A global survey of IT leaders shows that most organizations find it challenging to convert high volumes of fresh transactional data into knowledge that business users can efficiently access, understand, and act on. SAP and HP are tackling this challenge head-on. Download this article to learn more.
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Download this white paper to find out how in-memory computing can change the way you manage business intelligence, and the value your business can derive from the technology. For business and IT executives, this paper furnishes information and business examples about what changes they can look forward to and how those changes can catalyze their strategic initiatives.
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Download this datasheet to get a rundown of SAP HANA's functionality and the benefits it can provide for your business.
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What is SAP HANA? And how does it work? Download this primer on SAP HANA to get clear answers to these and other questions.
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To be successful in the data-driven economy, companies must leverage intelligence instantly and take immediate action. At the same time, they must ensure their decisions are based on proper data and analysis. So how are today's executives responding? To explore these issues, Oxford Economics surveyed 525 executives in March 2011. Download this report for full analysis of the results.
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For business leaders facing the radical, disruptive change represented by in-memory analytics, the response may range from enthusiasm and advocacy to apprehension and fear. Regardless of your particular posture, the smart company needs to understand how in-memory works and what it represents, and craft a purposeful roadmap for their in-memory future. Download this primer on in-memory analytics to learn what it all means for you.
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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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This article from Harvard Business Review describes the design and implementation of a system for strategic planning, operational execution, and feedback and learning. It also presents a range of tools that managers can apply at the different stages, and options for integrating them in a system that links the management of strategy and operations.
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Over the course of several months in 2011, IDC conducted a research study to identify the opportunities and challenges to adoption of a new technology that changes the way in which traditional business solutions are implemented and used. Download this white paper for full results.
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This Aberdeen Research brief hones in on the critical time element of a best-in-class business intelligence (BI) strategy. The research shows that top performer are leveraging real-time of near real-time analytics to proactively manage their business and drive substantial performance improvements. Download this report for full details.
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While terabytes used to be synonymous with big data warehouses, now it’s petabytes, and the rate of growth in data volumes continues to escalate as organizations seek to store and analyze greater levels of transaction details, as well as Web- and machine-generated data, to gain a better understanding of customer behavior and drivers. This report examines the rise of "big data" and the use of analytics to mine that data.
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In today's global marketplace, transaction data is running 24x7x365, and midsize companies that want to leverage that information must be able to analyze it in a very short time. Next-generation business intelligence (BI) tools deliver this critical functionality. This white paper discusses the benefits of in-memory analytics technology for speeding BI and explores SAP solutions based on its High Performance Analytics Appliance (HANA).
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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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A strategic planning process is critical for distribution companies. Not unlike personal financial planning, distribution executives have to select the best investments needed now to create profitable growth in the future. If you fail to make the right commitments at the right time, you will miss opportunities and increase your risk. This paper outlines a set of core analytics customized for wholesaler distributors.
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Finance departments are uniquely qualified to lead the effort to optimize profitability because of their neutrality, numbers orientation, and analytical abilities. However, as finance departments move to implement profitability management they need to recognize the challenges they may face. This white paper discusses how to manage profitability more effectively.
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All midsize and larger companies think they have systems in place to manage costs, so they give this issue little ongoing thought. They may be blind to the limitations of the systems they’re using and the improvements to cost management they can achieve. This paper identifies the information technology (IT) components used in cost management to enable finance executives to identify areas of improvement.
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Forecasting is changing from a top-down process to a bottom-up one. High-level targets may be useful starting points, but they must be combined with input from line management and department heads before being rolled up into enterprise-wide financial goals. Some companies find it effective to “embed” members of the finance function within other business units. Read this white paper to find out more.
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Methods such as ad-hoc reporting and decision-making by gut feeling may be effective in the early phases of a business, but once past that crucial startup phase, neglecting to invest in appropriate business systems can significantly hinder continued growth and profitability. A well-executed enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution can enable change and provide on-going savings that can help you sustain and grow your business.
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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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These are challenging times for discrete manufacturing, especially for small to midsize companies. To stay competitive and meet rising expectations, manufacturers must seize every opportunity to grow—but wisely and profitably. This white paper presents clear strategies that can help these manufacturers achieve competitive advantage while giving clients the innovative, competitively priced products they demand.
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Most high-tech firms need to do a better job of capturing and sharing corporate and supply-chain data. Lean manufacturing practitioners often use a process metric called “right first time on time” (RFTOT). It not only applies to delivery of components and products moving through a value stream, but to delivery of information as well—product development, forecasting, sales and operations planning, etc. Find out more.
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This white paper gives insight into the challenges faced by small to medium enterprises (SMEs), and how proven, predictable enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions can help organizations build a solid information technology (IT) foundation for the future. This paper discusses a low-risk, easy-to-implement solution tailored to the prospect’s industry through preconfiguration of the solution according to best practices.
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As manufactures adopt lean principles, the process inevitably involves developing metrics for measuring their progress. But measurements are linked throughout the organization, not just on the manufacturing floor but in accounts payable and other back office processes. This white paper emphasizes the need to focus on strategy deployment.
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To realize a competitive advantage, small-business leaders must address five common obstacles: inefficient operations, inability to support rapid growth or new markets, disjointed business processes, lack of visibility into daily operations, and limited resources. Read this white paper to learn how to overcoming these challenges and gain valuable insights into your business.
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Embedding governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) management into all business process has become imperative. Companies need to adopt a holistic view when it comes to reducing and managing risks, and ensure better access risk management. This paper discusses the need for companies to take a proactive approach towards access risk management.
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Managing end-user access to critical enterprise resources as part of an organization's IT governance, risk management, and compliance (GRC) initiative helps companies to control access risk, provide real-time visibility for multiple stakeholders, and streamline regulatory compliance. This research shows that the leading performers in controlling access risk also realize tangible financial benefits.
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This second annual benchmark study covers U.S. export operations and compliance. The survey covered export regulatory reform, operations management practices, organizational structure, compliance policies, and export management technology. This year’s study looks at the impact of going global with export control reform.
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The longstanding silos within organizations may be ready for busting, and the right IT strategy can facilitate the collaboration needed to break them down, even extending to suppliers, customers, and partners, integrating all processes from idea to delivery. This paper features an interview with SAP’s heads of solution marketing for product lifecycle management and for supply chain management about the idea-to-delivery concept.
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Today’s “new normal” business environment demands a new view of what customers value and an improved approach to delivering that value. The idea to delivery (I2D) framework posits that multiple companies now compete as a business network rather than as individual enterprises, each relying on the others to achieve collective success. This paper includes an action plan with the evolutionary steps companies can take to move toward this approach.
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To boost efficiency, run leaner, and drive down the cost of supply, many organizations are exploring inventory optimization—a technique for improving operational inventory targets to address the realities of today’s highly complex, ever-evolving global supply chains. This paper examines how the stochastic multistage, multi-inventory model supports inventory optimization.
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As competition increases and more organizations turn to outsourcing, networked business environments are becoming the norm. Many businesses are strategically partnering with suppliers and other supply chain participants to collaborate and share information. This white paper addresses three common questions from organizations that are collaborative supply chain networks and offers ways to help achieve supply chain success.
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Sales and operations planning (S&OP) is the key integrated process that the supply chain organization can leverage to achieve visibility and transformation across the entire organization and throughout the value chain. This white paper explores the current business challenges face by companies, the priority allocated to S&OP, the maturity levels associated with S&OP, and the role of technology enablers.
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Over 190 companies were surveyed regarding their challenges within demand-supply networks and the top priorities for managing these networks. This paper is based on an analysis of that survey and highlights the need for companies to focus on intelligent response management strategies that bridge planning and execution.
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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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More than 200 supply chain managers were surveyed on their international transportation management (ITM) practices, processes, and the technologies that support them. This report is the third annual study on this subject—a benchmarking initiative seeking to parse out companies that are succeeding at any particular function and examine why they are successful.
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The increased deployment of mobile solutions in the workplace can make navigating the corporate landscape challenging and risky. While organizations are rightly deploying mobile device management (MDM) solutions as means to secure their mobile devices, there is more to be done. This executive insight examines the need for organizations to deploy a holistic enterprise mobility management solution that goes well beyond MDM.
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In the unwired enterprise, mobile devices connect the boardroom to the shop floor to the consumer across the supply chain. They empower people and companies that employ them. This friendly guide looks at how your enterprise can manage and leverage this technology to ensure your organization is productive and secure. Understand the key aspects of enterprise mobility and know how you can boost your bottom line through mobility.
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An increasing number of organizations are permitting employees to bring their own mobile devices into the workplace to be used for work purposes. While this practice may first appear to reduce enterprise mobility costs while increasing employee productivity, it also poses new risks and may actually increase costs if not properly managed. Know how to cost-effectively manage this Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) phenomenon.
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Today, more and more companies are launching mobile applications, creating a mobile professional workforce across job roles and categories. This white paper provides a framework for CIOs on how to create a mobile application strategy for their business. It gives a step-by-step guide to the different stages involved, from choosing a focus, to building and deploying, to the ongoing support of enterprise mobile applications. Read more.
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Based on the findings of a worldwide survey of more than 1,000 executives, one of the key strategies for becoming a truly global player is creating a global operating model supported by a foundation of integrated financial, human capital management (HCM), and other business applications. Find out why integrated financial and HCM applications are crucial if large and midsize companies are to emerge as truly global players.
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This research brief examines the use of workforce analytics tools as well as the way best-in-class organizations align workforce strategies with business objectives. It looks at existing technologies and makes recommendations to enable organizations to address workforce optimization, talent plans, and human resources (HR) service delivery. Read it and discover how your company can achieve best-in-class performance.
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To compete effectively in the digital marketplace, telecom companies must answer a new call. New multisided business models require changes in the way they collaborate with partners, price offerings, and service customers. Discover the best practices and technologies that can help your telecom company take advantage of this industry transformation while supporting profitability, innovation, and differentiation.
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In 2007, CFO Research Services published The Superstar CFO, a study documenting the attributes of highly successful chief financial officers (CFOs). Since then, the world has been shaken by financial, political, and natural upheavals that have altered the economic landscape. This report explores how these changes may be affecting companies’ efforts to transform corporate finance into a value-added partner to the business.
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The rise of automated recruitment technology has helped organizations make the process of finding, hiring, and deploying new employees better. Based on over 400 responses to Aberdeen’s August 2010 Talent Acquisition Strategies study, this research brief shows the impact of automation on both quality of hire and the quality of the hiring process. Download it and learn how automation can help improve your hiring process.
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Analytics has moved from the specialty of a dedicated few to a necessity for groups of business professionals to do their job. This white paper considers the use of analytics and business intelligence (BI) for improving decision making in public sector organizations. It also examines the benefits of prebuilt analytic applications for achieving this objective across many functions.
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Bank chief financial officers (CFOs) are being forced to reexamine their roles and responsibilities. Simply closing the books no longer works. Finance departments are being asked to perform strategic budgeting and planning, monitor risk and compliance, and improve overall performance. To meet these demands while competing in a turbulent marketplace, bank CFOs need sound planning and forecasting support. Find out more.
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Analytics has moved from the specialty of a dedicated few to a necessity for groups of business professionals to do their job. This white paper considers the use of analytics and business intelligence (BI) for improving decision making in the banking industry. It also examines the benefits of prebuilt analytic applications for achieving this objective across functions in a banking organization.
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Analytics has moved from the specialty of a dedicated few to a necessity for groups of business professionals to do their job. This white paper considers the use of analytics and business intelligence (BI) for improving decision making in the retail industry. It also examines the benefits of prebuilt analytic applications for achieving this objective across functions in a retail organization.
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Analytics has moved from the specialty of a dedicated few to a necessity for groups of business professionals to do their job. This white paper considers the use of analytics and business intelligence (BI) for improving decision making in the consumer products industry. It also examines the benefits of prebuilt analytic applications for achieving this objective across functions in a consumer products organization.
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Analytics has moved from the specialty of a dedicated few to a necessity for groups of business professionals to do their job. This white paper considers the use of analytics and business intelligence (BI) for improving decision making in the telecommunications industry. It also examines the benefits of prebuilt analytic applications for achieving this objective across functions in a telecommunications organization.
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Even in a strong economy, retail is an extremely competitive industry. This paper lays out the external pressures and challenges retailers face when attempting to understand sales drivers and promotional performance. It also identifies best practices needed to create the deep insights required to optimize inventory levels, avoid stock outs, maximize margins, and keep customers loyal—even in volatile market conditions.
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Communications service providers (CSPs) face a changing business environment, with consumers and businesses rapidly adopting the latest mobile devices for their computing and communications needs. This Vendor Spotlight examines the issues facing the communications industry and discusses the role that SAP plays in offering a new generation of billing software and services designed to address the needs of this important market.
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Based on a survey of finance executives from across Canada, this white paper offers perspectives of senior financial managers on the widespread use of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets in the workforce. It also determines what finance executives see as the drivers and benefits of the use of mobile business applications, as well as the most critical challenges and consequences, including cost and risk.
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In the late 1990s, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based cable operator Comcast relied on decidedly low-tech human resources (HR) systems. But as the company's business operations expanded, and the Comcast workforce grew by more than 20 times, executives realized that managing with paper would no longer be possible or efficient. Find out how a new HR solution helped Comcast improve processes and increase employee retention.
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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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Banks need robust risk analysis and reporting solutions to improve reporting accuracy and efficiency, while reducing the costs and burdens of compliance. Yet many forces hamper efficient enterprise risk reporting, including regulatory and stakeholder pressures, process inefficiencies, and disparate data. This paper focuses on the risk reporting challenges facing banks, and outlines the best practices banks need to improve reporting and manage risk.
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Business analytics can help hospitals assess initiatives, evaluate risk, and produce the actionable managerial reports and dashboards that executives, financial budget managers, and departmental managers need to make better decisions. This white paper outlines the best practices needed to streamline the planning cycle, increase operational efficiency, and empower staff to make better decisions. Download now.
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We interviewed CFOs at complex multinational companies to learn what they see as key to accelerating their consolidation and close processes, along with the challenges they face. They see their ability to conduct a high-quality close as a competitive advantage, rather than simply a regulatory obligation. A well managed close process is also important for building investor confidence in the company. Find out more. Download this report now.
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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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Throughout 2011, SAP and its partners have been pushing the boundaries of traditional business intelligence (BI) with a wave of new business analytics solutions, including SAP BusinessObjects analytic applications, SAP BusinessObjects Mobile, and SAP BusinessObjects BI OnDemand. SAPinsider asked SAP Executive Vice President and General Manager Sanjay J. Poonen to explain the market dynamics that are driving this revolution, and what’s in it for customers.
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In industries as diverse as high tech, financial services, and telecommunications, companies such as yours are rapidly changing their business models and launching new hyperconnected services via the Internet and wireless networks. This white paper examines the challenges of monetizing these new services in today’s economy—and proposes solutions that will help you achieve your goals.
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One of the most basic business axioms, held dear by all firms but especially small companies, is that cash flow is king. Customer payments are essential for fueling all other business activity, from staff salaries, to raw materials, to rent. Growing firms need to be especially attentive to cash flow because sales increases typically require new investments associated with product or service production before payments are received. Learn more now.
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Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets may be putting your corporate information at risk. Lost or stolen smartphones that are not password-protected, or information in corporate e-mail or business applications transmitted wirelessly but not encrypted, can all too easily expose confidential corporate data. Download this white paper to learn about key strategies for protecting your enterprise mobile devices and the sensitive data they contain.
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Outdated applications and countless integration challenges leave you little time to provide the kind of IT support your business needs. You need world-class ERP software within your budget and time horizon. In other words: an affordable and flexible ERP solution that can be implemented quickly, adopted rapidly, and maintained easily. Working with a tight IT budget? No need to despair. Get in on these five secrets and get the most for your IT spend.
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Businesses need to be highly flexible, scalable, and able to adapt quickly to market conditions and customer demands. However, this is easier said than done; building and maintaining such capabilities the traditional way is laborious and challenging. Download this white paper to learn about the various capability acquisition and IT solution deployment options—and how to evaluate them.
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Many organizations in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry are experiencing a trade-off between the benefit of high product volume sales coming at the expense of extreme data complexity. Many CPG organizations are seeking business intelligence (BI) tools to help create supply chain linkages and deliver their products more efficiently. See how BI tools can help business managers better manage fluctuating product demand.
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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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While much of the interest in data quality (DQ) solutions had focused on avoiding failure of data management-related initiatives, organizations now look to DQ efforts to improve operational efficiencies, reduce wasted costs, optimize critical business processes, provide data transparency, and improve customer experiences. Read what DQ purchase and usage trends across UK and US companies reveal about DQ goals and drivers.
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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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The analytical capability once reserved for large enterprises has now permeated the world of small to medium businesses (SMBs), providing visibility into what really matters for these companies. Not surprisingly, there has been a marked uptake in use of business intelligence (BI) solutions in the SMB market over the past year. Follow the road map for SMBs looking to achieve best-in-class performance through BI deployment.
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Nearly all companies realize the way to gain a competitive advantage is to obtain better data, interpret them quickly, and distribute them in easier-to-use formats. But there are many obstacles to the effective use of data, resulting in unused corporate data in many companies. How are companies using information to beat their rivals and create a more level playing field? Find out how business practices are evolving to this end.
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Traditionally, organizations have met their prioritized objectives by using business intelligence (BI) information to make informed decisions. Increasingly, organizations are finding that the benefits of BI can be enhanced when complemented by predictive analysis. See how more insight can be gained, and even better decisions made, by coupling business-relevant information with an easy-to-use predictive analytics solution.
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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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Today’s small and midsize companies are destined to make uninformed decisions on an alarmingly regular basis. Executives simply do not have the relevant information to make the best decisions in a timely manner. Read this paper to know how gaining real-time visibility of the enterprise helps small and midsize companies leverage consistency, accuracy, and timeliness via a single data source to make better, faster decisions.
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Now that technical aspects of delivering information to the business intelligence (BI) user community are understood, BI vendors are focused on market expansion through key initiatives, including advocating ‘BI for the masses.’ However promising expanded BI use may be, a careful and balanced discussion of the specific business and technical preconditions for capturing the business value of BI investments is needed.
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Organizations are increasingly focused on business intelligence (BI) and analytics projects that help reduce costs or retain customers. But justifying the high cost of BI software will be challenging unless short-term benefits can be directly correlated with the investment and these projects can be executed within the long-term strategic plan of the company. Know the questions you need to pose for a successful BI strategy.
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For many new system deployments, data migration is one of the last priorities. Data migration is often viewed as simply transferring data between systems, yet the business impact can be significant and detrimental to business continuity when proper data management is not applied. By embracing the five phases of a data migration management methodology outlined in this paper, you can deliver a new system with quality data.
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Though master data management (MDM) is not new, enterprises are now beginning to realize that MDM must be managed and integrated outside of the traditional business transaction and BI environment. This paper reviews the current status of MDM, offers suggestions for planning, building, and deploying an MDM environment, and examines how this environment can be used with BI applications to improve the decision making process.
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Most large enterprises significantly improve their revenue and profitability by deploying business intelligence (BI) technology. But if you are a small or midsize enterprise (SME) does an investment in BI make sense for you, and how should you deploy the various components of BI technology to achieve success? Read this paper to see how BI can enable your SME organization to grow and profit by leveraging its core strengths.
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The biggest financial benefit of an integrated information technology (IT) platform and architecture is not only that it improves the productivity of an organization’s IT infrastructure but also that the platform improves the experience of the customer. This report reviews a case where strong customer experience led to competitive differentiation.
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This report reviews how one company made the strategic decision to replace the legacy systems built to support the old organizational structure with a new system that revolves around customers, not vehicles. The new system consists of fully integrated components, with a customer relationship management (CRM)-based frontend. The technology infrastructure was crucial to the overall success of the restructuring effort.
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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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How can management communicate the organization’s strategy effectively and assure that the entire organization has bought into it and is aligned with it? Business performance optimization systems are an important tool for success. By using business performance optimization systems, employees are empowered to confidently make timely, strategically-aligned decisions based upon facts, not intuition or corporate politics. See how.
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To realize the 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. Those organizations that approach this issue strategically will be successful. But what goes into a data quality strategy? This paper from Business Objects, an SAP company, explores the strategy in the context of data quality.
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Even with the finest marketing organizations, the success of marketing comes down to the data. Ensuring data quality can be a significant challenge, particularly when you have thousands or even millions of prospect records in your CRM system and you are trying to target the right prospect. Data quality, data integration, and other functions of enterprise information management (EIM) are crucial to this endeavor. Read more.
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Despite growth in online and virtual commerce, a business transaction or event happens at some location. The growing volume of data can yield interesting and surprising insight in relation to the location of events, transactions, and behaviors, enabling informed business decisions for increased operational efficiencies, revenue growth, etc. Know the value of location within both operational and analytical applications.
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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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Today’s businesses are challenged by a multi-dimensional and continually evolving competitive environment. Top-performing organizations must develop strategies to manage the growth of data volume and complexity while exploiting that data to create quicker business insight. See how these top performers are leveraging (near) real-time analytics to proactively manage their business and drive huge performance improvements.
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SAP and its partners have introduced a wave of new business intelligence (BI) analytics solutions that are bringing together transactional and enterprise data. These new technologies and capabilities will change the way companies think about and use BI, as well as the way they do business. Read this special report of SAPinsider and know the market dynamics that are driving this revolution and what’s in it for customers.
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Engaging in conversation with consumers through new social media channels is helping retailers strengthen customer relationships and enhance their brand. To manage this conversation effectively, you need solutions that help you capture and analyze a massive amount of social media data and prepare an appropriate, individualized response. This white paper explores the ideal social media solution.
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Customer experience is now a competitive differentiator. As customers become more informed and more demanding, companies need to step outside of their comfort zone and explore non-traditional customer relationship management (CRM) areas. This paper explores a sampling of CRM improvements that allow companies to deliver a consistent customer experience to gain a competitive advantage.
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Organizations today are looking for low-risk solutions that provide immediate value. This paper introduces a set of solutions that offers a range of processes to address major phases of the customer life cycle. These rapid deployment customer relationship management (CRM) solutions give companies a live, preconfigured CRM environment that leverages CRM best practices. They also include a unique implementation methodology.
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One of the biggest challenges of business software implementations is their unpredictability. Total costs and deployment time can vary wildly. Read about a new category of solutions that combines preconfigured software, predefined services, and other user-focused enablement content to provide predictable solution deployments in less than 12 weeks and at a fixed price.
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In this paper it’s argued that over the next three to five years, the winners in sales will be the ones who figure out how to smoothly and productively manage a mobile sales team. Selling will be a mobile discipline. It’s imperative to craft a plan for making mobility standard and keeping information secure.
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It’s clear that no single software vendor can fully support the range of requirements encompassing a complete mobile business strategy. This white paper addressed how business software vendors can best support their customers by leveraging a robust mobile ecosystem built on solutions from a variety of vendors.
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Until recently, application platforms dominated the enterprise mobility story. Vendors like Sybase sold them and corporations bought them—to build mobile apps in-house. SAP’s acquisition of Sybase, however, foreshadows a change. Packaged mobile apps will soon replace custom-built ones as the predominant deployment model inside the enterprise.
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Knowledge acceleration for customer relationship management (CRM) sales can help you work more effectively with analytics and functions such as billing and orders to ensure efficiency while reducing errors. Learn about software-based courses designed to help sales professionals understand and master the essential functions within CRM sales.
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Contact center solutions are often rigid and hardware based, making it difficult and expensive to respond effectively to customer needs. An effective response leverages all of your organization’s expertise to deliver an effective customer experience. This paper discusses a comprehensive solution that provides an advanced, all-IP contact center communications solution.
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Information technology (IT) projects tend to run late, over-budget, or do not meet planned goals. Implementation risk is a critical factor. Packaged solutions modularize the implementation process into smaller, well-defined units that are easier to manage and less expensive to deploy than traditional methods. This white paper discusses why enterprise software customers should consider packaged solutions.
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Profitable customer experience (CE) strategies are holistic, sustainable, and focused on creating competitive differentiation. If you can deliver highly valuable experiences to your customers, in a sustainable way, the reward will be loyal, engaged advocates who help you grow your business. Read more to better understand how companies can provide a superlative customer experience and still make a profit.
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Customer churn is very costly—it’s many times more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an existing one—so retaining customers by offering a superior experience is a top priority. Also, delivering unique experiences to different customer segments is a valuable strategy. Read about how to increase brand equity and retain customers by offering a better experience.
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Learn how communication-enabled business processes (CEBPs)—processes enabled by communication systems that are tightly integrated with business applications—can help resolve customer relationship management (CRM) issues by reducing latency, providing recording of and visibility into interactions, and better enabling end-to-end processes involving employees, customers, suppliers, and partners.
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This paper evaluates various service software solutions for customer service and business process professionals to create differentiated customer experiences and build stronger buyer loyalty. Customers are increasingly online, want self-service options, and demand real-time responses. Also, social media has grown to be an important new channel for interacting with customers and engaging in innovative ways.
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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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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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Organizations need technology that can unlock the value of information. Information can drive new insights to help transform and significantly improve the business, especially critical in an uncertain economy. This paper highlights common mistakes companies make in a down economy and discusses how organizations can use business intelligence to avoid them. A self-assessment questionnaire is included.
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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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Business intelligence (BI) functionality can help your company gains visibility, insight, operational alignment, and accountability to increase revenue, margins, and liquidity; streamline processes; improve agility; and become a best-run business. Find out more in this report about a preconfigured solution.
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Your company’s focus has been on streamlining operations, acquiring customers, increasing revenues and profitability, and outpacing the competition, instead of analyzing what’s going on and planning for the future. Further, you need to know where to concentrate your efforts. This white paper offers guidance on how to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your company with business intelligence.
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Due to the wide range of size, scope, and complexity within the extended enterprise, different units often have different functional requirements for the business management software they use. The different demands can become a barrier to future growth, profitability, and agility. So how do you coordinate resources and activities to get everybody on the same page within an extended enterprise?
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Innovation has many dimensions. For a long time, innovation referred to new-product development. Business model innovation is broader and impacts the enterprise holistically. It doesn’t necessarily mean doing new things, just doing things differently. Read about the adaptive enterprise and the importance of information technology (IT).
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Software can’t tell you how to beat the competition, but it can determine which products and services have the greatest profit margin, who are the most productive employees, or how investments are impacting the bottom line. Knowing that information helps you make the right decisions. This report addresses how finance can create an accurate, actionable 360-degree view of your company
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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 three themes of governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) have been central to the management agenda for a decade. But whereas years ago it was the “C” in GRC that kept executives awake at night (and indeed was the impetus behind the development of GRC in the first place), in the post-crisis world it is the “R” that has risen to the top of the agenda. Learn about a more efficient approach to managing risk and compliance.
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Best-in-class retailers are turning to pervasive business intelligence (BI) to increase consumer-centric data accessibility. This report examines how retailers are incorporating BI tools into their standard processes to establish a company-wide view into constantly changing customer buying trends, and how internal departments are using this data to make processes more efficient and effective throughout the enterprise.
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SAP's acquisition of Sybase foreshadows a revolutionary change in the enterprise mobility space. John Chen, CEO of Sybase, discusses what the company has to offer as a new member of the SAP family, including exciting technology developments that position Sybase and SAP to lead this mobile revolution.
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By developing, communicating, and implementing an actionable yet flexible enterprise mobility strategy, an organization can unlock new business value from its investments. Having a mobility strategy enables the organization to quickly adopt state-of-the-art, innovative mobile technologies and transform itself into a “mobile enterprise” in a sustainable and secure manner—now and in the increasingly mobile future.
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In just a few short years, social media has revolutionized the way people communicate and share information. For apparel companies, going social is no longer an option; it is a strategic business element that provides them the opportunity to collect detailed information on users and their habits, elicit real feedback and suggestions, and refine their offering and messaging to better suit user demands.
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Increased regulatory requirements, the need for transparency, and the desire to better manage and mitigate risks together make governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) top of mind for both business and information technology (IT) executives. Business managers and IT security managers must work collaboratively to control access and authorization to guard against fraud and mistakes, while ensuring profitability and compliance.
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The retail thought process has irrevocably changed. Science-supported process is now core to the merchandising discipline. However, faith in science is not always grounded in an understanding of what it can do (even for the largest retailers), leaving us with some concerns about unrealistic expectations and a backlash later in the decade. Read about the seven critical tenets for 21st-century merchandising.
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Best-practice performance management requires processes to run seamlessly across enterprise performance management applications. This permits the sharing of data, enabling business managers to collaborate and make better and quicker decisions that give the organization the agility it needs in today’s increased uncertainty. This paper sets out how one enterprise performance management (EPM) solution delivers.
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Too many organizations are still thinking small about mobility, just extending a few processes to their road warriors. But all the pieces needed to turn an enterprise into a mobile force are now available, including powerful mobile operating systems, flexible mobile solutions, and end-user demand. Find out how customers can take advantage of this mobile inflection point and truly transform their enterprises.
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The short list of what retailers need from first-generation mobile capabilities is surprisingly long, spanning deep product information, ratings and reviews, scanning capabilities, full commerce, and more. Download this white paper to learn more about the state of consumer mobile in retail today, as well as the mobile use cases that retailers have currently deployed. Download now.
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Managing access to protected resources can be risky business as new applications and services are deployed, as new users join the extended enterprise, or as existing users change roles. Strategy and technology choices—along with the policy, planning, process, and organizational elements of implementation—are critical factors in the overall success of an organization’s access management initiative.
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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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A human resources department is continually challenged to administer the company’s workforce, respond quickly to change, and ensure the company is properly staffed to support core business objectives. Comprehensive human resources management functionality helps simplify and optimize HR processes through integrated applications that bridge the gaps caused by outdated, disparate systems that drive up costs and workloads.
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To effectively track and forecast your company’s financial performance, you need up-to-date and reliable financial data. As your business grows and diversifies, you need to maintain liquidity and manage cash flow and profits. Integration of your business transactions and operational data with financial data makes this possible, and helps you eliminate departmental silos and streamline your business operations.
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Successfully meeting today’s business challenges requires effective project management. How well your organization manages projects, tracks costs, and identifies and addresses project-related issues can have a big impact on your bottom line. But if your company still relies on traditional, stand-alone project management applications, most likely you lack the end-to-end process support you need to ensure success.
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Managing customer relationships is a challenging but vital part of running a business. Organizations have to acquire new customers to grow revenue and satisfactorily service existing customers to ensure loyalty and future business. A good business management solution has customer relationship management (CRM) functionality integrates with the entire range of your processes and provides a full view of customer data.
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Companies have invested heavily in their IT infrastructure, but they still face challenges with their existing business operations. To help create a cost-effective, high-performance system, SAP has developed a program to help companies proactively analyze and improve business performance in four key areas. Take a look at SAP Safeguarding services options and how they are designed to serve business users and IT staff.
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As organizations seek to grow beyond their current markets and activities, executives look beyond the existing business model to expand their business. This paper looks at most common areas of business model innovation, describes how organizations are leveraging innovation in different parts of their business, and shows how to implement a solid and adaptive foundation that is flexible enough to support rapid innovation.
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Until recently, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software was rarely considered for use in smaller firms, as core benefits—better business management via coordinated, standardized information and analysis—were often outweighed by costs and complexities of ERP systems. A variety of options have emerged to overcome concerns of the past. Read on the key considerations in an ERP decision and critical implementation factors.
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Software as a service (SaaS) is a highly-touted model for acquiring, using, and paying for business functionality and is widely adopted for a variety of business and information technology (IT) functions. This paper looks at advantages and business benefits—financial value, new technology, and improved operations—that SaaS provides to small and midsized businesses and shows research with small and midsized business users.
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Banks have progressed farther than companies in many other industries in automating financial processes and have more to lose from inefficient processes, facing intensified regulatory compliance. Effective governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) initiatives can multiply efficiency advantages of more conservative automation efforts while providing accurate, timely insight into the entire financial picture of the enterprise.
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Operations executives are closest to the processes along the value chain, and as a result are best positioned to drive operational excellence initiatives. Collaboration with other functions is essential, but ultimately, it is the operations function that needs to be responsible for implementation. Find out what senior executives from around the world think about how to achieve operational excellence.
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Spurred on by the increased availability of high-speed data services and wide array of smartphones, many organizations see mobile applications as a way to improve organizational efficiency, increase collaboration, and raise the speed at which business gets done. To get the most out of mobility, organizations need to rethink the technologies, the people, and the processes involved in creating a truly mobile enterprise.
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The healthcare system does not adequately provide and support proactive collaboration and communication while the patient is outside the healthcare system. Current technology (e.g., health information exchange and electronic health records) doesn’t facilitate the required level of collaboration beyond the hospital or physician’s office that will be necessary to address the objectives of an accountable care organization.
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Fabricated metals companies need to create a competitive advantage around their core competencies, demonstrated by their ability to respond quickly to change, efficiently manage relationships with suppliers, and deliver quality products on time. Read about a solution that provides these companies with transparency and control over their entire business, empowering them to respond immediately to issues and opportunities.
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IT is feeling the pressure to allow users to access sensitive corporate data via their personal mobile phones. Employees want the flexibility to use applications such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), e-mail and instant messaging not only from within the workplace, but at any time from any device. Yet, with network security and customer privacy at stake, IT has been slow to bow.
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The advent of social networking sites can help shed light into the dynamics of customer demand. Retailers can choose to tap into consumer sentiment as expressed on social media networks and get personal with the right customers through the use of sophisticated technology to turn “unstructured” sentiment into usable data that can then be meshed with other internal information to create business insights. Find out how.
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While many believe ERP to be out of reach of SMBs, a well-managed ERP implementation can be a continuing source of cost savings and operational improvements which help companies grow and thrive. Even small companies can document the business benefits of ERP, not only in terms of quantifiable cost savings and schedule improvements, but also in terms of standardizing, streamlining, and accelerating business processes.
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Recent changes in the economic environment have altered business fundamentals forever. Larger competitors want to capture the customers that SMBs previously were able to claim uncontested. Customers are becoming more knowledgeable and skillful in leveraging relationships. And financial resources may be less readily available. SMBs need to achieve the next level of efficiency and flexibility to ensure future success.
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It can be very challenging for manufacturers to both drive efficiency gains and then translate these gains to bottom line results. This paper examines what is driving manufacturers to focus on creating more efficient manufacturing operations; identifies the mix of strategies, business capabilities, and technology enablers that are most likely to ensure long-term success; and ends with specific recommendations for success.
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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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The financial meltdown of 2008 sent devastating waves through the business world. As market instability wreaked havoc on the public sector, organizations looked to make more careful use of financial and human resources than ever before, with many looking to optimize resource utilization of information management. See the business intelligence (BI) and information management strategies of top public sector organizations.
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According to The Nielsen Company, some 150 million people in the US will be using smartphones by mid-2011 to view twitter feeds, conduct searches, consult maps and more. People are increasingly using smartphones to get work done too. As long as it’s governed appropriately, workplace use of consumer-oriented smartphones can lower spending, heighten morale and help employees get more done.
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Chief financial officers (CFOs) at large hospitals must process large amounts of information to make strategic decisions. Solutions that intelligently aggregate and summarize clinical, operational, and financial data give hospital CFOs the ability to quickly identify key indicators and root causes of issues. This paper explores the decision-making challenges faced by CFOs and examines the many benefits of such solutions.
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Not too long ago, business support of mobile workers centered on managing the use of a limited number of Windows-based laptops and BlackBerry smartphones. Today mobile phones are ubiquitous for most employees, and IT departments are being asked to provide broad access to networks, databases and critical enterprise applications while they manage, support and figure out how to protect data from theft and security breaches.
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Effective management of customer data is a critical success factor for insurers. To provide products and service that stand out from the crowd, insurers need a 360-degree view of each customer that covers his or her entire experience with the company. Read this white paper on how information technology that supports tightly integrated, end-to-end business processes can increase insurer responsiveness and customer loyalty.
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Demands for care from an ageing population necessitate a paradigm shift across the health care ecosystem to support a sustainable approach to improving and integrating high-quality patient care across multiple stakeholders. Providers can lead these initiatives by being proactive, reaching out to their patient base, and facilitating care in the home. Read about how information technology can enable this paradigm shift.
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Understanding, measuring, and managing against return on investment of a company’s IT investment (ROIT) enables IT leaders to quantitatively frame their contribution to the business and justify initiatives they seek to undertake. Read about concrete practices, processes, and recommendations to drive ROIT investment via key areas for improvement, the value of improvement, and guidelines for evaluating potential projects.
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Midsize companies today more than ever face the challenge of improving operational efficiency to meet objectives. This paper examines integrated, proven business solutions with deep, industry-specific functionalities that adapt to the unique needs of midsize companies in an affordable, predictable way. Read how these solutions enhance business agility, improve operational efficiency, and strengthen customer relationships.
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VersiFit Technologies LLC provides data warehousing and business intelligence (BI) applications to kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) school systems. The company’s Edvantage product provides visibility into student data, enabling educators to customize each student’s learning experience. Learn more about the technologies VersiFit used to ensure that Edvantage provides an intuitive user experience.
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Picis is a global provider of innovative information solutions that enable rapid and sustained delivery of clinical, financial, and operational results in the high-acuity care (HAC) areas of more than 1,900 hospitals in 19 countries. Learn how the technology powering the company’s business activity monitoring and retrospective trending and analysis solutions are helping it deliver operational clarity to customers.
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Today’s uncertain economic climate, rapidly changing customer preferences, intensifying competition, and increasingly dispersed workforce are driving organizations to rethink how they collect and disseminate information in order to make better business decisions. This profile examines solutions that are helping independent software vendors (ISVs) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors overcome this challenge.
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IT management software company CA Technologies had a problem. Reporting inconsistencies from product to product were becoming a challenge for customers, and precluding development efficiencies such as reusable code. Learn how the company chose a new software solution that provides flexible report design, customization, and centralized report creation, and supports development efficiencies such as reusable code.
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Realizing that its customers needed more than just reporting, Huntsville, Alabama based Intergraph Corporation sought third-party software to enhance its applications with analytics. Learn how this global provider of engineering and geospatial software chose a business intelligence (BI) solution that allowed it to create a data warehouse, improve ease of use for customers, and provide easy-to-use visual dashboards.
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The social Web is revolutionizing how customers interact with each other and with businesses. At the heart of this transformation is a power shift in which customers own the conversation. Direct marketing is no longer the main influence on purchasing decisions; crowd intelligence is increasingly driving customer opinion. Discover a social enterprise strategy that can help your company achieve a favorable business outcome.
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While today’s best-in-class organizations do leverage multiple channels to eliminate unnecessary dispatches or service calls, they are most interested in enveloping their customers with the right level of service information via the channels where customers prefer to receive such information. Learn how connecting with customers allows these companies to outperform their peers in key customer-facing and financial metrics.
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A workforce scheduling process helps a company allocate the right people, with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time. It has a direct impact on a company’s ability to increase workforce capacity and productivity, and improve customer satisfaction. But though scheduling is an integral part of a workforce management strategy many companies don’t have a formalized scheduling process in place. Find out more.
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Many factors contribute to the cost of a business process outsourcing (BPO) engagement. Among them, IT is a key cost determinant that is often underestimated. This white paper examines the cost structure associated with BPO and shows that a diligent assessment needs to address several cost components that are not included in the provider’s total contract value (TCV), and are often overlooked by buyers.
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Workforce planning—systematically aligning business strategy, human capital strategy, and budgets to ensure that talent with the right skills is in place to support anticipated and unanticipated business scenarios— is a hot topic for companies today. This report outlines the strategies processes, tools, and capabilities that organizations are putting in place to achieve the greatest returns on workforce planning efforts.
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A leader in the design and manufacture of advanced lighting systems and rugged protective cases, Pelican Products Inc. is also recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in the United States. Learn how, by consolidating its worldwide operations on a single instance of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) application, Pelican gained greater operational transparency and established a platform for continued growth.
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With 17,000 employees in plants worldwide, LyondellBasell Industries is one of the world’s largest polymers, petrochemicals, and fuels companies. To develop and retain talent, the company standardized its learning and development processes for employees. Learn how LyondellBasel implemented its new learning solution in more than 25 manufacturing sites throughout the United States, Netherlands, and France.
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Business travel has long been a critical component for achieving corporate goals. But in 2010, enterprises have begun to transform their perception of expense management from an unavoidable cost to a strategic mindset. This report is a go-to guide for enterprises seeking to convert their decade-old complacence of this everyday business practice to one that aligns with a new age of organizational goals.
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In this interview, IDC's program director for human resources (HR) and talent management services answers five questions about business process outsourcing (BPO) for HR. Learn why, for BPO to be successful, service suppliers need to balance support for underlying technology with their ability to achieve economies of scale through technological innovation, and how the role of technology affects the success of BPO projects.
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There’s nothing like a recession to demonstrate the efficacy of the shared services delivery model for human resources (HR). Learn how organizations experienced with HR shared services find the model efficiently handles day-to-day administrative transactions—including delicate issues such as the paperwork aspects of layoffs—freeing staff to focus on morale and other talent-related issues caused by economic downturn.
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This report is a roadmap for understanding the uses of Web 2.0 tools across the employment lifecycle. From sourcing to offboarding, these tools are providing value for organizations that have adopted them effectively. Discover which Web 2.0 tools are most commonly used, which elements of talent management they are applied to, and the supporting capabilities that generate a positive return on investment (ROI) in them.
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To manage the workforce appropriately, human resources (HR) needs to implement consistent, integrated, and flexible processes and systems. By establishing best practices that are supported with technology, HR can achieve greater efficiency (by reducing the burden of handling administrative tasks) while delivering strategic value (by equipping managers with the right information at the right time) to the organization.
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Skeptics argue that human resources (HR) is too “soft” an area to be analyzed with any rigor—at least compared with finance or marketing, which have long mined business data to generate intelligence that can drive decision-making. Others maintain that HR analytics are a critical tool for keeping executives strategically oriented. Learn how HR data can help executives make decisions that drive business results.
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What motivates a Uruguayan software engineer to work for an Indian company in Brazil? If you don’t know, you risk losing the race for talent in emerging markets. These markets are growing so fast, even established global players can’t recruit and retain enough employees. Learn how your company can attract talent in emerging markets by making compelling promises, and that retain talent by keeping those promises.
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It’s time for a new approach to talent management that takes into account the uncertainty businesses face today. Fortunately, companies already have a model that has been well honed over decades to anticipate and meet demand in uncertain environments—supply chain management (SCM). By borrowing lessons from operations and supply chain research, firms can forge a better model of talent management. Find out how.
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Today’s leading-edge companies are making extensive use of workforce data to drive human capital management (HCM) decisions the way most companies use financial and marketing data to make strategic business decisions. Learn how these companies are making fact-based workforce planning decisions that will help them survive the current recession and position them to quickly ramp up workforce additions when the downturn ends.
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With thousands of employees providing a range of well-site services, US–based Basic Energy Services Inc. is “basic” to the operation of oil and gas wells spread across 13 states. Faced with high turnover rates among field employees, Basic Energy realized its existing human resources (HR) software was limiting its ability to conduct business efficiently. Learn how an integrated human capital management solution helped.
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Headquartered in Tyler, Texas (US), retailer Brookshire Grocery Company implemented a human capital management (HCM) solution to integrate and automate its operational human resources (HR) processes. Now the company can process payroll and benefits more efficiently, work more productively, operate its business more proactively, and increase benefits options for its partners (employees). Find out how.
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Many companies plan for vacancies at the top level, but few have a succession management strategy that considers all aspects of the business and levels of the employee hierarchy. This lack of planning can have implications to a company’s success. Without a clear program, a company is at peril of losing its talent at best and suffering from a crucial vacancy and losing momentum in the marketplace at worst. Find out more.
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This report looks at how companies are making use of business intelligence (BI) reporting and analytics capabilities—whether through tools integrated into enterprise resource planning (ERP), human resources information system (HRIS), or talent management applications, or via standalone BI software that is purchased and then integrated with human capital management (HCM) applications—to drive intelligent decision making.
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Talent is a scarce resource. The level of competition and generational shifting of the leadership pool has made it increasingly difficult for organizations to find the quantity and quality of leaders needed to ensure success. This Aberdeen study of over 260 organizations looks at how the best-in-class build and manage their succession bench to produce better results today and mitigate risk and uncertainty in the future.
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Research has shown that top performing organizations are using core Human Resources (HR) technologies to manage costs, ensure compliance, and automate processes to free up HR resources to focus on strategic business priorities. This research brief from the Aberdeen Group looks at how these organizations are using SAP solutions to address their cost containment, compliance, and automation needs.
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This Aberdeen Axis Analyst Insight presents vendor-specific highlights from the ERP in Manufacturing Aberdeen Axis published in June 2009 and focuses specifically on SAP small to medium size enterprise (SME) offerings. With its dominant market share, it was not surprising to find SAP to be “market-ready,” but it is a bit surprising to see where SME products are landing. Find out why in this Aberdeen AXIS Analyst Insight.
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Customer relationship management (CRM) is a customer-centric business strategy—not a technology. However, IT is a critical element of this strategy, not just to understand customer needs but to reshape business processes to meet customer expectations and empower employees to best serve the customer. Learn how CRM can help your business drive growth, maintain operational excellence, and enhance competitive agility.
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By upgrading to the latest release of the SAP customer relationship management (CRM) application as part of its CRM Clear Vision Program, SAP AG transformed the way marketing and sales teams collaborate. Find out how increased visibility and improved interaction has helped SAP realize greater value from a more effective sales process, making it easier to hit sales targets and maximize sales revenue.
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To achieve global transparency of all customer relationships, SAP AG upgraded to the latest release of the SAP customer relationship management (CRM) application. This upgrade is part of its CRM Clear Vision Program. Learn how the upgrade to a single global solution helped SAP AG achieve effective collaboration, better visibility, improved productivity, and stronger customer relationships.
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Wilson Tool recognized the need to develop its online presence. The company’s customers increasingly expected to be able to access information about products, execute order transactions, and view order status at any time—even after business hours—to support its own operations. Learn how the company’s new customer relationship management (CRM) solution helped Wilson ensure its customers’ success.
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The implications of knowing or not knowing the answers have a huge impact on your business. The ability to answer both questions—and act on the responses—can come down to how well your company leverages the right combination of people, processes, and information. Analytics can help you leverage these resources. With analytics, you analyze your sales and marketing processes to gain insights quickly and improve performance.
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In Q2 2010, Forrester evaluated 18 customer relationship management (CRM) solutions—CDC Software, Chordiant Software, FrontRange Solutions, Maximizer Software, Microsoft, NetSuite, Oracle, Pegasystems, RightNow Technologies, SageCRM, Sage SalesLogix, salesforce.com, SAP CRM, SugarCRM, and Sword Ciboodle—against 516 criteria reflecting the requirements of large organizations. Learn what they discovered.
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Here’s the situation: a high-end consumer goods company has achieved tremendous profitability over many years. Although growth is slowing, investors sees potential for much greater growth if the company sells into channels in broader consumer markets. Learn how such a company can achieve its growth objectives by implementing trade promotion management (TPM) software in a way that’s built on best practices.
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Maximizing profit by providing top-quality service at minimum cost is no longer optional – it’s imperative. Reducing the cost of service while keeping customers happy is the primary objective of customer service organizations. Customer relationship management (CRM) applications help you streamline customer service processes and reduce cost, enabling you to keep your customers happy and grow your business. Find out how.
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In recent Aberdeen studies focused on sales effectiveness, the importance of providing sales and corporate leaders with real-time intelligence about its business has proven to be a best-in-class attribute. Combining technology with strong analytical capabilities helps top performers achieve better business results. This Aberdeen Analyst Insight addresses the trends among SAPs customers in adopting these practices.
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Effective sales organizations do more than just meet revenue goals. They find new ways to achieve their goals while ensuring their sales professionals maintain focus on activities that foster profitable customer relationships. Learn how a customer relationship management (CRM) solution can help your sales force acquire and cultivate profitable customer relationships, use their time efficiently, and achieve top performance.
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In a productive sales force, salespeople concentrate on acquiring, growing, and retaining profitable relationships within their account bases. To achieve this level of sales efficiency, you need a sales force automation (SFA) system that manages pipeline performance and territory alignment, and analyzes customer relationship management (CRM) data. Learn how a SFA solution can help you sales force excel.
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A strong brand can help achieve price premiums, retain customers, and attract top talent. But in times of economic instability, many companies trim costs around efforts such as brand building. Downturns, however, can be opportunities to strengthen brands—customer habits change, there is competitive consolidation, and new markets open. A number of brands will succeed in the downturn. Find out how yours can be among them.
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Channel partners have the power to make or break your business. But multi-tiered sales, service, and marketing channels have complex demand chains. This makes it even more important for you to build and maintain strong partnerships with dealers, distributors, agents, resellers, and systems integrators. Learn how a partner relationship management solution can help you build a more profitable and loyal indirect channel.
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While companies are investing heavily in e-commerce and e-service deployments, the customer is in the driver’s seat. Customers are influenced by the quality of the Web sites they visit, and their perceptions are increasingly shaped by their experiences with social networking sites. Learn how companies are working with software vendors to incorporate advanced technologies into its e-commerce and e-service platforms.
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Marketing organizations are often the first to face spending and resource cuts—even as they face increased pressure to contribute to revenue goals. These organizations need to drive demand more effectively and support sales efforts. They must also prove their value to the organization. Learn about customer relationship management (CRM) applications that can help align your organization to increase marketing success.
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With the rising popularity of Web 2.0 technologies, companies are marketing their products and services to an increasingly savvy customer base. Customers today are taking greater control of their own consumer experiences. Learn how some vendors are leveraging social computing to build our customer relationship management (CRM) communities, and building Web 2.0-based CRM applications that help customers achieve success.
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Whether in a business-to-consumer (B2C) or business-to-business (B2B) context, customers demand multiple channels through which they can find information, purchase goods, view and pay their bills, request services, or get support based on their specific needs and preferences. Discover solutions that can help you deliver the channels customers demand, and provide a consistently positive customer experience.
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FMC Technologies Inc. of Houston is a leader in oil and gas equipment service. By replacing its legacy system with a new customer relationship management (CRM) application, the company integrated and centralized its forecasting data, enabling managers to make better decisions about supply chain capacity. Learn how this upgrade improved forecasting, increased user adoption, and lowered the total cost of ownership (TCO).
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The world is changing for public-sector organizations. To succeed, governments must go beyond basic cost savings and service effectiveness to shape constituent perceptions about the programs that serve them. Discover how using software solutions to enhance customer relationship management (CRM) processes enables governments to deliver levels of performance constituents are accustomed to receiving from the private sector.
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Eclipse Aviation Corporation–manufacturer of the world’s first very light jet–wanted to better support its sales force in their pursuit of high-value orders. Building on a software solution that integrates core business processes and systems, Eclipse deployed the latest release of a leading customer relationship management (CRM) system. Learn how the upgrade provided a streamlined user interface for managing sales leads.
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In response to the harsh economic climate, communications service providers (CSPs) are concentrating on improving offers of voice, content, and data services. But these offers work best when they are attractive to the customer, and made in real time and through the right channel. Discover solutions that enable functionality for real-time offer management optimized within the context of enterprise processes.
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After-sales service represents a significant opportunity for industrial machinery and components (IM&C) manufacturers. Profit margins for service operations can be higher than those for core manufacturing activities. And providing exceptional after-sales service creates substantial opportunities for cross-selling and solidifying customer loyalty. Discover ways to streamline and align your company’s service operations.
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Rapid convergence of communications, media and entertainment (CME) is driving telecom, cable, and content executives to seek more creative means to garner long-term customer relationships. But how does one go from lofty goal to measurable results? Customer value enhancement (CVE) is a predictive approach to linking front- and back-office functions through advanced business intelligence (BI) and analytics. Find out more.
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As companies try to escape the effects of the 2009 recession, a barrier to business growth is maintaining profitable long-term relationships with customers. This Aberdeen Analyst Insight explores how top-performing companies are capturing, integrating, managing, measuring, and acting on customer data throughout the customer life cycle in order to maximize customer loyalty and achieve best-in-class bottom-line results.
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Solutions are now available to integrate the lead-to-cash process with the supply chain, back-office accounting, and more. The companies that succeed in the new order will make use of these new tools to creatively accelerate their lead-to-cash process. They will achieve the agility necessary to enhance the customer experience, trump the competition, and revitalize profitable growth. Find out how.
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Telecommunications providers are currently stuck with cumbersome, slow-moving, and costly charging/billing solutions. These solutions often suffer from revenue leakage, insufficiently protect against credit exposure risk, and hinder business model innovation. Learn how to implement convergent charging services that can help reduce operating costs while improving customer intimacy and limiting revenue leakage.
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All too often, telecom companies try to innovate in scattershot ways that make it difficult to identify market opportunities. They dedicate valuable resources to developing services, only to see these services fail in the marketplace. That’s why telecom companies need to implement better approaches to innovation. Learn about effective processes for identifying, developing, and bringing innovative services to market.
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Telecommunications providers need detailed information regarding expenses and profit margins across many dimensions. But many companies lack sufficient data visibility and access to fully understand the root drivers of cost and profitability associated with rate plans, networks, products, and customers. Find out how to get an accurate understanding of these drivers, in order to cut expenses, and drive profits.
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Unlike many over-hyped technology trends of the past, software-as-a-service (SaaS) is producing real business benefits for organizations of all sizes across nearly every industry. This primer outlines how independent software vendors (ISVs) must respond to these realities in order to meet the changing needs of their customers, employees, and business partners; and ensure their long-term viability and competitiveness.
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This white paper examines how a new generation of software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based business intelligence (BI) solutions is responding to the escalating challenges facing companies of all sizes today. It also examines various SaaS-based BI solutions that can help organizations satisfy the rapidly changing needs of corporate executives and end users as they work to achieve their business objectives.
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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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Conventional business intelligence (BI) tools are often not available to decision makers and are typically designed for use by trained business analysts. Learn about software-as-a-service (SaaS) BI tools designed to help non-IT people who struggle with the task of mining Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and other unstructured data sources to make sales forecasts, plan for resource utilization, or service customer accounts.
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Traditional business intelligence (BI) systems generally require dedicated staff to generate meaningful analysis, but the analysis is still difficult to share. As a result, many managers and end users rely on simple spreadsheets, which require significant manual effort and provide limited insight. This white paper examines how today’s on-demand BI alternatives are addressing organizations’ rapidly evolving business needs.
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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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Prompted by volatile markets and a troubled economy, the need to contain or reduce costs is key for small to medium enterprises (SMEs). More and more SMEs are turning to enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business intelligence (BI) solutions to provide control and visibility. Each provides value, but the marriage of the two becomes the perfect storm, igniting improved performance and visibility.
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For the majority of fast-growing businesses, spreadsheets represent the fiscal and operational system of record, even though they don't contain enterprise-level data. However, the tide is turning on spreadsheets. Watch the video and discover why more and more, fast-growing businesses are turning to enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business intelligence (BI) solutions to provide the control and visibility they need.
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Do executives prefer to deploy business applications on premise? Hosted? In a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model? Do deployment preferences vary by software category, region, or company size? How have these preferences changed over time? What are the implications for buyers, users, and providers of business applications? Get the answers to these and other questions in this Strategic Perspective from Saugatuck Technology.
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Do executives prefer to purchase business applications as part of an integrated suite or as part of a best-of-breed approach? Are there differences by software category? By region? By company size? How have these preferences changed over time? What are the implications for users and vendors of business applications? Get the answers to these and other questions in this Strategic Perspective from Saugatuck Technology.
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Business intelligence (BI) software as a service (SaaS) has gained traction in recent years. The reduced cost and feature-rich nature of the offerings make SaaS BI appealing to large and small businesses alike. Now, independent software vendors (ISVs) are also finding significant advantages to on-demand BI. Learn how SaaS BI solutions are helping ISVs reduce time to market, and accelerate the software development process.
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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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Supply chain executives face considerable complexity—especially if the items being produced and distributed are seasonal, and meeting revenue targets hinges on the sales that take place in just a few months of the year. Discover how business intelligence (BI) solutions help the Molson Coors Brewing company’s planners shape, execute, and continually redefine the strategic direction for the organization’s supply chain.
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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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Learn more about SAP BusinessObjects in this special report, featuring three SAP Insider articles about business intelligence (BI). Part one explains how better interaction with your business data yields better answers to your questions; part two examines whether BI is ready for a broader audience; and part three sheds some light on how decision makers in four different industries are using BusinessObjects.
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Many US companies find themselves acting like “Wait-and-See, Inc.” They interpret the switch from US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to IFRS as a matter of compliance rather than an opportunity to become more globally competitive by improving key internal processes. But transitioning to IFRS offers many benefits beyond compliance. Find out what those benefits are, and how your company can harness them.
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Midsize businesses are learning the hard way that most enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications are not truly on-demand, but instead require consulting and specialized customer support services. Learn about the critical consulting and support services required to select, deploy, and fully utilize SaaS solutions to achieve your business objectives and safeguard your mission-critical applications and data.
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This paper from Saugatuck Technology discusses relevant criteria for evaluating SaaS solutions targeting small and midsize firms, and raises key questions that should be asked. It is important to ensure that a SaaS solution is well aligned with business requirements, and can accommodate change and growth. The paper also provides an evaluation template for executives to use in conducting evaluations of SaaS solutions.
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Software as a service (SaaS) is known for its relative speed to implementation and low upfront costs for acquisition and deployment. As a result, SaaS is widely adopted for a variety of business and IT functions. Discover the advantages of moving to a SaaS model for improving business operations, and to better meet the challenges of growth, competition, and regulatory compliance faced by smaller and midsized businesses.
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The dismal economy hasn't been bad news for all segments of the IT industry. The market for applications delivered in a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model is increasing thanks to customers who seek better/more targeted functionality, quicker deployment/access, lower up-front and ongoing cost, and ease of use. Learn why SaaS has a history of thriving in down cycles, and what to look for in a SaaS solution.
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Companies are constantly buffeted by changes in the business environment. In response, executives are recognizing the need for their firms to become more agile in making changes to strategy, operations, and products. But turning agility from a buzzword into a business capability requires measuring and managing a firm’s ability to change. Learn the key agility indicators (KAIs) that highlight improvement in your company.
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Many firms see software as a service (SaaS) as having a cost advantage over on-premise in the short run due to its quick implementation times and pay-as-you-go pricing. But many firms question the long-term value of SaaS, wondering if the rent-versus-own model has a cost crossover point? Discover how some firms have obtained long-term value with SaaS solutions as SaaS has moved into larger, more strategic deployments.
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This document analyzes the cost of ownership for a typical on-premise small and medium enterprise (SME) business management system, and compares it to the cost of an equivalent SAP Business ByDesign implementation. It uses a mixture of different on-premise systems rather than any single vendor's product. Although there are many similarly equipped business management products available, they all compete closely on price.
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Small to medium businesses (SMBs) are focusing on growth strategies and customer service—sometimes balancing between the two, but often focusing on one or the other. As companies grow, and improve performance, they are more likely to have invested in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. This Aberdeen report is a roadmap for SMBs seeking to grow and improved customer service through their ERP implementations.
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Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is more than a necessary infrastructure that forms the transactional system of record upon which a business is based. ERP is also the potential source of cost savings and operational improvements. It is also a serious undertaking. This Aberdeen report serves as a roadmap for small to medium businesses (SMBs) to realize the maximum return on investment (ROI) from ERP implementations.
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After a year of silence surrounding SAP’s newest enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, SAP Business ByDesign is back. During that year, many of its competitors pounced on SAP’s silence, even going so far as to spread rumors that the new product was dead. Find out what one Aberdeen analyst thought of Business ByDesign after taking it for a test drive at Sapphire 2009.
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Executive teams are under great pressure to maximize profitability, reduce costs, minimize risk, and improve stakeholder confidence. To be effective, they need reliable, up-to-date financial and operational data for planning purposes as well as budgeting, forecasting, analysis, and statutory and management reporting. Learn about software solutions that can help your organization plan, forecast, and budget more effectively.
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Better decision making is critical during a recession—when resources are restricted—which makes business intelligence (BI) and analytics appealing to management. But justifying large capital outlays for software is challenging unless short-term benefits can be correlated with the investment. The key is to execute each project within the long-term strategic plan of organization-wide decision management. Find out how.
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Increased globalization, volatility in demand and commodity costs, regulatory requirements, and greater dependency on suppliers and other partners have significantly increased the risk of doing business. To manage performance efficiently, midsize companies need a unified planning, budgeting, and consolidation solution. Learn how such a solution can streamline the planning process and help reduce business risk.
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Confronted by globalization and volatile markets, today’s companies face a challenging and often risky business climate. Explore how to ensure alignment between your company's strategic objectives and risk management/compliance policies; how to mitigate all types of business risk and maintain a proper risk/reward balance; and how to ensure continuous compliance with regulatory requirements and internal policies.
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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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Business intelligence (BI) software is increasingly a key component of IT architectures, and a requirement for most enterprise application sales. Both on-premise software vendors and software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors are responding by developing solutions that combine operational and analytic functionality—often by partnering with established BI providers. Learn what these partnerships mean for your organization.
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To succeed, wholesale distributors must respond quickly to customers’ expectations of high-quality, differentiated services. Good supplier relationships are crucial, too. Operational excellence and information transparency are key to keeping these important relationships running smoothly. Find out about solutions that can help you improve transparency and coordination, and also streamline inventory management.
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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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Companies already use business intelligence (BI) to help them make decisions. But now they’re discovering that they can make better decisions by coupling BI with a predictive analytics solution. Predictive analytics can help companies solve problems, achieve business goals, uncover patterns not easily identifiable through reports or dashboards, and share all that information with decision-makers. Find out how.
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Information is one of your greatest assets—helping your organization stay on top of regulatory requirements, close to customers, and ahead of the competition. But managing that information isn’t easy when it is scattered across many isolated silos. A good information management strategy can help you get a complete view of your data, reduce the risk of inaccurate reporting, and keep costs under control. Find out more.
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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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SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 solutions are the next major release of business intelligence (BI) software from SAP. They include features ranging from reporting, query and analysis, and dashboards and visualization, to discovery and predictive analytics capabilities, as well as data quality and extract, transform, and load (ETL) functionality. Get a high-level overview of the new features in SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1.
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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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When the economy slows, many businesses react by retrenching and cutting costs. While cost reduction is important, companies often overlook equally critical strategic decisions—opportunities to use business information to strengthen product and service offerings and emerge ahead of the competition. Find out how you can use business intelligence (BI) to avoid the most common mistakes companies make in a down economy.
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With business units demanding more access to corporate data, IT is pressured to deliver. Yet current business intelligence (BI) and data warehouse systems only examine specific quantifiable data. Find out how IT professionals can gain a better understanding of how to integrate key information from text-based sources, such as forms, e-mail, blogs, and research into their data warehouse environment to enhance BI.
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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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Historically, data warehousing and business intelligence (BI) initiatives have been IT-driven—concerned mainly with the technical aspects of delivering information to BI users. Now that many of the challenges and tradeoffs are understood, companies can focus on using BI to deliver business value. Learn how, by reading up on lessons learned during consulting engagements with Fortune 1000 clients and government agencies.
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Increasingly complex regulatory requirements in the health care industry have intensified pressures on health systems to assure compliance and operational governance while maximizing business performance. This study draws on a survey conducted by Healthcare IT News and Healthcare Finance News to share strategies that will improve governance, compliance, and business performance across today’s health care organization.
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Transitioning to international financial reporting standards (IFRS) is more than just a mandate—it’s an opportunity for companies to improve their financial consolidation and reporting systems, and enable rapid legal compliance. But making the switch requires careful planning, thoughtful execution, and support from personnel throughout the enterprise. Find out how your company can manage the change.
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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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Companies are fighting a constant battle to integrate business data and content while managing data quality. Data quality serves as the foundation for business intelligence (BI), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and customer relationship management (CRM) projects. Learn more about software that unifies leading data quality and integration solutions—helping your organization to move, transform, and improve its data.
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The paradoxical view that regulation is both a blessing and a curse continues to be widely held among senior executives. While they recognize the need for protection in key areas, they are often frustrated by what they see as overly complex, unnecessary bureaucracy to achieve this goal. Find out how your company can meet increasingly difficult regulatory compliance challenges as it develops integrated business networks.
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Today’s critical cash-flow and liquidity concerns are demanding executive-level attention. Turmoil in the financial markets is leaving many companies struggling to ensure the cash flow and liquidity needed for normal operations. Learn about software solutions that can help your company protect its commercial cash flows, improve visibility into sources and uses of cash, and increase control over global cash balances.
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To stay competitive, organizations must constantly review the status of their projects, and make rapid decisions about which should continue, which should change, and which are worth launching. To make these choices they need easy access to up-to-date business-relevant information. Learn about business intelligence (BI) solutions that are helping knowledge workers extract, analyze, visualize, and share that information.
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Today’s knowledge workers spend more time sorting though a huge amount of information and less time adding value to it. Enterprises have responded by moving to a self-service business intelligence (BI) model. But that often conflicts with efforts to control, secure, centralize, and optimize their BI environments. Learn how you can get the right data now, while maintaining information quality and operational security.
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In a recession, accounts payable (AP) departments need to process more invoices and pay them faster—all with a smaller staff. Perhaps the biggest challenge stems from the continued reliance on paper-based invoices and people-based processes. Discover solutions that address the most common accounts-payable problem areas, including liabilities, process control and visibility, approvals, exceptions, and manual processing.
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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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The global march toward making products and services more sustainable is gaining breadth and speed. No manufacturer will be left untouched by this phenomenon. To thrive in this new low-carbon world, you need to have a deeper and more sophisticated understanding of your products’ environmental footprint—from raw materials to manufacturing to distribution to end of life. Learn about life cycle methodologies that can help.
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Onboarding is not a “nice-to-have,” but rather a need-to-have. You spend considerable time and money filling job vacancies—so why not take steps to ensure new hire retention? When you leverage new employees’ experience into competitive advantage, you’ll see greater efficiency, gains in retention and productivity, and the improved company brand that result from an engaged and motivated workforce. Find out how.
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Companies are under huge pressure to cut all SAP-related costs and are seeking every opportunity to exploit their huge investments in SAP to reduce total business expenses. A survey of 18 respondents reveals how companies are seeing the potential to squeeze further costs savings by exploiting SAP software investments, especially in enterprise resource management (ERP) and supply chain business process areas. Learn more.
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There’s nothing like a recession to reveal the efficacy of shared services as a delivery model for human resources (HR) administration. Companies experienced with HR shared services find the model efficiently handles day-to-day administrative transactions, including such delicate issues as the paperwork aspects of layoffs, thus freeing staff to focus on morale and other issues caused by the economic downturn. Learn more.
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For companies that seek to align their workforces with business objectives and turn human capital into a competitive advantage, learning and development will be a critical enabler. Best-in-class companies are more than twice as likely as laggard companies to have a learning and development strategy that’s integrated with overall strategy. Find out how you can avoid lagging and become more like the best-in-class companies.
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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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It’s a simple idea: get a better understanding of your customers’ wants and needs, deliver on their expectations, and your revenue will increase. But more than 40 percent of companies surveyed do not have a formal customer relationship management (CRM) strategy in place. And those that have one still struggle with CRM at nearly every stage. Learn more about areas where you can improve your own CRM system strategy.
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In a tough economy, retaining customers and reducing costs become paramount, and sales force productivity takes center stage. You should also be thinking about territory alignment: territory management directly affects customer relationships and the ability to tailor your approach to various market segments. Learn how to optimize territory alignment with the right set of tools, and overcome sales process obstacles.
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Interaction center managers must deliver greater value on smaller budgets. But you can’t simply cut costs and services, or your customers won’t remain satisfied. To better weather the economic storm, release the untapped potential of your interaction center with software that maximizes your workforce management capabilities. Learn how to go beyond traditional channel data for bigger contact center return on investment.
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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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The debate over climate change is quickly coming to a close and will soon be replaced by a new debate about policy alternatives. These policies will affect business in striking ways, through end-use efficiency standards, increased energy costs, and increased prices of raw materials and components. Take the most important action: analyze and understand your direct and supply chain emissions of greenhouse gases. Learn more.
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To succeed in ever-changing market conditions, you must manage and navigate an information network of business partners. Though you may have long focused your IT efforts on automating internal processes to save money, now you need to rethink how technology can support and transform the way decisions are made and business is conducted—both within and across your boundaries, focusing on key business processes. 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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Understanding the nature and scope of the sustainability challenge—as well as the attendant opportunities and risks—is of growing importance to firms around the globe. Companies that don’t get involved in the debate risk hurting their own finances, as well as the environment and social conditions worldwide. Learn more about developing a sustainability policy that balances stakeholder demand with social responsibility.
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Automation of human resources (HR) processes and integration across various functions can provide visibility into and analysis of the workforce. Having a single reliable source of information is key to enabling this visibility, which in turn can enable your company to align skills with business objectives. Learn more about how you can optimize your HR systems to meet your current—and future—human capital management needs.
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Talent management is just a matter of anticipating the need for human capital and then creating a plan to meet it. But many approaches to talent management fail, as they’re based on outdated forecasting models. But you can anticipate and meet demand in an uncertain environment by borrowing lessons from operations and supply chain research—and forge a new way of looking at succession planning and talent management.
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Today, many human resources (HR) organizations find themselves with a tapestry of HR systems, many of which do not work well with each other. But many “integrated” suites—bringing together processes for recruiting, compensation, learning, and performance management—can enable a new set of talent management applications. Find out how you can develop a plan for better integration of your talent and HR management solutions.
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Economic activity in emerging markets is growing at around 40 percent—as compared with 2 to 5 percent in the West and Japan. Businesses all over the globe are competing for people who have numerous options and high expectations. How can your company attract and retain talent in emerging markets in Brazil, Russia, India, and China—offering new employees what they want, while ensuring your bottom line is met? Find out.
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Strong evidence supports the notion that a well-groomed insider is a key to sustained company performance. In an analysis of 1,800 successions, company performance was significantly better when insiders succeeded to the job of chief executive officer (CEO). Learn why CEO choice matters—and how you can work toward better corporate succession planning by choosing a high-potential executive from within your company.
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IT has long been seen as one of the best ways to address the challenges of the business environment. Yet the complexity and rigidity of IT infrastructure keep IT from fully serving the business. IT could better help serve your customers and reduce business costs if it were provided as a service. Find out more about IT service management standards and best practices, with a focus on SAP’s approach to IT optimization.
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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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There’s no magic bullet for compliance success—even the most experienced organizations use a combination of reliable processes and proven technologies to get the job done. But identifying, designing, and executing the right internal controls to meet compliance standards in a large, global company can be arduous and expensive. The systems you use to support compliance efforts must be implemented well. Find out more.
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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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Survey data shows that companies want to improve their strategic business partnerships. Reflecting on lessons learned from past business relationships, 60 percent of respondents say that in future they’ll place more emphasis on developing personal relationships and setting expectations with business partners. Find out how these companies are creating collaborative networks that include business partners and consumers.
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“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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Business networks have come to the fore in the past decade, as the power of customers and consumers has increased relative to the manufacturers and retailers that serve them. These networks enable these companies to deliver faster innovation to customers at lower costs by sharing investment, assets, and ideas. Find out how information technology and communication (ITC) systems can help you unlock new market opportunities.
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Any corporate executive can tell you that a strong brand can help achieve price premiums, promote customer retention, and more. Yet in times of economic instability, you may be tempted trim costs around efforts such as brand building. Downturns, however, can actually present opportunities to grow brand strength. Find out how you can maximize your brand value and take advantage of changing customer buying habits.
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IT has long been one of the best ways to address business challenges. Yet significant obstacles at the level of IT infrastructure stand in the way. Siloed IT operations and rigid IT management processes can impede business agility. When IT partners with the business to act less as a technology provider and more as a service provider, business objectives can be achieved more efficiently and cost-effectively. Find out how.
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Initiatives to automate and streamline financial processes often focus more on reducing costs than adding value. Adding the kind of value you should have in your financial processes stands at the heart of a broader initiative known as governance, risk, and compliance (GRC). Learn why embedding the components of GRC within your financial processes can help you track financial flows and alert you when things might go awry.
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During a downturn economy, the IT department is often among the first to be hit with senior executives’ cost-cutting initiatives. Yet in some instances, IT investments deliver more value to a company’s top and bottom lines—by creating new efficiencies and increasing revenues—than any savings gained from traditional IT cost-cutting. Discover the other reasons why your IT spending can actually save money in the long run.
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Business process management (BPM) software implementations are now moving into the mainstream. Many early adopters are already using BPM to foster business innovation. You can benefit from the knowledge gained by BPM leaders and innovators, and their prerequisites for BPM success. These findings can serve as best-practice guidelines for your BPM initiative, so you can derive maximum value from your BPM investment.
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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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Leading life sciences companies are recognizing the need for synchronized, enterprise-wide pricing and contract management processes. An integrated solution can provide the transparency needed to satisfy auditors, balance pricing with go-to-market strategies, and support sales and finance—including accurately predicting margins. Find out about solutions that offer support for enterprise pricing and contract management.
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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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Issues of governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) affect nearly everything life sciences companies do. But you shouldn’t approach GRC in an ad hoc manner—implementing point solutions one after another in response to regulatory demands as they arise. This is inefficient and costly—and may result in non-compliance, due to lack of transparency. Learn how an enterprise-wide GRC approach to compliance management can help.
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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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For years, utilities have seen a growing need to enable a smarter electric grid, promote cleaner power sources, and replace aging structures. These issues came into sharper focus when US President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). This legislation provides funding for many energy initiatives—however, strict compliance guidelines come with the stimulus plan. Find out more.
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You needn’t be a seer or sage to perceive risk—it’s as predictable and devastating as a Florida hurricane and as far-reaching as a corporate scandal. But you do need to be a visionary to see the underside of the risk coin. This side represents opportunity, competitiveness, and growth. Find out why insight into managing two types of risk, rewarded and unrewarded, can help you explore opportunities for growth and profit.
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Many companies have used lean principles to move from a decentralized corporate management mode to a hybrid model—recognizing that different functions require different levels of centralized management to be efficient and effective. An effective lean transformation eliminates more than the most obvious areas of wasted time and resource. Find out how lean must address the unique requirements of various business processes.
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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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Given the dramatic events in the capital markets, everyone is wondering what will happen next—and what the implications are for the wider economy. Learn about the crisis both in the capital markets and the wider economy; explore likely future economic scenarios and the challenges facing companies outside the financial sector—and discover the actions your company should take in order to respond to these challenges.
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For many life sciences organizations, a key impediment to compliant manufacturing operations remains the disconnect between enterprise and plant systems. This results in unsynchronized business processes and inadequate use of resources, which in turn increases the risk of non-compliance and inadequate quality of finished products. Find out why simply connecting systems is not enough to fully overcome these challenges.
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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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Many aerospace and defense (A&D) manufacturers are enjoying a competitive advantage because of early adoption of lean manufacturing tools. However, considerable differences still exist in performance among A&D companies. The best way for A&D manufacturers to achieve best-in-class performance is to use external domain expertise and enterprise resource planning (ERP) with lean-specific functionalities. Learn more.
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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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Business process management (BPM) is an attempt to provide a holistic view of a company’s workflows and automate processes. It provides a new management discipline, a new suite of software tools, and a new IT implementation style based on concrete links between strategy and execution. Learn more about SAP’s place in the BPM landscape and what its new BPM tool—NetWeaver BPM—can do to help you better manage your company.
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A benchmarking survey shows that most organizations have a reactive method to governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) management, channeling resources and management attention to address specific regulatory mandates independently and in isolation from each other. The result: fragmented GRC activities and data sources that increase costs and hinder business agility. Find out how your company can become less reactive.
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As modern enterprises grow in complexity and scope, managers struggle to keep pace. Business process management (BPM) is increasingly seen as a way to master the swelling complexity of modern corporations and coordinate the work of thousands of people by focusing on well-defined processes. Find out how BPM, applied the right way, can fulfill the promise of IT to automate business processes and directly support strategy.
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As financial institutions look to the future, there’s bound to be a careful reappraisal of the role and responsibilities of risk management. Were the tools available to risk managers fit for purpose? Was the approach to risk management appropriate? Examine lessons that have been learned from the current financial crisis, and get 10 tips to help you address weaknesses in risk identification, assessment, and management.
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One company executive has a growing influence in today’s boardroom—the chief financial officer (CFO). And the role of the finance organizations that these CFOs lead is expanding as well. Examine the changing role of the finance organization in today’s business environment, learn how your CFO can take on a more prominent role in defining company strategy, and find out how you can develop a best-run finance organization.
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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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The current global economic instability means firms have to quickly adapt to business conditions. This uncertainty may increase companies’ reliance on business alliances to provide as-needed skills, services, and products. To optimize these alliances, finance should enter the discussion as early as possible. Find out where finance’s true value lies when realigning strategic objectives to include business collaboration.
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While different business strategies have been used to insulate firms from change, chief executive officers (CEOs) are beginning to see that their companies need to become more agile in making changes to strategy, operations, and products. But turning agility from a buzzword into a business capability means measuring and managing your ability to change. Find out how CEOs can take the lead in defining what agility means.
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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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Information management software from Business Objects, an SAP company, can be used for SAP data migration projects—either for upgrades from one version of SAP to a newer one, or from other environments to SAP. In practice, many considerations that apply to SAP migrations are the same as those pertaining to non-SAP environments. But a few requirements are particular to an SAP implementation. Find out what they are.
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Electronic product code information services (EPCIS) is a standard mechanism for inter-company collaboration and data sharing, which can enable health care partners to deploy solutions that meet short-term mandates driven by patient safety, as well as lay the foundation for long-term business value. Learn more about the impact of EPCIS in a study concerning data management and data sharing in the health care supply chain.
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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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Untamed costs can deplete the precious working capital that’s critical to your ongoing operations. But, you can get a handle on costs by taking steps to improve operational efficiency. By instituting efficient automated processes, you can reduce waste, unnecessary overtime, and many other cost factors. Find out how an integrated business system can help you improve gross margins while offering more competitive prices.
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Growth—whether organic or acquisitive—is challenging executives today from a strategic as well as an operational perspective. Studies estimate that 50 to 80 percent of deals fail to reach their projected results. Discover the challenges inherent in three common growth models, and find out how to implement a solid, flexible, and adaptive foundation that can support your company’s corporate growth strategies.
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Embarking on an operational excellence strategy should not be undertaken lightly. As with most company-wide initiatives, success requires planning, commitment, measurement, and continuous follow-up. Find out what senior executives from around the world think about how to achieve operational excellence, and the questions you need to ask to develop a winning operations strategy and achieve sustained growth.
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Automating finance processes—such as closing the books, reporting, and other labor-intensive processes—reduces finance costs. By streamlining financial processes, you can spend more time on higher-value responsibilities and help ensure your company has a competitive advantage. Find out about the financial solutions many financial managers are implementing to automate their financial processes and financial transactions.
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An adaptive supply chain network allows all the stakeholders in the supply chain to share knowledge, make collaborative decisions, and immediately respond to changing conditions. But without an adaptive supply chain network, the potential for growth is limited. Warehouses that operate in real time with integrated forecasting, order management, and transportation are prepared to compete in today’s market. Find out how.
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People—that is, talent—are at the heart of any strategy to master the business challenges of high-tech companies. For best results, human resources (HR) organizations must transform from taking the role of service provider to that of strategic business partner. Find out about the four imperatives a successful HR organization must address in order to develop a competitive HR strategy and win the war for talent.
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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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Chief financial officers (CFOs) are under greater pressure, scrutiny, and accountability at companies large and small. An ideal CFO is a steward of decision-support information, cost controller, and more. With data supplied by some of the world’s most successful CFOs, get insight into what CFO responsibilities should be today to achieve extraordinary results, and how they should change to meet future challenges.
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Decision making is at the core of all business activity, as executives set strategy and manage operations by weighing a vast array of factors to arrive at the desired balance of risk and reward. But enormous growth in a company’s size and operations adds complexity to decision-making processes. Learn about the five ingredients of good decision making, according to the responses of 154 executives in a global survey.
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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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Studies and statistics suggest that, because of demographic trends, companies will soon face a shortage of talent. In response, many companies have begun adopting processes and tools to more effectively recruit, retain, and develop talent. At the top of the list are human capital management (HCM) and talent management systems. Find out how these new technologies can help your company survive the coming talent crunch.
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Outsourcing and global competition are forcing companies to transform their supply chains from linear processes into adaptive networks. Communities of customer-centric, demand-driven companies must share knowledge in order to adapt to changing markets, and respond to shorter life cycles. Discover how supply chain management (SCM) solutions can help your company create a truly adaptive and collaborative supply network.
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Successful organizations ensure that customers receive accurate answers and efficient follow-through on all commitments. Their call center agents are equipped to handle all incoming and outgoing transactions, and their managers can make decisions based on timely administration, maintenance, and reporting analytics. Learn how new technologies can help you improve your call center and reduce costs without losing customers.
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Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems now support many organizations’ most important business processes, and house their most sensitive corporate data. As a result, senior management needs to fully understand both the timing and project plan before proceeding with any ERP upgrade. Learn how to plan and manage your next ERP upgrade project, and develop an overall corporate strategy for maintaining your ERP system.
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Today’s executives have more challenges and concerns than ever, from compliance to use of technology. To thrive and ultimately excel within a competitive landscape, an organization must have a technology framework capable of meeting today’s marketplace requirements while positioning the company for future growth and challenges. Find out how to better leverage technology investments and become a best-run business.
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Customer buying decisions are often affected by “inspiration”—an emotional state that separates a casual browser from an engaged customer. Successful retail merchandisers select products and promote them in ways that lure prospects into the selling environment. But what are the elements of an ideal selling environment? How can you create one? And how can you tell if it’s working? Learn more about how to inspire customers.
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In the face of increasing global competition, a retail company can remain visible only if it provides a differentiated shopping experience for customers. The majority of retailers, however, are still struggling with inadequate technology and the difficulty of hiring and training competent in-store salespeople. Discover the strategies other retailers are using to anticipate customer needs and improve customer satisfaction.
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To customers bombarded with so many products and experiences, it is the brave retailer who can claim to offer anything unique by way of intelligent merchandising or customer service. So how do retailers try to hook customers with fresh, unusual, and relevant shopping experiences? Learn about the results of a global survey of 180 senior retail execs, looking at three aspects of merchandisers’ relationships with customers.
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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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Historically, sourcing and procurement companies have been concerned mainly with reducing costs and ensuring supply availability and quality. However, this is changing. Savvy businesses are moving beyond traditional sourcing and procurement goals, and looking to the procurement company to drive competitive advantage and deliver value. Discover the sourcing strategy tricks some successful companies are using.
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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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Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) issues are hot topics today, thanks to high-profile stories about companies that failed to meet regulatory requirements. In each case, executives were held accountable, stock prices dropped, and brand image suffered. Find out about cross-enterprise GRC solutions that can make it easier to monitor compliance and risk effectively, and adjust to changing regulatory mandates.
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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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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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In a global survey of senior managers in various functions from 17 industries, 61 percent say IT’s primary mission today is that of reducing costs and boosting productivity. But the IT mission is changing: nearly 70 percent of the same executives say that within three years IT’s main role will be to enable revenue growth. Learn more about how this shift is expected to happen, and how to manage it in your organization.
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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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Increasingly, companies in the aviation industry are outsourcing their maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) operations, especially for engine and component repair. However, many companies still report using custom, in-house applications instead of standard, off-the-shelf solutions. Learn how companies are balancing their outsourced and in-house MRO solutions, and discover the top three trends impacting the MRO segment.
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Best practices in technology can help manufacturers of complex products and equipment get their offerings to market more quickly and profitably by enabling them to become more cost effective and efficient. But there are still challenges to be overcome, due to product life cycle complexity. Discover the best practices that can help you make the product and make it right, on time, and within budget—while making a profit.
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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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The wave of e-sourcing that began a decade ago resembled a “crash diet:” it had an immediate and noticeable effect on enterprises. Today’s challenge is to develop new programs that can sustain the benefits of e-sourcing and “keep the weight off.” Find out how employing advanced sourcing strategies can help you positively impact product development cycles, build stronger supplier relationships, and make better decisions.
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Fuel marketers and distributors must act quickly to keep up with the volatile marketplace. Margins are narrow and fuel prices fluctuate constantly—and at the same time, you must coordinate a fast-paced replenishment cycle. To optimize the efficiency of your processes and improve the accuracy of your forecasts, there’s an oil and gas software solution that offers automated functionality for invoicing and billing, and more.
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Life sciences manufacturers face new pressure on operations from many directions, including market needs, compliance requirements, and the transition to new IT technology. Many companies recognize that improving performance demands better sync with the plant floor and more accessible data. A real-time performance management solution can help drive excellence in manufacturing performance via better integration. Learn how.
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In today's market, companies need to make investments that really count. In this webcast, you will learn why investing in the right technologies and gaining more value out of IT assets already in place should be an important focus for small and midsized companies.
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In today’s marketplace, creating sustainable growth requires constant innovation. Innovations—in both product features and service delivery—are increasingly important as a means of differentiating yourself from the competition. Either you invest in innovations or risk losing market share to a competitor. In this webcast, you’ll find out what’s happening globally that makes investing in innovative technology important.
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Most businesses are impacted by the slow economy, but recessions and economic slowdowns don’t last forever. Smart companies will be able to manage the challenges and emerge stronger and more vital for the experience. Discover how business process automation, a renewed focus on customer service, new tax opportunities, and other best practices can help your company shine in these tough economic times.
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By automating and optimizing business processes, companies gain the efficiency, clarity, and flexibility they need to support the creative development of products and services. Employees in such an environment spend less time on mundane business tasks, focusing instead on generating new ideas and innovative products. Learn how integrated software solutions can help you invest and innovate to sustain your company’s growth.
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Even in tough economic times, innovative small-to-midsized companies can still find opportunities for growth. Technology and business software solutions like enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), product lifecycle management (PLM), and supplier relationship management (SRM) can help your company ride out the global economic downturn. Find out how.
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Most midsize manufacturers are as capital-intensive and as subject to global cost and price pressures as large companies—yet they lack the resources to exploit revenue and sourcing opportunities around the globe. However, many midsize manufacturers are optimistic about growth prospects in spite of rising costs and downward price pressure, according to a recent study. Find out how they plan to overcome these challenges.
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You can leverage economies of scale to increase production by using existing equipment and people, lowering cost per unit, and increasing profit margins. The same applies to providers of services. Using the talented personnel you have and expanding the quality and distribution of services and support are much easier than starting from scratch. Find out how you can take advantage of economies of scale for profitable growth and gains in market share.
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Many organizations do a poor job of measuring the business value of their IT investments. Simple financial metrics are not good enough. But there are a number of consistent, repeatable, and credible measurement methodologies that hold both business users and IT departments accountable. Compare four methodologies, and learn how adding one of them to your overall governance framework can improve your IT investment returns.
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Supply chain operations play a vital role in the success of any consumer or high-tech original equipment manufacturer (OEM). But some companies consistently outperform in the field. Find out how these companies are making their supply chains more effective and efficient by supporting sophisticated business processes with technologies like integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and demand management software.
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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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Organizations preparing to meet globalization head on face a complex set of business and technology challenges—from the supply chain complexity of entering new markets to the need for global visibility and standardized business processes. Learn how globally implemented enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems and integrated business processes are helping companies exploit new markets and lower manufacturing costs.
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With products increasingly becoming commodities, chief executive officers (CEOs) recognize that first-rate customer service is key to enhancing customer satisfaction. While revenue is flattening for many product businesses, service income is increasing. Find out how integrating business processes and customer relationship management (CRM) data can help you deliver new service offerings and improve the customer experience.
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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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Oil company Energen wrestles with volatile energy prices and their effect on operations. Energen’s key challenges included reducing operating costs and improving efficiency. Many tasks related to plant maintenance and purchasing were done manually—both cumbersome and limited in analysis abilities. After an enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation, Energen has a system that is integrated and automated. Learn more.
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Demand for knowledge workers is building even as their experience, skills, and abilities are in ever shorter supply. And, the needs of this diverse talent pool are shifting. Rather than focusing on acquisition and retention, you should focus instead on what employees care most about. Discover strategies that enable you not only to hire the best talent, but to develop it by connecting employees to what matters to them.
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The practice of human resources (HR) management has evolved dramatically over the past 10 years. Some might argue that those changes are sufficient to satisfy today’s business requirements. But will they be enough to meet the critical challenges of tomorrow? Find out how effectively first-generation HR initiatives dealt with strategic issues, and what you’ll need to focus on for a successful response to future changes.
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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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With increased mergers and acquisitions at the global level, organizations have started recognizing the benefits of upgrading to a modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform and a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Learn how different approaches to ERP system and architecture upgrades can help your company drive down costs, raise employee productivity, and produce meaningful business process improvement.
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To achieve sustainable success in selling a product or service, you only need to present the right offer to the right customer via the right channel—at the right time. Of course, it’s not really that simple. But service firms are finding it’s possible to make the right offers, through customer-selected channels, in real time. Find out how you can leverage your customer data to create opportunities for revenue generation.
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Some executives say the greatest risk to any large company is IT failure. IT applications routinely support critical processes throughout a business: customer service, invoicing, payroll, regulatory compliance, and more. With so much depending on IT, any disruption can be ruinous. But amazingly, many companies don’t have sound IT risk management processes in place. Find out how investing in IT reduces your security risk.
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Although early customers of human resources outsourcing (HRO) are moderately satisfied, many are not achieving the benefits expected from HRO. Some of the reasons for this include a perceived lack of innovation by service providers, resource constraints, and misaligned expectations. Buyers must thoroughly evaluate several criteria and know what they need to have in place in order to reap the rewards of HRO. Learn more.
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As financial resources become scarcer, maximizing return on assets (ROA) is becoming a key corporate strategy. Unfortunately, metrics governing asset performance are not always available in real time, and are often of low or mixed reliability. Improving visibility into asset performance can help management streamline processes and make better decisions that can ultimately deliver superior corporate results. Find out more.
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With the frenetic pace of global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) showing no sign of abating, nearly every chief information officer (CIO) today must at some point grapple with the enormous challenges of integrating acquired companies. But too often success eludes the merged companies—with IT getting part of the blame. Find out how to avoid common M&A pitfalls and achieve rapid, highly effective post-merger integration.
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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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Compliance with regional and international standards, such as the Waste Electric and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) or Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directives, has made it more complicated for companies to deliver innovative products to customers. Learn how focusing on product innovation, data integration, and process optimization can help your company satisfy customer needs while meeting compliance standards.
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In today’s economy, competitive advantage can be short-lived. Companies recognize that continued investments in IT infrastructure are required to stay ahead. Executives in all industries must understand how IT drives value and competitive advantage. Explore the relationship between IT investment and gains in performance and productivity, and find out how leading companies are maximizing their returns on IT investments.
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One of the riskiest moves company stakeholders can make is to acquire and merge with another company or to divest themselves of company assets. Despite the best of intentions, many mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures produce results far below expectations. Learn why failure happens, and how to prevent it by following the overriding best practice in successful acquisitions, mergers, and divestitures: preparedness.
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Whatever you offer as a service provider, success depends on how well you manage key accounts to ensure long-term relationships and the highest possible margins. But with today’s challenges, it’s difficult to maintain market share, let alone grow. SAP’s All-in-One fast-start program offers a solution that can help you maximize client and service-line profitability by supporting industry best practices. Learn more.
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As a midsize wholesale distributor, you need to stand out from your competition while improving efficiency. SAP Business All-in-One Solutions offer software designed to help you with your current needs, while remaining capable of supporting future growth. Find out how this solution can help you improve transparency and coordination between the warehouse and the executive suite, but also streamline inventory management.
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It’s not easy for manufacturing companies to improve operating efficiency while responding to market changes. Improving productivity across business processes requires visibility, speed, and automation. The SAP Business All-in-One fast-start program can tailor SAP manufacturing software to your needs and roll it out quickly—and, it can be adapted to changing requirements. Find out how it can grow with your company.
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Midsize companies engaged in manufacturing, trade, or services need innovative solutions they can implement quickly to help them manage changing customer demands, government regulations, and market requirements. Online tools can speed the configuration, control costs and scope, and tailor the solution to your company—and you’ll have the agility and support you need to grow, while staying within budget. Find out how.
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In fast-paced, low-margin manufacturing environments, companies must embrace technology in order to solidify or gain competitive advantages. It is equally important to avoid adopting technology for technology’s sake. Find out how leading companies are focusing on efficiency and cost reduction by integrating manufacturing execution systems (MES) or manufacturing intelligence (MI) with enterprise resource planning (ERP).
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The trade-off between best-of-breed functionality and ease of integration is no longer so simple. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software continues to expand, blurring the boundaries of core ERP functionality. The three essential factors to consider in ERP versus best-of-breed decisions are functionality, integration, and the ability to upgrade. Find out the questions you need to ask when considering an ERP extension.
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Globalizing your market reach presents technology and business challenges to profitable growth. Your supply chain strategy for globalization should include an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that provides you with visibility into key performance indicators (KPIs). Find out why standardizing an automated ERP system across multiple sites can result in a 66 percent reduction in total time from delivery to order.
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Organizations increasingly see business model innovation—not new products and services—as the basis of their competitive advantage. Common approaches to innovation include improvements to customer experience and supply chain management, and implementation of a service-oriented architecture (SOA). Learn how these innovations can help create new opportunities for companies and their customers, partners, and suppliers.
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Today, global trade management issues affect small and midsized businesses (SMBs) and large multinationals alike. While enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a key component of any globalization strategy, not all ERP vendors offer the same degree of localization. Before undertaking an ERP implementation, it’s important to understand the extent to which each vendor provides international support and functionality.
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Recruiting IT talent to insurance companies has never been easy—but today, demographic pressures make the task of IT staffing even harder, as IT professionals retire and fewer new graduates become available to fill the positions. IT outsourcing may not offer the help you seek. To make sure your company can survive and prosper, learn how to find ways to hire qualified IT staff, and keep the IT staff you already have.
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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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Software as a service (SaaS) is known for its relative speed to deployment and low up-front cost. Less well known are the business advantages of SaaS for enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, especially for small and midsized businesses. Learn how a fully integrated SaaS solution can help you improve your business operations, as well as better meet the challenges of growth, competition, and regulatory compliance.
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Companies in the Americas should lead the world in growth through operational excellence—but they don’t. A 2008 survey shows that less than half promote insight into operations by investing in enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) software. Companies in the Americas also lag behind Asia-Pacific firms in revenue growth and customer satisfaction. Read more of the survey results.
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A survey of professional services firms shows a serious disconnect between the desired operational state of the firms and their current ability to achieve that state. But firms are recognizing that automating resource planning and management, including human or talent resources, is crucial to continued success. Learn more about how to improve the management of your talent inventory to improve service-line profitability.
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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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While consumer products manufacturers are relatively recent adopters of lean programs, they are already achieving value through a firm commitment to understanding how lean will affect their business processes. Those who are eager to begin the lean journey, however, must learn how to prioritize the metrics that matter, and frequently measure them in order to monitor the effectiveness of the program. Discover why it works.
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As a fast-growing company, you have the same objectives as any business. But you’re probably finding it challenging to gain the control you need to achieve these goals without sacrificing your IT budget. And when you try to achieve control, it’s often at the risk of slowing down your business. Find out how having enterprise-wide visibility of your business processes and activities can put you back in the driver’s seat.
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With the number of vehicles worldwide expected to triple in the next few decades, the toll collection market will need to adapt to meet demand. Increasing traffic will make the use of conventional toll plazas unfeasible. Electronic toll collection (ETC) systems can help by supporting multilane, free-flow tolling that can be tailored to specific standards and processes. Find out what you need to know, before ETC passes you by.
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The media industry is undergoing radical and rapid change driven by liberalization, privatization, and digitization. Broadcasting is no longer highly regulated, but is ever more dynamic and competitive—and the logistical challenges of production planning for TV and radio ever more complex. Implement a composite resource planning and scheduling solution to maximize your equipment, facilities, and employees.
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This benchmarking study analyzes human resources (HR) performance for over 200 best-practice companies in three categories: process and transactional support, expertise-based business support, and strategic decision support. Two questions are at the core of the study: How can companies reduce HR costs and increase HR efficiency? And how can HR organizations create business value and optimize effectiveness? Find out what they said.
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For food-service manufacturers, effective trade-spending and contract management are essential to stimulate demand, and to reward distributors and operators for achieving volume and growth objectives. The execution of such programs, however, is often a painful process for all parties involved. Find out how you can manage the entire bill-back life cycle, from initiation to settlement, and minimize error-prone manual intervention.
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In today’s Internet-connected global economy, the market doesn’t allow for companies to sit back and relax into a comfortable niche. Customer loyalty is ever harder to maintain, and you risk losing your business to competition if you can’t respond quickly to market change. Before you lose any more ground, find out how to replace your disconnected, redundant business processes with flexible and efficient ones integrated by IT.
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Service excellence alone is not enough to ensure future growth and profitability in today’s challenging market. Streamlining IT processes is essential to your business workflow. Whatever your professional services software needs—from customer relationship management (CRM) to human capital management—it’s time to learn your lessons: find out key strategies and best practices that can help your company grow profitably.
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To make timely, well-informed decisions, you need just that: time and information. This means having fast access to accurate information from every department in your company, and time away from fighting fires to focus on priorities, problem solving, and marketing strategy. We examine how you can gain reliable, accessible information from efficient, integrated IT systems—and use that information to make faster, smarter decisions.
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Software alone is not enough to make your business run more smoothly and cost-effectively. For software to deliver value to your organization, your users must have the skills to use it accurately and intelligently. With careful planning and the right process improvement tools, best-in-class businesses are creating performance cycles that establish user acceptance and understanding up front. Shouldn’t your business be one of them?
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The professional services industry depends almost exclusively on human resources. Talent is your most important (and expensive) asset, and it differentiates your organization from other providers. Learn about the innovative business practices and technologies that enable service providers to support effective talent supply chain strategies—and integrate talent, resource, demand, and supplier management.
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In the past, full efficiency was almost impossible for most manufacturing sites thanks to lack of integration between plant systems and business systems. But that’s changing now, with the advent of enterprise service-oriented architecture (SOA). SOA allows you to change and improve your processes without expensive IT integration projects. Learn about the business opportunities SOA can create for you.
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The future, they say, is demand-driven. Not having the data you need to forecast your supply and demand processes means you’re in the slow lane toward a successful future. But if you already know store information is vital to your supply chain, you’re halfway there. Go the distance: learn how direct store delivery (DSD) solutions can give your consumer package goods (CPG) company more control over supply chain processes.
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Survey says: trade promotion spending is up, but the majority of consumer package goods (CPG) companies aren’t spending wisely. Reuse of same old seasonal promotions, supply not meeting demand, and invoice errors also contribute to a decreased return on investment (ROI). Trade promotion management (TPM) can provide visibility into the life cycle of each promotion—so you can provide better service to your customers.
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How can you leverage your current IT infrastructure without increasing complexity—and cost? Creating the next generation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) via enterprise services architecture (ESA) outsourcing can make your IT system leaner, less expensive, and more adaptive. Read more for a clear picture of how to avoid difficulties when adopting an enterprise services approach for your back-office processes.
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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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DIRECTV is one of the largest broadcast satellite providers in the US. Faced with increased competition, the company decided to transform its supply chain by synchronizing its material requirements with its main equipment providers and automating its return materials authorization (RMA) process. With the help of SAP Solutions and Services, DIRECTV has improved its processes and reduced nonqualified returns by 20 percent.
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In the face of shrinking budgets and increasing demands, public sector agencies must transform themselves into providers of value-added services. By developing strategic human capital management (HCM) operations, they can align and engage every employee in the pursuit of organizational mission delivery. The most cost-effective approach to this challenge is through the integration of a comprehensive HCM solution.
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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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The rules for success in today’s fiercely competitive market are constantly changing. Through service delivery innovation, a company can differentiate itself. But how do you change your service delivery methods to keep existing clients and entice new ones? A networked organization is one of six characteristics of successful service delivery innovation. Find out how you can put them into practice and attain the benefits.
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Changing business practices, especially those that consolidate business and IT functions, requires careful research and decision making. For companies needing to move beyond traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, enterprise service applications (ESA) can help reduce the complexity of having disparate IT systems. Find out about the benefits of ESA and how it can help you achieve operational excellence.
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Professional service providers are starting to apply supply chain management concepts to their strategies for hiring and retaining talent. Adapting to market demands such as globalization and a more sophisticated client base means human resources departments need a complete and integrated process of talent management. But hiring and keeping top talent can also help you increase revenues and increase client loyalty. Find out how.
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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 supply chains continue to grow in size and complexity, companies are focusing more of their energies on managing supply chain risk. While the topic is gaining prominence in boardrooms, many companies do not yet fully comprehend the risks they face. But understanding risk is the first step to managing it—and using the right IT tools can help. Learn what steps you can take to better address your supply chain risks.
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With the emergence of the Internet, the business environment has changed for many organizations, and will change to an even greater extent in the future. Indeed, in an increasingly dynamic and global environment, the Web has become an important source of competitive differentiation for companies of all sizes. In this comprehensive white paper, you’ll find out how to design a Web channel strategy that works for you.
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While most organizations have some integrated sales and marketing (ISM) elements in place, few have adopted a comprehensive approach. To achieve this, they must identify an ideal goal, establish a supply chain strategy, and then work methodically toward that objective. While the appropriate path to achieve ISM differs from company to company, there are a few key steps that can help simplify the process.
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To address evolving market demands, companies must take new approaches to marketing activities and integrate all company functions. Customer relationship management (CRM) can empower your marketing organization to support growth and demonstrate value to customers. Find out six factors that can allow your company’s marketing team to make intelligent decisions and drive effective end-to-end marketing processes.
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A productive sales force must concentrate on acquiring, growing, and retaining profitable relationships with its clients. This requires clear, detailed views of prospects, customers, and the market—and the ability to turn insight into action. The right sales force automation (SFA) system can help you determine priorities and action plans to achieve the best results with your customers—and boost your profit margins.
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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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In a 2006 SAP survey, 93 percent of respondents experienced data management issues during their most recent projects. The problem: many organizations believe that they are using master data, when in fact what they are relying on is data that is dispersed throughout the enterprise. Discover the importance of master data and how the ideal master data management (MDM) solution can help your business get it under control.
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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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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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Best-in-class manufacturers are driven to improve plant floor data management by the need to enhance performance improvement program effectiveness, as well as operational performance visibility. Up to two-thirds of these manufacturers address these pressures through technology. If you want to lead the pack—instead of getting buried under it—read this white paper to find out which technologies are right for you.
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Leading research finds that the top pressures for improving sales and operations planning (S&OP) processes include rising customer order fill rate expectations, shrinking profit margins, and customer retention challenges. However, current S&OP processes are failing to alleviate these pressures. Is your company on the wrong side of the industry benchmark? Learn what steps your company should take before it’s too late.
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Process industries (chemicals, food and beverage, oil and gas, etc.) face rising manufacturing and logistics costs. And they’re finding that the old strategies for cost containment no longer pack the same punch. Some surveys show that 75 percent of all respondents are redesigning their supply chains to keep these costs in check. Are you one of them? No? You’ve got a lot of catching up to do—and very little time to do it.
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The role of finance departments needs to shift from cost center and scorekeeper to that of key advisor to the business. That’s why you need to change processes to help employees work more efficiently on high-value analytical tasks. Implementing next-generation enterprise financial systems will help balance control, transaction processing, and decision support—as well as lower your total cost of ownership.
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Chemical companies struggle with outdated manufacturing and financial systems, often not reaching their profitable goals. How can they give customers high-quality chemical products while improving the bottom line? Industry best practices can help you gain control over every aspect of your business by increasing your visibility into operations, helping production go more smoothly, and reducing costs and lead times.
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To survive in today’s global marketplace, companies must develop a competitive advantage. Your business can thrive with the help of enterprise service-oriented architecture (SOA). With the ability to implement business strategies more quickly, this greater flexibility will help your new business processes and empower your information workers—giving your company long-term growth and an ongoing competitive advantage.
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Globalization is one of the top issues affecting organizations’ supplier management strategies. True supplier collaboration can no longer be avoided: working closely with suppliers around the globe is the best way to streamline and reduce costs and increase value. With practical tips and techniques on how to achieve your vision statement, you can attain sourcing excellence while setting a pace that’s right for your company.
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Traditionally, utilities have leveraged robust meter, network, and customer service infrastructures. These technologies served the needs of largely regulated energy and utility markets characterized by price regulations, easy access to energy resources, and sufficient infrastructure capacity. There are few examples of "old" technologies that make such a compelling argument against replacement. All that’s about to change.
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As the digital era evolves, media content companies are faced with a number of new challenges. One such challenge is that they can no longer specialize in one communication format. The advertising market is now a dynamic and complex forum making it difficult to manage multiple channel revenues. A standard, integrated solution, however, can facilitate the management of advertising revenues while increasing customer satisfaction.
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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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All too often, fragmented IT landscapes make it difficult—and sometimes downright impossible—for wholesale distributors to improve processes, control costs, and create the efficiencies needed to succeed in a competitive industry. Nevertheless, enterprise technologies do have the potential to be powerful tools, quickly reacting to shifting market forces in a consolidating industry, and achieving operational excellence and solid growth.
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In times like these, when IT spending is increasingly subject to cutbacks, finding out how to get "more for less" is as crucial to a company’s IT department as making sure that applications run smoothly. In Rome, Italy, Gruppo Tosinvest managed to prove that this challenge—which keeps legions of IT managers awake at night—can be solved.
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Chemical companies are living in a new, more complex world—one that calls for meeting demand through cooperating internally, opening processes to partners, suppliers, and customers, and developing newfound abilities to collaborate and change. In other words, the adaptive business network (ABN). But how do you create a successful ABN? And how does that translate into a competitive advantage?
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Rapid changes in international markets—and mounting pressures to reduce costs and improve quality—make globalization a key issue for most organizations today. Worldwide company reorganizations, acquisitions, mergers, and spin-offs affect the structure of an enterprise, demanding immediate action. Globalization requires that companies enable core business processes on a global basis, while providing ease of use for local user communities.
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The history of the oil and gas industry is one of meeting relentless changes and overcoming obstacles. Traders are expanding into emerging markets in remote locations with high energy consumption demands. The complexities of meeting those demands has compounded the need to drive profitability with accurate forecasting, risk mitigation, and increased integration and visibility up and down the value chain.
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New product development and introduction (NPDI) is probably the most important process for many companies, but also one of the least understood. While NPDI is responsible for revenues, few companies assign an owner for the whole process. Instead, it is usually driven through a series of functional “silos,” causing delay—and the loss of the original market requirements.
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Industrial machinery and components (IM&C) manufacturers are challenged by global rivalry, industry consolidation, and shrinking margins. And with more manufacturers vying for business, customers are demanding customized products delivered on short lead times—all at lower costs. At the same time, manufacturers are struggling to extend their supply chains to incorporate offshore manufacturing. So where can they turn for help?
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For today’s medical device manufacturer, today’s world is complex. The convergence of technology and implanted medical devices has led to some of the most innovative and effective new medical therapies in history. Unfortunately, that convergence has created tremendous complexities in the development, manufacture, and implantation of those devices. One area that continues to undergo transformation is patient device tracking (PDT).
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Successful law firms set themselves apart by becoming virtual extensions of their clients’ organizations, thus forging relationships that lead to greater loyalty and profitability. That’s why it’s critical to gain a deeper understanding of each client’s requirements. It’s also vitally important to determine which types of assignments command premium pricing, and then focus on building on those areas of specialization.
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How can a professional services firm grow profitably while providing clients with the services and project pricing they demand? The firm must rely on best-practice solutions to gain control over every aspect of business—from business development to resource planning to billing. Firms that plan and staff projects by relying on combinations of spreadsheets and management instinct will fall behind.
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Achieving both customer satisfaction and profitability is critical to the survival of your organization. Without customer satisfaction, the long-term prospects for your business are bleak. And without profitability, your business cannot exist. Profitable-to-promise (PTP) solutions allow you to determine the profitability of individual orders by integrating supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM) processes with your financial data.
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All companies use some form of sales and operations planning (S&OP) to synchronize market data with production output. But most practice a planning process based on logistics rather than strategy. Taking a more strategic approach, however, the S&OP process can be designed to bring together a company’s marketing, finance, sales, and operations departments to continuously monitor—and meet—customer demand.
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Manufacturers and retailers are increasingly expecting more from logistics service providers. As a logistics company, you need to streamline operations and drive costs down. You need to be able to broaden your offerings and provide the services that customers want. Above all, you need to integrate your warehouse with your customers’ operations to provide detailed visibility into inventory and processes.
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You may have survived the slowdown of the last few years, but you must still find new growth opportunities to stay competitive. However, you can only cut so much. Midsize businesses in particular need to ask new questions: What strategies and practices are right for the company? And what are the best solutions for facilitating—and even improving them?
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High tech is the most brutally competitive of any manufacturing sector—which is why complacency can mean death for your company. How to secure lasting advantage without letting technology constrain your business processes? And how to prevail despite your partners’ legacy applications, the IT landscape of your recently acquired company, or the heterogeneous mix of your own IT landscape?
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To respond to the demands of today’s highly competitive global environment, traditional linear supply chains are evolving into complex, global ecosystems. These “pull” (demand-driven) environments working in conjunction with traditional “push” environments are known as adaptive supply chain networks (ASCNs). ASCNs allow all supply chain stakeholders to share knowledge, make collaborative decisions, and sense and respond immediately to changing conditions.
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The foremost concern of Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal (HSCM) is to provide quality health care service. But it also knows that unless it operates an efficient business, it will not be around to provide that service. That’s why HSCM needed a comprehensive suite that covered not just the backbone needs of any business, but also health care industry specifics.
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In 1999, specialty chemicals manufacturer Rohm and Haas Company wanted to move to a new platform to simplify the complexity resulting from over 300 disparate information technology (IT) systems. First, Rohm and Haas wanted to adopt common global processes to increase efficiency, and implement smart sourcing strategies. Second, management needed a better way to see customer trends and evaluate competitors.
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Héma-Québec manages the collection and distribution of blood and blood products for the province of Quebec (Canada). As Héma-Québec worked to enhance availability and quality, company leaders identified a need to make changes in the organization’s information technology (IT) systems. In June 2001, the company decided to implement a new system for the procurement and distribution of fractionated blood products.
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The ability of BASF AG—a leader in the chemicals industry—to proactively manage unexpected situations is key to its competitiveness. With its complex supply network dealing with unanticipated events is all the more critical. To address this issue, BASF implemented the SAP Event Management application to monitor ocean-freight logistics, from receipt of initial orders to final delivery of products.
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When Luxembourg-based AZ Electronic Materials was carved out of Clariant International and sold to a private equity firm, the new company was given one year to wean itself off its parent’s information technology (IT) system. AZ beat the clock by three months, working with partner Accenture to roll out SAP business software across nine countries and six manufacturing plants.
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Part of the sports world for eighty years, the adidas product portfolio includes state-of-the-art athletic shoes, clothing, and accessories. Two essential requirements for solidifying adidas’ position as leader are the development of strong brands, and continued revenue growth. Regarding its operational strengths, adidas focuses on constantly improving customer service. In 2005, this included the complete reorganization of online order management.
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Recent changes in accounting standards and compliance, along with greater emphasis on managing risk and value, have introduced new key measures of bank performance and made it more important to coordinate the internal and external reporting of financials and risk. To meet these challenges, banks must do their utmost to more fully integrate their accounting data and processes.
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A decline in customer loyalty has put a great deal of pressure on financial institutions of late. Thus, as banks tailor products and services to meet customer demands, they must also boost revenue. That’s why it’s essential to target your most profitable customers with real-time insight that helps you drive revenue, increase profitability, and build long-term relationships with those customers.
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Banks face many challenges in today’s dynamic financial services marketplace. Banks must continuously enhance capabilities for risk and financial management to address market, credit, and regulatory environments that are increasingly complex. Thus, process support for your business strategies is crucial—which is why integrated tools are a must-have for financial accounting, cost controlling, risk management, asset-liability management, and profitability analysis.
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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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AstraZeneca, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, undertook an initiative to integrate
demand flow technology in logistical operations, leading to a major supply chain management (SCM) project at its packaging plant in Wedel (Germany). With an existing SAP technology platform, AstraZeneca project leaders opted for the mySAP SCM solution and the SAP Advanced Planning & Optimization component.
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As competitive pressures on consumer products (CP) companies rise, the industry is reaching the limits of business as usual. CP companies must look to increased collaboration with retailers, partners, and suppliers as a way to build and improve on the core cycles of planning and forecasting. And the blueprint for expanded collaboration and increased automation? The adaptive business network.
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Inadequacies at the front end of the product development process is one of the leading causes of product failure for consumer products companies. Many companies thus make ill-informed decisions that turn into costly mistakes. The challenge is to establish a front-end process that nurtures profitable innovation and maximizes portfolio value in light of resource constraints, portfolio balance, and strategic alignment.
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The odds against successful product innovation are long. New products need to win over consumers and convince retailers—a challenging task for many reasons, including saturated markets, a growing variety of products and brands, and shorter product life cycles. To shorten time to market, companies need to integrate all development-related areas, within a single sphere of visibility and influence.
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In the automotive industry, companies face an ongoing struggle for market share and constant pressure on margins. To differentiate themselves in this competitive environment, many companies focus on sales and service operations, which are key to providing a high-quality customer experience. With that in mind, companies must automate processes and leverage integrated information to increase efficiency throughout the value chain.
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Large or small, every company can profit from streamlined processes, insightful business intelligence, and systems that are flexible enough to grow with changing business needs. SAP Best Practices for Automotive comprise preconfigured business scenarios that cover the most important requirements of the automotive supplier industry, including enterprise resource planning (ERP), supplier relationship management (SRM), and a business information warehouse (BW).
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If you deal in goods, services, or intellectual property included in the US Munitions List, you must ensure that all related transactions conform to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR). To answer this challenge, you need a solution that automates core ITAR processes—a solution that stores all your licenses and related documents where you can keep tabs on them.
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The airline industry is constantly undergoing change, and the ability to adjust swiftly is imperative. The need to improve safety while offering competitive prices is an ever-present challenge. That’s why the industry requires solutions in every crucial aspect of business—from accounting and finance, route profitability, human resources (HR), materials management, and enterprise management, to customer relationship management (CRM).
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Aerospace and defense (A&D) companies are constantly seeking better ways to manage complexity, cut costs, and boost productivity. One of the most challenging areas within the A&D industry is maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO). To introduce new efficiencies and reduce MRO costs, many companies are looking beyond standard business practices to new strategies that promise solid business results.
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The news certainly isn’t what it used to be. Today, rising costs, stagnating circulation figures, and falling advertising sales characterize the newspaper market. There is hardly any capacity for new magazines, while new media and changed consumer habits are fragmenting the market. Consequently, gaining the loyalty of your customers and increasing your company’s attractiveness is crucial—now more than ever.
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Book publishers and information service providers are facing numerous challenges—production costs are on the rise, revenue windows are shrinking, and successful authors are few and far between. Publishers need to keep track of intellectual property, make better use of it, and improve their marketing and sales activities. But doing all that requires accurate, up-to-the-minute information, across the entire organization.
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Procurement organizations have been running electronic reverse auctions for years. Nevertheless, the use of auctions has not yet reached full potential. We’ve all heard the objections—and every objection stems from valid concerns. However, if your goal is to conduct fair and open competition among your supply base, reverse auctions can be an effective tool for bringing transparency to sourcing.
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Gen-Probe Incorporated is a global leader in the development, manufacture, and marketing of nucleic acid tests, used primarily to diagnose diseases and screen donated blood. In 2004, thanks to rapid growth, it needed applications to support its customers’ ever-rising performance demands. In addition, it required advanced business applications for continued focus on product innovation and expansion into new geographic markets.
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Outsourcing is increasingly embraced by manufacturers seeking ways to reduce costs, increase agility, and enhance market competitiveness. Yet poorly managed distributed manufacturing operations compromise visibility and quality control, which in turn erodes execution, management effectiveness, and profitability. To truly optimize the value of outsourcing, business systems and procedures must be deployed that create a collaborative, transparent information environment for manufacturing.
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Rising costs, stagnating circulation figures, and ever-increasing competition for advertisers—times have never been tougher for newspaper and magazine publishers. It takes reliable, up-to-the-minute information to deliver the products and high-quality service your customers demand. But all too often, business processes span multiple departments and information technology (IT) systems, slowing responsiveness and impeding access to crucial facts and figures.
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The media industry is undergoing radical change, driven in large part by new technologies such as the Internet, online publishing, and digital broadcasting. And at the heart of the industry is intellectual property. As the number of media and delivery channels explodes, you need to know how to manage rights inventory, license revenue streams, and royalty payments—efficiently and profitably.
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Superior order management can provide you with a competitive edge across the board. To move closer to order perfection and a truly loyal customer base, you must cost-effectively eliminate the issues preventing on-time, accurate order fulfillment. This involves every process, including planning and forecasting, acquiring and creating accurate orders and contracts, handling order changes, and resolving fulfillment and post-delivery problems.
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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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Successful enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations can force organizations to reevaluate their business practices and processes, create a higher understanding of the need for data accuracy, and enable a more effective data-sharing environment. However, such high-level benefits require a new approach to project implementation—one that applies the lessons of the past to reinvent the systems of the future.
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The aerospace and defense (A&D) manufacturing industry is always changing. That’s why A&D manufacturers are constantly seeking better ways to manage complexity, cut costs, and boost productivity. In pursuit of these objectives, A&D manufacturers are looking beyond standard practices to new business strategies that promise solid business results. But which strategies and practices are right for your company?
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Many different factors contribute to the cost of a business process outsourcing (BPO) engagement. Among them, IT, especially software, is a key cost determinant that is often underestimated. A diligent assessment of BPO needs to address several cost components that are not included in the provider’s total contract value (TCV)—components which are often overlooked by buyers.
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The complexity of the global economy is a powerful motivation for companies to look for new ways to increase efficiency and productivity. That’s why companies must have the ability to transform information into meaningful, accurate insights. Most importantly, these insights must be systematically interconnected, to align business strategy with tactics through a seamless integration of analytical, transactional, and collaborative processes.
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Today’s manufacturers are feeling pressures from many directions. Dynamic market needs, increased compliance requirements, more distributed manufacturing operations, and the transition to new technology are all manifested on the plant floor and throughout the enterprise—often leading to pleas for technology solutions. Integration and data utilization are thus the key issues to address in order to improve responsiveness and performance.
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Total cost of ownership (TCO) is one of the most difficult metrics to benchmark. Even when using the clearest of metrics, companies often obtain inadequate results. Instead of thinking solely about how to calculate and reduce TCO, companies should think about how to manage TCO from a business perspective, in order to leverage solid, results-oriented decisions about IT solutions.
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Only a handful of firms have undertaken the challenge of integrating their supply chain management (SCM) and customer relationship management (CRM) processes. A big reason for this is the practicalities of everyday business. But in today’s era of technology-fueled competition, leading companies in nearly every industry are seeking an edge by focusing on strategies enabling SCM and CRM to coalesce.
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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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Today’s service-parts organizations, such as those in the aerospace and defense, automotive, agricultural, heavy equipment, and industrial machinery industries, are pursuing the service- and spare-parts market for revenue and profit growth. Increasing customer demands and a dynamic marketplace are forcing these organizations to operate at new levels of flexibility and responsiveness, to address customer requirements and attain targeted profit margins.
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Whether you’re a niche-market start-up developing a single compound or a well-established global company with dozens of projects in the pipeline, the pressure to innovate in the life
sciences industry is unrelenting. That’s why you need a solution that can help monitor resources, prioritize projects, optimize the clinical trial supply chain, and maximize the overall value of your product portfolio.
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In the automotive industry, purchasing has become a critical business component. Some experts estimate that a 4 percent reduction in sourcing costs can add as much to profits as a 10 percent increase in sales. With intense global competition putting constant pressure on vehicle prices, many companies see improved sourcing and procurement as key to increasing margins, profits, and competitiveness.
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Compliance with US FDA regulations is a market requirement. Thus, among the nearly 1,500 installations of mySAP ERP software among pharmaceutical, medical diagnostics and devices, and biotechnology companies worldwide, it is vital to be aware of the functions and features of mySAP ERP that demonstrate technical compliance with US FDA 21 CFR Part 11 Electronic Records; Electronic Signatures; Final Rule.
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The pressure to generate demand for consumer products is constantly increasing. Whether managing customer relationships, achieving increased sales, or introducing new products, the area of marketing expenditure is complex and prone to error. That’s why you need a solution drawing together all the activities needed to analyze, plan, sell, execute, validate, and evaluate your products in a closed-loop process.
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Enabling lean manufacturing and six sigma principles to improve operations requires a nontraditional approach. The old idea that lean manufacturing and six sigma principles don’t require IT isn’t valid anymore. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) applications are critical for enabling holistic, lean manufacturing operations, and work hand-in-hand to better enable consumption—not forecasts—to drive replenishment.
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Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is no longer just for giant companies. Time and critical mass have dramatically cut the cost, complexity, and speed to value of ERP solutions. Today’s ERP systems enable companies of every size to maximize speed and flexibility to close the gap in core business processes, and to gain visibility into customer needs and supplier performance.
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By using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, automotive companies can eliminate material shortfalls of containers, which lead to delivery delays and, in the case of time-sensitive shipments, cause production downtime. Manufacturers, suppliers, dealers, and freight forwarders can all benefit by reducing launch and assembly delays resulting from errors in part quantities, types, and locations for containers targeted for production lines.
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Pricing and revenue optimization is the process of improving business margins by either increasing unit prices or increasing gross revenues. This type of optimization is fast being recognized as having the capability to help businesses grow margins significantly. In fact, studies have shown that it can add a 15 to 50 percent incremental margin to the bottom line.
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Managing complexity while enhancing agility is a real challenge. To respond to customer needs, manufacturers must reduce their time to market and time to volume. And to respond to demand and supply shifts, they must be able to adapt to changing situations. To meet these challenges, companies require integrated solutions ensuring that manufacturing runs at the pace of their business.
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Adaptive manufacturing enables companies to produce goods efficiently and manage variability proactively. However, it must be managed as an end-to-end, closed-loop process with tight linkages between manufacturing applications, adjacent enterprise applications, and—most importantly—the technology behind these applications. Such integrated networks enable the process visibility and collaboration capabilities that, ultimately, are the key to building an adaptive manufacturing enterprise.
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The move to radio frequency identification (RFID) integration may result in high costs, arising from the need to maintain multiple interfaces between RFID and other enterprise systems. This means implementing a software architecture that encompasses current and future technology, combined with a data architecture that enables you to manage massive amounts of data at a low total cost of ownership.
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Adaptiveness in the manufacturing sector depends on being able to push decision
making to the shop floor. But that’s often easier said than done. However, manufacturing intelligence dashboards aggregate content from the full range of manufacturing systems into a single view of operations. These role-specific dashboards thus enable employees to manage manufacturing performance, and respond quickly to changes.
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Customer churn rates are higher than ever: although businesses say they are devoted to loyalty, their management systems and budgets do not support that claim. But in a landscape of similar products, cutting down on defection—or churn—is vital. There are in fact four steps to improving loyalty and retention which, if focused on the appropriate customers, will improve profitability.
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Southern Pump & Tank Company (SPACTO), is a value-added distributor specializing in liquid handling equipment for the petroleum and industrial marketplaces. By using SAP Service Management to track equipment at its customers sites, receive incoming service calls, dispatch work, and track labor and materials, SPACTO was able to lower inventory by 28 percent, and reduce slow and non-moving items by 70 percent.
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Seeking a solution to compress lead times and better customer service, Schumacher Elevator Company, a manufacturer and installer of passenger and freight elevators, implemented a SAP enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. In doing so, it enabled online ordering and customer service, and boosted its competitive advantage in just nine months.
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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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Fusion UV is the world s leading producer of ultraviolet curing equipment. Its outmoded legacy system couldn t handle the company s complex manufacturing system, and was threatening Fusion s ability to meet its promised delivery dates. By implementing FastTrack, a mySAP All-in-One partner solution, it improved accuracy in pricing, shipping, and purchase order processing.
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Endress+Hauser (e+h), an international group of specialists for measurement devices and automated solutions for industrial process engineering, implemented both mySAP CRM mobile sales and e-selling capabilities to reinforce its market- and customer-focused orientation. As a result, it saw a stronger field sales force and increased sales through the Internet.
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Capstone Turbine Corporation, an energy innovator, needed to implement management, business model, and strategy changes. It also needed to improve product reliability, modularize configurations, and provide visibility. By using SAP products, such as SAP BI, SAP EP, and SAP Best Practices, it realized performance measures for key business activities, and improved sales and inventory management.
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Universal Instruments Corporation, a leading capital equipment manufacturer, needed a flexible business solution to meet the challenges of globalization, and had to replace its legacy system. It used SAP for Industrial Machinery and Component, which is an integrated scalable solution and was able to enable global processes consistently throughout its geographical locations.
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Today, entrepreneurs running small-to-medium sized businesses face daunting tasks that just a few years ago were not existent. The complexities of the business world have created new risks, a myriad of regulations, and complex reporting requirements that can overwhelm any organization. Owners and managers of all enterprises, even smaller private businesses, need to be cognizant of both the spirit and the letter of the law. How does a smaller organization, with limited resources, cope with all of this? How do they stay abreast of the additional changes that are on the way? In this guide, Pete Russo of the Entrepreneurial Management Institute at the Boston University School of Management outlines the pitfalls and steps, but also looks at effective solutions for private companies.
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Think SAP's Industrial Manufacturing Solutions are too big, too difficult, and too expensive? Our 30,000 midsize customers beg to differ. Companies like yours get powerful, proven solutions that are developed with industry specific functionality, live in as little as sixteen weeks, and delivered with fixed, affordable pricing. Smart solutions that save you time and money. That's no myth. With more than 30,000 companies under $1 billion and over 80 percent of the Fortune 100 as our customers, nobody knows how to support your business objectives better than SAP. Two-thirds of our customers are midsize companies like yours ... and the other third used to be.
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SAP's manufacturing solutions are based on thirty years' experience of the processes that drive your business. When you choose SAP, you're assured of powerful, best-in-class solutions designed specifically for midsize manufacturing companies like yours. All from a single provider. SAP provides mission-critical solutions to more than 1,400 industrial manufacturing customers around the world. If fact, we're currently the market leader, with a commanding 54 percent share of the global market, compared to just 13 percent for our next closes competitor. Gain greater visibility across your enterprise, get closer to your customers, and reduce inefficiencies.
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Enterprises of all sizes today face common problems dealing with handling increasing business complexity while reducing costs. The solution continues to be the automation of business processes. SAP is an established leader in addressing the needs of large enterprises. Building on that performance and identified best practices, SAP built and launched SAP Business One. SAP Business One was designed to offer small and medium businesses the same business streamlining and efficiencies at a scale and scope appropriate to their needs. IDC recently interviewed a number of companies that have successfully deployed SAP Business One. The purpose of our interviews was to determine what impact the software had on their productivity and cost reduction.
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NexPress Solutions, Inc., a midsize production printing company, needed to improve its internal processes and to coordinate with both its parent companies. A SAP software implementation based on SAP best practices for industrial machinery and components (IM&C) reduced operating costs by more than $1 million (USD) in sixteen weeks.
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In today's rapidly changing world, businesses need software that can easily adapt to meet new needs as they arise. SAP® Business One is an affordable, easy-to-use solution that allows small and midsize businesses to streamline and integrate a broad range of operational and managerial tasks.
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This document describes how SAP’s mySAP supply chain management (SCM) software can help a company transform its sequential supply chain into an adaptive supply chain network to remain competitive and successful.
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The small and medium business (SMB) market is ever changing and very demanding, and has changed dramatically in the last ten years. Today, there is a very faint line that separates the demands that SMBs face versus that of large corporations. If you plan to be in the game of business, it really doesn't matter if you are small or large; the rules are the same and tools are as complex for one as the other. SMBs are creating a demand for more and more complex solutions, but their budgets have not expanded with their needs. Learn about the cost drivers for SMBs and how mySAP is a suitable solution.
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SAP Business One is a new offering from the largest business application software company in the world. It offers tremendous potential synergy for buyers of mid-market enterprise resource planning (ERP) software by combining state-of-the-art technology and first class business consultants with companies who are serious about building a highly tailored ERP system that can organically evolve no matter what future challenges their businesses may face.
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Contemporary firms must recognize a fundamental shift in the management of distribution activities as a strategic driver of their competitive success. Instead of the traditional focus on pushing products to customers through distribution channels, there is a need to migrate toward adaptive distribution networks. Such networks focus on managing the flow orders from customers by providing them with high levels of convenience while preserving attention to responsiveness and total distribution costs.
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Innovative companies improve efficiencies by integrating logistics and transportation functions with critical operating processes. By factoring transportation constraints into the planning and execution of warehousing, production and fulfillment, these companies are outperforming their competition.
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Predictive control, reactive control, and passive insulation enables enterprises to predict and adapt to fluctuations in customer demand. Ultimately, adaptive supply chain networks that exploit innovations to consistently improve efficiency and responsiveness are key to surviving a hyper-competitive environment.
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Dynamic efficiencies can help companies combat margin erosion and cope with compressed product lifecycles. By shifting from advanced planning to adaptive planning, enterprises can increase their top and bottom line. Integrating the demand planning network, optimizing the supply chain network, and strengthening execution planning will help this move to adaptive planning and eliminate pockets of waste.
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