Is Your Team #1?

Walking through San Francisco International and I happened to glance up and see the newest (at least to me) "We're #1" pronouncement from Oracle. They claim to be #1 in Enterprise Performance Management, which the sub-head in the ad defines as Business Intelligence, Financial Applications and analytics.

While Oracle gets full credit for leadership as of the latest Gartner MQ, it is not immediately clear that Oracle is #1. This may be a function of overall market share, or it just might be more chest pounding from Oracle. Of interest is the fact that Gartner calls out that Oracle's BI offer needs work and the fact that current customers, especially the Hyperion customers, are taking a wait and see approach to Oracle offerings.

Oracle has a strong global market share in financial analytics, but it is by no means clear that Oracle is #1 in EPM. Especially if SAP has anything to say about it. And they do, based on a recent announcement of Oracle replacements based on their offering not inclusive of Business Objects.

Let the games begin.

The Many Mutations of Performance Management

As you know, we here at the Performance Guys are always on the look-out for new thinking and new solutions that focus on the performance management arena. And while the big players are slugging it out at the macro level, hiring top industry analysts, having one last sales kick-off, and getting ready to take over the world, other specialist vendors are quietly going about their business and solving problems for companies across the vertical spectrum.

One such example comes to us today from Red Prairie from the NRF show (you may have seen other cool NRF unveilings earlier in the week--pretty soon the damn shopping carts will be driving themselves--and the futuristic vision of Webvan will yet be achieved--VICTORY!--but I digress).

Companies like Red Prairie, focused on vertical solutions, are unveiling their own performance management solutions--this one branded in the imaginative "R"PM, or "Red Prairie" Performance Management (bets on if this name catches on? Anyone?) for retail companies. Now Red Prairie isn't necessarily a household name like some of the links above, but sports an impressive client list that uses--and depends on the RP software to help them optimize their operations and performance.

OK, there "is" the matter of the product being built on top of a certain software giant's own performance management application, but that aside, it's important to remember that many vertically focused organizations--retailers in this instance--are wary of using the big guys as their vendor of choice for BI and performance management--they're worried about cost, customization, and if the vendor truly knows and understands their key issues. Vendors like Red Prairie show us that in this rapidly accelerating era of consolidation (It's true, Oracle will one day rule us all), that innovation and laser focus on solving key business pains for a customer still has a place in the market.

And How Would You Like Your Performance Management Served?

There's obviously been a lot of talk over the course of the last few quarters about the changing delivery model for performance management and business intelligence to the marketplace, and there are huge ramifications with the move from a desktop/server delivery method to a more services oriented approach.

Just a few years ago when Business Objects was releasing their first version of crystalreports.com, the interest from customers and prospects was exceedingly low--and the adoption, aside from all the "free trials" that were given away, was even lower. The common argument of not trusting the data outside the firewall, integration, and overall control comprised the litany of reasons why companies would never turn to a SaaS model for BI.

Fast forward a few years, and with the help of forward thinking SaaS companies like LucidEra, and our blogging friend Darren Cunningham, the issue is no longer whether the model is viable, but rather, how it gets integrated with other enterprise applications--which shows just how far the ball has been moved--the SaaS vendors are getting the same barriers to adoption as traditional vendors. That shows a real maturity of the technology.

Another sure sign that you've arrived--Microsoft is not only in the game, but experiencing channel conflict on who would host the SaaS services, and how that might impact partner revenue streams. Now since the folks from Redmond are highly dependent on their extensive partner community to be their eyes and ears out on the street, a channel uprising is no small matter. But more importantly, it shows that the argument has moved from whether cloud computing, or software + services, as MSFT calls it, is a viable way to deliver technology, to who is going to be the one delivering it.

With new applications like mobile computing and enterprise search making strong headway into the information worker's mindshare, the issue around performance management adoption is rapidly moving from "if" a company should adopt a performance management solution to help their top and bottom lines, to "how" they'd like their solution delivered.

Public Sector Performance Management

We here at The Performance Guys like to tackle a variety of BI and performance management topics (with an occasional BPM post thrown in just to keep Pat happy--I kid, I kid...). But it's not very often that we talk public sector, and this story from the Chicago Tribune highlights the fact that county government (in this case, the black hole that is Cook County government, in which Chicago is located) has its own performance management challenges as well, and that the issues that we try to attack and address with business intelligence are not limited to for-profit companies--they affect organizations of all types and sizes.

The issue confronting the County is not a new one--they lack critical visibility into where the budget is being spent, and whether or not a proposed tax increase will actually have the intended impact. Now, speaking as a Chicagoland resident for over 25 years, I can tell you first hand that in the past, passing a tax hike was as easy as finding Lake Michigan. With the government fully aligned with the City and Mayor Daley, there's never been a huge debate when fares, fees, or levy's have been instituted.

But take a look at this passage from the article, which could be a transcript from any for-profit company around the world:

At public hearings the county has hosted on its current $3.2 billion budget plan, its leaders sometimes sounded like CEOs reassuring shareholders their investments would pay off: "We don't waste anything," Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans said in November: "The money that we're asking for is money we will put to good use."In seeking $890 million a year in new tax revenues, Stroger said he has achieved "enormous operational efficiencies" during his year-long tenure, and has adopted "modern business practices."

Stroger also points out that he has introduced "performance-based budgeting" using productivity benchmarks.Seigle's idea for a Cook County bankruptcy filing would not solve its "revenue problem," Stroger spokeswoman Ibis Antongiorgi said in a statement Friday (see box above). "When any business, public or private, refuses to raise revenue while expenses continue to outpace income, then it is time for all stakeholders to consider drastic expenditure reductions. Cook County government needs additional revenue to pay its employees."

What's missing from Stroger's budget plan is specific-enough objectives, said Gidwitz, a director of Rush University Medical Center, which works closely with the four county-run hospitals. "Where you can cut is the second question," he said. "The first question is, 'What do we need? What are the priorities and strategies?'"

What's interesting about this budget squabble is how leaders from the private sector are being asked to get involved and help the County address its issues and raising critical questions that you hear project teams talk about in most EPM projects--how do we institue processes that solve our problems and help us be more accountable? And when you read the quotes from the former CEO's and executives, what becomes apparent is that like most organizations and performance management, they know they have a problem, but aren't sure how to fix it. Enter a great performance management opportunity!

Many times, especially in Cook County and Chicago, the government isn't too high on public accountability and disclosure; but in this case, we get to see some interesting insights into the challenges that government has with accountability, budgeting, and performance, and how the principles we advocate and write about here can be applied to the public sector as well.

Can't wait to get back for Christmas!

The Business Objects EPM Strategy

Great slides posted by our friend Timo Elliot on his BI Questions blog, showing the keynote presentations at this week's Business Objects Insight Conference of Bernard Liautaud, John Schwarz, and Mark Doll, highlighting the EPM strategy going forward.

All Hail Microsoft’s Formal Entrance into the Land of Performance Management!

So while Performance Guy Nic is busy prowling the halls of the Seattle Convention Center this week at the first ever Microsoft BI Conference, it occurs to me that it’s a great opportunity to take a look at the impact of Microsoft on the performance management market.

To be sure, they are a formidable force in any market they enter. Their resources and patience are bottomless, and they are not afraid of refining a strategy many times over.

But the BI and performance management market has changed significantly since they first announced this initiative over 18 months ago. Then, if you look at the reactions from the analysts and press, it was a matter of time before they took over the space, and the vendors were all put on their guard—deals were frozen, partners were summoned, developer resources marshaled.

So what’s different now? Well, the market is, for one. The market now, given the rapid consolidation we’ve seen just in the last month, means that other vendors are in a far stronger position to compete against Microsoft than they were a few years ago.

Also, the maturity of the market is different. While at the time positioned strongly as both an enterprise and mid-market play, given the rich features and functionality of other offerings in the market, it’s going to get mighty crowded up in the Fortune 1000 for a non-business oriented sales manager. Which leaves the mid-market, which is where the analysts think this will probably gain the most traction early on, especially as the planning and budgeting capabilities of the performance point products take time to catch up to what’s on the market today.

Also, given that we’re still about 6 months or so away from the launch, who’s to say what else will happen in the market that may further marginalize this offering.

Or are we about to see the unveiling of a performance management juggernaut that will lay waste to the EPM landscape. Let’s ask our roving Microsoft correspondent Nic Smith—over to you, Nic…

Business Objects to Acquire Cartesis

I'll post this largely without comment, and let my fellow performance guys dive into the details, and "what this might mean" for the performance management space. But as the three of us at one time or another have worked at Business Objects, one of the most consistent pieces of critical feedback from analysts and customers has been the lack of consolidations capabilities within the portfolio.

And while consolidations might not be a super high-growth area, the lack of an enterprise offering has stymied Business Objects from really penetrating the enterprise CFO office on a regular basis. So the announcement of the intent to acquire Cartesis today portends well for a strong end to end offering for the company in EPM.

More thoughts as the days and weeks progress...

When do you know you’ve achieved “Performance Management?”

I was giving a presentation to a customer recently, describing our unique capabilities to deliver a solution to him and his company that I really did feel would help he and his team solve a pressing business challenge. After I finished the presentation, he paused and asked me “when are we ever done with performance management? Do you guys just keep selling us software forever, or do we shake hands at some point and call it a day? When are we “there”?”

After growling “never foolish man, never I tell you” under my breath, I realized afterwards that he had a point in asking the question.

And it’s not that “performance management is a process, not a product, you’re never done.” (which is true by the way). Yes, you always want to improve; yes, you can always do better; yes, there will always be another new piece of technology. And many technology sales people make their living on going from company to company selling back into the same buyers over and over with a great deal of success.

But let me make the case for putting a wrapper around a specific performance management project and deciding that you’re done once the original objectives of the project have been achieved as a way to get “there,” as the customer was commenting to me. Lots of projects we’re seeing today have multiple phases, multiple teams, and multiple go/no-go dates that bring huge structural and process changes within the organization. And these projects can be great from a vendor perspective—lots of software, lots of services, lots of maintenance. But at the end of the day, is the vendor really solving the problem that the customer set out to address when the project was conceived?

After all, most projects don’t start big, they start small and grow big. And during the inevitable delays, funding pauses, and team reshuffling, the original issue that was to be solved remains unsolved, causing the pain, inefficiencies, and money drain that prompted the project team to be formed.

So here’s a vote to go against the prevailing project prototype these days and—wait for it—solve the original problem that caused you to call in the vendor in the first place! The most successful technology projects—the ones that really change the way you work and compete in the marketplace—are those that people are clamoring to use, not that they are forced to use. And yes, ERP once even fit into this category (don’t laugh). Have you ever seen the order entry process pre-ERP vendor? Not pretty.

But beyond ERP, the reason that most technology projects take off is that they start small with a pilot project that solves the problem that you have. As word spreads that Joe’s team in finance is doing great things with their new financial dashboards, suddenly Sue in supply chain or Jim in HR wants to see these magical dashboards and get their own reports. Now we’re talking performance management! You’ve created a bottoms-up approach to the issue that has people wanting to grab onto your coattails instead of jumping off them so they don’t get tainted with the stench of your project failure. I’ve seen it work time and time again. People want to tell others about their success; they want to show how much better they’re doing using your software. It’s just much harder to do that when it takes 3 years to go-live.

So in the big scheme of things, consider which scenario gets you a bigger benefit, provides momentum within your teams, and shows that you’re leading and solving problems that matter today. Think of that next time you see me pitching my vision and wheel of productivity and try solving the main problem first, and boiling the ocean 2nd. You’ll see a greater return for your investment; your people will be happy, and you’ll actually be “there.” And from the vendor’s perspective, we’ll have a happy customer that we can point to as a success. Wow, sounds like everyone wins here.

The Importance of Data Quality in Performance Management

This one is going to be a long running topic in these parts, but it just can't be overestimated how important data quality is to performance management. Just ask the lovely city of Valparaiso, Indiana about it. Now if they didn't have a performance management problem, I think we're in the wrong business. All credit to Timo Elliott for this great example. Visit him at timoelliott.com, and then hurry back here.

Reading the Tea Leaves in EPM

Well one of the performance guys has been in the UK this week, and came across this interesting article on-line at the Financial Director website about the game of musical chairs currently being played amongst all the vendors in the performance management space in the wake of the Oracle/Hyperion news.

Looks like lots of implications and potential combinations all around, and it will be interesting to see how this all shakes out--read on!

Dashboards ARE TOO part of Performance Management

Building on Nic's post from below on the lens through which dashboarding is being viewed these days. I had an interesting discussion with some business colleagues the other day about the use of dashboards in performance management projects and whether they were really a "part" of the performance management equation. Camps quickly divided into the typical “yes they are,” “no they aren’t” sides of the question, and there are cases on both sides.

If you DO think that they are, there’s compelling evidence on your side. Dashboards are the way that most people digest their key performance indicators and information these days—they look to see what their dials tell them, then go and take action or go get a cup of coffee—the choice is theirs. Just the fact that they are seeing the important aspects of their business is propelling them to take action, which at its essence is managing your organization’s performance.

Additionally, with the cost and heavy footprints associated with most performance management solutions these days, often times dashboards are an inexpensive and fast way to start proactively managing your business. With the wizards and do-it-yourself capabilities of many products today, you can be connecting to data sources and understanding tolerances in no time. This is especially true for small and mid-sized organizations, who don’t have a big budget for a full-on performance management system, but do have a few hundred dollars around to play with some visualization and data.

So there you have it—compelling evidence that dashboards are part of performance management. Everyone agree? I thought so.