“What reporting tool should I use?”

I worked for Oracle as a sales consultant for many years before leaving to join a dedicated software “reporting tool” company.  In that time, one of the hardest questions to answer for customers and prospective customers was: “What reporting tool should I use?”

Most customers would love to have an answer, which pointed them to one tool (meaning they only had to support one method and tool).  All users could have the same training and there would be a nice consistent source of truth and interface for reporting across the organization.

Unfortunately, life and the ERP environment are just not like that.

Oracle E-Business Suite is an extremely complex suite of software, designed to support a wide variety of professional and operational disciplines in large, complex organizations.  Users will range from the highest level executives and board members (who just want a “state of the nation” snapshot), to large numbers of data input and operational staff (who need to instantly see the results of their actions in the system).

Even in a sales demo, which focused purely on financial management, I would typically need to show users a range of tools to suit the different requirements they presented.   This included, for example,  Discoverer for ad-hoc transactional reports (or more recently Business Intelligence applications) for dashboards of key financial reports and ad-hoc reports.  Adding to that mix, Financial Statement Generator (FSG) for statutory reports, online inquiries for quick analysis of transactional activity, and even Excel export utilities to plug the gaps.

Once it comes to implementation the landscape becomes more complex as each organization may have its own strategic reporting tools and the implementers may have their own preferred tools and skill sets for reporting purposes.

“Now what?”

The diagram below shows the typical deployment of different types of tools to different types of users. At the highest level, executives just want the sweet spots of information and need it presented succinctly in an easy-to-read, often graphical form. The less information they have to trawl the better.

Reporting Tools Evolution

The business data that is important to the executive level is summary information: For example, staff turnover, overall sickness levels, profitability, sales, cost of sales, project performance, etc. Often this can be a snapshot based on a data warehouse of modeled and aggregated data and does not need to be in real-time.  Hyperion and Oracle OBIEE and BI Applications are often deployed to fill this need, as are third-party BI tools such as Cognos and Business Objects.

As you move down the organization structure the picture becomes increasingly fuzzy. The more diverse users and modules have a very wide variety of needs.  While it would be impossible to list all the types of information these users would need, it is possible to describe their needs and, indeed, expectations.

Having seen the capabilities of Oracle (and designing the data they will input based on these capabilities,) users have the expectation that they will be able to easily access all of this information whether in summary or detailed form. Take for example, Oracle Financials: Users want to see information at the highest summary level.  This includes how money is spent across an entire company or multiple companies, but with the capability to also access all of the supporting detail (and in real-time).

That can be extremely difficult in Oracle using the standard tools.  That is why there are a plethora of tools used in the marketplace to meet different parts of those requirements. All too often, too much effort is spent exporting information to spreadsheets and then manipulating the raw data and reconciling it back. That time should really be spent analyzing the completed reports.  Users are really looking for tools that can do this without having to spend vast amounts on implementation efforts and IT support.

I finally came across a tool, which would complement the high-level BI tools and support the operational users of the finance modules: Insight Software Suite for Oracle EBS.  Check it out: http://www.insightsoftware.com/products/ebs.

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

]]> http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2011/02/the-oracle-ebs-complexities/feed/ 1 http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2011/02/roi-calculators-for-jd-edwards-and-oracle-e-business-suite/ http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2011/02/roi-calculators-for-jd-edwards-and-oracle-e-business-suite/#comments Mon, 14 Feb 2011 19:00:18 +0000 ryan.alford http://blog.insightsoftware.com/?p=216 InsightSoftware.com has an extensive lineup of ROI calculators to help answer difficult business questions related to an ERP system implementation – JD Edwards and Oracle E-Business Suite are no exception.  Do you understand the related costs?  What are the benefits?

Start enhancing your ERP system today, with InsightSoftware.com’s help:

Better Budget Cycles – Perform unlimited, concurrent budget cycles

The key to an optimized budget process is fantastic work flow. Modeling tools may look great, but unless you can automate the work flow process, you can look forward to long budget cycles that are difficult to manage and prone to error.

Better Cash Management – Summarize transactional AR data

If ever there was a business process that needed to run optimally; it would have to be cash collection. Cash is the lifeblood of every business and represents one of the most important optimizations our software provides.

Better Check Processing – Analyze payment versus invoice date metric

Organizations pay an average of $60 to $75 per check processed. Therefore, optimizing the number of checks that you cut each month has a significant impact on your bottom line.  Insight enables the ability to proactively monitor the number of checks and invoices, per supplier per period.

Better ERP Implementations – Rapidly create ad-hoc inquires

Creating custom developed reports can be the single most expensive and risky line item on a project plan.  Using Insight as your report and data validation platform significantly reduces risk, saves hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars compared to custom report development.

Better Month and Year Ends – Immediately identify data integrity issues

The month and year end can be a stressful experience but it doesn’t have to be. Easy ad-hoc inquiry is the secret to closing the month end quicker, yet most people worry about reporting. We have great reporting but we also bring to the table a culture of ongoing ad-hoc inquiry and data integrity management.

Better Payables – Easily match invoices and payments

When Accounts Payable does not have visibility to essential aspects of the entire receipt-to-payment process, it may not be possible to process and pay suppliers within terms. As a result, discounts may be lost and the financial impact may be significant.

Better Supply Chain – Analyze aged inventory movements

You have limited funds available to invest in inventory. Carrying too much can help in satisfying customers, but reducing inventory translates to immediate improvement in cash flow.  By identifying slow versus fast moving items and their movement drivers, you can adjust to further enhance and optimize your overall number of inventory turns, while maintaining and improving customer service.

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

]]> http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2011/02/roi-calculators-for-jd-edwards-and-oracle-e-business-suite/feed/ 0 http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/12/southeast-rug-a-resounding-success-for-insightsoftware-com/ http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/12/southeast-rug-a-resounding-success-for-insightsoftware-com/#comments Mon, 06 Dec 2010 22:10:58 +0000 ryan.alford http://blog.insightsoftware.com/?p=206

Tonja Zeigler, winner of InsightSoftware.com's Kindle prize draw, and Mark Kolanach

InsightSoftware.com participated at the Southeast RUG Fall 2010 Meeting, which took place at the Marriott Atlanta Northwest on Friday, Dec. 3.

The event offered a day of education, updates and networking for JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Oracle E-Business Suite users.  Amid the wide variety of education sessions and networking opportunities, InsightSoftware.com was pleased to participate in the event:

“These events are important to the health of the Oracle ERP user community,” said Mark Kolanach, InsightSoftware.com’s southeast sales executive.  “Any time we can support JD Edwards and Oracle EBS customers, learning best practices and discussing how to be more effective at their jobs, is a good thing.”

As part of the day’s festivities, InsightSoftware.com had a raffle for an Amazon Kindle.  The lucky winner of this early holiday gift was Tonja Zeigler of Toto USA.  Thanks for participating Tonja, and congratulations!

For more information about the Southeast RUG, visit http://ps-srug.org.

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

]]> http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/12/southeast-rug-a-resounding-success-for-insightsoftware-com/feed/ 0 http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/10/spreadsheets-gone-wild/ http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/10/spreadsheets-gone-wild/#comments Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:36:11 +0000 ryan.alford http://blog.insightsoftware.com/?p=194 Using spreadsheets in conjunction with an ERP system is one thing.  (It’s not suggested, but it happens.)  However, using spreadsheets without an ERP is a completely different story altogether.  According to research from the Aberdeen Group, many small and mid-size businesses are using spreadsheets without an ERP (such as JD Edwards or Oracle E-Business Suite) but in conjunction with a standalone accounting tool.

“Not surprisingly, spreadsheets top the list,” the Aberdeen research report explains.  “But interestingly, spreadsheets were seldom the only tool used even in very small companies.  Often spreadsheets are used in conjunction with standalone accounting applications and other desktop applications that do not qualify as true enterprise level applications or other applications that lack the breadth, depth or level of integration of ERP.”

So, it’s a “chicken and egg” scenario; which came first, the ERP or the spreadsheet?  In most cases, the spreadsheets have been there all along.  It’s hard to break a habit that seems to work efficiently, but there are other solutions that work better.

Does your organization rely on spreadsheets? If so, are they in combination with an ERP system or standalone accounting tool?

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

]]> http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/10/spreadsheets-gone-wild/feed/ 0 http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/07/reconciliations-it-doesnt-have-to-be-this-way/ http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/07/reconciliations-it-doesnt-have-to-be-this-way/#comments Thu, 15 Jul 2010 18:30:33 +0000 ryan.alford http://blog.insightsoftware.com/?p=156 Check out InsightSoftware.com’s cartoon about JD Edwards reconciliations:

http://www.youtube.com/insightsoftware#p/a/u/0/RspO90mFy8w

Stay tuned for more in the series.  Let us know what you think!

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

]]> http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/07/reconciliations-it-doesnt-have-to-be-this-way/feed/ 0 http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/07/reconciling-the-accounts-in-jd-edwards-doesnt-have-to-be-painful/ http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/07/reconciling-the-accounts-in-jd-edwards-doesnt-have-to-be-painful/#comments Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:27:37 +0000 ryan.alford http://blog.insightsoftware.com/?p=154 A company’s financial prowess and compliance go hand-in-hand. Without proper insight and strategic oversight of the business, many of today’s top global companies are missing a large piece of the financial puzzle.

CFOs should maintain the perfect balance between strategy, planning, forecasting, budgeting, reporting, and analysis. This is more simplified (and cost-effective) by having an automated process for account reconciliation.  Without a monitoring system in place, performance improvements will be limited.

In a research report called “How to improve reconciliation activities,” published by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, many “account reconciliation problems are preventable. Timing, is also frequently an issue: account reconciliations that are in arrears more than one month risk misstatement of the financial results. Depending on the level of risk, perform reconciliations daily, weekly, monthly, or quarterly.”

Curious to know what to do about reconciliation problems in JD Edwards? Implement automation that recognizes reconciling items and streamlines the review process.

Read more: http://www.insightsoftware.com/docs/E-Book_-_Insight_Reconciler.pdf.

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

]]> http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/07/reconciling-the-accounts-in-jd-edwards-doesnt-have-to-be-painful/feed/ 0 http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/07/do-all-signs-point-to-an-unorganized-implementation-of-order-to-ship/ http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/07/do-all-signs-point-to-an-unorganized-implementation-of-order-to-ship/#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:00:37 +0000 ryan.alford http://blog.insightsoftware.com/?p=152 It’s not an easy job.  An optimized Order-to-Ship business process offers continual progress towards improved cost control and delivery performance.

However, there might be a few challenges in the systems, including:

• Rework to correct data accuracy issues
• Late shipments and setbacks in delivery performance
• Increased customer complaints
• Time spent on complaint resolution
• Poor management of backorders
• Inefficient order processing and fulfillment
• Untimely invoicing
• Diminished cash flow and sales margins

In an Aberdeen Research study called “Working Capital Optimization: Increase Cash Flow in the New Economy,” author Nari Viswanathan said that “Best-in-Class companies are 30% as likely as all others to use cash conversion metrics as part of their supply chain organization metrics.  Companies that embed cash conversion metrics into the set of supply chain metrics are twice as likely to have reduced their cash conversion cycle over the past year (45% versus 21%).  Some of the key metrics that have been adopted as part of the process are: Sales forecast accuracy, on-time shipping, on-time delivery, inventory turns, logistics costs as a percentage of sales, and gross profit margin.”

Achieving an on-time shipping and delivery system is an industry standard met by few.  Using JD Edwards can get you on your way, but will only take you so far.

To read more, click here.

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

]]> http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/07/do-all-signs-point-to-an-unorganized-implementation-of-order-to-ship/feed/ 0 http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/06/the-west-is-the-best/ http://blog.insightsoftware.com/2010/06/the-west-is-the-best/#comments Fri, 25 Jun 2010 21:35:46 +0000 ryan.alford http://blog.insightsoftware.com/?p=150 By Phil Walton

Quincy Ko will join InsightSoftware.com on Monday, June 28 as the company’s new sales executive for the northwest region (all the places in the West where it snows).

Quincy is based in Vancouver, Canada and comes with deep and varied experience in the Business Intelligence and ERP industries.

With experience in growing territories, short/long sales cycles, closing small/large deals, and his eye for the end-user experience, Quincy is the ideal addition to InsightSoftware.  He understands our value proposition and the Insight opportunity.

Welcome to the team, Quincy!

Author: ryan.alford

Ryan is the Internet Marketing Manager for InsightSoftware.com.

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