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Brexit, Cash Flow, And The Supply Chain

April 23, 2019 BI News and Info

Putting aside the impact Brexit has had on politics, culture, pride, and family, a burning question for businesses is: How will Brexit affect cash flow across critical supply chains? And if Brexit will have an impact on these cash flows, how do I mitigate against a shortfall in the lifeblood of my supply chain that directly impacts my ability to operate?

To explain why there is an impact at all, it’s important to look at how the overall supply chain works across Europe. The EU states’ free-trade agreement means goods can flow between the UK and the other European member states without customs and excise checks, thus there is an economic flow of commerce with a physical flow of goods and materials. The financial supply chain and the physical supply chain are therefore linked. For example, if you cannot receive delivery of your raw materials, then you cannot fulfill your customer orders. If you cannot fulfill your orders, then you cannot submit your invoice and, most importantly, you cannot get paid. Therefore, any disruption to the physical supply chain will quickly place greater demands on working capital requirements.

To understand the scale of the potential challenge, we can take the SAP Ariba Network as a benchmark. SAP Ariba’s B2B platform has buyers and suppliers trading between the UK and the rest of Europe, comprising of billions of pounds in commerce. This means the movement of goods, flowing logically (i.e., orders, invoices, and payments) through the network, the issuance of those invoices, and the resulting payment are dependent on goods and raw materials making it across the channel. A delay to this supply chain can not only have a knock-on effect on the efficiency of just-in-time, consumer demand but also on the ability to manage the receivables and payables of an organization’s cash flow.

So how do we manage this situation if it happens? There are options available, with financing a key underlying tool. Several choices are available:

Cash-rich companies can help prop up the cash/liquidity shortfall in their supply chain by offering to pay suppliers early or even on purchase order (PO) issuance. Even partial payment at the pre-delivery stage may mean the difference between a key supplier managing through difficulty or facing real financial solvency issues.

Acquire low-cost lending from banks via PO or invoice financing schemes. Even now, it may make sense to take advantage of buyer supply chain finance (SCF) schemes to build a stockpile of cash to manage through the leaner times ahead of Brexit.

An alternative is the higher cost receivables financing (factoring) programs that a supplier can enter into with a bank.

Use a card as a means of payment; although it’s even more expensive, it is a method of early payment against getting cash payment at the end of the invoice term.

Focus on UK domestic goods for early payments. As there is no disruption between domestic buyers and suppliers, engage with your domestic supply chain to get either early payment agreements or low-cost early payment funding to help shore up the possibility of disrupted cash flows from the European supply chain.

Although all of these have a cost, the stark truth is Brexit (hard, soft, or otherwise) will have some impact on the supply chain and, therefore, create risks and costs to trading partners dependent on UK imports and exports to Europe. The real cost is hard to measure, but SAP Ariba is helping its customers by including options around the above key strategies. Organizations that can get ahead in this respect can secure their supply chains, form stronger partnerships, and outperform competitors by building a different type of partnership based on managed cash-flow risk and working capital needs.

By helping buyers and suppliers get better visibility of the supply chain, a business network can give assurances to buyers on their supplier’s orders, and to suppliers with low-cost funding to fill the shortfall. It also means buyers do not need to make knee-jerk reactions to shift risk onto suppliers without the foresight to see that jeopardizing liquidity in the supply chain actually jeopardizes your business. The old saying goes, “a chain is only as good as its weakest link,” and cash liquidity forms an important part of the strength in that linkage.

To learn more, register today for our Webinar on Managing the Impact of the International Supply Chain on Your Working Capital.

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Digitalist Magazine

TIBCO Cloud Integration Earns Top Ratings from TrustRadius Users

April 23, 2019 TIBCO Spotfire

TIBCO is proud to announce that TIBCO Cloud Integration has earned a Top Rated Award from TrustRadius. TIBCO Cloud Integration received the prestigious award in the Integration Platform category because it consistently receives high praise by customers on the software peer review site.

In January, TIBCO Cloud Integration was recognized by top analyst firm Forrester, having been named a leader in the Forrester Wave™: Strategic iPaaS and Hybrid Integration Platforms, Q1 2019. It is an honor to know that our customers feel the same way as evidenced by a recent TrustRadius’ Top Rated Award for the integration platform.

Check out what some of our customers had to say about TIBCO Cloud Integration:

One reviewer pointed out the flexibility TIBCO Cloud Integration provides, allowing you to interconnect your systems regardless of where they are deployed—in the cloud, on-premises, at the edge, or a combination of all three:

“TIBCO Cloud Integration is a must for every integration scenario. Being cloud-native makes it ideal for on-premises, in the cloud, or hybrid architectures.”

—Verified Reviewer, Computer Software Company

Other reviewers point out the ease-of-use and flexibility that TIBCO Cloud Integration provides:

“We use TIBCO Cloud Integration across the organization to facilitate integration solutions to various platforms. We’re able to be responsive to changing functional requirements by implementing mapping fixes instead of having to recompile source code.”

—EVP Software Development, Software Company

“[TIBCO Cloud Integration] is being used enterprise-wide. It integrated all the core and non-core systems in our organization… It’s well suited for any integration, the variety of connectors and adapters it has makes it easier to integrate with any system.”

—Senior Manager of Enterprise Integration, Business Technology, Investment Management Company

One reviewer refers to TIBCO Cloud Integration as “the best business decision”, noting that the solution allows employees to spend more time on more important tasks such as connecting with clients:

“TIBCO Cloud Integration is being used to integrate with systems of record for human services. We have a web application that is a nice user interface but needs client data, which TIBCO Cloud Integration is used to pull and push that information from the client’s system to ours. The business problem of not having enough time to spend with clients is handled.”

—IT Professional, IT and Services Company

Just as important as the functionality of TIBCO Cloud Integration is the support team behind it. One reviewer explains why customer support specialists make all the difference when selecting an integration solution:

“One thing to call out is the team at TIBCO is extremely knowledgeable and supportive… The product is good and the team is extremely supportive. That is a perfect balance. The product might be world class but the assistance from the team is also of paramount importance, especially if our support personnel are dealing with our customers’ integration needs and need help.”

—Product Manager, Accounting Firm

For more on what customers have to say about TIBCO Cloud Integration, or if you’d like to share feedback based on your own experience with TIBCO solutions, visit our TrustRadius product review page.

To see what TIBCO Cloud Integration can do for your organization, request a free trial today.

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The TIBCO Blog

SuiteWorld Attendees Pledge to Fight Cancer, NetSuite Pledges $10,000

April 23, 2019 NetSuite

Posted by Barney Beal, Content Director

SuiteWorld19 took an unusually emotional turn when Cathy Patenaude was guided to the stage at the opening keynote.

Pateneaude, who years ago contracted CML leukemia and subsequently lost her sight, depends on the American Cancer Society’s Road to Recovery program, which helps transport her to treatment appointments in Las Vegas. Patenaude made an emotional appeal from the NetSuite stage in her home city to support the American Cancer Society, which offers far more than just research grants and car rides.

American Cancer Society, a NetSuite customer, was founded almost 100 years ago by a group of 10 doctors and 5 laypeople in New York City. Back then – cancer was not openly talked about, and almost certainly meant a death sentence for a patient. The initial goal was to simply raise public awareness around the disease to promote waging the war on cancer.

Since then, this goal has grown to attack cancer from every angle. Cancer has an affect on everyone’s lives at some point in time, so American Cancer has dedicated themselves to research, prevention, support and lawmaking around fighting the deadly disease.

While research is left to the experts at ACS, everyone can actively participate in the fight against cancer prevention. So when Patenaude reached out in request for the help of the audience, NetSuite and SuiteWorld attendees answered that call. NetSuite promised to donate $ 10,000 to the American Cancer Society if attendees signed 2,000 personal pledges to help in the fight against cancer.

All week, attendees flocked to the American Cancer Society booth on the exhibit hall floor, pledging to “Eat Healthy,” “Not Smoke Tobacco,” “Exercise,” “Wear Sunscreen” and more. In addition to raising funds for the incredible organization, the hope is that this exercise helped people think more proactively around what they can do in their daily lives to prevent cancer.

I pledge to get early screenings in honor of my Aunt Mary #attackingcancer
#SuiteWorld19
@AmericanCancer
pic.twitter.com/V6thTw9QzT

— purpletrice (@martrice_cpa) April 3, 2019

#AttackingCancer
#SuiteWorld19
pic.twitter.com/STQ0AzleDZ

— Zoltan Sabo (@ZoltanSabo4) April 3, 2019

I pledge to … Exercise! #AttackingCancer
#SuiteWorld19
pic.twitter.com/B4ByUAyLr5

— Alberto@RBM (@2RiverMarketing) April 3, 2019

By the final day of the conference, attendees had more than met the challenge and NetSuite made good on its donation, following through on a proud history of donating to nonprofits as part of the conference. Past recipients have included Alex’s Lemonade Stand and Stop Hunger Now.

Posted on Mon, April 22, 2019
by NetSuite

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The NetSuite Blog

KeepTruckin raises $149 million for its fleet management and automation platform

April 23, 2019 Big Data

Managing trucking fleets isn’t a walk in the park. According to a recent survey conducted by Littler Mendelson, 75% of employers say that their companies find it difficult to comply with the patchwork of state and local requirements. And while freight demand is stronger than ever — the American Trucking Association forecasted last year a 35.6% increase in shipment volumes by 2029 to 21.7 billion tons — there’s a driver shortage, with high turnover at least partially to blame.

Obaid Khan, Ryan Johns, and Shoaib Makani cofounded KeepTruckin in 2013 to address a few of those challenges, and they’ve had a good deal of success. In a little over five years, they’ve attracted tens of millions in venture capital from a bevy of investors, and they today announced the closure of a fresh financing round that catapults KeepTruckin to “unicorn” status.

The San Francisco startup raised $ 149 million in series D funding led by Greenoaks Capital, with participation from existing investors IVP, GV, Index Ventures, and Scale Venture Partners, bringing its total raised to $ 228 million following a $ 50 million series C last year. Makani said the fresh funds will be used to fuel the company’s continued growth through hiring, to invest in hardware and machine learning (specifically asset management tools), and to establish new partnerships. “Our mission is to connect the world’s trucks and fundamentally improve the safety and efficiency of the trucking industry. We believe that if you can model the past, you can predict and even shape the future,” he added. “Our platform unlocks the data that makes this vision possible.”

KeepTruckin offers a comprehensive toolkit that helps fleet managers and partners comply with rules and regulations, track shipments, ensure a baseline level of driver safety, and keep vehicles operating in tiptop shape.

Managers can dispatch information to drivers’ phones and match those drivers with loads, or dig into logs and see trucks’ routes in a calendar and map view, with entries denoting starts, stops, and breaks (along with durations for each). Drivers’ locations are tracked in real time with GPS in KeepTruckin’s dashboard and smartphone apps for Android and iOS, as is vehicle idling. (Admins can rank drivers by utilization and spot irregular or unsafe behavior like braking, speeding, and travel in or around restricted areas.) And for folks who require more granular tracking, KeepTruckin offers video monitoring via a dash cam and its bespoke hardware: a Bluetooth- and USB-enabled device that connects to 9-pin, 6-pin, OBD-II, Dual CAN, Mack, and Volvo ports and tracks vehicle data.

KeepTruckin raises $149 million for its fleet management and automation platform

Above: KeepTruckin’s dashboard.

Image Credit: KeepTruckin

KeepTruckin claims its products identify over 95% of safety events and says that they comply with the U.S. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s Electronic Logging Devices, which imposes certain performance and design standards and requires that commercial drivers prepare hours-of-service records of duty status. Furthermore, it says its automatic time log auditing and alerts features — features that support custom inspection forms and collate inspection history for maintenance and vehicle reports — help to maintain high compliance, safety, and accountability (CSA) scores under the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s rules.

That’s the tip of the iceberg. KeepTruckin can automate fuel purchases for vehicles, report per-jurisdiction fuel tax, and facilitate real-time driver-to-driver communication or fleet-wide broadcasts. (Its messaging feature supports text-based messages, images, documents, and more.) As for drivers, they get the forms required for each job and a built-in inspection checklist through the KeepTruckin app to which they can add photos and notes, and a tool that lets them upload receipts. KeepTruckin’s appliance, meanwhile, continuously monitors fault codes through its connection to onboard vehicle diagnostics and displays issues (along with actional descriptions) the minute they occur.

KeepTruckin says it has more than one million registered drivers and 250,000 connected trucks on its platform, pricing for which ranges from free to $ 30 per month billed annually. And it counts 50,000 for-hire carriers among its customers (up from 30,000 last year), including Harms Pacific Transport, WDC, BRT, Cascade, and IDI Distributors. Additionally, it says that the 25 integrations in its app marketplace are used by over 130,000 trucks.

As impressive as that growth might seem, however, KeepTruckin has no shortage of competition in the nearly $ 1 trillion trucking industry. Peloton raked in $ 60 million to improve truck platoon efficiency through automation, and on-demand freight delivery platform Ontruck secured $ 10 million. Convoy, which provides a platform that connects shippers with truckers, raised $ 62.5 million for a platform that connects shippers with truckers, while Convargo and CargoX nabbed $ 19 million and $ 20 million, respectively.

But investors like Greenoaks Capital founder and managing partner Neil Mehta believe there’s plenty of growth opportunity.

“Trucking … is the backbone of the global economy, yet has been underserved by technology. But change is coming and KeepTruckin is at the leading edge,” said Mehta. “KeepTruckin is building the technology that trucking companies need to compete in the modern economy. The network that KeepTruckin has built will enable it to change the way freight is moved on our roads.”

KeepTruckin has seven offices in addition to its San Francisco headquarters, across which hiring grew by two times in the past year. It now has over 500 employees.

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Big Data – VentureBeat

Disruption Plus

April 23, 2019 CRM News and Info

There’s a chicken-and-egg issue with digital disruption. Making decisions based on numbers instead of gut instinct is recognized to be a superior approach in many situations, but before you can get to decision making, people have to be able to use things like artificial intelligence and machine learning.

salesforce einstein Disruption Plus

Humans are not naturals when it comes to numbers; thinking back to high school algebra is all it takes to convince most of us.

Humans are really good at things like relationships and reading faces. So there should be a natural association between providing crunched numbers to customer-facing employees and their use. Before you can expect employees to take on thinking with numbers more than they ever have, however, it’s got to be dead solid easy to crunch the numbers and deliver their meaning.

For much of the AI universe so far, that crunching and delivery has been focused on things involving a next-best algorithm. Next-best offer in sales perhaps, or next-best service solution in customer service. There’s a lot more we can do.

Salesforce Delivers Einstein Analytics for a Broader Audience

Salesforce on Wednesday announced four new products based on its Einstein analytics engine, which are designed to spread analytics to more parts of an organization and to enable more types of employees to work with the tools.

All introductions support clicks or code, thus enabling admins and developers to access functionality according to their skill levels. Briefly, the introductions include the following:

Einstein Translation, which enables admins and developers to set up automatic language translation. If a user enters data in a different language the system instantly converts to that language. The company has not said how many languages initially are supported. The product is in pilot, so look for more information later.
Einstein Optical Character Recognition. OCR has been around a long time, because it works and is an important part of scraping usable data off documents. Initially Salesforce sees this as a way to streamline data entry. It’s also in pilot.
Einstein Prediction Builder enables admins and developers to build AI models for apps running on the Salesforce platform with a declarative setup tool. It’s generally available.
Einstein Predictions Service enables admins to embed Einstein AI analytics into third-party systems like enterprise resource planning or human resources. It’s also generally available.

Underscoring Trust

In a move that seems like a commentary on the troubles that social media companies are having, Salesforce restated its commitment to its core values — especially trust, in this case. The company went out of its way to state that its AI products are transparent, responsible and accountable.

For instance, the system provides users with justifications for predictions based on which factors influence a prediction. Also, protected fields warn of potential bias in datasets with pop-up alerts. Model metrics evaluate the accuracy and performance of AI models. If only things like this were available in social media.

My Two Bits

A few years ago, when sales analytics was the only analytics game in town, I remember some emerging vendors telling me it was hard to get customers to use their tools to develop their own unique analyses. They were happy to use all of the reports that came with the tool out of the box, though, which led to delivering a large number.

This rang true in my experience, because sales veterans (and I am one) seem highly attached to their unique approaches. At the time, I thought that asking them to develop their own analyses was akin to asking a fish to invent fire.

In the years since, I discovered that sales people were not unique. So making the use of analytics as easy as possible is a prerequisite for getting on with a company’s digital disruption.

Clicks and code, the two approaches Salesforce emphasized in this announcement, are not out of the ordinary for most things the company enables. Salesforce wants to reach the broadest audience possible for its solutions, and that’s good. However, it has extra importance at the intersection of digital disruption and analytics.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ECT News Network.

Denis%20Pombriant Disruption Plus
Denis Pombriant is a well-known CRM industry analyst, strategist, writer and speaker. His new book, You Can’t Buy Customer Loyalty, But You Can Earn It, is now available on Amazon. His 2015 book, Solve for the Customer, is also available there.
Email Denis.

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CRM Buyer

IT Leadership And Growth-Limiting Challenges For Midsize Businesses

April 23, 2019 BI News and Info

Part 1 of the three-part series “How IT Drives Growth for Midsize Businesses”

One of the most nerve-racking moments for technology leaders of growing businesses face is a boardroom full of business leaders with big ideas for growing their business. From acquiring another company to creating new business models to responding to disruptive threats from competitors, bold moves to drive growth are increasingly essential for survival. And the two words that no one in the room wants to hear is “we can’t.”

Without the right digital platform to support those strategies, technology leaders know they are between a rock and a hard place. In fact, the IDC InfoBrief, “The IT Role in Best-Run Midsize Companies: Driving Value from Embedded Intelligence,” sponsored by SAP, revealed that midsize companies of all growth trajectories view complex legacy systems, disconnected business processes, and an inability to consolidate and analyze information in real-time as the three most significant barriers to growth.

Barriers of Growth for Midsize Companies 1024x381 IT Leadership And Growth Limiting Challenges For Midsize Businesses

Source: “The IT Role in Best-Run Midsize Companies: Driving Value from Embedded Intelligence,” IDC, sponsored by SAP, 2019.

When overburdened IT landscapes reach their breaking point

The IT landscapes of most growing companies are reaching a breaking point that likely can’t be fixed with the “duct tape and glue” approach used in the past. These short-term solutions such as further customizations, or the addition of still more bolt-on solutions, are creating greater complexity and making it more difficult to get the information needed to make timely decisions. Such tactics only introduce more risk to the core business as processes and decision-making increasingly rely on connected intelligence, automation, and real-time data collection.

However, the idea of transforming a spaghetti landscape of patchworked applications into a simplified digital landscape can be intimidating. From significant investments to concerns over potential business disruption, business leaders have a variety of reasons to be cautious. But their employees may not have the patience to wait for the modern, consumer-like experiences they expect in the workplace and need to get work done.

As more and more companies confront this challenge, there is a greater need for open and honest discussions on balancing the boardroom’s vision and the technologies and tools that the digital environment needs to achieve it. Benefits and risks must be carefully analyzed to help the leadership team understand how technical capabilities and limitations can impact future business growth. Furthermore, this exercise can help shape a clear road map for implementing their digital transformation vision with tangible steps that are feasible, viable, desirable, and scalable.

How to turn “we can’t” into “we can”

The more data-rich and analytics-driven that embedded and intelligent technologies become, the greater the opportunity for IT to play a critical role in enabling business growth, rather than limiting it.

But first, IT leaders must make a case for shifting attention away from short-term solutions to a more thoughtful conversation about digital transformation.. Only then can IT effectively support , business leaders and embrace the business capabilities and process simplicity that they want.

How can technology leaders foster this business transformation conversation? IDC research indicates five best practices that have been successful for those from best-run midsize businesses:

Become an active leader of digital transformation by following a centralized approach that eliminates existing silos and prevents new ones from forming.

Strengthen ties with internal business partners with ongoing communication as well as collaborative planning, funding, and review efforts.

Align interest in next-generation intelligent technologies – including digital assistants – with the need to infuse artificial intelligence and machine learning throughout the IT architecture to support improved data management and analytics-driven decision-making.

Assign dedicated data intelligence and governance staff to empower people to make decisions that drive company-wide agility and adaptability.

Prioritize investments in partner solutions that augment the expertise, skills, and capabilities of the internal IT team and already-deployed applications.

Engaging in such a collaborative partnership between IT and the business can make the prospect of digital transformation less overwhelming for everyone in the boardroom. Business leaders will appreciate the advantages of ensuring cybersecurity of organizational data and simplifying and integrating the application landscape company-wide. And the next time a strategic and digitally dependent idea arises, IT leaders can confidently replace “we can’t” with “we can.”

Get more expert insights and recommendations on how investing in advanced technology can help address the IT challenges of growing businesses. We invite you to bookmark our series landing page, “How IT Drives Growth for Midsize Businesses,” and check it for new insights and best practices.

In the meantime, read the IDC InfoBrief, “The IT Role in Best-Run Midsize Companies: Driving Value from Embedded Intelligence,” sponsored by SAP, for real-world findings on opportunities that can help IT organizations in midsize companies pave the way to long-term growth.

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Digitalist Magazine

Teradata Ranked Highest in Every Use Case in 2019 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Data Management Solutions for Analytics Report

April 23, 2019 BI News and Info

Teradata recognized in all four categories – traditional data warehouse, real-time data warehouse, logical data warehouse and context-independent data warehouse use cases

Teradata (NYSE: TDC), the industry’s only Pervasive Data Intelligence company, today announced it has been recognized with the highest scores in all four use cases in Gartner’s recently published report, Critical Capabilities for Data Management Solutions for Analytics, issued March 18, 2019 by analysts Rick Greenwald and Adam M. Ronthal. Among 19 vendors evaluated, Teradata was ranked highest in all data warehouse use cases — Traditional, Real-time, Logical and Context-Independent. This year’s report marks the sixth time that Teradata has been included in the report.

“Leading every use case in Gartner’s Critical Capabilities report, in combination with being recognized as a Leader – for the 17th consecutive time – in the 2019 Magic Quadrant for Data Management Solutions for Analytics, once again validates our position as the authority in the new era of pervasive data intelligence,” said Martyn Etherington, CMO at Teradata. “Teradata Vantage not only gives our customers the answers they seek, it resets the bar for the entire industry.”

2019 Gartner Critical Capabilities 1 2 Teradata Ranked Highest in Every Use Case in 2019 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Data Management Solutions for Analytics Report

According to Gartner, “Demand for incorporating increasingly varied data sources and their associated use cases continues to expand in the data management solutions for analytics (DMSA) landscape. This pressure is forcing vendors to expand their capabilities. It has contributed to the expansion of the concept of the logical data warehouse (LDW), which allows multiple data types and sources to be accessed through a single logical interface, as well as to the growth in distributed database architectures.”

2019 Gartner Critical Capabilities 3 4 Teradata Ranked Highest in Every Use Case in 2019 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Data Management Solutions for Analytics Report

Data types and volumes are expanding exponentially, creating cost and complexity challenges that are uniquely difficult for the companies that use data the most. To address this growing issue, Teradata recently unveiled Teradata Vantage, its pervasive data intelligence platform that leverages 100 percent of the data to uncover real-time intelligence at scale. For companies requiring tightly integrated solutions that can accommodate massive scale and speed, and be deployed across secure, hybrid-cloud architectures, Vantage serves as the connective tissue – consolidating data, analytics, functional and tool silos into a single platform. Adding unprecedented choice, agility and flexibility to the decision to use Teradata Vantage, the platform can be deployed across public clouds, on-premises, optimized or legacy infrastructure, or as-a-service.

Gartner recommended, “For data and analytics leaders responsible for data management solutions as part of strategizing and planning information infrastructure: Evaluate the capabilities of your incumbent solution(s) against new use cases to determine if existing expertise could be used to reduce development time with a good-enough solution already in place; Plan on using a heterogeneous solution landscape overall, but try and reduce duplication of effort by categorizing use cases with regard to their target deployment platform; Use a logical data warehouse architecture when you need to integrate separate data repositories efficiently, keeping in mind performance SLAs that may be impacted by remote access; Plan for eventual integration with other data silos when scoping the effort needed to implement a specific solution to avoid crippling overhead caused by proliferating data silos.”

To learn more visit: https://www.teradata.com/Resources/Analyst-Reports/2019-Gartner-Critical-Capabilities-for-Data-Manage, or see Vantage in action at several upcoming events including Teradata Universe Madrid from April 7-10, 2019 or a Data Science Experience event at a city near you.

Gartner, “Critical Capabilities for Data Management Solutions for Analytics” by Rick Greenwald and Adam M. Ronthal, March 18, 2019.

Gartner Disclaimer
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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Stages of an ERP Implementation

April 22, 2019 OnContact

The idea of evaluating and choosing a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software can seem troublesome. The time to not only evaluate ERP vendors, but your own processes and needs can be intimidating. There is, however, a way to ease through the process if you break it down into stages. From there, you progress from one to the next and these lesser sections will be easier to tackle rather than looking at the big picture. There are many ways to phrase the phases, but here are the seven that I came up with to help you organize your evaluation:

Realization of Need

The true beginning of the evaluation comes when you realize you need to make a change. Whether or not you currently have an ERP, there should be a moment where it is painfully clear that what you are using, or not using, today is no longer optimal for how your company is running. There are many reasons for this including: a lack of functionality, outdated software, poor features, or a lack of flexibility. Either way, the result is the same: you need a new ERP solution!

Initial Research/Familiarization

If you currently have an ERP, then this phase will be initial research into new systems and what is out there. Whereas if you are coming from manual methods, it will be a familiarization of the concept of an ERP as well as what is on the market. This research should also include taking a deep look into your company’s current processes and what you will need from a new system.

Contacting Vendors/Gathering Specifics

Now that you are armed with knowledge, you should begin to contact vendors to get more specific information. Ballpark pricing, needs analysis review, timelines for implementation, and other items should be discussed. Then, if there are no reasons to disqualify the vendor, we move to the next step: demos of the software.

Preliminary Round of Demos

Depending on how many vendors you selected after initial research, this could be one of the longest of the seven stages. The demos should be detailed overviews that are semi-tailored to your needs. It should give you a true feel of the software and a Q/A session should follow in addition to asking questions during the demo.

Selecting the Final Competitors

This is where it may get tricky, especially if you have a large team of people evaluating the software. Disagreements will happen, but if you keep any arguments centered around the business, rather than a specific person’s role or department, there is always a way to pick the top two or three.

Proof of Concept with Vendors

With the final list now in hand, you can dive deep into demos that are filled with your data. The ERP vendors should be able to show you exactly how the system would run at your business and how you would run your business with their software. Be as picky and precise as possible; this is the stage where you want to leave no stone unturned.

Final Decision

After all conversations and the last round of demos are completed, now is the time to make your choice. Ideally, one of the ERP solutions would have jumped off the screen at this point, but if not, it will have to be an internal discussion that produces the final choice.

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Know the Score: Gartner’s 2019 Critical Capabilities for Data Science and Machine Learning Platforms

April 21, 2019 TIBCO Spotfire

Modern data science and machine learning platforms (DSML) today are constantly evolving with advanced features and functionality to meet new demands of innovative markets. Gartner recently published a report, evaluating 19 of the top DSML platforms in the space across 15 critical capabilities to help data and analytics leaders make the right choice for their business.

Let’s look at the four use cases identified by Gartner, to see how TIBCO holds up against the competition.

Business exploration: TIBCO Scores #1

Before you even start digging into your data and launching major analytics projects, you need to get a better understanding of the data you have. Business exploration means using data exploration, data preparation, and data visualization tools to identify business problems and opportunities to improve.

According to Gartner, “Business exploration, which is key for expert data scientists and citizen data scientists, has been accelerated and made more accessible by augmented analytics.”

Part of this push for augmented analytics comes from the growing trend of automated machine learning. Using the TIBCO^® Data Science platform you can automate key steps of the machine learning process and iteratively learn from the data to optimize performance. Without any coding, you can put your computers to work finding patterns and insights for you.

Advanced prototyping: TIBCO Scores #2

Solving business problems with advanced prototyping usually involves applying several machine learning and other advanced analytic techniques to models in new, innovative ways. Gartner sees this as an area that increasingly relies on open source. Luckily, the top machine learning platforms today, including TIBCO, are flexible and seamlessly integrate with open source languages such as R, Python, as well as frameworks like Amazon SageMaker, Google TensorFlow, and Azure Machine Learning.

Product refinement: TIBCO Scores #1

The ability to deploy machine learning models into production, monitor performance, and automatically update and refresh hyperparameters is critical for any data science and machine learning initiative. Gartner states in the report that, “Production refinement is more vital than ever to machine learning as organizations mature around operationalization and data, and analytics leaders demand tangible ROI.”

Uncovering valuable insights in the data isn’t enough anymore. With TIBCO^® Data Science, you are able to take action on those insights in real time to operationalize artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science and gain a competitive advantage with your data.

Nontraditional Data Science: TIBCO Scores #1

While nontraditional data science is a fairly new use case, tools in this area are becoming increasingly popular among citizen data scientists and developers.

With an intuitive, easy-to-understand user interface, TIBCO^® Data Science is for everyone. Data science today is a team sport. And to fully realize the value of data science and operationalize machine learning models within your organization, you need to involve and collaborate with cross-functional teams.

The scores are in, let’s tally them up. TIBCO scored number one in three of the four critical capabilities for DSML platforms and number two in the fourth. Nice job, team!

In the report, Gartner recommends data and analytics leaders, “Choose the best-fit platform based on balancing the desired mix of use cases, available user skill sets, deployment environment, and prioritized strength of critical capabilities.” To find the right data science and machine learning platform for your business, download a complimentary copy of the report here.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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