Robert Kugel's Analyst Perspectives

In anticipation of conditions that suggested accelerating price increases, I wrote in 2021 about how technology could be useful in an inflationary period, anticipating the world we live in now. Responding effectively to changes in costs is always challenging, but even more so because of the choppy and chaotic nature of the current environment. Inflation may have abated from its highs throughout the rich world but is still an important factor in business decisions. Many enterprises have limited...

Enterprises have been investing in software to manage their environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives and compliance requirements. The need to account for these considerations in parallel with financial accounting began growing early in the century and accelerated as governments and regulatory authorities began to require companies to measure and document activities and outcomes. Meanwhile, software providers have been offering products to address the needs of those subject to these...

ISG Software Research coined the term intercompany financial management to define a discipline for structuring and handling transactions within an enterprise and between its legal entities. IFM is designed to maximize staff efficiency and accounting accuracy while optimizing tax exposure, minimizing tax leakage and ensuring consistent tax and regulatory compliance. Technology has advanced to a point where this approach is feasible and cost-effective. For that reason, ISG Software Research...

I recently completed the latest edition of our Business Planning Buyers Guide, which reviews and assesses the offerings of 14 providers of this software. One of the points that I look at is whether and to what extent the software provider offers out-of-the-box external data useful for forecasting, planning, analysis and evaluation. What I discovered is that the availability of this type of vital information is exceedingly slim.

When considered at all, unintended consequences are expected to be negative. As enterprises and institutions rush to adopt artificial intelligence and generative AI, the focus is on the potentially unforeseen—and unforecastable—unfavorable outcomes. However, one very likely positive impact of AI investments in business computing is the near-effortless availability of consistently reliable data for whatever task is at hand. This is coming about because of the need to have large, relevant data...

The subscription and recurring revenue business models became a significant part of the economy this century with the advent of streaming services for entertainment and software as a service. They have grown in popularity because they enhance customer lifetime value by evolving what had previously been a one-time-sale relationship into a delivery of ongoing services, which can create a more loyal customer relationship as well as provide a regular, more predictable revenue stream.

Doing more with less is the defining characteristic of finance and accounting departments in midsize enterprises, which ISG research defines as organizations with between 100 and 999 workers. One frustrating truth confronting executives in these organizations is that, once their company stops being a small business, it has many of the same challenges that large enterprises face but with fewer resources to deal with them. Over the past two decades, advances in information technology have had the...

I recently attended Infor’s Velocity Summit, designed to showcase the latest versions of its CloudSuite ERP software. Also center stage were Infor’s advances in artificial intelligence and process mining as well as its environmental, social and governance application and supply chain optimization enhancements.

Artificial Intelligence and generative AI are beginning to change how enterprises do many things, especially planning and budgeting. This technology has the potential to significantly redefine the mission of the financial planning and analysis group. It will do so by substantially reducing the time spent on the purely mechanical aspects of day-to-day tasks. AI is also making it easier for executives and managers to rapidly forecast, plan and analyze to promote deeper situational awareness and...

Agents are all the rage—and for a good reason. They are a way to automate work almost effortlessly so that repetitive and boring tasks get done with the least amount of effort on the part of the operator. In business, agents can be a boon for customer satisfaction and a way to improve worker productivity. They are alluring, with an almost unlimited number of potential use cases.