Office of Finance

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After a decade of limited technology innovation, the office of finance computing landscape now is experiencing significant transformation. This shift can be seen in areas including ERP, accounting and financial performance management applications like budgeting, closing and planning applications that now are readily available for licensing through subscription and in the cloud. In-memory computing and big data infrastructure make it easier to process larger volumes of data as well as identify risk and opportunities to improve results. “We’ve always done it this way” won’t do anymore. Finance organizations must adapt to the expanding potential from what technology is making practical.

Ventana Research offers fact-based strategic advisory services to the Office of Finance that are designed to resolve process and people issues by addressing the underlying defects in technology (software) and information (data). Through its understanding of the vendor landscape and technology trends, Ventana Research enables it clients to maximize their substantial investment in technology for ERP, financial consolidation and reporting, budgeting and planning, price and revenue management, subscription management and finance analytics.

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By 2026, all vendors of software aimed at the office of finance will differentiate their offerings by the capabilities and accuracy of their AI functionality.

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Robert Kugel, CFA

SVP & Research Director

By 2026 more than one-half of corporations required to comply with ESG reporting will centralize responsibility for preparing related reports and filings with FP&A to achieve accuracy, control and efficiency objectives. 
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By 2026, all vendors of software aimed at the office of finance will differentiate their offerings by the capabilities and accuracy of their AI functionality.  
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By 2026, one-half of organizations with 10,000 or more employees will have implemented intercompany financial management (IFM) to achieve tax, risk management and financial close benefits. 
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By 2026, only one-third of finance departments will have achieved a level of technology competence to be described as digitally transformed while the CFOs of those that do will have greater influence in their organization's management. 
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By 2026, one-half of FP&A professionals will have assumed responsibility for routinely measuring customer profitability, up from 36% today, improving returns on assets and equity. 
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By 2026, the number of organizations with a Finance IT function will grow from 6 in 10 to 9 in 10, enabling them to operate more effectively. 
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Nine in 10 executives say their finance organization should be a strategic partner to their company, but by 2026 fewer than one-third will evolve into this role, limiting company performance. 
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Through 2025, 1 in 5 organizations will look to streamline operations by exploring process mining to optimize workflow and business processes. 
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By 2026, one-half of FP&A organizations will utilize guided analytics processes and storytelling capabilities to help create and deliver actionable insights to exectives and managers. 
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By 2024, just 1 in 5 FP&A organizations will have redefined their mission to make planning easier for business unit leaders. Those that do will be a strategic asset. 
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By 2026 almost all vendors of planning and budgeting software will have incorporated AI to reduce workloads and improve accuracy. 
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By 2026, one-fourth of FP&A organizations will have implemented integrated business planning, bringing together operational and financial planning on a single platform to improve the business value of planning and budgeting. 
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By 2026, fewer than one-third of organizations will have adopted value-based planning, but those that do will outperform peers in achieving objectives and long-term strategy. 
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By 2026, fewer than one-third of organizations will incorporate comprehensive external measures in performance reviews and benchmarking to improve performance. 
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By 2026, only 20% of organizations will have all the data they need to understand trade-offs in their scenario planning to improve agility, up from 12% today. 
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By 2026, fewer than 25% of organizations will be using blockchain payment systems, those that do will speed transactions, reduce administrative overhead and cut costs. 
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By 2026, one-third of FP&A organizations will have integrated HR planning with their budgeting process, simplifying headcount budgeting and improving the accuracy of headcount requirement forecasts. 
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By 2026, almost all vendors of consolidation software will have incorporated AI to accelerate the accounting close, reduce errors and cut staff workloads. 
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By 2026, two-thirds of finance and accounting departments will improve their use of readily available technology to close quarterly books within six business days, up from one-half that can do it today. 
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By 2026, one-half of midsize and larger organizations will use close management software to speed their close and achieve greater control of the process.
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By 2025, only 15% of companies will be using a virtual close, enabling them to monitor their financial position in near real-time and accelerate their mothly and quarterly process. 
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By 2026, almost all vendors of consolidate, close and report software will offer a data pantry to facilitate the integration of operational and external data with financials.
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By 2026 almost all vendors of software designed for finance organizations will have incorporated some AI capabilities to reduce workloads and improve performance. 
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By 2026, corporations using intercompany financial management will automatically assemble data from multiple systems to support consistency and accuracy in tax compliance and analysis. 
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By 2026, digital finance technologies will significantly reduce employee training requirements and boost productivity by 25%.
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By 2026, more than one-half of organizations will have adopted some form of a virtual audit, saving staff time and cutting departmental costs. 
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By 2026, one-fifth of organization boards of directors will insist on a virtual audit with their auditor to reduce the annual cost of compliance. 
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Through 2026 almost all multinational organizations that do not adopt intercompany financial management will struggle with profit leakage caused by lapses in handling VAT and income tax and in transfer pricing decisions. 
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By 2026, one-half of finance organizations will adopt natural language processing as a component of improving digital experiences for business professionals who desire conversational methods of interaction. 
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By 2026, almost all vendors of Office of Finance software will offer a data pantry to facilitate the integration of operational and external data with financials to improve the speed and accuracy of forecasts and plans.
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By 2025, competitive pressures will force three-fourths of B2B companies to adopt technology-supported pricing strategies to achieve volume and margin objectives. 
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By 2025, just 35% of FP&A teams in organizations will be able to deliver actionable customer and product profitability analysis. Finance departments that do will be a strategic asset. 
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By 2026, the majority of publicly traded companies will publish sustainability metrics—and will be challenged to quantify their impact on profitability. 
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By 2026, one-third of organizations will have implemented a profitability management initiative to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. 
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By 2026, only 1 in 3 finance organizations will have the technology to support an effective, compliant and sustainable profitability management strategy. 
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By 2026, more than one-half of B2B businesses will adopt price and revenue optimization to achieve higher sales and optimized margins. Today, the technology is only lightly adopted. 
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By 2026, a majority of European and North American countries will employ analytics to target multinational corporation transfer pricing compliance. 
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By 2026, more than one-half of organizations will have digitized their accounts payable function to increase staff efficiency and take advantage of early payment discounts. 
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By 2025, more than one-third of large enterprises will use software to automate their AR reconciliations process to improve staff productivity and working capital efficiency. 
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By 2026, 1 in 5 organizations with 1,000 or more employees will have a central ledger accounting architecture, enabling them to do a continuous virtual close.
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By 2026, fewer than one-third of subscription companies will have adopted continuous accounting, giving those that do a business advantage. 
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By 2026, two-thirds of organizations will have applied continuous accounting principles to close the books within one business week, up from 50% today.
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By 2026, almost all vendors of ERP software will have incorporated AI to reduce workloads and speed processes and reduce errors. 
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By 2026, more than one-half of manufacturing organizations will use a cloud-based core ERP system to promote continuity, improve performance and lower costs. 
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By 2026, over 80% of ERP systems purchased by non-product companies will be deployed in the cloud to promote continuity, improve performance and lower costs. 
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Through 2026, ERP systems will evolve to support ESG processes but only one-third of organizations will have made the required investments in them to achieve their stated objectives and legal and regulatory compliance.
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Through 2025, 1 in 5 organizations will look to streamline operations by exploring process mining to optimize workflow and business processes in ERP systems. 
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Through 2026, professional services automation suites will continue to displace ad hoc software and spreadsheet use reflecting increasing affordability and capabilities to improve an organization's performance.
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Through 2026, organizations will increasingly adopt cloud-based professional services automation over on-premises deployment because of superior performance, ease of use and lower total cost of ownership.
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By 2026 at least three-fourths of business-to-business payments will be handled digitally to lower transactions costs, reduce back office workloads and enhance control.
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By 2026, almost all organizations will adopt a digital-payments-first approach to differentiate their customer experience to increase revenues and market share.
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By 2026 fewer than one-third of purchasing departments will have established cross-functional ties to improve resiliency, competitiveness and profitability.
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By 2027, three-fourths of organizations will have implemented spend management to control outlays while reducing administrative burdens on employees.
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By 2027, only one-fourth of larger organizations will consistently manage source-to-pay end-to-end but those that do will outperform competitors.
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By 2026, 1 in 5 organizations will employ indexing in pricing to mitigate the impact of price inflation on their margins.
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By 2028, one-half of all sales will involve payments made on high efficiency platforms, reducing frictions and overhead to speed purchases and cut costs.
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By 2027, digital wallets will account for 4 in 10 purchases to facilitate consumer payments and increase convenience.
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By 2026, one-quarter of purchasing and sourcing organizations will adopt natural language processing to improve digital experiences and promote efficiency. 
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By 2026, more than two-thirds of organizations will be using spend management software and corporate cards to achieve greater control and increased efficiency.
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By 2024, more than two-thirds of organizations will utilize technology to simplify accounting for contracts and leases. 
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By 2026, two-thirds of product companies with multinational operations will use software to manage transfer pricing to manage compliance consistently and reduce risk. 
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By 2026, higher tax rates and complex trade relationships will force two-thirds of multinational companies to manage transfer pricing using software for optimizing tax exposure more consistently and accurately. 
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By 2026, one-half of companies with even moderately complex legal structures will use dedicated tax provision software to streamline their close and reduce risk. 
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By 2026, a majority of midsize and larger companies will have digitized their indirect tax compliance to ensure accuracy as jurisdictions step up audits to increase revenues.
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By 2026, 4 in 10 organizations will use a dedicated third-party tax provision software to accelerate the tax provision process, ensure accuracy and enhance transparency.
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By 2026, two-thirds of companies will digitize indirect tax management to comply with increasing e-invoicing and real-time filing mandates by governments.
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Analyst Perspective
The Continuous Audit Improves Quality and Efficiency

Following the virtual audit model, the continuous audit spreads the work of a full annual audit across the year for more efficient use of resources.

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Analyst Perspective
Our Focus on Close, Consolidate and Report in Finance

Finance departments should consider new technology to advance their close, consolidate and report processes to achieve superior control, faster results.

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Analyst Perspective
Accounts Payable Automation is More Valuable Than You Think

Having digital access to all accounts payable-related data delivers organizational benefits such as reduced process friction and improved finances.

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Analyst Perspective
Our Focus on Purchasing, Sourcing and Payments in 2023

Digitally transforming sourcing and procurement enables delivery of expertise, insights across the enterprise while maximizing efficiency, minimizing costs.

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White Paper
A Global Tax Management Platform Is a Must-Have

The Base Erosion and Profit Shifting initiative was designed to rein in what has been viewed as excessive tax avoidance by multinational corporations.

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Analyst Perspective
More Effective Contingency Planning Improves Agility

Today’s dedicated planning and budgeting software supports scenario planning to enable leaders to manage more effectively and achieve greater agility.

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Analyst Perspective
Insightsoftware Enables a Predictive and Effective Finance Department

Insightsoftware’s applications streamline office of finance functions, enabling more time for analysts to analyze and deliver actionable insights.

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Analyst Perspective
Trintech Streamlines a Transformed Record-to-Report

Trintech’s accounting software modernizes the finance department, using automation to speed and streamline processes, improve efficiency, deliver insights.

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Market Perspective
Auditoria Empowers Finance Through AI and ML

Auditoria.AI eliminates pain points in the finance department using automation, AI/ML to reduce manual and repetitive tasks while improving accuracy and control.

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Analyst Perspective
Intercompany Financial Management for Accountability and Accounting

Corporations with a high volume of intercompany financial transactions should adopt technology that helps manage, reconcile bookkeeping between entities.

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Analyst Perspective
FinancialForce Sharpens Customer Focus in Services Businesses

FinancialForce’s ERP and professional services automation software streamlines processes across administrative, customer-facing and accounting operations.

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Analyst Perspective
Optimizing Subscription Management for Finance and Accounting

Companies that want to launch subscription or recurring business models should employ software to modernize and streamline processes, ensure data integrity.

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Analyst Perspective
Office of Finance 2023 Market Agenda: A Brave New World

The Ventana Research 2023 Market Agenda for the Office of Finance will highlight the transformational role of today’s maturing technologies.

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Analyst Perspective
Professional Services Automation Increases Efficiency

Professional services automation software reduces administrative overhead and enhances organizational effectiveness, allowing workers to focus on clients.

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Market Perspective
Rootstock Builds on Roots of ERP for Cloud Computing

Rootstock Cloud ERP was created for the Salesforce platform to enable effective sales and operations planning for manufacturing and service organizations.

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Analyst Perspective
Epicor Enriches Vertical-Plus Approach for Growth

Epicor has focused its ERP platform development on the unique needs of specific vertical industries through focused acquisitions and internal development.

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Analyst Perspective
Workiva Simplifies ESG Reporting

Workiva offers an environmental, social and governance application that enables organizations to manage tasks necessary for reporting on ESG matters.

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Market Perspective
Serco Wins Digital Leadership Award in Office of Finance with Trintech

Serco earned the 2022 Digital Leadership Award in Office of Finance for using Trintech’s Cadency platform to advance the financial close process.

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Analyst Perspective
The Planning Center of Excellence

Companies need a Planning Center of Excellence as a practical way of achieving scenario planning rapidly at a sufficiently granular level.

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Analyst Perspective
Virtual Audits Improve Financial Statement Quality, Work-Life Balance

A virtual audit takes advantage of software to achieve higher audit quality with less effort while improving working conditions for the audit firm’s team.

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Analyst Perspective
Manage Your Spending Purse with Emburse

Emburse software promotes smarter money management, employing automation, digital tools to see how and where money is being spent and streamline accounting.

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Market Perspective
Zoho Sweetens its Suite of Applications

Zoho offers a unified suite of business management tools that support reduced administrative overhead so an organization can grow and scale with agility.

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Analyst Perspective
Accelerate Closing with a Faster Tax Provision Process

Using software instead of spreadsheets reduces the time and complexity of the tax provision process for a faster accounting close.

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Analyst Perspective
Vena Provides Practical Support for Integrated Business Planning

Vena Solutions offers midsize organizations a platform to comprehensively address strategy, operations and finance through integrated business planning.

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Analyst Perspective
Oracle NetSuite Goes Full Suite Ahead to Deliver Customer Value

NetSuite’s customer-centric product strategy seeks to engage customers in more of what the software offers to demonstrate value.

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Analyst Perspective
Technology Puts the ‘A’ Back in FP&A

Financial planning and analysis groups need to take advantage of technology that reduces manual tasks, freeing up time to concentrate on analytical work.

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Analyst Perspective
IBM Planning Analytics Enables Agility Based on Insight

IBM’s Planning Analytics supports integrated business planning, enabling scenario testing to quickly understand potential outcomes and risks.

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Analyst Perspective
Planning for a More Uncertain World with Board International

Board’s platform enables financial planning and analysis groups to improve forecast and planning accuracy and accelerate analysis and reporting.

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Analyst Perspective
Prophix’s Finance Platform Boosts Midsize Departments’ Effectiveness

Prophix’s cloud financial software accelerates reporting and analysis by automating manual tasks, freeing up valuable time to dedicate to broader goals.

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Analyst Perspective
Vertex Manages End-to-End Indirect Tax Compliance Worldwide

Vertex automates and centralizes indirect tax management, eliminating error-prone manual processes and increasing control, visibility.

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Analyst Perspective
A New Approach to ERP for a More Effective Finance Department

Cloud-based ERP will transform the value of the technology and the benefits it delivers, which include superior security, performance and efficiency.

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Analyst Perspective
A Finance Department Data Strategy for ESG Compliance

Sensitivity to environmental, social and governance issues – or ESG – has grown over the years and with it, increasing attention by some investors and government entities urging organizations to measure and disclose ESG metrics.

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Analyst Perspective
The Rising Expectations for Finance Analytics

Organizations must use the right software and have the right data available to improve the scope, quality, business impact and timeliness of analytics.

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Analyst Perspective
Planful Acquires for Marketing Performance in Planning Suite

Planful is bringing its FP&A tools to the marketing department, giving organizations a more comprehensive view of their planning, performance.

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Research Perspective
Know Sooner, Act Faster to Gain Competitive Advantage

An important measure of the effectiveness of a finance and accounting department is the time it takes to close the books.

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Analyst Perspective
Profitability Management Conquers Inflationary Pressures

Profitability management is a software-enabled discipline that integrates finance and sales to achieve an optimal balance of revenue and margin objectives.

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Analyst Perspective
Building a More Predictive Finance Department

A predictive finance department is one that can command technology to be more forward-looking and action-oriented while still fulfilling its core role of handling the financial elements of its organization including accounting, treasury and corporate

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Analyst Perspective
Workday Rising Shows Advances for the Office of Finance

Workday held its first in-person Rising user group meeting since 2019 in Orlando. Three topics are worth commenting on: Workday’s Extend offering, its industry accelerators and its progress with the Workday Adaptive Planning offering.

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Analyst Perspective
External Data Supports a More Predictive Finance Department

Organizations do not live in a vacuum and things happening outside their walls have a direct impact on how they perform. So, it is essential for them to incorporate external data in their forecasting, planning and budgeting, especially for predictive

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Analyst Perspective
Straight-Through Processing Reduces Friction and Builds Trust

General Omar Bradley is credited with saying, “Amateurs study strategy, professionals study logistics.” This is a battlefield commander’s perspective on the often-overlooked importance of mastering the nitty-gritty in achieving military objectives. I

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Analyst Perspective
Fluence Technologies Automates for Fast Close-to-Report

The lockdowns of 2020 forced accounting departments to adapt to managing their close-to-report cycle without face-to-face contact, prompting many to adopt digital technologies to facilitate the process. It gave further impetus to the digital transfor

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Analyst Perspective
To Attract the Best Talent, Make Accounting Cool

Especially in the United States, baby boomer retirements and fewer graduates with accounting degrees is posing a growing challenge to finance department executives in attracting and retaining the best accounting talent. The solution, which may not se

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Analyst Perspective
Sourcing and Purchasing Need Digital Transformation

“Digital finance transformation” became an even more important topic over the past two years as finance and accounting departments have had to cope with an unrelenting set of new challenges that have had a profound impact on business operations, fina

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Viewpoint
Thriving in Uncertain Times by Planning with Agility

For the past few years, organizations the world over have been forced to deal with volatile markets and rapidly changing environments caused by an ongoing series of unexpected events. The only certainty facing executives in these times is persistent

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Viewpoint
Continuous Planning Provides Action, Agility and Accuracy

The term “continuous planning” may conjure up images of never-ending meetings in which nothing gets accomplished, but Ventana Research uses it to describe a highly collaborative, action-oriented approach to corporate planning built on frequent, short

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Webinar
Intercompany Financial Management

Well-executed Intercompany Financial Management (IFM) can have a significant impact on the bottom line for large multinational organizations. IFM is a discipline for structuring and handling transactions within a corporation and between its legal ent

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Webinar
Webinar : Revenue and Margin Improvement

Pricing determines not just revenue, but also margin. And margin is vital to ensuring profitability. So pricing both serves to generate volume, and hence revenue. Given the importance of pricing, it is surprising how few companies use data and purpos

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Podcast
Redefining FP&A: Three Key Trends Driving Change

The mission for a truly strategic financial planning and analysis group in the 2020s, and an approach to achieving that mission, something that Ventana Research calls “continuous planning.”

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Podcast
Business Continuity in the Public Sector

What business continuity lessons have public sector organizations learned during recent challenging times?

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Viewpoint
Software Drives the 21st Century Tax Department

The challenges facing tax departments are mounting. Governments worldwide are scrutinizing companies’ reporting more closely in an attempt to raise revenue.

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Webinar
Continuous Accounting for ​Recurring Revenue ​and Subscription Businesses​

Subscription and recurring revenue models are proving to be the way forward for many of today’s organizations. But what challenges arise for the Office of Finance as companies shift toward this way of doing business? How can organizations harness the

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VentanaCast
From Data-Driven to Data Leader

The idea that finance organizations should play a more strategic role in company operations isn’t new. For some time, there's been general agreement that finance departments must evolve.

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Infographic
CONTINUOUS PLANNING to Improve Business Performance

Continuous Planning is a high participation, collaborative approach that connects and aligns operational and financial forecasts to support action-oriented planning. This method promotes agility that is valuable both in times of crises and in a stead

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Infographic
MANAGE PROFITABILITY to Boost Your BOTTOM LINE

Profitability management is especially valuable as corporations confront cost-price pressures, shifting demand and supply conditions, and structural changes in markets and economies. Having the right tool along with the right data is the first step t

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Videocast
Build An Actionable Profitability Management Initiative

Everyone running a business knows that the bottom line is the bottom line. But how does your company manage profitability? There’s an important distinction between managing to profit objectives and what Ventana Research calls “profitability managemen

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Videocast
Moving Beyond Traditional FP&A

The ability of the finance department to execute rapid planning, forecasting and budgeting cycles is a major factor that determines a company’s adaptability to change because the planning process enables executives to guide the organization on the pa

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Videocast
The Need for Profitability Management

Being able to determine a company's true economic costs is one of the values of profitability management and analytics-driven business discipline designed to help organizations maximize market share and profitability. Watch and listen to Robert Kugel

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Q&A
Accounting for Selling Costs Gets Complicated

In this exclusive Q&A, Robert Kugel, SVP & Research Director at Ventana Research, answers questions about why new standards are getting so much attention, what the associated costs to companies will be due to the new standards, why standard ERP syst

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Q&A
Know When the Time is Right to Migrate

Software can become functionally obsolete even if it still operates. This makes it difficult to know when it’s time to replace a legacy system. Finance organizations should assess replacing existing software when it limits departmental efficiency, fl

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Q&A
Why Invest in Profitability Management

Profitability management is designed to achieve consistently higher financial returns compared to this standard approach by performing profitability analysis at a more granular level to produce a clearer picture of economic costs and cost drivers. Re

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Analyst Perspective
Anaplan at a Crossroads

Anaplan offers a cloud-based business planning platform that incorporates a modeling and calculation engine. The tool makes it relatively easy to add or expand the scope of plans that can be connected and monitored on a single platform. This Integrat

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Q&A
Accounting in a Time of Crisis

How do you close the books when faced with a distributed working environment and other operational constraints? Robert Kugel sheds light on the value of virtualizing the accounting close to make the process more efficient and resilient.

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Q&A
The Imperative for Sales Planning

To reach the best possible outcomes, sales leaders must be able to govern and optimize the processes they rely on; meeting this challenge is the essence of sales performance. However, those leading and working in sales must cope with myriad often dis

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Q&A
Finance Q&A: Five Ways FP&A is Evolving

How will digital transformation affect the role of Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A)? How will AI affect these FP&A organizations? Robert Kugel sheds light on how FP&A is evolving.

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Q&A
Ventana Research When Spreadsheets Aren’t Enough: Managing Accounting Standards Changes

New standards for lease accounting and revenue recognition are challenging finance departments. Robert Kugel sheds light on how the complexity of the new standards, the cross-functional processes for managing them, require software systems – not spre

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Q&A
Planning for Continuity in the Public Sector

Dedicated planning and budgeting software improves public sector finance department efficiency and enables responsive, high-quality service. Read the Q&A.

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Self-Assessment
Enhancing Collaboration Between HR and the Office of Finance

In today’s fluid operating environment, organizations must be agile and resilient to deal with shifts in how and where people work, ever-changing regulations and mounting competition to attract and retain top talent. However, while addressing these c

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Self-Assessment
Intercompany Financial Management Self-Assessment

Ventana Research defines intercompany financial management (IFM) as a discipline for structuring and handling transactions within a corporation and between its legal entities that is designed to maximize staff efficiency and accounting accuracy while

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White Paper
Introducing the Virtual Audit

A business crisis alerts finance leaders to their organization’s vulnerabilities. When lockdowns prevented people from being in their offices in 2020, organizations with the right technology and processes demonstrated their ability to adapt, overcome

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White Paper
Reimagine Planning to Improve Enterprise Performance

Any crisis, whether a global pandemic or one confined to a single company, tests the ability of an organization (and especially its executives and managers) to quickly respond to events by seizing opportunities, addressing problems or mitigating risk

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White Paper
Continuous Accounting Improves Subscription Business Performance

The subscription or recurring revenue business model has grown in popularity over the past decade because it can create a tighter relationship between sellers and customers and establish a regular, more predictable revenue stream.

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White Paper
The Digital Transformation Partnership

Information technology will have a greater impact on how the finance department operates over the next 10 years than it has over the past 50. The cumulative impact of a decade of steady technology evolution along with the demographic shift to digital

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Market Perspective
OneStream Earns Office of Finance Digital Innovation Award for 2022

The annual Ventana Research Digital Innovation Awards showcase advances in the productivity and potential of business applications as well as technology that contributes significantly to the improved processes and performance of an organization. Our

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White Paper
The Value of Continuous Accounting for Business

Many senior finance executives want their department to play a more strategic role in the management and operations of their company.

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White Paper
The Value of Close Automation for Midsize Organizations

Midsize organizations and their finance and accounting departments face a different set of challenges than those faced by small businesses or large enterprises. They’ve outgrown the often-informal systems and processes that worked when they were smal

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White Paper
A Practical AI Strategy for FP&A

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) that harnesses machine learning (ML) will be the single most important trend in business software this decade because it can multiply the investment value of such applications and provide software companies an

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White Paper
Taking Control of Profitability

Profitability management is an analytics-driven business discipline designed to enable organizations to achieve their market share and profitability objectives.

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Research Perspective
Continuous Accounting Drives Strategic Transformation

Ventana Research uses the term “continuous accounting” to describe how recent advances in information technology can help finance organizations to fundamentally restructure their departmental operations to transform their function. Whereas most past

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Research Perspective
Gaining an Edge in Banking with Business Analytics

Business analytics today involves far more than reports and spreadsheets. But despite significant investments in business intelligence (BI) software, many midsize banks continue to operate with a limited set of analytic capabilities, focused largely

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Research Perspective
Let’s Talk about the Business, Not Just the Budget

People have been complaining about budgeting forever. Technology helps the CFO and finance organization produce a detailed budget and analyze “the numbers” with less effort than was required in the past. Dissatisfaction remains, however, because tech

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Research Perspective
Achieve Agility in Planning and Execution

Finance executives have come to value contingency planning and adaptability in the face of uncertainty, whether it is caused by a worldwide crisis or simply the variance of day-today business.

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Research Perspective
The Advance of Business-Owned Technology

CIOs face a constant challenge as they deploy resources: they must find the balance between focusing on strategic projects while still performing essential “keep the lights on” activities like user support and applications maintenance. To increase re

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Research Perspective
Build an Actionable Profitability Management Initiative

Corporations continually confront profitability issues and opportunities caused by competitors’ actions, shifts in demand, as well as changes in commodity prices and other factor costs.

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Research Perspective
Business Continuity in the Public Sector

Business continuity is the ability of an organization to maintain normal operations without compromise, regardless of external conditions. Because they provide emergency and other critical services, government organizations must be able to maintain b

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Research Perspective
Making Tax Provision the Solution, Not the Problem

The tax provision and tax reporting processes being used by organizations are receiving greater attention from CFOs and audit committees for two important reasons. One is an intensified determination to shorten the accounting close. The other is to a

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Research Perspective
Digital Transformation in Payments and Spend Management

Organizations have traditionally handled the multiple components of payments and spend management in a scattershot manner due to the legacy of paper-based systems used by individual business units. As a result, even when they switch from paper to sof

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Research Perspective
The Impact of AI on Finance and Accounting

Futurists and software vendors have been pointing to a day when artificial intelligence (AI) using machine learning (ML) will perform miracles such as providing life-saving diagnoses and recommending treatments for even rare diseases in seconds.

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Research Perspective
Bottom-Line Impact - How the Modern CFO Leverages Sourcing and Procurement

Digital finance transformation is a way to improve the performance of the finance department by using digital technologies to integrate and automate business processes. Improving performance isn’t just about efficiency and cost savings, though.

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Research Perspective
Next-Generation Workforce Planning

Traditional workforce planning is a set of processes performed by the Human Resources (HR) function, working with business units and departments to address short- and long- term staffing needs. In this model, HR provides guidelines on pay rates per l

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Research Perspective
Five Ingredients for Finance Transformation

Over the next 10 years, technology will do more to change the finance and accounting organization than it has over the past 50. A spate of advances in databases, data processing, analytics and tools addressing the user experience as well as the appli

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Research Perspective
The Imperative for Integrated Planning

The purpose of planning is not planning; it is decision making. And the purpose of reimagining operational planning as a continuous, connected process is to deliver business value, making these processes faster, more agile and more intelligent so tha

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Research Perspective
Enabling Advanced Monetization

Digitally native organizations are those that have existed from their inception primarily in the digital world, and that typically engage with customers and deliver their products or services via a digital interaction. Well-known examples include Net

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Research Perspective
Virtualize the Close

As finance and accounting departments seek to improve performance, virtualization of processes will play an important role. Virtual accounting uses software to eliminate manual processes as much as possible, and it is marked by a substantial reductio

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Research Perspective
Achieving Sustainable Continuity for the Office of Finance

The critical lesson learned from any crisis is the importance of resiliency to cope with sometimes rapidly changing circumstances. Technology has demonstrated that it provides the essential ingredient to achieving this resiliency.

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Research Perspective
Strategic Considerations for Financial Consolidation Systems

Consolidating and closing the accounting books is an essential core process for the Office of Finance. Efficient and reliable consolidation—the process of combining financial results from multiple legal entities and subsidiary companies—is essential

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Research Perspective
Making the Case for Automating the Close

There is longstanding agreement on the importance of a company closing its books as quickly as possible. A short close becomes all the more important during periods of business disruption and uncertainty because it allows an organization to accelerat

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Research Perspective
Best Practices for a More Effective Close

The number of days it takes it to close the company’s books—that is, the number of days into the following month required to complete all the activities associated with the financial close—is a reliable way to gauge the effectiveness of a finance dep

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Research Perspective
The Continuous Accounting Platform

Ventana Research uses the term “continuous accounting” to describe an approach to managing the finance and accounting function to boost its performance. Using technology, departments can spread workloads continuously over a fiscal period to shorten t

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eBook
The New Corporate Productivity Tool

Companies routinely collaborate in creating, editing, updating, proofreading, and approving composite documents.

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eBook
Taking Control of Corporate Spend

As organizational spend continues to evolve, key expenses such as business travel and employee spend are becoming increasingly difficult to control. Organizations that have deployed separate manual processes to manage aspects of spending often contin

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eBook
Reimagine Tax Provision

The tax provision and tax reporting processes are getting greater attention from CFOs and audit committees for three reasons.

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eBook
Ventana Research Five Things Every CEO and CFO Must Know About Pricing

More effective management of pricing usually is the biggest profitability lever available to corporations.

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Videocast
Planning to Succeed

Technology is important to planning and sales performance management. The right technology will give executives and managers a clear picture of the current sales situation and provide the tools needed to make reliable forecasts for the future. This a

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Analyst Perspective
FP&A Needs a Data Strategy for Meeting Internal ESG Goals

Environmental, social and governance issues have grown increasingly pressing over the past few years as investors and government entities urge organizations to measure and disclose ESG metrics. I’ve already covered the broader topic as it relates to

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eBook
Taking Stock of Legacy Software

It can be hard to spot deterioration in software. Performance degradation happens subtly over time in all software, including finance department software such as performance management and ERP systems. However, our research finds a correlation betwee

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eBook
A Guide to Buying Close Management Software

Close automation software designed for midsize companies is relatively new. Successful midsize companies may find they need to automate their close when it takes longer to close, when mistakes, dropped balls and preventable delays increase, or if err

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Analyst Perspective
Adopt the Fast Follower Paradigm for Finance

To gain full advantage of technology, finance and accounting organizations must become “fast followers,” avoiding the bleeding edge but breaking the habit of waiting until the last possible moment before adopting proven advances.

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Analyst Perspective
A Faster Close Fixes Other Accounting Issues

Since its inception 20 years ago, Ventana Research has advocated for a shorter accounting close because it can improve the performance of the entire organization, not just finance and accounting. An important benefit of a shorter close is increased s

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Analyst Perspective
Finance Research Reveals No Progress to a Shorter Close

We conducted our recent Smart Close Dynamic Insights Research in part to assess to what extent the substantial disruptions of the pandemic have impacted the accounting close. When office lockdowns began in the first quarter of 2020, many finance depa

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Analyst Perspective
OneStream’s Sensible ML Tasks AI for Business Planning

OneStream offers a platform designed to serve the needs of accounting and financial planning and analysis organizations. The software handles financial close and consolidation, planning and budgeting, analysis and reporting. For me, the most signific

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Analyst Perspective
A Data Pantry Speeds Development of Machine Learning Models

A few years ago – somewhat tongue in cheek – I began using the term “data pantry” to describe a type of data store that’s part of a business application platform, created for a specific set of users and use cases. It’s a data pantry because, unlike a

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Analyst Perspective
AI Will Create Strategic Advantage for the Office of Finance

Artificial intelligence using machine learning has passed through the bright, shiny object stage and software vendors are well into the process of making the concept a reality in their offerings.

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Analyst Perspective
Using External Data in Planning

Organizations need to use external data in planning and budgeting, both data and third-party forecasts. This need also extends to external data in training artificial intelligence systems to assist in planning and for predictive analytics.

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Analyst Perspective
Sage Intacct Moves into Manufacturing to Spur Growth

Sage recently announced that it is expanding its Sage Intacct software offering to support discrete manufacturing, with its initial foray into this competitive market centered in France. The move supports the company’s strategy of building out the sc

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Analyst Perspective
Reordered Global Trade Requires Agile Sales and Operations Planning

I first wrote about a new era of trade a few years ago to make the point that the period of optimizing supply chains for the lowest cost was over, and that companies needed to redesign them to achieve greater resiliency. That observation proved corre

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Analyst Perspective
Blockchain Payment Systems Have Significant Potential

How payments are effected is an afterthought to many involved in a transaction, but flaws in this process can be a source of pain and frustration for those in the back office, especially in accounting and treasury. To improve the way payments are han

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Analyst Perspective
Spend Management is More Effective with Software and Cards

The term "corporate spend" usually refers to the incidental but still significant outlays organizations make to support operations. Especially in nonmanufacturing industries, purchases of indirect goods and business services – such as computers, offi

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Analyst Perspective
Simplifying Budgeting and Planning is FP&A’s Mission

Ventana Research recently published the results of our Business Planning Value Index Research and I commented on its connection to our emphasis on using software to unify planning processes across an enterprise to improve performance. Since 2007, we

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Market Perspective
Vertex Enhances Tax Compliance Technology

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., stat

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Analyst Perspective
Value-Added Tax Transformation Streamlines Compliance

Value-added tax is a type of levy that is applied at each step of a transaction chain, from basic inputs to the final good or service. The amount assessed is based on the value added by an organization (hence the name) when a transaction occurs. VAT

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Market Perspective
Fluence Offers Finance Streamlined Financial Close

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

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Market Perspective
Infor is Innovative Vendor in the 2022 Business Planning Value Index

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Infor, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

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Market Perspective
Unit4 Expansion Targets Enhancements for People-Centric Organization

I recently attended an analyst conference held by Unit4, an enterprise resource planning vendor focused on midsize organizations in people-centric industries. The conference was intended to communicate the company’s strategy, product updates and road

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Market Perspective
Unit4 is a Vendor of Merit in the 2022 Business Planning Value Index

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Unit4, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

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Market Perspective
Planful is a Vendor of Merit in the 2022 Business Planning Value Index

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Planful, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

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Market Perspective
Prophix is a Vendor of Merit in the 2022 Business Planning Value Index

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Prophix, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

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Webinar
Continuous Accounting for ​Recurring Revenue ​and Subscription Businesses​

Join analyst Robert Kugel and Zuora’s Yash Mahajani to learn about key opportunities and challenges associated with recurring revenue for accounting and finance teams.

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Market Perspective
Vena Solutions is Vendor of Merit in 2022 Business Planning Value Index

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Vena Solutions, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

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Market Perspective
insightsoftware is Vendor of Merit in Business Planning Value Index

Ventana Research is sharing insights about insightsoftware, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

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Analyst Perspective
Automate the Close Cycle for Consistently Better Performance

Software that automates the full scope of the accounting close, including reconciliations, consolidation and reporting, has grown more capable and affordable over the past five years. By enabling consistent process management that captures best pract

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Market Perspective
Workday is a Vendor of Assurance in the Business Planning Value Index

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Workday, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

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Market Perspective
OneStream Software is Exemplary in 2022 Business Planning Value Index

Ventana Research is sharing insights about OneStream Software, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

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Market Perspective
Wolters Kluwer is Vendor of Assurance in Business Planning Value Index

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Wolters Kluwer, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

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Market Perspective
Anaplan is Exemplary in 2022 Business Planning Value Index

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Anaplan, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

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Analyst Perspective
Why Automating Reconciliations Must be a Priority

Reconciling accounts at the end of a period is one of those mundane finance department tasks that are ripe for automation. Reconciliation is the process of comparing account data (at the balance or item level) that exists either in two accounting sys

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Market Perspective
Board International is Exemplary in the Business Planning Value Index

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Board, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

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Market Perspective
Oracle is Innovative in the 2022 Business Planning Value Index

Ventana Research is sharing insights about Oracle, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

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Market Perspective
SAP is Exemplary in the 2022 Business Planning Value Index

Ventana Research is sharing insights about SAP, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

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Market Perspective
IBM is Exemplary in the 2022 Business Planning Value Index

Ventana Research is sharing insights about IBM, drawn from our latest Value Index research, which assesses how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

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Analyst Perspective
Progress for AI in Office of Finance Applications

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) using machine learning (ML) will be the single most important trend in business software this decade because it can multiply the investment value of such applications and provide vendors an important source of

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Analyst Perspective
Business Planning Software Unifies Siloed Planning

Having just completed the 2022 Ventana Research Value Index for Business Planning, I want to share some of my observations about the business planning software market and how it has advanced as an important part of our market coverage for almost two

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Analyst Perspective
The Value Index for Business Planning Classifies and Rates Vendors

I am happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Value Index research, an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements.

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Analyst Perspective
The Office of Finance Market Agenda for 2022: Effectiveness and Profits

Ventana Research recently announced its 2022 Market Agenda for the Office of Finance, continuing the guidance we have offered since 2003 on the practical use of technology for the finance and accounting department.

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Analyst Perspective
2022 Market Agenda: Digital Business Enables Organizational Resilience

Ventana Research has announced its market agenda for 2022, continuing the tradition of reliability in our efforts to educate and guide the technology market. Our assessments are backed by our expertise and independence, as we do not share our market

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Analyst Perspective
Augmented Reality Will Evolutionize Business Computing

As with many IT innovations, augmented reality (AR), extended reality (XR) and the related topic of spatial computing had been discussed to death long before they became a practical reality. As a user interface, AR is already well understood in terms

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Market Perspective
Teledyne Technologies Earns Digital Leadership Award in Office of Finance with OneStream Software for 2021

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 application

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Market Perspective
Emburse Audit Employs AI to Improve Spend-Related Processes

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

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Analyst Perspective
Configure, Price and Quote Software Supports Profitability Management

Pricing is an issue that almost every for-profit company confronts – and usually agonizes over. Chief financial officers must play a part in setting the strategic direction of pricing in their organization. They should not be involved in tactical pri

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Market Perspective
Migros Aare Earns Overall Digital Leadership Award with Unit4 for 2021

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 application

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Market Perspective
FloQast Automates Accounting for Faster Close

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 a

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Market Perspective
Power ON Modernizes Business Planning

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.

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Market Perspective
Xero Energizes Small Business with Cloud-Based Accounting and Finance

A digital finance and accounting organization is one that uses software to enhance efficiency by eliminating manual operations and automating workflows, improving financial data quality. This is especially relevant to small to midsize organizations t

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Analyst Perspective
Tackling ESG Reporting Challenges

Robert Kugel discusses the reality, predictions, considerations and benefits about Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) reporting for organizations.

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VentanaCast
From Data-Driven to Data Leader

The idea that finance organizations should play a more strategic role in company operations isn’t new. For some time, there's been general agreement that finance departments must evolve. They must provide better insights on what just happened, guidan

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Infographic
MANAGE PROFITABILITY to Boost Your BOTTOM LINE

Profitability management is especially valuable as corporations confront cost-price pressures, shifting demand and supply conditions, and structural changes in markets and economies. Having the right tool along with the right data is the first step t

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Q&A
Finance Q&A: Five Ways FP&A is Evolving

How will digital transformation affect the role of Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A)?

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Viewpoint
Building the Best Team and Reducing Turnover for Organizational Resilience

In today’s fluid operating environment, organizations must be agile and resilient to deal successfully with unpredictable events and rapid changes in their operating environment.

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Analyst Perspective
Fix Sales and Operations Planning to Improve Financial Efficiency

For decades, sourcing and supply chain management was focused almost exclusively on achieving the lowest cost, and the world’s trade environment supported this approach. However, I observed that the new era of trade, supply chain planning and executi

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Analyst Perspective
Evolving ERP Systems Redefining Office of Finance Operations

Over the past decade, how organizations manage processes and record data related to transactional events captured by an enterprise resource planning system has undergone a significant evolution. Some of the more recent changes have been the result of

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Infographic
CONTINUOUS PLANNING to Improve Business Performance

Continuous Planning is a high participation, collaborative approach that connects and aligns operational and financial forecasts to support action-oriented planning. This method promotes agility that is valuable both in times of crises and in a stead

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Analyst Perspective
Digitally Transform Purchasing to Improve Performance

Digital transformation of the Office of Finance has been a recurring theme for several years, but adoption accelerated when offices were locked down and organizations had to collaborate remotely

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Research Perspective
Digital Transformation in Payments and Spend Management

Organizations have traditionally handled the multiple components of payments and spend management in a scattershot manner due to the legacy of paper-based systems used by individual business units.

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Analyst Perspective
Digitize Tax Departments for Increased Strategic Value

Managing corporate income taxes is a challenge for chief financial officers. Tax codes are often complex, so tax accounting as well as the data required for tax provisions and tax compliance are different enough from statutory accounting to create si

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Viewpoint
Digital Transformation with Application Platforms

Digital transformation is achieved by using digital technologies to create new (or modify existing) processes and methods to meet evolving business and market requirements. For finance departments the term is associated with, among other changes, usi

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Videocast
Build An Actionable Profitability Management Initiative

Everyone running a business knows that the bottom line is the bottom line. But how does your company manage profitability? There’s an important distinction between managing to profit objectives and what Ventana Research calls “profitability managemen

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White Paper
Reimagine Planning to Improve Enterprise Performance

Any crisis, whether a global pandemic or one confined to a single company, tests the ability of an organization (and especially its executives and managers) to quickly respond to events by seizing opportunities, addressing problems or mitigating risk

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Analyst Perspective
Managing Price Inflation Effectively with Technology

A looming challenge for companies in the developed world is price inflation, an issue periodically fretted over – but not experienced at a macroeconomic level in most developed economies – over the past four decades.

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Viewpoint
Three Key Planning Deficiencies Impeding Successful Decision Making

Any crisis, whether worldwide or impacting a single organization, tests an executive team’s ability to seize a fleeting opportunity, address an existential problem or mitigate future risks. Global turmoil highlights the need for the financial plannin

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Viewpoint
Future-Proofing Forecasting

An important and durable lesson of recent massive disruptions is that organizations need to forecast and plan with agility so they can quickly adapt to evolving economic, market, legal, regulatory and behavioral conditions. Organizations that have in

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Analyst Perspective
Essential Technology for Continuous Planning

As a result of the rapidly changing business landscape in 2020 and the need to quickly – and intelligently – change business plans and budgets, many more companies have been deciding to adopt a continuous planning approach to be able to add speed and

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Analyst Perspective
Meet the Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) Reporting Challenge

Environmental, social and governance reporting by public corporations has become a top-of-mind issue for senior executives and boards of directors as countries increasingly consider or mandate its implementation in some form.

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Q&A
Why Invest in Profitability Management

Standard planning software helps executives achieve profitability objectives by establishing top-level revenue targets and setting aggregated expense limitations. On the other hand, profitability management is designed to achieve consistently higher

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Podcast
Redefining FP&A: Three Key Trends Driving Change

This episode features [Rob Kugel], [SVP & Research Director, Office of Finance] at Ventana Research, talking about the mission for a truly strategic financial planning and analysis group in the 2020s, and an approach to achieving that mission, someth

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Analyst Perspective
Zuora Earns Office of Finance Digital Innovation Award for 2021

The annual Ventana Research Digital Innovation Awards showcase advances in the productivity and potential of business applications, as well as technology that contributes significantly to the improved processes and performance of an organization.

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Analyst Perspective
Finance IT Improves Departmental Performance

A year of business uncertainty, lockdowns and operational disruptions forced finance and accounting organizations to adapt and change in many ways that are proving to be permanent.

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Research Perspective
The Imperative for Integrated Planning

The purpose of planning is not planning; it is decision making. And the purpose of reimagining operational planning as a continuous, connected process is to deliver business value, making these processes faster, more agile and more intelligent so tha

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Analyst Perspective
Controllers: Always Be Closing

These days it strikes me that the motto of successful salespeople – "ABC: Always Be Closing!" – should apply equally to corporate controllers, albeit in the accounting sense.

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Viewpoint
Gain Competitive Advantage Using External Data and Predictive Intelligence

Darwin never claimed that evolutionary success came down to survival of the fittest. To the contrary, he stated, “it is not the strongest that survives; but…the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds i

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White Paper
Introducing the Virtual Audit

A business crisis alerts finance leaders to their organization’s vulnerabilities. When lockdowns prevented people from being in their offices in 2020, organizations with the right technology and processes demonstrated their ability to adapt, overcome

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Research Perspective
Business Continuity in the Public Sector

Business continuity is the ability of an organization to maintain normal operations without compromise, regardless of external conditions. Because they provide emergency and other critical services, government organizations must be able to maintain b

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Analyst Perspective
Digital Process Reengineering Improves Business Performance

Business process reengineering (BPR) was a consulting fashion in the early 1990s that spurred many companies to purchase their first ERP systems. BPR proposes a fundamental redesign of core business processes to achieve substantial improvements in ma

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Research Perspective
Build an Actionable Profitability Management Initiative

Corporations continually confront profitability issues and opportunities caused by competitors’ actions, shifts in demand, as well as changes in commodity prices and other factor costs.

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Analyst Perspective
Reduce Risk and Improve Departmental Effectiveness with Intercompany Financial Management

Ventana Research defines intercompany financial management as a discipline for structuring and handling transactions within a corporation and between its legal entities.

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Analyst Perspective
Integrated Business Planning Uses Zero-Based Budgeting to Improve Performance

The objectives of zero-based budgeting are well aligned with what I call integrated business planning, a technology-enabled approach to managing the forward-looking activities of a corporation including forecasting, planning and budgeting.

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Analyst Perspective
Unit4 Democratizes Agile, Data-Driven Decision-Making

Unit4’s Financial Planning and Analysis (formerly Prevero) is a planning and budgeting application designed for the requirements of midsize corporations and the public sector.

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Analyst Perspective
Consolidation Software Builds Staff Effectiveness in Midsize Companies

Financial consolidation software assists companies in executing their accounting close process - especially those that use multiple ERP systems or have multiple legal entities - and with other characteristics that can complicate the process such as k

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Self-Assessment
Intercompany Financial Management

Ventana Research defines intercompany financial management (IFM) as a discipline for structuring and handling transactions within a corporation and between its legal entities that is designed to maximize staff efficiency and accounting accuracy while

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Analyst Perspective
FourQ Builds Confidence and Trust in Intercompany Financial Management

FourQ is an intercompany financial management (IFM) Solution-as-a-Service provider. IFM is a discipline for structuring and handling transactions within a corporation and between its legal entities, and is designed to maximize staff efficiency and ac

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Analyst Perspective
Modern ERP Improves Organizational Performance

The ERP system is at the core of nearly every organization’s record keeping and business process management. Its smooth and uninterrupted functioning is essential to an organization’s accounting and finance functions.

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Viewpoint
Five Reasons for Upgrading Your Entry-Level Accounting System

Small business owners are fortunate to have a choice of feature-rich, flexible, and affordable entry-level accounting packages. Eventually, though, successful businesses grow and will often find that the very accounting software that once made things

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Viewpoint
Multinational Corporations Need Intercompany Financial Management

Ventana Research defines intercompany financial management (IFM) as a discipline for structuring and handling transactions within a corporation and between its legal entities that is designed to maximize staff efficiency and accounting accuracy while

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Analyst Perspective
IBM Planning Analytics Makes Planning Easier for Business Unit Leaders

IBM Planning Analytics, formerly known as TM1, is a comprehensive planning and analytics application designed to integrate and streamline an organization’s planning processes. It can support multiple planning use cases on a single platform, including

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Analyst Perspective
Trintech Speeds up Financial Close with Automation

Organizations have long sought ways to achieve a fast but “clean” (accurate) financial close. The most widely accepted benchmark is to be able to close within one business week.

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Analyst Perspective
A Virtual Audit Enables Savings Through Efficiency

The challenges of the pandemic prevented auditors from visiting client offices, which led to widespread adoption of remote audit processes.

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Analyst Perspective
Streamlining Spending for Savings and Control

Irked by the need to account for every penny of his college expenses, poet Robert Frost penned the lines:

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Analyst Perspective
Robotic Process Automation is a Core Finance Competency

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has emerged as a core digital technology for finance and accounting organizations. It can drive significant gains in productivity and efficiency by automating mechanical, repetitive accounting processes in a continuou

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Analyst Perspective
The Office of Finance Market Agenda for 2021: Accelerating Adoption of Digital Technology

Ventana Research recently announced its 2021 market agenda for the Office of Finance, continuing the guidance we’ve offered since 2003 on the practical use of technology for the finance and accounting department.

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Analyst Perspective
Profitability Management: A CFO Priority to Gain Competitive Advantage

Profitability management produces a sustainable competitive advantage but by 2025 only one-third of companies will have implemented a profitability management initiative, explains Ventana Research SVP and Research Director Robert Kugel.

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Analyst Perspective
The Ventana Research 2021 Market Agenda: How Digital Effectiveness Impacts Organizational Agility

Ventana Research has announced its market agenda for 2021, continuing the tradition of transparency in our efforts to educate and guide the technology market but also our independence as we do not share our market agenda or analyst perspectives with

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Analyst Perspective
Use Software for More Effective Tax Management

The post-pandemic world will see much returned to normal, but there will also be change. For businesses that faced shutdowns, these changes will include higher taxes to pay for the costs of mitigating the economic impact, and the loss of tax revenue.

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Research Perspective
Achieve Agility in Planning and Execution

Finance executives have come to value contingency planning and adaptability in the face of uncertainty, whether it is caused by a worldwide crisis or simply the variance of day-today business.

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Analyst Perspective
BlackLine Matches Receivables for Continuous Accounting

BlackLine recently held its first virtual user conference, Beyond the Black, where it detailed numerous additions and enhancements to its applications.

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Analyst Perspective
Continuous Planning is Optimized with AI and External Data

In the context of planning, budgeting and benchmarking, external data includes information about the world outside an organization such as economic and market statistics, competitors and customers.

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White Paper
The Digital Transformation Partnership

Information technology will have a greater impact on how the finance department operates over the next 10 years than it has over the past 50. The cumulative impact of a decade of steady technology evolution along with the demographic shift to digital

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Viewpoint
The Way Forward with RPA

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a core digital technology for increasing productivity and efficiency, speeding the completion of work, and increasing its quality and controllability.

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Viewpoint
Agile Planning for Small and Midsize Organizations

The purpose of planning is to enable executives and managers to make better-informed decisions more consistently. Planning within an organization requires setting objectives and weighing the alternative methods of achieving those objectives, because

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Viewpoint
The CFO Answer Machine: Past, Present and Future Visibility for Small and Midsize Companies

Effective financial management requires the ability to understand an organization’s current condition while having visibility into its potential future state.

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Analyst Perspective
Make Accounts Receivable Pay

Can you imagine a more arcane and boring topic than accounts receivable? Unless you are the CFO, controller, chief accounting officer or treasurer of an organization, maybe not.

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Videocast
Moving Beyond Traditional FP&A

Charles Darwin never said evolution was a matter of the survival of the fittest. On the contrary, he said: It is not the strongest of the species, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.

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Analyst Perspective
Profitability Management is a CFO Imperative

One of the oddities of corporate management is that, as a rule, nobody oversees managing profitability.

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Research Perspective
Achieving Sustainable Continuity for the Office of Finance

The critical lesson learned from any crisis is the importance of resiliency to cope with sometimes rapidly changing circumstances. Technology has demonstrated that it provides the essential ingredient to achieving this resiliency.

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Analyst Perspective
Value-Based Planning Improves Corporate Performance

In preparing this research note I took the precaution of searching “value-based planning” to see what came up. Over the years, the term has been used in several contexts each with different shadings.

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Analyst Perspective
Fundamental Change is Coming to ERP Systems

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are central to nearly every organization’s management of operational and financial business processes.

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Podcast
Business Continuity in the Public Sector Podcast

What business continuity lessons have public sector organizations learned during recent challenging times? How can planning and budgeting software contribute to agility that helps promote business continuity? How can the accounting and finance depart

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Analyst Perspective
Sustainable Sourcing and Supply Chains

A couple of years ago, I started talking about a “New Era of Trade.” Its starting point was the world financial crisis in 2007, but the evidence that we were experiencing a shift only became obvious years later.

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Analyst Perspective
DADs Address the Mother of All Data Problems

An important recent development in software designed for the Office of Finance is the addition of what we’re calling a data aggregation device (DAD) for analytical applications.

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Analyst Perspective
Updating FP&A’s Mission - A New Approach for the 2020s

In this Analyst Perspective from Robert Kugel, learn how FP&A can redefine its mission to achieve the long-stated goal of making it more of a strategic partner with the rest of the organization.

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Analyst Perspective
Scenario Planning is a Strategic Imperative

A great deal has changed in how finance and accounting departments operate since the start of 2020.

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Analyst Perspective
OneStream Wins Our Innovation Award in Office of Finance with Analytic Blend

One of the challenges of being a practically minded technology analyst is squaring the importance of “the next big thing” with the reality of what most organizations are doing.

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White Paper
The Value of Close Automation for Midsize Organizations

Midsize organizations face a unique set of challenges. Software can help enable growth without adding administrative overhead, and close automation is a great place to start.

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Research Perspective
Business Continuity in the Public Sector

Dedicated planning and budgeting software will help government organizations build the ability to maintain business continuity.

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Analyst Perspective
Workiva Chains Liberates FP&A

Workiva recently introduced Chains, a visual workflow tool for the Workiva platform.

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Analyst Perspective
2020 Reporting: Improving Visibility, Transparency and Perspective

FP&A and business analysts can make reporting more effective by reimagining how, what and when their company does its reporting.

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Q&A
Planning for Continuity in the Public Sector

Dedicated planning and budgeting software improves public sector finance department efficiency and enables responsive, high-quality service.

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Analyst Perspective
The Corporate Tax Management Software Imperative

Recent events are forcing corporations to adopt dedicated software for tax provision, transfer pricing and tax analysis.

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White Paper
Virtualizing the Close

Virtual accounting enables the department to achieve speed and resilience without sacrificing accuracy and control. Start by virtualizing the close.

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Research Perspective
Virtualize the Close

“Virtualizing” the accounting close involves applying software automation, substantially reducing manual and paper-based processes and incorporating electronic collaboration. Virtualization enables finance and accounting departments to achieve speed

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Analyst Perspective
Move Finance to the Cloud

In a recent note on virtualizing the close, I observed that finance and accounting organizations that can operate in a virtual mode are better able to adapt to changing circumstances and overcome obstacles.

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Analyst Perspective
Price Optimization: Cover Your Bases

Pricing is an eternally vexing issue in business. Over the years, organizations have used different strategies to establish prices for their products, depending on custom, the nature of the business and the degree of competitiveness in the market.

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Analyst Perspective
Host Analytics Becomes Planful

Host Analytics recently announced it will now go by the name Planful.

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Analyst Perspective
The Office of Finance is a Numbers Factory

Yes, it’s an easy metaphor, but a worthwhile one to consider. For the Office of Finance, figures are its raw material.

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Analyst Perspective
Blockchains Pose Problems of Persistence and Trust

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.

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Analyst Perspective
Workday Does Source-to-Pay

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.

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Analyst Perspective
Make Automating Finance and Accounting a Priority

We find in our recent Change in the Office of Finance benchmark research an indication of the value of using automation to execute finance department functions.

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Analyst Perspective
Fortune Favors the Prepared

I like Louis Pasteur’s observation that “fortune favors the prepared mind.” So-called black swan events happen regularly and can have a very negative effect on a business.

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Analyst Perspective
Fortune Favors the Prepared (Video)

I like Louis Pasteur’s observation that “fortune favors the prepared mind.” So-called black swan events happen regularly and can have a very negative effect on a business.

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Analyst Perspective
Rating CFO Performance in Audit Costs

For decades I’ve heard people talk about cutting audit costs to reduce administrative overhead but based on my observations, I was skeptical — mostly because, until recently, the documented success stories haven’t been about going from good to great

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Analyst Perspective
The Next-Generation CFO

I was invited to sit on a panel at CFO 3.0 events held in San Francisco and New York hosted by Sage Intacct.

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Analyst Perspective
Three Essentials for a Digital Office of Finance

One of the objectives of our recent Change in the Office of Finance benchmark research was to assess the technological capabilities of finance and accounting departments.

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Analyst Perspective
The Bottom Line is the Bottom Line

The Chief Financial Officer can enable her or his finance department play a more strategic role in company operations by adopting what I call profitability management.

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Viewpoint
Plan for Business Continuity, Sustainability and Success

Dedicated software is the most effective tool for organizations seeking to plan for business continuity, sustainability and success

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Analyst Perspective
Virtualizing the Close

The global pandemic crisis was, in effect, an unrehearsed stress test measuring the resiliency of the department. The crisis highlighted the importance of sustaining confidence in the accuracy and control of accounting processes, not just efficiency.

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Analyst Perspective
The Central Ledger: Restructuring Accounting with Technology

Sometimes it takes a while for technology to fundamentally change how work is done. That’s because several innovations usually have to come together before a transformation can occur.

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Analyst Perspective
Fortune Favors the Prepared

I like Louis Pasteur’s observation that “fortune favors the prepared mind.” So-called black swan events happen regularly and can have a very negative effect on a business.

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Viewpoint
Building Agility Through Continuous Planning

Finance executives need to rethink their planning and budgeting processes to make them faster, more agile and more predictive to achieve their objectives under any circumstances.

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Q&A
Accounting in a Time of Crisis

There are times when organizations can be overwhelmed by financial stress while simultaneously embracing distributed working environments and other operational constraints they weren’t prepared for. Finance and accounting departments that can utilize

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Research Perspective
The Advance of Business-Owned Technology

CIOs face the constant challenge of having resources available for strategic projects while still performing essential “keep-the-lights-on” activities. IT organizations can shed non-essential workloads, especially as they forge a relationship with th

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White Paper
Taking Control of Profitability

The basic concepts used for measuring, analyzing and managing profitability are well established. The challenge has been to translate the concepts into practical methods and processes. Technology now enables organizations to address those challenges.

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Research Perspective
When Spreadsheets Aren’t the Right Choice

The electronic spreadsheet is among the top five most important advances in business management to come along in the last 100 years. It has revolutionized almost all aspects of finance and accounting.

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Research Perspective
The Continuous Accounting Platform

A central aspect of continuous accounting is controlling accounting and other data that affects financial statements continuously, from start to finish. This form of control, known as “straight-through processing,” addresses the significant issue of

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Research Perspective
Five Ingredients for Finance Transformation

Over the next ten years, technology will do more to change the nature of the work done in the finance and accounting organization than it has over the past 50. A range of technology advances affecting databases, data processing, analytics, user exper

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White Paper
Efficiently Achieving Sustainable Compliance

Still using spreadsheets for SOX404 and 302 compliance? Organizations need software, not spreadsheets, to achieve sustainable and efficient compliance

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Research Perspective
Making the Case for Automating the Close

There is longstanding agreement on the importance of a company closing its books as quickly as possible. A short close becomes all the more important during periods of business disruption and uncertainty because it allows an organization to accelerat

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Research Perspective
Best Practices for a More Effective Close

The number of days it takes it to close the company�s books � that is; the number of days into the following month required to completed all the activities associated with the financial close � is a reliable way to gauge the effectiveness of a finan

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