Posts By Kara Batt

10 Ways to Undermine Performance Management

Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) is an umbrella term used to describe the methodologies, metrics, processes, and systems that help enterprise companies monitor and manage their business’s performance. Executives seeking deeper insights into business trends and potentially ambiguous opportunities utilize Performance Management. Sub-components of EPM include: Enterprise Planning, Performance Monitoring & Measurement, and Enterprise-Wide Reporting. BenefitsRead… Read more »

Top Hurdles of Spend Analytics

With the stagnant economy, cost control has become the new mantra of every business. Businesses are deploying various strategies to contain costs and maintain profitability. Amongst such strategies is control and visibility into spending with external suppliers. Spend analytics is the process of aggregating, cleansing, and analyzing corporate spending data for the purpose of reducingRead… Read more »

5 Dos and Don’ts of Priority or Outcome-Based Budgeting

Performance-based budgeting or budgeting for outcomes (BFO) has taken center stage and not in the best light. Earlier this summer, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) introduced the world to BFO — the idea of linking spending to performance — and showed how unrealistic goals, inadequately managed performance measurement systems and improperly used, inaccurate dataRead… Read more »

5 Budgeting Process Challenges and Steps to Start Solving Them

Long established practices used to manage budgeting, planning, forecasting, reporting and risk management are becoming increasingly complex. As a result, budget and finance professionals are being pressured to improve accuracy, efficiency, better controls, and auditability and to provide greater visibility into costs, resources, and performance, which is not an easy task. For this reason, weRead… Read more »

Smarter-spending Solutions for State and Local Governments

Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it. -H. James Harrington Deciding to implement a new budgeting process and software solution can beRead… Read more »

Core Capabilities of Successful Budgeting, Forecasting and Performance Management Solutions

Budgeting, forecasting and performance management is a difficult process within and organization and reporting on results can be challenging, regardless of size or industry. Enterprise planning is a critical for managers that contribute to the overall success or failure of a program, project or product, especially in good and bad economic times. Despite the importanceRead… Read more »

9 Steps to Simplify & Streamline Your Software Selection Processes

Many state and local governments are nearing the end of the 7-10 year lifespan of the average budgeting and performance management software system, causing more and more key-decision makers to explore new budgeting and performance management technologies. In fact, according to the “2013 Gartner Financial Executives International (FEI) CFO Technology Study,” nearly 60% of CFOsRead… Read more »