As it Grows, CPM–a Process, Not a Technology–Increasingly Relies on BI Tools

April 27, 2009

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In the current climate there is added pressure on business units in every organisation to show clearly how and where they are creating or adding value to the organisation. Good decision making and performance management are key to business value generation but neither are easy in today’s complex world. Furthermore, the corporate focus on IT costs is often driven by the enterprise-wide mandate to ‘do more with less’ and growing demands for compliance and governance-led transparency.

Business Intelligence (BI) and Corporate Performance Management (CPM) solutions help organisations with all these aspects of business. They enable organisations to answer three key business questions: “How are we doing?” “Why are we doing this?” and “What should we be doing next?” In terms of product offerings, these largely equate to: scorecarding, reporting and analysis, and forecasting. Most organisations do of course have systems in place to measure and monitor aspects of business performance, but all too often these systems stop at the Finance department. BI and CPM extend this practice to other areas of the business, and provide operational managers and employees with actionable business intelligence, i.e. information that is both relevant and timely.

Today organisations are being ultra cautious in all areas of IT spending, and many might question the value of investing in BI solutions, but we would question exactly how any organisation intends to survive without it. Although it is necessary to be prudent with IT spending in the current economic climate, BI and CPM provide a way for organisations to illuminate the business as they search for the light at the end of the tunnel.

Key Findings of the Report

Business Intelligence (BI) deployments are driven by competitive pressures, rapidly changing market conditions, regulatory requirements, and the need for better risk management.
The notion of performance management has become increasingly connected to the BI market of late.
Corporate Performance Management (CPM) is first and foremost a business initiative which requires an inclusive approach that encourages broad participation and adoption across the enterprise.
BI and CPM solutions should offer flexibility to enable a best of breed approach towards deployment.
Ease of use and other end-user considerations are of paramount importance when considering CPM solutions.
Data quality and integration is still a major issue for BI and CPM, as most enterprise applications still have their own, siloed view of corporate data.
The integration of Enterprise Search technology into BI platforms extends the reach and range of existing investments across the enterprise.
Mashups are a natural adjunct to the BI world, as are widgets and gadgets.
Effective collaborative Business Intelligence is the key to achieving and sustaining competitive advantage.
Software as a Service will offer hesitant organisations a relatively low-risk path to Performance Management.

–Sarah Burnett.

Burnett is a Senior Research Analyst with Butler Group, a Datamonitor company. Sarah specialises in Business Intelligence and related fields. Sarah’s responsibilities include researching developments in her specialist fields, evaluating software products, and writing and speaking regularly about them. Her recent publications include technology audits of leading BI and CPM software products, data warehouse appliances and data quality and integration tools. A regular speaker at conferences, Sarah also provides personalised advice to Butler Group clients.

Sarah is an experienced analyst and consultant. She has worked in a variety of IT roles in the past 20 years including software development, project management and programme management. Sarah holds a BSc in Physics and Electronics and an MSc in Applied Optics. She has Prince 2 practitioner qualifications and is a fully qualified member of the British Computer Society.

Posted by Carl · Filed Under Interviews, SaaS