P108: Leveraging Your Spreadsheets for Business Analytics

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P108 Leveraging Your Spreadsheets for Business
Analytics
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Challenges Facing Business Leaders
Wanted Better Insight

• Unable to readily view and use their information
• Over-reliance on spreadsheets
• Need solutions to drive competitive advantage
• Need better integration of Business Intelligence
  and Performance Management

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Some Common Risks and Challenges
CFO

• Spreadsheets Failing
• there have been well-documented cases of errors
  and losses resulting from spreadsheet
  manipulation errors and accidents. Source
  Gartner, August 2007
• Disparate Systems
• Average finance organizations operate 11 finance
  systems per billion dollars of revenue.
  Source Hackett Group, 2007
• Business Risks
• 62 percent of enterprises encountered a major
  risk event 42 percent of these enterprises were
  not well prepared for the event.Source IBM
  Global CFO Study 2008

Controller
Tax /Treasury
FP A
IT
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What Product is this Quote About ?
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Visicalc the first commercial spreadsheet
Advertisement in BYTE Magazine Circa 1979
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But not the first spread sheet!
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Why Are Spreadsheets So Popular?

• Comfort Factors
• Pervasive, Powerful, Personal, Familiar, Flexible
• A numerical Swiss Army Knife for many
  companies
• Data Collection, Business Modeling, Analysis,
  Reporting
• But Spreadsheets are a Breeding Ground for Risk!

Inaccurate Almost certain to contain unintended
errors Untrustworthy No confidence in source and
accuracy Insecure Security is monolithic, no
audit trail Fragile Lack of collaboration and
repeatability for continuous processes (e.g.
budgeting and planning) Cumbersome No process
automation, long cycles, unintuitive analytics,
manual hierarchies
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Transforming Your Excel-Based Process From
Fragile to Agile
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Transforming Your Excel-Based Process From
Fragile to Agile
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WARNING!

• WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SEE MAY SHOCK YOU.
• THE FOLLOWING SCREENSHOTS ARE FROM REAL
  APPLICATIONS BUILT ENTIRELY WITH COGNOS TM1 AND
  MICROSOFT EXCEL.
• NO DATA WAS HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THESE SLIDES.

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Budgeting and Forecasting
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Salary Planning
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Integrated Workflow
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Financial Reporting
Aqua, Inc
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Dashboards
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Scorecards
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Analytics
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Whats the magic here?
Cell H18 contains a DBRW formula, a TM1
function that retrieves or writes back a value to
a TM1 cube on the server TM1 data values can be
manipulated exactly like Excel values, enabling
users to extend the application on their own with
Excel functions and graphing features No data is
stored in Excel. It is only used to present the
TM1 data, meaning the same TM1 cube data can be
presented in an entirely different way for other
users or applications.
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The Transformation is Complete!
Cognos TM1 enables the transformation from
Errors Untrustworthy data Unsecure Cumbersome Fra
gility
Accuracy Trusted information Auditable Speed Agili
ty
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The Technical Transformation
Excel Only Excel TM1
Business Hierarchies Represented as SUM formulas Represented as true dimensional hierarchies
Data Storage File-based. Requires manual distribution. Server-based cubes, always available
Business Rules Complex Excel functions, repeated over and over Simple cube rules
Data Integration Flat-files, copy paste Built-in data integration (TurboIntegrator)
Web Deployment Not an option End-user publishing
Security and Audit Trail Weak Powerful, with full rollback capability
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Five Common Mistakes

• Focusing on Point Solutions
• Select a flexible, versatile product like Cognos
  TM1 that will grow with your needs
• Paving The Cow Paths
• Take the opportunity to challenge old practices
  and eliminate redundant/obsolete business
  processes
• Relying Too Much On IT
• Spreadsheets User-driven User-accountable
• Replacing Ultimate Flexibility with Complete
  Rigidity
• Purpose-built applications have a purpose, but
• Dont Take Excel Away From the Users Leverage
  It!

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Proven Practice Emulate existing Excel templates

• Retain the look feel of your existing Excel
  templates to
• Lower training cost
• Increase user acceptance
• Reduce deployment risk
• Deploy Excel applications with Cognos TM1 Web
• Tamper-proof interface for casual users (e.g.
  annual budgeting cycle)
• Simple, non-technical publishing process, owned
  and operated by business users not IT

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Proven Practice Centralized Management

• Cognos TM1 centralizes and manages fact-based
  assumptions, drivers and business rules
• Eliminates or greatly reduces back of the
  envelope calculations
• Enables immediate distribution of updates
  (hierarchy changes, model drivers)
• Enables management of parallel scenarios, each
  with its own set of assumptions
• Cognos TM1 Excel removes labor and latency from
  your business processes
• Easier to deploy and manage for process owners
• Easier to contribute and collaborate for end-users

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Proven Practice Provide users with multiple
lenses

• Personalized Dashboards for Performance
  Management
• Unified analysis enables better insight

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Summary

• Cognos TM1 delivers the best of both worlds
• A high-speed centrally-managed server for
  business data, hierarchies, calculations and
  workflow
• A familiar and attractive Excel-based
  presentation layer, managed by end-users
• Cognos TM1 Excel
• enables enhanced insight and proactive management
• removes artificial barriers to higher growth and
  business performance
• provides a secure yet flexible Performance
  Management environment