Moore's law is slowing down, organization with focus on cost advantage will have better chance to thrive

Is Moore's law about:

A. Smaller, faster transistors? OR
B. Economics of chip making?

My answer is 'A', until 'B' holds true.

"The culprits (for the slowing of Moore's Law) are the rapidly rising costs associated with technology development and the capital equipment needed to produce next-generation nodes" 

McKinsey identifies this trend in the semiconductor industry in this article, and many Industry experts agree with this trend.

With pressing economic challenges and slower technological breakthroughs, organizations are focusing on cutting costs and consolidating of the value chain (via Partnerships and/or Acquisitions) 

The challenge for decision-makers within an organization is:- 

1. Do I have the right information from all functions within an organization to model and plan for the future?

Traditionally EPM vendors had 'whiteboard' models – i.e. models with some features for financial planning but none for Sales and HR. Implementation of these EPM suites took six months or more, with minimal interaction of the various models.  Host Analytics offers a true, unified Cloud EPM suite, where most of the features are right out of the box. Financial, Workforce, Sales and CAPEX planning are all part of Host Analytics EPM offering.

B. Rising costs - How do we manage or decrease its unfavorable effects
Breaking down costs through Activity-based costing (ABC) (or Segment/channels for Sales/Marketing) can help organizations to identify the activities (expensive production process, or segment with higher costs) which need further analysis. You can view this information in Host Analytics (Actual's loaded from ERP and other systems), identify the issues and plan accordingly
Host Analytics offers integration services to many ERP and other systems, and drill-down to transaction details is also available.

C. Rolling forecasts, reporting and what if scenarios - Volatility, ConsolidationsWith Host Analytics Cloud EPM Suite, organizations can create rolling forecasts and create the most realistic picture possible of the future. There is no complex setup to create a rolling forecast.
You don’t have to purchase a different system for close management or consolidations, its available within the Host Analytics suite. Yes, it can even offer multi-currency consolidations and complex intercompany and equity eliminations.
You can also run 'what if' scenarios for consolidations and view the impact on the Balance Sheet and Income Statements.

D. Modeling of non-Financial information
Host Analytics 'Modeling' module recognizes the need for modeling of non-Financial information and flexibility to model and plan using Microsoft Excel as a front-end. With Host Analytics Modeling, you can model e.g. sales leads/opportunities or inventory SKU planning and then link then to other models .

To find out more, register for a Free demo

The Host Analytics Future of Finance Tour Tours starts in San Francisco on August 12th, 2015 

Cloud CPM suits positioned to be next 'Leaders' in Gartner's 2015 report.

Cloud CPM suite providers -Host Analytics, Adaptive Insights, Tagetik and Anaplan are moving into 'Leader' quadrant. Gartner has published 'Magic Quadrant CPM 2015 Report' and identifies trends in CPM suites.

Current hosted solution providers - SAP , Oracle and IBM are current leaders in CPM solution offering. They are late to understand customers needs, as their focus was on their cash cows 'ERP'. Cloud CPM suite providers realized this opportunity, and now with high customer satisfaction, they will move in 'Leader' quadrant.

Three strengths which cloud CPM has are

1. Pure-play 'Cloud' solutions- which translates to reduced costs per user and easy upgrades
2. Mobile device accessibility- user friendly UI and web analytics
3. Pre-built models for planning and consolidation, and function specific rich features. e.g. HR and Sales models.

Host Analytics, was the first pure-play cloud vendor. Host Analytics started offering its cloud CPM service in 2007. It maintains its 'visionary' vendor position. Host Analytics provides function specific rich features to HR and Sales models.

To make migration to Cloud, vendors offer migration paths and tools to move your models and data from legacy to cloud CPM suite.

If you have a need for cloud CPM solution, please contact us. We will be happy to assist you in moving away from 'Excel chaos' or expensive hosted solution.