Market Perspectives

The topic of artificial intelligence using machine learning (AI/ML) used to conjure up images of PhDs in white lab coats using massive computers to solve arcane problems, but today’s technology is packaged to be used effectively by those not trained in data science to address daily chores more efficiently. AI will be valuable to finance departments in five general areas: forecasting and planning, analytics, task supervision, recommendations and automated commentary. Although the payoff from throwing massive brain power at solving difficult problems can be significant, AI also has the potential to create value by automating repetitive processes or augmenting human involvement to gain efficiency while improving performance.

Topics: Office of Finance, Analytics, Business Planning, ERP and Continuous Accounting, AI and Machine Learning, digital finance

Indirect taxes — known variously as sales-and-use, value-added or goods-and-services tax — can get complicated, particularly in countries that have overly complex tax regimes such as Brazil, India and the United States. For example, in the U.S., state and local governments have their own statutes defining which goods are taxed and at what rates, and taxable items and rates change all the time. More recently, compliance has grown more complex with the Supreme Court’s Wayfair decision, which ruled to allow states to impose sales tax collection requirements on remote sellers that exceed a certain threshold, without regard to physical presence in that state. And now, going into 2022, sales-and-use taxes as well as VAT are likely to become more complex, and enforcement is likely to become more stringent in the wake of the pandemic.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, ERP and Continuous Accounting, Revenue, profitability management, digital finance, Lease & Tax Accounting

Financial consolidation is the process of combining financial data (notably assets, liabilities, income and expenses) from multiple subsidiaries’ general ledgers across an organization for the purpose of creating a parent company report. The current reality for financial consolidation and close processes is that many organizations still rely on manual spreadsheets, which can lead to longer closing periods, errors and confusion. According to SVP & Research Director in the Office of Finance Robert Kugel’s Best Practices, “Finance organizations must apply digital technology to reduce time spent on repetitive tasks to accelerate processes, improve data quality and shift focus to forward-looking analytical work.” Luckily, digital finance software companies have come a long way and now offer a variety of different products to significantly improve Office of Finance operations and workflow.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, ERP and Continuous Accounting, Revenue, profitability management, digital finance, Lease & Tax Accounting

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Infor, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Ventana Research Value Index: Business Planning is a distillation of a year of market and product research efforts.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Unit4, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Ventana Research Value Index: Business Planning is a distillation of a year of market and product research efforts.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Planful, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Ventana Research Value Index: Business Planning is a distillation of a year of market and product research efforts.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Prophix, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Ventana Research Value Index: Business Planning is a distillation of a year of market and product research efforts.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Ventana Research is sharing insights about insightsoftware, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Ventana Research Value Index: Business Planning is a distillation of a year of market and product research efforts.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Vena Solutions, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Ventana Research Value Index: Business Planning is a distillation of a year of market and product research efforts.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Workday, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Ventana Research Value Index: Business Planning is a distillation of a year of market and product research efforts.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Wolters Kluwer, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Ventana Research Value Index: Business Planning is a distillation of a year of market and product research efforts.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Ventana Research is sharing insights about OneStream Software, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Ventana Research Value Index: Business Planning is a distillation of a year of market and product research efforts.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Anaplan, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Ventana Research Value Index: Business Planning is a distillation of a year of market and product research efforts.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Board, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Ventana Research Value Index: Business Planning is a distillation of a year of market and product research efforts.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Oracle, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Ventana Research Value Index: Business Planning is a distillation of a year of market and product research efforts.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Ventana Research is sharing insights about SAP, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The 2022 Ventana Research Value Index: Business Planning is a distillation of a year of market and product research efforts.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

Ventana Research is sharing insights about IBM, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Ventana Research Value Index: Business Planning is a distillation of a year of market and product research efforts.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning

The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, ERP and Continuous Accounting, profitability management, digital finance, Lease & Tax Accounting

Historically, it’s been difficult to convince chief financial officers to invest in technology that makes it easier to spend money. That’s probably because before digital technologies, the natural impediments to spending stood as crude but effective strategies for fiscal control. Today, however, not using technology to streamline corporate spend actually increases costs and decreases control. The right software can increase efficiency and visibility into how money is spent, provide always-vigilant automated supervision, and enforce process conformity. Increasingly, artificial intelligence is providing finance and accounting with the means to improve spend-related processes.

Topics: Office of Finance, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, Process Mining, Streaming Analytics, AI & Machine Learning

The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.

Topics: Performance Management, Sales, Customer Experience, Human Capital Management, Marketing, Marketing Performance Management, Office of Finance, Voice of the Customer, Continuous Planning, Business Continuity, Learning Management, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data Integration, Internet of Things, Business Planning, Contact Center, Data, Product Information Management, Sales Performance Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Financial Performance Management, Digital Technology, Digital Marketing, Digital Commerce, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, Total Compensation Management, Continuous Payroll, Field Service, Process Mining, Streaming Analytics, Conversational Marketing, Digital Experience Platform, AI & Machine Learning, Experience Management, Digital Communications, Analytics & Data

The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.

Topics: Performance Management, Sales, Customer Experience, Human Capital Management, Marketing, Marketing Performance Management, Office of Finance, Voice of the Customer, Continuous Planning, Business Continuity, Learning Management, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data Integration, Internet of Things, Business Planning, Contact Center, Data, Product Information Management, Sales Performance Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Financial Performance Management, Digital Technology, Digital Marketing, Digital Commerce, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, Total Compensation Management, Continuous Payroll, Field Service, Process Mining, Streaming Analytics, Conversational Marketing, Digital Experience Platform, AI & Machine Learning, Experience Management, Digital Communications, Analytics & Data

The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.

Topics: Performance Management, Sales, Customer Experience, Human Capital Management, Marketing, Marketing Performance Management, Office of Finance, Voice of the Customer, Continuous Planning, Business Continuity, Learning Management, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data Integration, Internet of Things, Business Planning, Contact Center, Data, Product Information Management, Sales Performance Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Financial Performance Management, Digital Technology, Digital Marketing, Digital Commerce, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, Total Compensation Management, Continuous Payroll, Field Service, Process Mining, Streaming Analytics, Conversational Marketing, Digital Experience Platform, AI & Machine Learning, Experience Management, Digital Communications, Analytics & Data

The annual Ventana Research Digital Leadership Awards recognize organizations and individuals that utilize technology to advance business and IT. The Digital Leadership Awards showcase the professional leadership and their use of business applications or technology that contribute significantly to improved efficiency, productivity and the performance of their organization. This prestigious award recognizes leaders and pioneers who have contributed to their organization’s success and championed improvements across their people, processes, information and technology.

Topics: Performance Management, Sales, Customer Experience, Human Capital Management, Marketing, Marketing Performance Management, Office of Finance, Voice of the Customer, Continuous Planning, Business Continuity, Learning Management, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data Integration, Internet of Things, Business Planning, Contact Center, Data, Product Information Management, Sales Performance Management, Talent Management, Workforce Management, Financial Performance Management, Digital Technology, Digital Marketing, Digital Commerce, Operations & Supply Chain, Enterprise Resource Planning, Total Compensation Management, Continuous Payroll, Field Service, Process Mining, Streaming Analytics, Conversational Marketing, Digital Experience Platform, AI & Machine Learning, Experience Management, Digital Communications, Analytics & Data

Over the past decade, close-management software has evolved to enable even midsize organizations to streamline department processes, operate in a virtual mode, accelerate the accounting close and reduce staff stress. It’s one step toward continuous accounting, which is defined by Office of Finance Research Director Robert Kugel as an approach to managing transactions recording and accounting that takes advantage of current technology to streamline and restructure the accounting function. In many organizations, accounting remains stuck in the past, failing to use available technology to reduce workloads and accelerate accounting processes. The objective of continuous accounting is to enable the chief financial officer, controller and chief accounting officer to be more effective by automating routine tasks, reducing errors, streamlining workflows and facilitating collaboration. Organizational efficiency and, potentially, accounting staff satisfaction is gained from the reduction of manual, repetitive processes that otherwise require review, sign-off and manual preparation of documented evidence.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, ERP and Continuous Accounting, profitability management, digital finance

Power ON is software designed for organizations to streamline their business planning, budgeting, forecasting, reviewing and reporting, in order to make these processes more effective and accurate. Organizations do a lot of planning: In addition to the budget, they plan headcount, sales, production and their supply chain, as well as other business functions, and traditionally execute this using spreadsheets as they are a familiar tool. However, spreadsheets make it difficult for individuals to plan, especially those in operational roles, and combining a set of spreadsheet-based plans and budgets into an enterprise-wide whole is time consuming and error prone. Power ON addresses the shortcomings of spreadsheet budgeting and planning by enabling executives and managers to work interactively with their models while examining and analyzing historical financial and operational data to better inform their planning decisions. It is designed to streamline planning and budgeting to enable more agile and connected planning. When departments share a common platform, it provides holistic data and analytics so that finance executives can have a comprehensive picture of where the company stands in real time.

Topics: Office of Finance, Business Planning, Financial Performance Management, ERP and Continuous Accounting, revenue and lease accounting, profitability management, digital finance