Management excellence is the thread that draws everything together in a successful enterprise. Strategic planning is a pillar of management excellence for IT and Finance leaders that supports the business's efforts to link business processes to strategy. By making sure accurate, actionable information is available to all stakeholders, successful CIOs and CFOs are able to identify new opportunities, and adopt the best business models.
IT's Role in Strategic Planning Key To Success
It's no surprise that finance and IT executives' views differ on their roles in the planning process. New research from IDG Research Services, CFO Research Services and Oracle suggests that both sides agree there is room for improvement. Read this white paper for more research findings as well as CIO insight into how strategic planning can be successful for both sides.
Working Together To Improve Strategic Planning
With the downturn drawing to a close, companies are redirecting their focus from survival to long-term strategic planning for growth. Yet, many organizations are at risk of failing to achieve the goals of their strategic plans. New research from CFO Research Services, IDG Research Services and Oracle suggests that a lack of alignment between finance and IT teams prevents companies from streamlining processes and gathering information to enable them to plan effectively. This report reveals compelling examples of how organizations foster collaboration between finance and IT to ensure successful strategic planning.
Enterprise Performance Management - Connecting The Dots
Every organization has management processes and multiple systems to support them, but these systems are often disconnected. Such process disconnects lead to errors, lengthy cycles, and high management costs. This white paper demonstrates how an enterprise performance management (EPM) system connects people and processes, metrics, businesses, and systems. It introduces important criteria for successful design and implementation while also exploring the far-reaching benefits of EPM: improved decision-making and greater competitive advantage.
Management Excellence A Step-by-Step Strategy to Success
Management processes require flexibility because they deal with uncertainties and can result in a range of outcomes. Using a strategy-to-success framework as your guide, your company can establish the best practice processes that lead to management excellence. This paper outlines a strategy-to-success framework that consists of six interrelated management processes that each results in a key business output. These outputs provide the intelligence and information needed to manage a company for excellence and lead organizations to become smarter, more agile, and better aligned. Companies implementing the framework apply a systematic approach to management activities and increase managerial and operational effectiveness. They gain a better understanding of the impact of business decisions and set themselves up for long-term success.
Management Excellence Leveraging Tech & Techniques
The next wave of competitive advantage comes from combining operational excellence with management excellence. This is achieved by transforming management activities into integrated management processes and by connecting management processes to operational processes and systems. This white paper describes a set of six management processes that lead organizations to become smarter, more agile, and better aligned—the key attributes of management excellence.
Business Management in the Age of Enterprise 2.0
Many organizations struggle to build a convincing business case for the investments needed in information management. In this analysis, Frank Buytendijk examines what information management means, and describes a complete spectrum of business cases, ranging from tactical cost reduction to transformational impact on the organization's business model.
Smart Decision Making in the Era of New Financial Challenges
An era of new financial challenges calls for innovative financial planning approaches. Monte Carlo modeling can help manage risk, improve forecasting, and drive growth in turbulent times. Read this white paper to learn why the Monte Carlo modeling method provides a beacon of financial sanity and reliability at time when consumer confidence is at an all-time low and managers face new levels of accountability and keen public scrutiny in their decision-making.
Zen and the Art of the Balanced Scorecard
Today the use of balanced scorecards for performance management has become a hallmark of a well-run company. A recent study by Cranfield University showed that more than 50 percent of large enterprises use some type of a balanced scorecard. The concept is simple. In order for your business to succeed, you need a way to consider the factors that influence the organization's overall performance.
But simplicity can be elusive. The balanced scorecard is a management concept that has been so thoroughly boiled down to its essence that it no longer provides much application guidance. As a result, many of the best practices of the balanced scorecard are widely misunderstood. As much an art as a science, the balanced scorecard is a living process that must be adaptive to constantly changing external forces and internal course corrections. You learn as you go. This paper contains a few guiding principles that will help you along the way.
Executive Paper: Oracle Crystal Ball
Oracle Crystal Ball is the leading spreadsheet-based software suite for predictive modeling, forecasting, simulation, and optimization. Used by 85 percent of the Fortune 500 and taught in the top 50 U.S. MBA programs, Oracle Crystal Ball gives you unparalleled insight into the critical factors affecting risk, and calculates the likelihood you will reach your objectives. With Oracle Crystal Ball, you can make the right tactical decisions to move you toward your strategic goals and gain a competitive edge under even the most uncertain market conditions.
Managing Risk & Uncertainty: An executive's guide to integrated business planning
A time of unprecedented market volatility and competition calls for a new business strategy. Integrated business planning can help you keep your finger on the market pulse, reduce planning iterations, accelerate decision making, and ensure that your plans are more actionable and your forecasts are more accurate, regardless of market volatility. View this video white paper to learn how Integrated business planning can help your company align strategic, operational, and financial plans.
CFO At the Center: An OCEG Whitepaper
In this second installment of the Critical Conversations whitepaper series, OCEG describes the conversations a Chief Financial Officer must have with enterprise executives to successfully participate in the development and implementation of an integrated governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) capability that drives Principled Performance1. The first part of the series featured the CIO at the Center and future papers will detail conversations for other key GRC players. For more information about OCEG, go to www.oceg.org.
Risk Management: Protect and Maximize Stakeholder Value
All companies must take risks to survive, and the most successful companies are those that actively integrate risk management into their decision-making processes. This white paper explains how a risk management program can help identify opportunities for value creation while also protecting against potential threats.
Featured Videocasts
Globalization Best Practices: An Interview with Hackett President Wayne Mincey
A brief webcast with Hackett President Wayne Mincey in which he discusses Globalization and touches on these key points:
- Globalization: a concept of "where do I get work done?"
- Impact of Globalization
- Real Value of Globalization
- Driving impact
- Leveraging technology
Hackett President Wayne Mincey on Technology and World-Class Finance Performance
Hackett President Wayne Mincey discusses the benefits of using Hackett, a strategic advisory firm, to improve process performance in HR, Procurement, and IT. He emphasizes that this simplification will reduce costs, and allow for valid and reliable information. World class performance is hinged upon the use of technology in the workplace.