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Financial Performance Management

Revelwood’s BPM Suite Named Best FP&A Technology Tool

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We’re pleased to share that yesterday the Revelwood BPM Suite (now called Lightspeed) was named Best FP&A Technology Tool at the Financial Forecasting & Planning Innovation Conference!

The BPM Suite is an out-of-the box implementation accelerator for mid-market and enterprise financial planning, reporting and analytics. It is the first and only fully developed application accelerator for planning, reporting and analytics on the IBM Cognos TM1 and IBM Cognos Express Xcelerator platforms.

The judging panel that selected the BPM Suite over competing products was made up of financial planning and analysis practitioners from Papa Murphy’s, Skype, Newell Rubbermaid, Siemens, Actavis and Carters. They evaluated the BPM Suite based on the quantifiable benefits it delivers to Revelwood clients.

For example, the BPM Suite has enabled Revelwood clients to:

  • Cut the amount of time they spend on monthly budgeting by 50%
  • Perform the monthly close five times faster
  • Reduce the time for the reevaluation process from “hours on end” to 30 minutes

“Revelwood’s BPM Suite accelerated our implementation by giving us a starting point for financial and staff related planning and reporting,” said Dimitrios Misantonis, director of financial systems, Madison Square Garden.

The award was one of seven given out at this week’s conference, which drew more than 200 FP&A professionals from across the world. Our fellow award winners included Louisville Slugger, Zipcar and The Boston Globe.

We’d like to thank The IE Group, who organized the conference and gave out the awards, and the judges who took time out of their busy schedules to evaluate the BPM Suite. And congrats to our fellow award winners!

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IBM’s Mark Enslin on Revelwood’s IBM Gold TM1 Accreditation

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Mark Enslin, business analytics accreditation program manager for IBM, sat down with us to talk about the IBM Software Practice Accelerator and how Revelwood became the first IBM Business Partner to earn IBM Cognos TM1 Gold Accreditation

Q: Can you give us some quick background on the Software Practice Accelerator?

Mark:  The program was launched in early 2013 and is designed to help our Business Partners deepen and broaden their IBM Software implementation skills.  The program includes training, mentoring, coaching and accreditation.  The goal is to accelerate our Business Partners’ ability to implement new technology, while strengthening their existing skills supporting IBM Software.  We want to help them deliver best-in-class solutions to their clients.  As IBM’s Business Analytics Division has grown to include new capabilities such as Sales Performance Management (SPM), Risk Analytics and Predictive Analytics, this program is central to a Business Partner’s ability to quickly expand their practice to resell and consistently implement well.

Q: What’s the benefit of the program to end users?

Mark:  IBM Business Partners who earn accreditation, such as Revelwood has, are certified on specific technologies, and have proven they can deliver high performing applications.  Clients who work with partners like Revelwood end up with leading edge applications that provide measurable benefits.  In layman’s terms, think of it as the “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” for IBM Business Partners.

Q: How do you evaluate the Business Partners applying for accreditation?

Mark:  As you know, we put Business Partners through a comprehensive process.  First, we validated Revelwood had the requisite number of consultants certified on IBM Cognos TM1.  These certifications span a range of roles on a typical implementation – data analysis, developer, administrator and advanced solution expert.

The second step was to look at Cognos TM1 applications Revelwood has designed and implemented for its clients.  We validated a cross-section of the hundreds of deployments Revelwood has worked on, and evaluated them for best practices, technical elegance, delivery of client benefits and overall application performance.

Q: What’s next for the Software Acceleration Program?

Mark: IBM Business Analytics continues to make investments in this program – based largely on the positive feedback we’ve received from Business Partners.  These investments include developing additional implementation workshops that address new market offerings , such as IBM Predictive Maintenance & Quality.  IBM is committed to helping Business Partners drive successful outcomes for the clients they serve.  IBM’s CEO Ginni Rometty is extremely passionate about IBMers delivering outcomes for clients and becoming ‘essential.’  I strongly believe this program helps our Business Partners deliver these same outcomes and becoming ‘essential’ in their own right.

Thanks Mark!

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The ROI of Analytics

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The Oakland Athletics general manager, Billy Beane, proved the ROI of analytics and shared it in the wildly popular book and movie, Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game.  Nucleus Research has proved that analytics delivers for business as well; the firm found that analytics pays back $10.66 for every dollar spent.

In a research note on the findings, Nucleus cites two significant reasons for the high ROI of analytics:

  • It is easy to integrate data sources with analytics applications; and
  • Once deployed, analytics tools provide insight, leading to “changes to decision making that result in unexpected improvements in profitability.”

Nucleus notes, “For example, when Concept One adopted IBM Cognos Express, granular cost analyses of the company’s licensing agreements enablefoundd the organization to become more selective about license renewals and increase its gross margin.”

In addition to analyzing the ROI of IBM Business Analytics, Nucleus also performed ROI case audits on customers using analytics technologies from Microsoft, Oracle, SAS, Tibco Spotfire and Information Builders.  This combined analysis led to the finding of an overall ROI of $10.66 per dollar spent on analytics.

As Nucleus concludes, “Given the returns of $10.66 for every dollar invested in analytics, these technologies represent one of the richest investment opportunities available to organizations.”

Read the full Nucleus Research note, “Analytics Pays Back $10.66 for Every Dollar Spent ” to learn how and why analytics technologies deliver a significant ROI.

Check out more industry news here:

Workday Adaptive Planning Named a Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Financial Planning and Analysis Solutions 2020

IBM Planning Analytics Scores 13 Top Rankings and 21 Leading Positions in BARC’s The Planning Survey 20

Office of Finance Benchmark Data

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