White Papers
Prophix is committed to helping you run your business more efficiently. Our team understands the many key issues that drive your business. Included on this page are white papers and articles on some of these key issues.
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Rolling Forecasts Enable Accuracy and Agile Business Planning – an Aberdeen Report Accurate forecasting is essential for executives, managers, and the line of business to make smart investments and informed business decisions. Achieving accuracy is difficult, particularly in volatile business conditions where forecasts might use outdated data. Top performing organizations mitigate this risk with continuously updated forecasts reflecting current business conditions. This report identifies the tools needed to enable rolling forecasts, and the benefits of this strategy. [ PDF, 551KB ] |
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Corporate Performance Management software from a finance perspective Today's leading companies employ advanced Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software to automate their financial processes, and use their time savings to focus on valuable analysis for their businesses. [ PDF, 2.62MB ] |
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Prophix Newsletter, featuring Gartner Research, Issue #3: Automating Financial Processes for the Global Audience Corporate Performance Management (CPM) software enables leading organizations to automate financial processes and conduct valuable analysis for their companies. Read Prophix's latest newsletter, featuring Gartner Inc.'s "Magic Quadrant for Corporate Performance Management Suites" from 2013. [ PDF, 4.03 MB ] |
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Financial Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting: Removing the Hurdles – an Aberdeen Report Financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting are three critical processes to define goals and serve as the roadmap to achieve these goals. These processes can be extremely detailed and time consuming, causing some employees to perceive them as barriers to productivity. While accuracy is essential, organizations should make these processes as straightforward as possible. This report illustrates best practices for each one by increasing communication and collaboration, enabling visibility, and implementing key technologies. [ PDF, 604KB ] |
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Why I.T. loves Prophix This document in intended to be a short, concise, to the point document that demonstrates to IT how Prophix can satisfy the needs of both IT and the business. [ PDF, 256KB ] |
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Selecting financial automation software to drive IT leadership An interview with Mike Coulter, IT Director of Lush Cosmetics – This document is intended for IT audiences. It is an interview with an IT director (Mike Coulter of Lush Cosmetics) that discusses how IT sourced a CPM solution, the process they went through, the benefits they have experienced and the key IT requirements for selecting a CPM vendor. [ PDF, 4.5MB ] |
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A Faster Year-End Close When properly implemented, sound financial processes deliver accurate data to an organization's decision makers throughout the year. With proper planning, key stakeholders will receive their information early enough to take corrective actions. [ PDF, 635KB ] |
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Prophix Newsletter, featuring Gartner Research, Issue #2: Specialization Equals Innovation in the World of Performance Management Software Many would argue that the so-called 'niche vendors' own a distinct advantage in the advanced software space, developing applications to address their customers' unique business needs. [ PDF, 7.78MB ] |
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Enterprise Performance Management for SMBs - Aligning People, Process, and Tools to Ensure Success – an Aberdeen Report 86% of all enterprise objectives were completed on time in the past year. 87% of all enterprise objectives were completed on budget in the past year. 20% increase in profitability in the past two years. Find out how you can achieve Best-in-Class results with this white paper today. [ PDF, 487KB ] |
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Essentials of Financial Consolidation Applications In previous years, large multinational companies processed financial consolidations in order to meet a series of sophisticated requirements. Today, many mid-sized companies own legal entities in different states or countries. Whereas using spreadsheet programs for consolidation can be very time-consuming and error-prone, a variety of advanced software applications can streamline processes and contribute significant value. [ PDF, 971KB ] |
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Financial Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting for the SME When seeking to optimize their working capital and plan for their future business needs, small and medium-sized enterprises (defined as those with less than $500 million in annual revenue) face similar pressures to those of their larger counterparts. Read this value-packed white paper from the Aberdeen Group and learn about the results of their March 2012 study. [ PDF, 245KB ] |
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Moving Beyond Spreadsheets Spreadsheets are error-prone and unable to support the critical nature of important financial processes. Many companies have broken the spreadsheet habit, adopting packaged applications specifically designed for budgeting and forecasting. [ PDF, 686KB ] |
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Accelerate Your Business: Performance Reporting Essentials Reporting is a vital means of communicating internally and externally between key financiers and other stakeholders of an organization. The ability to report timely and accurate data is an essential component to operating a successful business, and can spawn a myriad of other activity aimed at meeting corporate objectives. [ PDF, 1.55MB ] |
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Best Practices for Planning & Budgeting Changing market conditions challenge companies to develop more effective business practices. So how do business leaders transform the planning cycle into an evolutionary process, yielding consistent returns for their organizations and bringing leadership back to the finance department? Read this white paper to learn the twelve best practices that leading companies have adopted. [ PDF, 753KB ] |
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Financial Planning, Budgeting, and Forecasting: Leveraging Risk-Adjusted Strategies to Enable Accuracy – an Aberdeen Report Best-in-class organizations are 46% more likely than all others to perform "what-if" scenarios and change analysis. These organizations are twice as likely as all others to quantify the dollar value impact of risk, and are over twice as likely as all others to have defined workflows from risk identification to mitigation. [ PDF, 738KB ] |
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Effective Financial Management for International Expansion – an Aberdeen Report Best-in-class companies strive to maintain real-time visibility into the health of their businesses through a strategic mix of process innovation and technology implementation. These initiatives form the strategies that best-in-class organizations use to succeed in the global environment. [ PDF, 741KB ] |
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Prophix Newsletter, featuring Gartner Research, Issue #1: Finding & Delivering What Performance Management Customers Want What sets performance management vendors apart from each other as the best in the business? Simply put, it comes down to solving the customers' business problems. Read the latest newsletter, featuring Gartner research to learn how. [ PDF, 5.58MB ] |
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The Difference Between BI and CPM Enjoy this complimentary white paper built for non-IT professionals to learn about the differences between business intelligence (BI) and corporate performance management (CPM), two fast-growing forms of software utilized by finance departments today. [ PDF, 1.79MB ] |
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8 Great Ways To Improve Your Quarter-End Analysis & Reporting
Another quarter-end... masses of data to analyze, complex reports to generate, and a critical deadline to get it all done! Help has arrived. This free guide - 8 Great Ways To Improve Your Quarter-End Analysis & Reporting - gives you valuable tips and tricks to breeze through your reporting and financial analysis, and accurately modify your forecasts. [ PDF, 1.78MB ] |
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Budgeting for Mid-Market Companies Read this interesting and informative white paper to learn how mid-market companies use advanced budgeting software to automate financial processes, increase collaboration, reduce their time investments, and gain valuable insights into the health of their businesses. [ PDF, 1.98MB ] |
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PROPHIX and Business Intelligence This white paper explains the difference between BI and CPM software and describes how Prophix fits in the CPM software category. Being an open system, Prophix can be accessed by any BI tool capable of reading data from Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services. [ PDF, 227KB ] |
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PROPHIX and Corporate Performance Management This white paper describes the benefits of Corporate Performance Management software and attempts to answer some of the commonly asked questions. It also illustrates Prophix's expertise in CPM software and OLAP database technology and its flexible offerings to mid-market companies. [ PDF, 245KB ] |
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Are You Data Rich But Starving for Information?
Technology has made significant promises and much of the productivity gains in the past decade can be attributed to the wide adoption of cell phones, e-mail, fax machines, and the internet. But not all technology results in wide adoption nor tafsngible business value by generating top line growth, bottom line profits, or improved customer satisfaction. [ PDF, 148KB ] |
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Budgeting, Planning & Analysis Systems Evolve at Midsize Companies Does your company need to be large to practice principles of performance management? Or is your only option to rely on spreadsheets to gauge your company's financial well-being? Read this white paper to earn about the findings of a groundbreaking study, which reveals leading misperceptions about performance management that prevent companies from defining and aligning financial goals throughout their organizations. [ PDF, 751KB ] |
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Financial Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting in the New Economy – an Aberdeen Report Best-in-class organizations are building solid foundations from which they can develop accurate budgets and improve their forecasting capabilities each and every day. Using tools that provide increased visibility and flexibility allow such companies to make effective decisions that can impact their corporate performance and profitability. [ PDF, 633KB ] |
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Improving Operational Efficiency Many companies still live in "Excel hell" leading to long exercises in gathering, controlling, and reporting data. The issues associated with using Excel for financial reporting, planning and budgeting are well documented. Organizations that don't move beyond that barrier are subject to all the associated problems and are selling themselves short. This article will focus on the achievements of companies who have moved beyond Excel. [ PDF, 173KB ] |
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Navigating the IFRS Conversion Process This white paper outlines the key issues financial executives may encounter during IFRS adoption and why unified solutions are vital during the initial conversion period. When IFRS conversions are planned strategically, multiple operational and financial activities can be improved to yield greater overall efficiencies. |
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New Tools for New Times: A CFO Research Services Paper As companies look to identify new growth opportunities, senior finance executives are faced with the uncertainty of the new business environment and demands from internal and external stakeholders for more information. In this environment, robust capabilities to adjust resource allocation can make the difference between staying ahead and falling behind.In this white paper, you'll encounter a concise review of what senior finance executives identify as the information and performance metrics they need to remain competitive in the months ahead. [ PDF, 73KB ] |
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Performance Management for Finance Executives: Driving Performance With Insight – an Aberdeen Report To be the best, you need to beat the best; the old saying applies for every organization in every industry. But how can you determine where your company's performance ranks in relation to the best-in-class? For those who want to know more, we present "Performance Management for Finance Executives: Driving Performance with Insight", a complimentary report from the Aberdeen Group. [ PDF, 551KB ] |
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Performance Management in the Midmarket – an Aberdeen Report Executives and management in mid-sized businesses are increasingly feeling pressure to access, review, analyze and act upon events and information in order to become more agile as they work to meet day-to-day operations and financial performance goals. This free report reveals the strategies, tactics and technology investments that Best-in-Class mid-sized companies are taking, in comparison to small and large organizations, to improve performance management capabilities. [ PDF, 503KB ] |