Survival Strategy Column

The Dawn of a New Era Markets moving in a new direction have caught many software suppliers and software users off guard. Essentially, the demand for businesses to supply users with data in a variety of formats, is rapidly increasing. The primary challenge however, is finding a solution to access the data from multiple sources, integrate it on-the-fly, present and …

In today's tough business environment, a corporate performance management (CPM) initiative is an excellent way to "bullet-proof" companies against costly future mistakes. Corporate performance management (CPM) integrates management planning and control processes, through describing the methodologies, metrics, processes and systems used to monitor and manage an enterprise's performance. It allows companies to link strategies to operational plans and budgets, support …

While IT firms have largely mastered the art of data warehousing, they now face a growing backlog of requests for specialised data sets, which means real information integration is vital. Data is scattered across applications, and is stored in different types of databases using different and often incompatible formats. As external data is increasingly available, it too is often difficult …

The Basel Capital Accord is here, and here to stay, but many banks are not prepared for compliance and implementation in 2005. In January 2001, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision issued a proposal for a New Basel Capital Accord that replaced the current 1988 Capital Accord. The proposal is based on three mutually reinforcing pillars that allow banks and …

The manufacturing supply chain and the intelligent information value chain share a common pitfall: a weak link in either can be detrimental to business survival. The intelligent information value chain is in many ways similar to the manufacturing supply chain – in that if there is a weak link, the entire process is weak, flawed and possibly detrimental to business …

A business intelligence project will be more effective if it is driven from within a knowledge management initiative. Knowledge management (KM) and business intelligence (BI) are often confused terms, as are data, information and knowledge, and it is here that business people and those responsible for IT make their most fundamental mistake, a mistake that can be the beginning or …

Companies must ensure that individuals do not use the organisation's strategic information as an "internal weapon". Individuals who promote their own views on how the creation of a central base of information should be tackled all too often stall the process of delivering valuable information, either with malicious intent, or due to a lack of understanding of the value that …

Technology can play a major role in setting up performance measurement standards and customer management systems. Much has been said and written about corporate governance and the various studies, findings, reports and examples of poor corporate governance and although indirectly related, a secondary aspect – the scorecard kept by an organisation's customers.

Information, the truism goes, is power, so why are employers not doing more to empower their employees? Much has been written and read about the need to educate and train employees. How often have you heard about the value proposition in educating staff, as it equips people to better serve customers, and has a direct bearing on the business bottom …

It is vital that a company's IT and business people work together to ensure suitable technology solutions are implemented. Gone are the days where the person in charge of IT and technology called the shots when it came to technology investments. Nowadays it is essential that the IT and business people within an organisation decide together what their technology solutions …