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Lessons from the discovery-driven planning approach
Discovery-driven planning A few weeks ago I researched ideas for improving current planning and forecasting approaches. I stumbled upon a methodology that I had long forgotten. It is called ‘Discovery-driven planning’ and it was developed by Rita Gunther McGrath and Ian C. MacMillan. The idea was first published in the July 1995 issue of the Harvard Business […]
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TM1 – The swiss army knife for the finance department?
IBM Cognos TM1 No doubt, IBM Cognos TM1 is a unique solution. I have never met so many loyal and enthusiastic long-term customers than for any other finance-related software solution. TM1 is special indeed. There is a lot to like: it is lightening fast (64-bit in memory), configuration does not require rocket-science, it supports Excel, […]
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Success with Performance Management – An interview with Mark Lack from Mueller Inc.
The 80 year-old company Mueller Inc is a a leading manufacturer of pre-engineered metal buildings and metal roofing products. Mark Lack is responsible for performance management at Mueller Inc. He delivered a great presentation about their IBM Cognos implementation at the recent IBM Vision 2012 event in Orlando. Following his session we sat down for […]
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IBM Vision 2012 – A great conference
IBM Vision 2012 Greetings from the JW Marriott hotel in Orlando. The IBM Vision 2012 conference for Finance and Risk Management professionals is going really well. Close to 800 professionals from all over the world are here. The atmosphere has been great so far. An event of this size allows people to easily connect with […]
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IBM Vision 2012
IBM Vision 2012 Greetings from Orlando. I left Munich Saturday morning to attend the IBM Vision 2012 conference. This three day event for finance & risk management professionals will be exciting. There are fantastic keynotes lined up as well as a ton of awesome break-out sessions. I am really looking forward to it. Keynotes The […]
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Part 2 – Interview with the TM1 book author. More about TM1
Last Thursday, I posted an interview with the author of the new TM1 book Karsten Oehler. Here is the continuation of the conversation. This part of the interview focuses on the new IBM Cognos TM1 10.1 release. Christoph Papenfuss: IBM Cognos TM1 10.1 was released in February of 2012. What is so special about this […]
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Interview with the TM1 book author: IBM Cognos TM1 – The Official Guide (Part 1)
The new TM1 book The highly anticipated 10.1 version of IBM Cognos TM1 was released in February 2012. Along with the software there is also a great new TM1 book: IBM Cognos TM1 – The Official Guide. My German colleague Karsten Oehler is one of the authors of this comprehensive TM1 book. We had the […]
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Why continuous forecasting is more enjoyable
The case for continuous forecasting Time for a confession. I really hated forecasting back in my old job. Kind of crazy since I was working with clients on improving their planning, budgeting & forecasting processes. Yet, I absolutely hated doing my own forecast. What was wrong? First of all, the template was terrible. Way too […]
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The other side of Cognos Insight – A powerful planning client for TM1 (Guestpost)
Cognos Insight and TM1 There is a lot of buzz about Cognos Insight. It is a great tool for analyzing and discovering data. There is also the ability to perform powerful what-if analysis through the use of write-back capabilities. But Cognos Insight is actually more than just a personal desktop analytics tool. You can use […]
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The reputation of business forecasting is not positive – Time for change!
Business Forecasting The budgeting and business forecasting processes often have a poor reputation in many companies. Part of the issue is that the people involved in the process do not see a lot of value in it. Last year in November, two of my colleagues and I conducted a survey amongst 162 senior finance professionals […]