Contemporary offer business objects consulting services, delivering a strategy that allows businesses to understand their data. Data warehousing and reporting design services. Contemporary are the Business Intelligence Experts. The product range covers Business Objects, Microsoft Business Intelligence as well as Crystal Reports.
     
 
 

Finance Directors See The Value of Business Intelligence.

A recent survey of financial professionals has found that 75% struggle to collect the data and perform the necessary  analysis  required to answer questions they are asked on corporate financial performance, the situation being made worse by the fact that there are multiple data sources, often providing the data in different formats.

The survey by datawarehousing company Teradata reported that these difficulties limited the visibility into the business dynamics that affect financial results, and delayed actions that might well improve corporate performance.

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

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With the promise of being able to better understand the finances, it is no surprise, that the finance function in many businesses have been leading the adoption of business intelligence software. Indeed, it seems that much of the recent consolidation in the business intelligence tools market has been driven by larger suppliers looking to expand their foothold into the finance department, such as the acquisition of Cognos by IBM and the purchase of Hyperion by Oracle.

In 1997, the accountancy firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers highlighted the way that some chief financial officers and finance directors were starting to take a more central role in defining their organisations' strategies, this being made easier thanks to the business intelligence technologies that had been deployed. Armed with the right data the analysis of the figures at the heart of the business has taken the guesswork out of decision making.

Since 1997 business intelligence systems have evolved quite a bit and the finance director is a prime user of corporate, business or enterprise performance management (umbrella terms that the industry has variously applied to both business intelligence's traditional query, analysis and reporting tools, and its applications for planning budgeting and forecasting).
John Hagerty, vice president at analyst firm AMR Research, says "Business intelligence tools sold under the CPM (corporate performance management ) banner comprise a well-established buyer category, with many suppliers delivering products and services, focused largely on financial data and tailored to meet the demands of the finance function."

Hagerty defines the business intelligence tools of most use to the finance department (all of which are sold as part of CPM platforms) as:

  • Planning, budgeting and forecasting - contribution, aggregation, manipulation, and approval of the financial plan on a periodic or continual basis.

  • Financial consolidations and reporting - legal and statutory consolidation systems, along with more generalised financial statement generation capabilities.

  • Financial analytics and dashboards - profitability applications, role-specific dashboards, metrics, and specific financial analytics for detailed financial processes.

  • Financial governance, risk management, and compliance - governance and control requirements that include national and international regulations, such as Sarbanes-Oxley or the International Financial Reporting Standards.

  • Scorecards and strategy - methodology-based scorecards, such as the Balanced Scorecard, and strategy management applications.

"Selling these products directly to the office of the CFO flared in prominence shortly after Sarbanes-Oxley captured the attention of executives and boards of directors," says Hagerty, and compliance continues to drive enormous business intelligence spending by finance departments five years after the law was passed.



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