The Power of Business Analytics - Performance, Analysis & Governance
A combination of economic, competitive and legislative pressures have increased the requirements on companies, resulting in cultural and business process changes, increased information requirements, and an increased level of transparency. When processes are inconsistent and information is locked in corporate silos, business plans, decisions and disclosure is at risk. Organizations must ensure that the financial results they deliver to stakeholders are timely and accurate, and that plans and forecasts are delivered with a high degree of confidence.
In response, many organizations are automating and integrating their compliance and financial reporting processes, while incorporating risk management into their performance management process.
In order to gain insight and confidence in performance, risk and financial results, and mitigate the risk of error or fraud, organizations need to put their information to work. Hence we see leading organizations embark on strategies to do just that, and many of these initiatives can be described under the umbrella of “Business Analytics”.
As organizations take a hard look at how their business requirements relate to the availability of information and insight many initiatives may start as smaller projects. However, information management, performance management, decision support and risk & compliance requirements have common denominators that can be addressed through a combination of business process changes and Business Analytics technology.
There are several areas of technology that can be categorized under this broad category of Business Analytics, which include:
ANALYTIC APPLICATIONS
Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) software - includes solutions that support multiple aspects of managing performance including planning & budgeting, financial consolidation & statutory reporting, strategy management and cost & profitability management.
Continuous Monitoring – also categorized as GRC software, these solutions monitor controls, transactions and processes based upon business rules designed to identify errors or fraud, and support both audit and compliance requirements.
Specialized analytic applications – such as Activity Based Costing/Management (ABM), pricing, spend & procurement analytics, account reconciliation, revenue recognition.
ADVANCED ANALYTICS
Predictive Technologies - the use of information to find patterns, identify new possibilities, make predictions.
Forecasting and what-if analysis - create scenarios, prescribe actions.
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE (BI) & REPORTING together support a platform for exploring & navigating through information with easy to use analytic and reporting capabilities that enable flexibility while at the same time ensuring data quality.
Business Intelligence software - provides a platform for managing information, including the ability to extract, consolidate, validate and normalize information. Access to information is supported through robust analytic capabilities that enable users to access data at the most granular level required across all data sources.
Reporting software - enables reporting through numbers and charts as well as the analysis of information through search, visualization, report development and drill down capabilities.
Financial Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) software - includes a set of solutions to manage risk, audit & compliance processes.
Business Analytic Solutions in the categories above have matured and are top of mind for CFO's. However, the range of solutions provides a confusing array of choices for organizations looking to make improvements.
Kathleen Wilhide, CPA is a leading market expert across the areas of Business Analytics and specializing in analytic applications such as Enterprise Performance Management as well as compliance driven investments for the CFO. Better-Insight was launched to help technology vendors understand the needs of end users, and to educate end users on the technology choices they can make to improve their performance management, analytic and compliance processes.
