In late February I attended Spark, the Scout annual user group meeting. This was the third and likely the last such meeting, as Scout was recently acquired by Workday. Scout’s users represent a new breed of purchasing managers and executives looking to change the role of the purchasing department. This change is critical for businesses. Saving money is the essential job of sourcing and purchasing departments. But departments can go far beyond that, helping support product and go-to-market...
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
expense management,
Financial Performance Management,
Digital Technology,
Digital Commerce,
Operations & Supply Chain,
Enterprise Resource Planning,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
purchasing,
sourcing
I’ve written before about blockchain’s significant potential. A lot of the current discussion on the topic centers on cryptocurrencies and financial trading platforms, both of which are already in operation. However, my focus is on its applicability to business generally, especially in B2B commerce, where I believe there is significant potential for it to serve as a universal data connector. There’s also a great deal of potential for blockchain to provide individuals with greater power in ...
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Topics:
Sales,
Human Capital Management,
business intelligence,
Business Collaboration,
Internet of Things,
Data,
Product Information Management,
Digital Commerce,
Enterprise Resource Planning,
blockchain,
candidate engagement,
collaborative computing,
continuous supply chain
Kinaxis recently held its annual user conference, Kinexions, which focuses on helping the company’s customers improve their execution of supply chain and sales and operations planning (S&OP). Its RapidResponse software handles S&OP, demand, supply, inventory and capacity planning. S&OP is a function sorely in need of improvement: Our research finds that only 22 percent of companies perform it well or very well.
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Topics:
Continuous Planning,
Analytics,
Enterprise Resource Planning,
continuous supply chain,
AI & Machine Learning
What’s the easiest way to completely immobilize a 500,000-ton ship?
Lose a sheet of paper.
The paperwork that accompanies international trade is a serious source of friction, inefficiency — and therefore cost — in supply chain execution. Trade documentation requires massive amounts of paper that today can be replaced by digital data. In 2018, Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, teamed up with IBM to create TradeLens, a digital platform that utilizes blockchain technology as a...
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
Continuous Planning,
Internet of Things,
Data,
Operations & Supply Chain,
Enterprise Resource Planning,
blockchain,
continuous supply chain
Infor recently held their Innovation Summit at Infor corporate headquarters in New York. At this annual event, they spend a good deal of time talking about progress on current initiatives and the exciting parts of the development roadmap. A key focus this year was AI and machine learning with Infor Coleman.
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Topics:
ERP,
Office of Finance,
Infor,
Enterprise Resource Planning
“Platform,” as used in the world of technology, originally referred to an operating system on which one could construct software applications. More recently, its usage has been expanded to apply to two types of business models. One enables third parties to create products and services that are complementary to a company’s core technology. For instance, both Apple and Salesforce have attracted a wide array of third-party software developers whose offerings greatly increase the value of each...
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Topics:
Human Capital Management,
Marketing,
Office of Finance,
Voice of the Customer,
Continuous Planning,
Information Management,
Internet of Things,
Workforce Management,
Financial Performance Management,
Price and Revenue Management,
Digital Marketing,
Digital Commerce,
Operations & Supply Chain,
Enterprise Resource Planning,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
robotic finance,
Predictive Planning,
revenue and lease accounting,
collaborative computing,
continuous supply chain
From my perspective there were two significant takeaways from this year’s SuiteWorld. The first is that, almost two years on from the announced acquisition of NetSuite by Oracle, the combination has achieved its immediate objectives in growing NetSuite’s business, especially in Europe and Asia, and accelerating product development efforts. The second takeaway is that, at least for now, the unit appears to continue to operate as if the combination were a private equity investment by a public...
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
Financial Performance Management,
Enterprise Resource Planning,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
robotic finance,
Predictive Planning,
revenue and lease accounting
We’re in a new era of trade, the result of converging issues that have been building for at least a decade. Structurally and politically, the liberal ethos that drove the trade environment through the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st has changed. There will be a new equilibrium in the future; getting there, though, will be a bumpy ride. Adding to the challenges posed by a shifting trade environment are commodity and currency market volatility and the impacts of ongoing legal,...
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
Recurring Revenue,
Continuous Planning,
Financial Performance Management,
Price and Revenue Management,
Inventory Optimization,
Operations & Supply Chain,
Enterprise Resource Planning,
Sales and Operations Planning,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
Sales Planning and Analytics,
revenue recognition
Workiva recently introduced Wdata, a cloud facility for centralizing financial and non-financial information from multiple sources. It frees up time for finance organizations, especially financial planning and analysis (FP&A) groups, to explore conditions and trends in their business because they need to spend less of it gathering data and preparing it for analysis and reporting. Ventana Research recently awarded Workiva our Digital Innovation award for Wdata because of its transformative...
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Topics:
Office of Finance,
Recurring Revenue,
Continuous Planning,
Data Governance,
Data Preparation,
Financial Performance Management,
Price and Revenue Management,
Enterprise Resource Planning,
ERP and Continuous Accounting,
Sales Planning and Analytics,
revenue recognition
Kinaxis recently held its annual user conference, Kinexions, which focuses on helping the company’s customers improve their execution of supply chain and sales and operations planning (S&OP). This year’s event took place against a backdrop of what is beginning to look like a new and more challenging era of world trade. This will have a significant impact on most product companies with international operations. (I also reviewed last year’s event, which can be found here.)
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Topics:
Continuous Planning,
Financial Performance Management,
Inventory Optimization,
Operations & Supply Chain,
Enterprise Resource Planning,
Sales and Operations Planning