Recent Posts by Jennifer Toomey

What’s your biggest tale of woe when it comes to planning and budgeting? I’m sure you have one. It seems that every finance manager does. In my recent article, “7 Things Finance Managers Hate About Spreadsheets,” we shared our findings from conversations with experienced finance leaders—uncovering the many reasons they hate spreadsheets, and the one big reason they won’t give them up. There were three confessions, in particular, that served as prime examples of why finance teams...

Cloud technology is fast becoming mainstream and decision makers are realizing huge benefits from enterprise performance management (EPM) services in the cloud. Many CFOs are now successfully leveraging cloud technology for their EPM processes to digitally transform their finance organizations and generate value for the business. Recently, Oracle surveyed over 400 decision makers to learn more about their experiences with EPM in the cloud, and their plans for 2017-18. Both...

Question: Whoever said spreadsheets were a great way to run a business? Answer: Nobody. Ever. The reason: Spreadsheets are notoriously unreliable. In one of the biggest studies of its kind, an analysis of thousands of spreadsheets from the archive of failed energy giant Enron found that almost one-quarter of them contained errors. And Enron was hardly alone: a 2015 study of 1,200 UK decision makers by FIF9 revealed that nearly 1 in 5 large businesses have suffered direct...

For too long, CIOs have talked about having seat at the executive meeting table, but were often viewed as an expense to be managed and not a true business partner with cool ideas on how to move the company forward. The CIO role has certainly grown more strategic in recent years, with nearly 50% of CIOs reporting directly to CEOs, according to CIO.com's 2017 State of the CIO survey. IT leaders have a role in leveraging technology to drive new revenue streams, lead product...

Every organization has a lot more data than it used to. With all this information, you would think preparing reports on operations and performance would be easier. Think again.  Reporting has actually become more challenging, for 4 main reasons:  Regulations are on the rise across the globe. In the U.S., for instance, bank regulators are currently proposing stricter regulations on large financial institutions to mitigate the risk of cyber-attacks or high-tech system failures....

On May 31, Gartner released its 2016 Magic Quadrant for Corporate Performance Management Suites reports. This year, Gartner split the CPM MQ into two parts: The first one, Strategic CPM (SCPM), is primarily focused on planning, budgeting and forecasting. Also included are solutions for strategy management, profitability modeling, and performance reporting. The second MQ, Financial CPM (FCPM), covers financial consolidation, financial and management reporting and...

Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud is on a roll. With more than 1,200 customers and nearly 70,000 users gained over the last two years with our Planning and Budgeting Cloud and Enterprise Performance Reporting Cloud solutions, we are continuing the momentum with the availability of three new cloud offerings: Enterprise Planning Cloud, Account Reconciliation Cloud, and Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud. What do Oracle Cloud customers think of our solutions? "O...

The tabs on my smartphone constantly remind me that I could get more value from it. I use the traffic information on my GPS to tell how late I’ll be for dinner. But I haven’t downloaded Waze to find a faster route home. And while I check movie schedules on my phone, I never use a ticket-buying app to avoid long lines. Sure, I could be making better use of my smartphone. But all in all, I think it’s proving to be a pretty good investment. According to an article in CFO.com, many...