Johannesburg, 04 Jun 2001
The demands of the Internet economy, the absence of a 360-degree view of customers, and the failure to leverage a viable return on heavy investment in IT infrastructure, contribute significantly to corporate failure.
Many of these factors, however, can be addressed through the implementation of a well designed business analysis platform. That`s the view of Marc Scheepbouwer, marketing director at Global Technology Business Intelligence, who briefed delegates at a recent one-day Acta user seminar at Monte Casino near Johannesburg.
Pointing out that market dynamics are constantly changing, Scheepbouwer says: "Competitive advantage is increasingly short-lived, and investors are struggling to value new business models and focusing again on profitability.
Meanwhile, there is a widening gap between promise and delivery.
"The IT implications are significant: functions ranging from financial management, consolidation, modelling, budgeting and planning to forecasting, have to run without a hitch."
However, business demands, such as the need for specialist applications focused on e-CRM, call centres, point-of-sale applications, field services and campaign management, have often strained a company`s IT resources.
"A well designed business analysis platform allows businesses - anywhere, anytime - quickly to identify growth and profit opportunities, spot and correct problems, eliminate decision guesswork, improve execution and accountability, and stay focused on the most important business goals," Scheepbouwer says.
Key to success here, he adds, is a smoothly running RAMP model. "This model - which sees the business cycle in a self-feeding loop running from reporting, analysis, to modelling and planning - provides the analytical key to managing the information flow in a business.
"Through always having a grip on the business analytics, corporate executives can integrate their vision into the practical day-to-day realities of supply chain and financial management, e-CRM; human resources - and juxtapose them with industry-specific solutions.
"A strategic approach to the-decision making cycle, will align all activities with the company`s strategy across all functions and levels, use common data sources and definitions of cost, profit and value. A company must succeed if the strategy is executed in this way," he concludes.
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