IBM Cognos Virtual Finance Forum On-demand

David Axson
President
Sonax Group, former Head of Corporate Planning Bank of America

The unprecedented economic events of 2008 have cast a harsh light on many of the management practices organizations have relied upon for decades. At a time when uncertainty, volatility and risk are at all time highs, many organizations are seeking tools that allow them to better manage the opportunities and threats inherent in the marketplace. David Axson’s keynote presentation will discuss how managers are harnessing the potential of technology to create the dynamic, risk based performance management processes essential for today and tomorrow.

David will discuss:

• The use of risk based rolling plans and forecasts
• Dynamic project and investment evaluation
• Integration of performance management and business intelligence tools into the overall management process
• The skills needed to effectively manage risk and uncertainty.

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Mary Driscoll
Senior Research Fellow
APQC

Ms. Driscoll will share research on how leading CFOs are modeling and communicating the unprecedented risks to revenue and cash flow linearity—and how they are intervening with analytical speed and accuracy to protect margins. The presentation will offer practical advice on how finance executives can steer P&L owners toward value-based decisions regarding the deployment of operating capital—while also protecting important relationships with key suppliers and customers.

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Doug Barton
Vice President, Financial Performance Management
IBM

Finance organizations are under increasing pressure to manage risk, drive cash flow, contain and reduce costs, and improve profits. At the same time that Finance organizations need short term lifelines to respond to a slowing global economy and limited access to the capital markets, they need to transform critical business processes so that when the economy recovers they are in a position of sustainable competitive advantage. In this presentation, Doug describes new tools and disciplines to help Finance drive performance in turbulent times.

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Robert Loreto
Director, Finance Systems and Business Processes
Qualcomm

QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies (QCT) is a wireless industry leader for development and supply of innovative, high quality, cost-effective wireless microelectronic solutions. QCT has found that the key to establishing an effective performance management process starts with everyone working with a common set assumptions and assuring that data flows seamlessly between functional organizations. This required an integrated planning and performance management platform that allowed the multiple business areas to capture and produce more accurate forecasts that contributed to their overall plan. Powered by IBM Cognos solutions this new system allows the product teams to analyze information quickly with a more assured sense of accuracy. This enables the business team to spend more time performing analysis and identifying real opportunities and issues for confident decision-making.

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Brent Winsor
Financial Performance Management Product Marketing, IBM

Learn how IBM Cognos 8 BI Scorecarding v8.4 helps automate the strategy management process within your organization by linking strategy to execution. You will see how Cognos 8 BI scorecarding enables effective strategy management by determining how you are performing as an organization against strategic goals and objectives. Whether you need to monitor your KPIs in a dashboard or manage your strategy with enterprise scorecards, this session will show you how IBM C8 BI Scorecarding can:

• Communicate strategy, provide employee focus, and ensure accountability throughout your organization
• Define consistent KPIs leveraging a common metrics framework
• Leverage IBM C8 BI Dashboards to monitor KPIs and communicate scorecard information across your organization
• Link strategy to resource planning (budgeting)

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RK Paleru
Financial Performance Management Product Marketing, IBM

Learn how IBM Cognos TM1, Cognos 8 BI and Performance Blueprints are being used for advanced analysis and optimization applications such as profitability analysis, resource allocation, pricing, and risk management.

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Delbert Krause
Financial Performance Management Product Marketing, IBM

For many Finance organizations, the goal of delivering relevant, accurate, timely and auditable financial information remains elusive. In this session, you will learn how the IBM Cognos 8 Controller solution and Performance Blueprints tranform the close process. This session will provide an overview of the role Cognos Controller plays in automating consolidation and incorporates the latest blueprints for Internal Controls, XBRL and Management Reporting.

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Robert Torok
Financial Management, IBM

Identify and address risk events better and faster. There’s no denying the prevalence of new opportunities and risks in today’s global environment. Yet, most enterprises are failing to put risk into the context of overall performance. By treating risk and performance management (sometimes referred to as corporate, enterprise or business performance management) as separate disciplines, they miss opportunities to limit surprises and/or capitalize on the upside of risk. Included will be referencees to:

• (A railroad) – Creating an enterprise-wide risk assessment model
• (a refiner and marketer of petroleum products)– Monitoring three levels of risk reporting with heat maps / Developing a discussion of risk
• (a large zoo)– Breaking down silos, budgeting for risk and creating rolling risk forecasts

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Paul Hoy
Global Industry Director, Industrials, IBM

Chris Ilacqua
Financial Performance Management Product Marketing, IBM

See how IBM Cognos Enterprise Planning Solutions meets the requirements of your organization in turbulent times. Learn how Cognos 8 v 4 capabilities allows organizations to link operational and financial planning processes and create a more agile organization.

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Chris Wright
Analytic Applications Product Marketing, IBM

The requirement to have continuous insight into financial transaction activity is paramount to delivering financial quality and control. Using research from APQC benchmarking research this presentation explores best practices for working capital management. The presentation then examines how IBM Cognos 8 Financial Performance Analytics is enabling organizations to better assess their AP/AR data through packaged reports that help controllers and their staff gain insight into how well they are managing their working capital transactional financial data.

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Scott Wallace
Director, Performance Management Technology, Deloitte Consulting LLP

For many companies, the process for planning, budgeting, and forecasting is nothing more than a simplistic "numbers" exercise, such as, "Grow sales for these products by 10 percent or cut 10 percent across the board." In such cases, PBF does nothing to help management decide how to deploy resources effectively or to set meaningful performance targets. More importantly, it does nothing to help to implement the organization’s strategy. Instead, PBF becomes an onerous and wasteful process that’s time-consuming and frustrating for everyone. In contrast, when a focus on value drives planning, budgeting, and forecasting, every part of the process can work together to maximize shareholder value.

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Susan D. Noack
Global Industry Director, Healthcare, IBM

Healthcare systems worldwide are struggling with escalating costs, inconsistent quality, a critical shortage of skilled workers, and an increasing demand for services, while regulatory reporting and compliance requirements are on the rise. This is causing both providers and payers to look for innovative ways to increase operating margins, reduce costs, improve quality and safety, while increasing access to care. This session will examine the key issues facing healthcare organizations today and how performance management capabilities can assist their efforts to drive operational efficiencies and support care process collaboration to become the low-cost, high quality providers that today's turbulent times demand.

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Dan Potter
IBM

Has there ever been a more challenging time for midsize organizations? Looking outward, you have to be nimble, to react to market shifts at a moment’s notice. Your decisions have to be informed, quick and effective. And you have to “get it right the first time,” because there are few, if any, second chances.

You know you need a better solution for financial performance management—planning, budgeting, forecasting, consolidations, analytics and reporting. But during the current economic downturn, cost-cutting measures and making the most of existing resources have become the order of the day.

This session will provide a pragmatic approach to embracing and transforming your use of spreadsheets for more effective financial and operational performance management.

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Panelists: David Axson, Sonax Group; Mary Driscoll, APQC; Robert Loreto, QualComm; Scott Wallace, Deloitte; Steve Rogers, IBM Business Value Institute
Moderator: Doug Barton, IBM

This panel of practitioners and industry experts will address best practices in:

• Building support for Performance Management initiatives with executive management
• Choosing the right technology and implementation partners
• Enabling IT and finance functions to work as an effective team
• Measuring and managing performance against goals
• Change management, communication, and training

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