At the start of this year, few of us expected a very powerful flu-like virus to be the next catalyst for global economic disruption. Whatever scenario you based your 2020…
It’s amazing how quickly things can change, throwing off the most confident expectations and making the most thorough plans useless. Scenarios we thought likely only a couple months ago have…
Essbase, Oracle’s popular multidimensional technology, is now more accessible to small and mid-size businesses (SMBs), thanks to new pricing from Oracle: $120 per user per month (minimum 10 users) for Essbase Cloud.
This new SaaS-like pricing plan for Essbase Cloud is available to customers that qualify as SMBs according to Oracle’s criteria: essentially, having annual revenue of below $500 million. That’s not a very low limit, so a lot of organizations should qualify and be able to adopt this proven and popular modeling, analysis and reporting application in its most advanced iteration. (more…)
Analysis Team will present three breakout sessions and participate in an expert discussion panel at the upcoming Kscope19 conference, June 23 through 27, 2019 in Seattle, WA.
Kscope is an annual conference organized by the Oracle Development Tools User Group (ODTUG) that offers educational sessions on technical topics related to Oracle Database, Oracle Application Express (APEX), Oracle Business Intelligence (including Essbase) and Oracle’s Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) Suite (Hyperion). (more…)
The apparel industry, and particularly apparel retailers, are facing existential challenges today. Decline in mall traffic, e-commerce competition, inventory risk, and other factors are putting significant strain on the top line and on profitability in ways never seen before.
As a fashion supplier or retailer, keeping your product margins healthy is imperative. To address this multi-dimensional challenge, you must determine optimal product mix and quantities to decrease mark-downs, find opportunities to reduce costs, and drive improved supplier management. I’m pleased to announce that we’ve put our collective retail and technology experience together to offer a solution! (more…)
Project management is so 20th century! At least that’s the impression I get, listening to some people. Here are a few attitudes about project management I’ve encountered recently:
“With the Agile method, we don’t have to take so much time at the beginning to understand requirements”
“The Cloud and SaaS solutions make deployment so easy these days, project management would mostly just be in the way”
“Things change too fast, we’re not available for meetings and we don’t have a big budget, so can we just go light on the PM stuff?”
Project management isn’t near the top of my list of interesting topics to write about. And when it comes to solution development, I’d rather just go for it and see results quickly. But after many years of implementing EPM and BI solutions, I have come to respect effective project and engagement management. (more…)
The CFO’s role increasingly involves partnering with the CEO and functional management to develop and execute corporate strategy. To be effective strategic business leaders in their companies, CFOs are embracing decision support and data analytics. CFOs report that data and predictive analytics will deliver the greatest impact over the next five years.
These are the insights from a survey of 440 CFOs conducted by Stanton Chase, an executive search firm. Results of their 2018 survey were recently summarized and published in Digital Transformation: Empowering the Evolution of the CFO. (more…)
Blockchain has become a hot topic in investment circles. Recent articles I’ve seen include “Burger company launches blockchain rewards program, stock soars” (CNN Tech) and “Tea maker to become blockchain company. Stock soars” (CNN Money). Remember the late 1990s, when just putting “.com” at the end of a company name meant a windfall of IPO riches? If you missed that opportunity, maybe you now have another chance.
Is this blockchain thing just a fad, or is there something to it? In the short term, I’ll bet you all my cryptocurrency that the hype has gone beyond the reality, and the bubble will pop. But blockchain is an important technology that will make a significant impact on our lives, long after my cryptocurrency holdings have gone bust. (more…)
The Association for Financial Professionals (AFP) recently published its 2017 FP&A Survey “How Relevant is Your Budget?” The AFP surveyed just over 600 financial professionals in organizations spanning a wide range of industries and sizes, both publicly owned and privately held. The results provide insights into the usage of budgets and budgeting styles, how useful senior managers (by role) perceive the budget, and the relevance of budgets for monitoring performance and managing the business.
The survey summary is available on AFP’s web site. Among the key findings are interesting benchmarks of budgeting methods, giving you an opportunity to see how your approach compares to peers. (more…)
Each year, Fortune ranks and recognizes the 100 fastest-growing companies in the U.S. The ranking, which includes companies in all industries, is based on revenue growth rate, EPS growth rate, and three-year annualized total return for the period ended June 30, 2017. We are pleased to see that two of our bank clients made Fortune’s 2017 list: Banc of California (#15) and Pacific Premier Bancorp (#21).
The banking sector overall has experienced robust growth over the last few years as the U.S. economy has improved and lending has picked up, with problem loans and default rates declining. Our clients are also realizing efficiencies and addressing opportunities as a result of their Oracle Essbase, Hyperion Planning and Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud Service (EPBCS) implementation projects. (more…)