SAP Analytics
Thought Leadership

20 Years On - 9/11: Reflecting on My Experience

Posted by David Den Boer on Sat, Sep 11, 2021 @ 11:09 AM

I first wrote the below blog post on the 10^th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy in America. As I reflect on the world since then, many subsequent global disruption events have taken place with military conflict, economic turmoil, and even a global pandemic! This volatility serves to underscore the criticality of optimized analytics platforms, and my words of a decade ago are still applicable today:

“…our software enables companies to better respond to economic uncertainty – whether it is changing currency rates, fluctuating commodity prices, or terrorist attacks – it is our mission to make sure that corporations are as prepared as possible to successfully weather those storms.”

May our collective efforts: consultants, vendors, and clients - working in partnership – produce effective platforms that help temper and mitigate economic collateral damage from tragic events that unfold in our global community.

9/11: Reflecting on My Experience – first published to recognize the 10^th anniversary of 9/11.

Like other watershed moments in history, here in the US, nearly everyone alive at the time remembers where they were on 9/11. My story is similar to millions of Americans in that the events of that day were simply unforgettable.

Topics: OutlookSoft, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Business Intelligence (BI)

Introduction to SAP Disclosure Management

Posted by David Den Boer on Thu, Feb 25, 2021 @ 11:02 AM

Overview

SAP Disclosure Management is an application within the Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) suite.  It is used to improve organisations’ reporting where multiple users need to contribute to reports, and accuracy and consistency is critical. Key examples are the Annual Report and Accounts, returns to financial markets and regulators, and internal reports such as board report “books”.

Disclosure Management, as a process, is also known as the “last mile of finance”, where the culmination of all previous steps – financial close, variance analysis, and re-forecasting – are all key ingredients in what is reported to external stakeholders at the culmination of all subordinate tasks. In today’s world of increased expectations of closing faster, integrating financial and operational processes via advanced versions of EPM  – like xP&A – the appetite for more integration, automation, and on demand timing is at the highest point ever.

The business case for Disclosure Management is that it manages and streamlines the process of bringing together multiple data sources and text required in external reporting all of which are owned and authored by multiple teams and which require approval by multiple approvers.  Some clients choose to outsource performance of this function to a third-party service provider, while others purchase tools for in house use from vendors like Workiva and SAP. We won’t weigh the value of internal or external functionality in this space, but if a decision is taken to perform this function internally, this article provides an overview of the business case for and operational structure of SAP’s Disclosure Management product.

Business Case

The below diagram created by SAP demonstrates the issues faced in reporting that Disclosure Management is designed to streamline.

A typical process leading to a major reporting output such as an annual report or regulatory filing will often have a wide range of data sources.  For example, General Ledger systems, Enterprise Performance Management applications such as SAP BPC, SAC, Group Reporting and BFC as well as manually created inputs such as written text.  These data sources often feed into numerous Excel and Word documents that form part of the reporting output.  The report sections require approvals and collaboration within the organisation that can be difficult to monitor and coordinate.  The sections of the report that have been created separately need to be put together into the final output.  In the past, the output may have only been a printable format such as a Word document or PDF file, but a number of legal and regulatory filings require electronic submission, notably via XBRL.

Topics: Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Business Intelligence (BI), Analytics, Financial Information Management, Data

The BPC in “SAP BPC” stands for “Business Objects Planning and Consolidation”.

Topics: Business Intelligence (BI), FUTURE OF SAP BPC, BPC11

Business Intelligence: A Core Business Competency

Posted by David Den Boer on Thu, Mar 13, 2014 @ 15:03 PM

Economic challenges are all around today’s market. We hear about struggling companies that are suffering from poor performance. We know that companies don’t exactly come with manuals for the CEO to reference when things aren’t going well. In the past, conventional wisdom was to focus on the core money making operations of the enterprise. A car manufacturer that also dabbles in satellite technology, a TV manufacturer that also makes laptops, and newspaper that also owns real estate are examples of companies that, when times get difficult, have decided to dump ventures not aligned with the company’s core competencies. That’s what makes Gartner’s assessment ( Business Intelligence: A Core Business Competency) extremely important.

Topics: Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Business Intelligence (BI), Analytics, EPM ROI, Value, BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation)

EPM Project Management Methodologies Untangled

Posted by Connie Folk on Tue, Apr 30, 2013 @ 08:04 AM

Do you ever wonder if you are keeping up with the plethora of project management methodologies? Waterfall, Scrum, Agile, Lean, ASAP,  Agile Waterfall and Sprints form just a handful of concepts. What is a project management methodology anyway and how do you choose the most appropriate one for your Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Business Planning & Consolidation (BPC) or Business Intelligence (BI) SAP project?

Topics: Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Business Intelligence (BI), Project Management, Value, Implementation, BPC (Business Planning & Consolidation)

Beyond Spreadsheets: The Future of EPM

Posted by David Den Boer on Tue, Nov 06, 2012 @ 07:11 AM

Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) has come a long way from solutions that were first seen almost two decades ago. Of course, it could be argued that the first “EPM Technology” was the spreadsheet—dating back more than 30 years now.

Topics: Process Improvement, Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Business Intelligence (BI), Performance, Roadmap

You Might Be in Excel Hell If...

Posted by David Den Boer on Wed, May 23, 2012 @ 05:05 AM

Topics: Enterprise Performance Management (EPM), Business Intelligence (BI), Performance, Implementation, Data

BPC User Data Collection Checklist

Posted by Charles Dagaev on Wed, Apr 18, 2012 @ 10:04 AM

Topics: Business Intelligence (BI), Innovation, Performance, Data