BARC analyst Timm Grosser

Briefing Insights: MariaDB Corporation

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BARC analyst Timm Grosser

Briefing Insights: Safyr – The Metadata Middleware for Packaged Application Software Like SAP

Impressions of Silwood Technology’s Safyr product – metadata middleware for packaged application software like SAP – by Timm Grosser, Senior Analyst at BARC.

BARC analyst Timm Grosser

Briefing Insights: Dremio – The “Data Lake Engine”

Insights from BARC’s briefing with Dremio “The Data Lake Engine” by Timm Grosser, Senior Analyst – Data Management at BARC

The Future of Corporate Planning cover image

Companies Are Ready to Rethink Their Corporate Planning

PRESS RELEASE – WÜRZBURG, May 28th, 2020

BARC (Business Application Research Center) publishes “Integrated and Predictive – The Future of Corporate Planning”, a survey-based study. It reveals the current status of integrated planning in companies as well as the challenges along the road to successful integration. The full study is available for download free of charge thanks to sponsorship by Board.

Key findings

  • #1: The majority of companies believe that integrated corporate planning is becoming increasingly important
  • #2: In order to integrate planning successfully, challenges have to be tackled at a functional, technical and organizational level
  • #3: Predictive algorithms will be able to provide more accurate forecasts in the future

The value of corporate planning

According to BARC’s research, companies are well aware of the value provided by corporate planning. 55% of companies state that the integration of strategic and operational planning offers high added value. 36% even describe the integration of plans as “essential for the future”. In contrast, only 9% doubt the value of integrated corporate planning. Companies that derive the greatest benefit from their integrated planning are investing heavily in the functional integration of planning and its coupling with analytics, but also in the technology to future-proof their performance management. 66% of survey respondents stated that integrated corporate planning is increasing in importance (see Fig. 1).

The Future of Corporate Planning press release - figure 1

Fig. 1: How is the importance of integrated corporate planning developing in your company? (n=404) © BARC

“We can clearly see that companies are aware of the significance of integrated corporate planning and attach great importance to it, especially with regard to the future. Most want to make a start on integrating corporate planning, but there are several hurdles to tackle along the way”, said Robert Tischer, Senior Data & Analytics Analyst and co-author of this study.

Why does the integration of planning often fail?

BARC’s survey results show that companies face major challenges when it comes to improving corporate planning in order to keep decision-makers informed with plans and forecasts. 45% of participants stated that planning takes place in incompatible or isolated solutions. Master data in separate systems is often inconsistent, which makes automated transfers between sub-plans nearly impossible. This is often a major issue, especially for larger companies.

However, consistent master data is not only about using the right technology. Technical and organizational measures must be taken to create a uniform view of existing data. The second most frequent challenge arises when planning processes are not clearly defined or adequately coordinated (40%). This makes coherent, transparent and automatic integration difficult or even impossible. Only when addressing functional, technical and organizational issues in combination can organizations expect to reap substantial rewards.

Expectations are high for predictive algorithms

A major challenge in corporate planning is to generate meaningful and high-quality planning figures quickly and with little effort. This applies to classic annual planning and budgeting, but increasingly also to short-term forecasting. Many companies are therefore seeking solutions to speed up forecasting and reduce effort. They want to leverage modern planning approaches such as predictive planning and forecasting. 89% of participants rate the current and future significance of predictive technologies and forecasts as “important” or “very important”.

When it comes to rating the potential of predictive algorithms, expectations are equally high. The majority of companies in this study believe that predictive technologies will be able to deliver more accurate forecasts in the future than a human planner today (see Figure 2).

The Future of Corporate Planning press release - figure 2

Figure 2: Do you believe that predictive technologies and algorithms will deliver more accurate forecasts in the future than human planners today? (n=412) © BARC

The still low use of predictive planning and forecasting in practice is in stark contrast to the assessment of its relevance and potential. Two thirds of the companies surveyed are only just beginning to address the topic and have not yet gained much experience. Only 4% already successfully use and benefit from predictive technologies and forecasts.

Dr. Christian Fuchs, Senior Data & Analytics Analyst and co-author of this study points out: “The gap between future expectations and the current situation is quite striking. Many companies will have to step up their technical and organizational approaches in order to tap the full potential of predictive planning and forecasting.”

About the study

“Integrated and Predictive – The Future of Corporate Planning” is a topical BARC survey examining the approaches and obstacles to implementing integrated corporate planning. The study is based on a worldwide survey of more than 400 companies of various sizes and industry sectors. The focus of the study is to evaluate the importance of integrated corporate planning and to identify the challenges and risks currently facing companies. The authors of the study are Dr. Christian Fuchs and Robert Tischler, Senior Analysts for Data & Analytics at BARC.

Useful links

Further information about “Integrated and Predictive – The Future of Corporate Planning”
Infographic based on findings from the study
Download the full study from the sponsor’s website

About BARC

BARC (Business Application Research Center) is one of Europe’s leading analyst firms for business software, focusing on the areas of data, business intelligence (BI) and analytics, enterprise content management (ECM) and customer relationship management (CRM). The company was founded in 1999 as a spin-off of the Chair of Business Administration and Information Systems at the Julius-Maximilians-University in Würzburg. Today, BARC combines empirical and theoretical research, technical expertise and practical experience, including a constant exchange with all market participants.

Contact

For further information, please contact:

Regina Schmidt
Communications Manager
Tel: +49 (0) 931 880651-47
Mobile: + 49 (0) 1520 431 82 39
Email: rschmidt@barc.de

The Future of Corporate Planning cover image

Infographic: “Integrated and Predictive – The Future of Corporate Planning”

The solid integration of corporate planning and its integration with analytics is the basis of modern, data-driven corporate management. It not only increases the speed and transparency of decisions and their quality, but it is also the foundation for the use of predictive planning and forecasting powered by statistical methods and machine learning.

Based on a survey of 424 decision-makers worldwide, this infographic highlights:

  • The current challenges facing finance and controlling departments
  • The importance of corporate planning
  • Where companies are right now in terms of the integration of corporate planning
  • The most common obstacles to integrating corporate planning
  • How companies can reduce the effort they put into planning
  • BARC’s recommendations on integrated corporate planning

Click here to find out more and to download the full study.

The Future of Corporate Planning infographic

 

Click here to find out more and to download the full study.

BARC analyst Timm Grosser

BARC Webinar: Comparing the Four Most Popular Data Catalog Providers

MicroStrategy has been overshadowed in recent years by vendors such as Qlik, Tableau and Microsoft, but we believe strong BI platforms with scaling, security, administration and broad coverage of BI requirements from standard reporting to advanced analytics are still highly relevant.

Data Monetization

MicroStrategy Leverages Embedded BI with HyperIntelligence to Deliver “Insights to Action”

MicroStrategy has been overshadowed in recent years by vendors such as Qlik, Tableau and Microsoft, but we believe strong BI platforms with scaling, security, administration and broad coverage of BI requirements from standard reporting to advanced analytics are still highly relevant.

bi trend monitor 2020 cover

Infographic: BI Trend Monitor 2020

BARC’s BI Trend Monitor 2020 study gives BI practitioners a platform to have their say on the trends currently shaping the BI and data management market, supplemented by additional commentary and analysis from BARC analysts.

This infographic summarizes the importance that BI users and consultants attach to a series of 20 trends. It also reveals how these trends have evolved in popularity over the last five years.

Click here to find out more and to download the full study.

 

BI Trend Monitor 2020 infographic

 

Click here to find out more and to download the full study.

modernizing the data warehouse

Infographic: Modernizing the Data Warehouse – Challenges and Benefits

Modernizing the Data Warehouse: Challenges and Benefits, a study based on a worldwide survey examining companies’ approaches to get their data warehouse to the next level. In particular, it provides insights regarding technologies used, benefits achieved and lessons learned by companies that are in the process of modernizing their data warehouse.

Click here to find out more and to download the full study.

 

data warehouse modernization infographic

 

Click here to find out more and to download the full study.

modernizing the data warehouse

The Challenges and Benefits of Data Warehouse Modernization

PRESS RELEASE – WÜRZBURG, November 27th, 2019
The Business Application Research Center (BARC) publishes Modernizing the Data Warehouse: Challenges and Benefits, a study based on a worldwide survey examining companies’ approaches to get their data warehouse to the next level. In particular, it provides insights regarding technologies used, benefits achieved and lessons learned by companies that are in the process of modernizing their data warehouse.

Retrofitting the data warehouse: time-consuming development processes call for action

It is the central approach of IT to make cumbersome processes more efficient through automation. Therefore, it seems obvious that users should seek to streamline their time-consuming development processes for the data warehouse by means of data warehouse/ETL automation. In fact, these approaches provide benefits. Above all, these include broad data warehouse usage and the ability to handle a larger variety of data to support enhanced analytical requirements. Greater efficiency in data management processes, on the other hand, only ranks 8th among the benefits achieved.

Lack of agility and skills as well as data landscape complexity limit the ability to act

Inflexibility in on-premises environments is driving companies to the cloud. Yet on average only 29 percent of our participants are adopting cloud services for their data warehouse. Investments in infrastructure and technology, however, are of limited usefulness. Data landscapes tend to be too complex and not many organizations have established data governance frameworks with both business and IT participation. So not surprisingly, a lack of business and technical skills is seen as a central challenge (38 percent) in data warehouse modernization.

data warehouse modernization challenges

Figure 1: What are the biggest challenges your company faced in modernizing its data warehouse environment? Top five answers (n=380)

 

Leaders profit from their investments in a flexible data and process architecture and agile data services

Companies with greater data landscape maturity are more likely than others to use cloud services. They build leaner data architectures based on central data warehouses backed by analytical databases and implement fewer data marts. Microservices and API management play a greater role in their landscape. Their future prospects are more often focused on real-time analytics and streaming as well as new data sources and open data. They are therefore more likely to better support BI and advanced analytics requirements.

About ‘Modernizing the Data Warehouse: Challenges and Benefits’

‘Modernizing the Data Warehouse: Challenges and Benefits’ by Jacqueline Bloemen, Senior Analyst Data & Analytics at BARC, is a study based on a worldwide survey of 368 people with a professional interest in data management, conducted from January to May 2019. The study covers approaches to modernizing the data warehouse, technology use and current challenges. The full report is available free of charge thanks to sponsorship from Wherescape.

More information about ‘Modernizing the Data Warehouse: Challenges and Benefits’

Download the full study from the sponsor’s website:

About BARC

BARC (Business Application Research Center) is an enterprise software analyst and consulting firm with a focus on Analytics/Business Intelligence (BI), Data Management, Enterprise Content Management (ECM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). With experts in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, BARC supports clients in their software selection and strategy through specialist consulting, leading-edge research and a program of conferences and highly-focused seminars. For more information, visit:
www.barc-research.com

Contact

For all enquiries, please contact:

Regina Schmidt
Communications Manager
Tel: +49 (0) 931 880651-0
rschmidt@barc.de