Home - News - Butler Group - Opinion Wire - A New Take On An Old Problem
Butler Group - Opinion Wire - A New Take On An Old Problem
2005 is sure to see even greater levels of investment in data and information management software, particularly in the areas of Business Intelligence (BI) and Corporate Performance Management (CPM).
Whilst we are all familiar with the aims of such technologies, to provide 'a single version of the truth' and allow businesses to 'tie strategy to execution', you may not have heard of business portfolio visibility software.
This, according to UK-based Atlantic Global, allows organisations to monitor their critical business resources in a timely manner, and this in turn enables them to react to potential surprises or identify opportunities. This may sound similar to the marketing pitches of a typical BI or CPM vendor, but as the title of this piece suggests, Atlantic Global has adopted a slightly different position.
The Big Picture
The problem as recognised by Atlantic Global is that business units, individually and more importantly collectively, struggle when it comes to managing the distribution and optimisation of the key "pillars" of resource, cost and time. Its solution, called Corporate Vision, is therefore based around delivering a better appreciation of time and capability usage (both resources and skills) and is designed to allow organisations to have a more proactive approach to resource allocation and optimisation. The modular solution set covers portfolio management, budgeting and planning, supply and demand resourcing, scenario modelling and milestone tracking.
One of the biggest challenges facing Atlantic Global and its peers in the BI and CPM communities is the change in mindset that is typically needed to achieve buy-in to such a lofty strategic vision. Many organisations still run as patchwork quilts of IT, stitched together with a plethora of spreadsheets and manual processing. Indeed a proportion of organisations rely on spreadsheets to such an extent that they completely govern their planning, reporting, and analysis efforts. This approach effectively places brick walls between the different functional aspects of the business and shatters any hopes of gaining an accurate and reliable view of resource and cost distribution.
Changing attitudes and managing cultural shift, as we know, together represent the most difficult and troublesome kind of change to effect. Fortunately, as indicated right at the start of this piece, the tide does seem to be turning. Assisted by the high priority of regulatory compliance, a renewed focus on data quality, and the possibilities created by real time, Web-centric architectures, investments in strategic BI and CPM are on the increase. Importantly, the most successful implementations are those that start small and follow a modular, multiple iteration methodology, allowing costs to be closely managed, with education and training kept in phase.
Butler Group Opinion
Business portfolio visibility software - true niche or just nimble marketing? Butler Group intends to produce a Technology Audit to get to the bottom of this question.