cost benefit for EDMS/ERMS.
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There is a presumption that enterprise performance management and business intelligence initiatives must be supported by data warehouses. Conceptually, the data warehouse provides a central point where a copy of data from multiple locations is stored and optimized for reporting. In practice, however, it is possible to access powerful business intelligence, analytics, and reporting, without relying on a data warehouse.
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Digital dashboards provide visibility into key performance indicators through simple visual graphics within a browser, such as gauges, charts, and tables. They can drive strategic effectiveness, but only if the true meaning of digital dashboard is understood, and if the person responsible for maintaining the dashboard knows the business rules of the organization.
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Any company efficiency improvements are going to involve business process management (BPM). BPM ensures process consistency, optimizes business processes, and ensures compliance. The result is not only cuts in cost and time, but it adds a price value and creates a price advantage which helps companies enhance their competitive edge.
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By integrating data from disparate systems and delivering data in a management dashboard on a personal digital assistant (PDA) or cell phone, Persistent enabled service engineers to collect and update data related to tire usage. This solution seamlessly integrated approximately 1,000 dealers in more than 15 European countries to central data servers and a CRM solution. The result? Improved customer end acquisition and satisfaction.
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Quality data in the supply chain is essential in when information is automated and shared with internal and external customers. Dirty data is a huge impediment to businesses. In this article, learn about the four critical success factors to clean data: 1- scope, 2- team, 3- process, and 4- technology.
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Business intelligence (BI) capabilities transform vast amounts of data into relevant information that organizations rely on to make decisions and manage performance. Most companies have some form of BI, and most are familiar with its benefits. However, in order to extract maximum advantage from BI initiatives, it is necessary to be aware of—and avoid—their seven “fatal flaws.”
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Workflows can increase efficiency, standardize processes, reduce costs, and increase return on investment. The key is to understand your customer, your products and services and your business processes. Learn how easy-to-design workflows can help ensure that best practices are carried out consistently and efficiently. Streamline daily tasks and make learning new operations simpler. Workflows help you reduce churn, boost productivity and increase customer satisfaction.
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There are potential benefits of operating business process management (BPM) side-by-side with business service management (BSM). BPM and BSM are emerging technologies: BPM is concerned with the orchestration and management of effective business processes, while BSM focuses on the operational effectiveness of the enabling IT services. These technologies are mutually beneficial to one another. This white paper is intended for managers interested in implementing robust BPM solutions in IT-dependent business scenarios or managers looking to lay down a basic foundation for effective on-demand utility computing. It addresses the partnership between Fuego and Proxima Technology, vendors in BPM and BSM solutions.
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A balanced scorecard is a measurement system for management that provides real insight into the status of a business or some part of it. Developed by Kaplan and Norton in the early 1990s, balanced scorecards provide a control system that helps ensure the right balance between different, and often times conflicting, perspectives. For example, an insurance company may increase profitability by offering incentives to claims assessors for taking a tough stance on payout, but will soon find dissatisfaction among its clients that may lead to lost business. Scorecards help ensure this balance and are an improvement over more traditional single dimension approaches that tend to be based purely on expense management and business growth.
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Data integration is a key enabler for supply chain modernization. Competition is driving increased integration of the supply chain, both due to direct cost pressures and to increased globalization. There can be little doubt that well implemented supply chain integration saves labor costs and improves inventory control. This has often been a complex and costly proposition. Standards, improved products and a common understanding of best practices for distributed systems are reducing the price of entry to supply chain automation. This will, in turn drive broader integration of manufacturing and distribution endpoints.
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Life cycle development can be a complicated and intimidating process for many organizations. Are you
struggling to adapt the development process successfully to your own projects? Do you want to use various formal life cycle processes such as Agile, Incremental, Spiral, and Waterfall, or various informal processes, such as extreme programming (XP) and others? Are you burdened by the development process? This paper will explain how you can simply and easily adopt any life cycle process.
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Decison support systems range from simple electronic filing cabinets to complex data intensive and analytically sophisticated executive information systems. This primer provides an overview with real case studies.
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QlikTech develops and provides a complete suite of powerful business intelligence and data analysis software called QlikView (pronounced click-view). QlikView’s powerful business intelligence and analytics engine is utilizing patented AQL technology to build a non-relational, highly space-efficient associative database residing in RAM. This results in interactive, easy-to-use business analytics applications that are considerably more flexible and faster to deploy compared with traditional business intelligence and OLAP solutions. The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to the QlikView user interface and descriptions of the various features that set QlikView apart from other database interfaces.
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What does it mean to be a world-class competitor? It means being successful in your market against any competition—regardless of size or country of origin. It means matching or exceeding any competitor on quality, lead time, cost, customer service, and innovation. It means picking your battles—competing on the terms dictated by you. But how do you get there?
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