2010 1st Quarter Performance Profiler

JCB Partners Performance Profiler Newsletter keeps you informed of trends in Performance Management that can shape how you do business.

In the Performance Profiler you will find information and news on upcoming events, client & peer case studies, new solutions as well as interesting & timely articles. We hope you find the information here relevant. Your feedback and suggestions on these and future topics is welcomed at profiler@jcbpartners.com. To continue to receive the quarterly Performance Profiler SUBSCRIBE HERE

TOPICS
Sony Information Management & Data Standards // GS1 Standards and Master Data Management // 5 Steps to Go From Just Surviving to Thriving in Volatile Economies // Understanding and Leveraging Column Database Management Systems // The New Face of Performance Consulting // Client Success Leads to Recognition // Best Practices in Performance Management Research Survey  // Training Calendars & Education Discounts

Learn How Sony is Delivering Trusted Information and Adhering to Data Management Standards

No matter how diverse organizations are, or how unique a company's information challenges may be, they all succeed in part by turning data into trusted information. During this webcast you will  hear why Sony decided to undertake their Global Data Synchronization initiative, the business value they are achieving and key challenges they faced along the way.

Webcast Agenda

• The value & benefits of Integrated Information management

• The business case for integrated information management

• Understanding GS1 and EPCIS initiatives

• Sony Information management case study

• Delivering Trusted Information - What does it take
  

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Using GS1 Standards and Master Data Management to Improve Supply & Demand Chain Efficiency

By Kyle Breunlin
In the complex landscape of today's business world it is becoming increasingly apparent there is a definite necessity for global standardization of industry supply chains. As business grows and changes the ability to accurately track information seamlessly through multiple systems becomes a considerable business challenge. GS1 is an organization that has recognized this challenge and established a system to address the specific needs of organizations seeking to work more efficiently together. They understand that organizational supply chain practices have grown independently and it is difficult for these disparate systems to interact efficiently. Specifically, GS1 is dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve the efficiency and visibility of supply and demand chains globally and across sectors. The GS1 system of standards is the most widely used supply chain standards system in the world.

The GS1 system is comprised of four key product areas: Barcodes, EPCGlobal, eCom, and GDSN. GS1 Barcodes enable businesses to manage the supply chain more efficiently and facilitate a globalized supply chain by increasing efficiency and maximizing profitability. GS1 EPCGlobal utilizes RFID technology to immediately track what an item is, where an item is located, and where the item has been previously. This results in more effective and streamlined processes in a number of different sectors. GS1 eCom (electronic business messaging) standards provide clear guidelines for creating electronic versions of a wide variety of business documents. These standards enable trading partners to smoothly exchange information electronically regardless of their internal hardware/software systems, or language requirements. GS1 GDSN (Global Data Synchronization Network) enables companies who do business with each other to always have the same information in their systems. Changes made by one company are automatically and immediately available to all of the other companies who do business with them. Organizations across different industries have experienced many benefits from the GS1 system including improved efficiency, increased visibility, improved customer safety, better communication, and new service options.

The reasons to implement GS1 standards in your organization are far-reaching, but lately pressure from partner organizations has required many companies to implement GS1 standards sooner than anticipated. These partners understand that in order to fully take advantage of GS1 not only will they need to implement the standards, but so will the partners they communicate with. JCB Partners has been vital in helping organizations navigate this often difficult road and align their data succinctly with appropriate data from partner organizations. Using a GS1 data pool intermediary JCB has been able to successfully connect organizations with vastly different information and employ a more fluid and sustainable communication standard. JCB takes a global approach fully understanding the technical and cultural architecture of both their client, and all other partners involved. In pro-actively understanding all project challenges, JCB is able to outline an accurate project timeline and intelligently approach all phases of the project. With a proven track record of winning projects, JCB recently implemented GS1 GDSN supply-chain standards for a leading global electronics manufacturer. This electronics giant faced a strict timeline from several retailers in getting required product attributes (many of which did not exist) transmitted effectively and consistently. JCB was flexible enough to work with several organizations located internationally to overcome data and personnel resource constraints, fractured and inefficient organizational processes, and an unexpected change in data-pool providers. The end result was an on-time, under-budget, successful transmission which will be supported through post-production support.

Based on the success of their previous implementations JCB Partners is looking forward to continuing GS1 implementation success in to 2010. Implementing GS1 can be a long and difficult road, but JCB Partners uses its specialized skill set and unique approach to project management to achieve success in complex implementation environments.
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Increasing Performance in Down Economies

5 Steps To Go From Just Surviving To Thriving In Volatile Economies

By Tom Griggs
As the economy struggles to remain stable and growth slows, companies are searching for ways to become more efficient and profitable.  Now, more than ever before, extra scrutiny is being placed on the decisions made by executives and how they impact performance. Our experience working on hundreds of performance related projects has revealed trends that executives can use get through potentially tough times and not just survive, but grow and thrive in struggling economic climates.

This article explores performance trends and provides answers to the most critical performance issues facing business today.  Read on and learn how to achieve better performance by identifying, addressing, and integrating the primary performance domains in your organization. Common among high performing organizations, the following activities and elements have helped leaders find opportunities to improve performance and increase profitability:

1.    Company-Wide Enterprise Planning

• Do budgets and forecasts differ from actual? 
• What is the impact of decision making on budgets and planning throughout the company? 

Enterprise planning allows more people to easily participate in the planning cycle. This allows accountability for planning to be extended to individual business units and automates approval workflows at accounting and executive levels. Gone are the days when executives could afford to guess-stimate, or take shots in the dark. Enterprise planning makes the best use of the collection of corporate knowledge spread amongst the ranks and puts it to use in the planning and forecasting process for more accurate planning and accountability.

Every company strives to budget and forecast accurately in any economic climate. Often the difference between survival and success can be found in how well, accurate, and quickly organizations financially plan and report. Accurate planning enables executives to make more informed responsible decisions as the business moves forward.

2.    Enterprise Reporting

• How easy is it to understand profits by product type for a given time period?
• How long does it take to get the numbers for a quarter, or year-to-date numbers? 

For many organizations the answer to these questions is easily a few days or more. Enterprise reporting gives executives the ability to pull a wide array of company information into presentation-ready formats quickly

Enterprise reporting gives executive's ability to access a broad spectrum of information. Decision makers need the ability gain high-level information as well as access to in-depth analysis and trending intelligence.  More importantly they need it in a format they can use and understand quickly.  With accurate information readily available, decision makers can make informed, responsible choices that take advantage of current opportunities in the market. Further, by analyzing trending information leaders can determine the overall health of business and identify potential issues before they occur.

3.    Accelerate Accounting and transform the office of Finance

• How long does it take for finance to complete accounting close process?

The longer this process takes, the less time your employees have to be working on other tasks, such as financial performance analysis. To transform the office of finance into the back bone of performance executives need to giving finance and accounting the time and ability to provide higher value by focusing on activities like budgeting, reporting, and analyses. That is only possible when organizations learn to accelerate closing processes. By analyzing current closing processes and re-engineer them for more efficiency, organizations can typically shrink the process to four days or less.

• Does the finance organization know where the company is headed, what will happen, when, and why, early enough to act and react to meet or exceed corporate objectives?

Transforming the office of finance means being able to provide predictable financial and operational performance analysis, along with timely, sustainable compliance and early insights into where the business is headed, relative to goals and forecasts. Transforming finance into the backbone of performance gives decision makers a clear view of what is happening and the ability quickly and precisely adjust plans, targets, and resource allocations across the organization. Executives are better able foresee problems, seize new opportunities, and act in time to keep the organization on course.

Simply put, accounting can be more productive and can do more each month if less of their time is spent in the close process. It may also be possible to reduce the size of the team that performs the close activities and reallocate resources to other finance functions.

4.    Managing Strategy and Performance Indicators

• Is there a method to establish benchmarks for current performance that identifies areas for improvement?
• Does the organization strategy include a road-map that demonstrates the impact on the business, guides and weights initiatives to ensure successful execution?

Scorecards are one of the key tools that can help executives manage strategy effectively and execute on objectives. Yet many scorecard projects fail or deliver less than desired results. Why? They are not set up efficiently or effectively. Used correctly scorecards are powerful tools to manage performance against strategy. But to perform this critical task there are some basic requirements. First, it is vital that executives contribute to setting up the metrics and targets; this is not just IT's job. It's also important to integrate scorecards into everyday processes and develop a strategy map to show the relationship among metrics.

An executive decision maker once said "I have lots of information, but very little intelligence", having data is nice, but more often than not executives need to see it in a form factor that makes sense to the business user. They want to know which areas are excelling within the company as well as which areas are struggling without having to look at multiple scorecards, reports, or spreadsheets.  Dashboards featuring the KPI's specific to company goals and objectives can do just that. Dashboards can be integrated with enterprise reporting solutions enabling decision makers to drill into information to reveal the sources of the indicator and gain intelligence out of information. The combination of high-level visual intelligence provided with detailed analysis ability gives leaders everything they need to steer the business in the right direction.

5.    Automated, Consolidated Financials

• How costly is it to generate financial reports, both in time and dollars? 
• How confident are decision makers in the integrity of financial reports?
• How many iterations does it take before reports are ready for The Street as well as investors? 

Automating consolidates and financial reporting allows organizations to produce pixel-perfect financial reports at the touch of a button, and reduces the amount of human intervention where errors occur. Financial reporting solutions make life much easier for everyone involved, and take the manual effort out of the process and dramatically impact process efficiency and SOX compliance. This gives leaders the ability to focus on the contents of the reports and driving business instead of data aggregation chores and haggling about reporting information validity. Organizations can utilize a reusable set of reports that can be run on demand, making them accessible to even the least technical of people.

Review
Volatile economies can be periods of tremendous opportunity for leaders equipped with the right knowledge to take advantage of the moment. Understanding these elements of performance management can help organizations become more efficient and profitable especially in turbulent times. These performance practices ensure that reliable, accurate information is available and decisions are made by informed leaders to help steer business. 

Times may be tough, but that does not have to be cause for panic within your organization. These areas of improvement outlined above can help just about any company become more efficient and profitable. Individually or together, they help ensure that reliable, accurate information is available to help leaders make key decisions that can have a profound impact.

Learn how these key performance domains in your organization can be aligned and focused using best practices in process optimization, and performance information management. Learn what some of the most successful companies in today's economy are doing to thrive in volatile market climates.  See how to better inform business unit leaders and help them steer business past some of the obstacles they are bound to face.  JCB Partners can help you navigate through economic down turns and ensure you have the knowledge needed to align people, process and information for sustainable performance improvement.
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Understanding and Leveraging Column Database Management Systems

By Brent Breithaupt
As with any technology, column based DBMS' such Vertica, Sybase IQ and SenSage have some advantages and disadvantages, but knowing when to leverage the right tool is as important as how it is implemented.  Column based databases have great advantages in the proper application, but they are not to be considered multi-use DBMS' such as Oracle, DB2/UDB and Microsoft SQL Server.  As such, they should be treated as a niche product that serves a very specific purpose. Outlined here are the benefits and challenges we have encountered in implementing these products:

Benefits

• Query performance is exceptionally fast, especially on large data-sets that reside in a single table that's wide and deep.
• The need for aggregate tables is diminished as query performance extends to large data-sets and many aggregations are done on the fly.
• Loading data is typically extremely fast, specifically due to:
  • Small number of tables required to load (don't need many tables when you have a handful of tables that are very wide and deep).
  • The bit indexes that column based database use are built quickly and incrementally during loads with little penalty.
• Column based database technology is mature and proven.
• Users are provided with fast performing reports (aggregate and non-aggregated data).

Technical Challenges

• Column based reporting tables can become unruly to manage as they end up being wide and deep. We have seen tables grow to 300-500 columns wide with 100s of millions of rows.
• Data in wide tables is extensively de-normalized.
• Traditional dimensional and relational data modeling is the exception - performance degrades as one moves away from the column based wide and deep table paradigm.
• Adding new data elements, such as attributes and dimensions, is very difficult because:
  • The level of effort needed to prepare and de-normalize the data to fit into to the wide table(s).
  • The target table's data has to be prepared and updated to be in alignment with the new data elements.
• Extracting data subsets often requires a significant amount of effort, specifically:
  • The desired data-set has to be extracted from the wide table(s) to an intermediary table and data store.
  • The extracted data has to be de-duped and normalized.
  • The resultant data-set needs to be extracted and delivered to the target audience.
• Database compression is required to combat the extensive data duplication resultant from the de-normalization

Business Challenges

• Time to market of new products may become elongated due to the difficulties around adding and integrating new data into the warehouse and reporting systems based on wide and deep tables.
• Adding new data (from 3rd party providers) to support additional analytical requirements is time consuming, lengthy and expensive.
• Extracting data subsets and creating new data feeds to individual providers, suppliers, and other external constituents is time consuming, lengthy, and expensive.

In short, column based DBMS' will provide unparalleled query performance.  If query performance is the priority and the required effort in creating wide tables, the associated infrastructure to load them, processes to maintain them, and little database structural change is anticipated, then a column based DBMS may be the right solution.  However, adding and integrating new data, introducing new products, creating new data feeds, and extracting data becomes very challenging with column based databases.  Which is right for your business?
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JCB Partners Puts A New Face On Performance Consulting

JCB Partners, a leading Performance consultancy announced today the transition of the brand of the company. While the name has not changed, visitors to the company's website will notice a new face for this firm.

During a time when many are struggling to survive, JCB Partners is growing and their performance management practice is helping many of their clients to successfully meet the challenges of the current economic climate. One area where JCB Partners growth is reflected is in the recent standardization and maturity of the company's brand. While this is most visible in the company's website and collateral it goes much deeper than the visual elements.

Ed Wooden, JCB's Managing Partner, commented on the company's growth, "JCB is in a formative brand development stage. We are undertaking efforts to standardize several areas of the business with one compelling objective: to achieve high quality consistently and present ourselves with cohesion." Mr. Wooden added, "We are striving for sustainability and focus on every client engagement to ensure we have a positive impact on their goals, and establish long term relationships. Our brand is much more than a visual element - it represents the way we conduct our business, and the value we place on relationships."

JCB Partners is part of a growing sector of consultant firms that have evolved to fill the gap between the small, boutique consulting groups with limited resources and expertise, and the large corporate consulting firms that can be costly and less agile. What makes JCB Partners different are their proven client history and their team of seasoned professionals able to provide end-to-end strategic and IT consulting services. They are a unique hybrid capable and proven, yet flexible in their approach combining technology.
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Client Success Leads to Recognition

At IBM's annual Information On-Demand conference JCB Partners' and IBM's clients were recognized for demonstrating leadership in Information and Performance Management.  These organizations received multiple awards and participated in keynote presentations.

Rooms To Go received honors for outstanding achievement in information management and a nationally recognized healthcare client spoke about their experiences using IBM Cognos and the impact that Analytics is having on their business.  Both of these organizations are using solutions provided by IBM and delivered by JCB Partners to spend less time chasing answers to their questions and more time understanding how to maximize their business performance.

Rooms To Go was awarded in the category of Outstanding Information Agenda Solution. Collaborating with JCB Partners and IBM, Rooms To Go now has better visibility into their data to maximize sales and profitability. Using business analytics solutions, management is able to access comprehensive reports to readily and easily identify buying patterns, enabling staff to optimize floor planning, and reduce advertising costs by helping marketing to target promotions to likely buyers.

In addition to the leadership of our clients, JCB staff also received honors at this year's conference.  Brad Smith and Davis Shepherd both achieved recognition in the category of Information Champions.

JCB was one of seven semi-finalists selected for the CTO Innovation award in recognition of JCB Partner's Retail Pathways solution. This unique solution enables Retailers to quickly implement advanced reporting and analytics to measure Above Store Performance-to-Plan and will be a driver in future retail markets, fostering new innovation outside the normal boundaries seen today.

"JCB is pleased to see our clients take a leading role here at IOD, the highest honor we can achieve is the recognition of our client success", said Brad Smith Managing Partner of JCB Partners. "Our individual awards are a great compliment to the deep talent of our entire team of Performance Management professionals."
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Best Practices In Performance Management Research Survey and Report

We'd like to invite you participating in the 2010 performance research study and become a member of our ongoing performance benchmarking panel. As a member of this executive panel, you'll receive several benefits:

• Pre-release access to the research findings report
• A contrast report that compares your results against your peers
• Discounts on IBM Cognos training 

In appreciation for 10 minutes of your time, you will receive a complimentary Starbucks gift card, and be entered to win one of ten automotive GPS systems.

Your responses will be held in confidence and only used to produce aggregate survey results.

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A Solution Is Only Successful When There Is User Adoption In The Organization

A key factor to adoption is understanding how to utilize your solutions. JCB Partners offers a full suite of IBM Cognos training options for IT and Business users. JCB Partners is the only North American Partner accredited by IBM Cognos to deliver the IBM Cognos training courses. Additionally, we also provide customized training materials designed based on your data and organization. We can deliver training on-site at your facility, or in our own state of the art training labs.

JCB Partners provides certified trainers who have experience implementing and using IBM Cognos solutions. Student will use workstations loaded and configured with all the most current software needed. Students will learn by doing and benefit by networking with peers and JCB’s consultants.  IBM Cognos training purchased through JCB Partners, whether on-site or in our facilities can be provided at discount to retail training prices offered elsewhere.

In addition to delivering IBM Cognos published training JCB Partners also delivers custom and on-site training.

We offer exclusive training discounts not available from any other partners or when you buy from IBM direct. When you register for your desired course we will contact you to verify your registration and confirm your discount.

FIND A COURSE THAT MEETS YOUR NEEDS.

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