Need of Business Intelligence in GRC

What is Business Intelligence: Business Intelligence (BI) is an IT based technique, which is used to identify business data. It helps derive value from stored business data and provides essential business visibility by giving information about products, sales and customer behavior. BI is a broad category of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analyzing and distributing / making data available to help enterprise users to make better business decisions. BI applications include the activities of Decision Support Systems (DSS), On-line Analytical Processing (OLAP), query and reporting, statistical analysis, forecasting, data mining and so on.

Business Intelligence for GRC: BI is also an essential component to a successful Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) strategy. With ever growing intense competition and the survival-of-the-fittest race in the ever expanding business arena these days, business needs to monitor its internal environment as well as the external environment. The goal is to maximize opportunities while mitigating or avoiding mishaps. BI plays a major role in aligning the business processes with GRC strategies as it integrates into the business environment to monitor changes, collect information, and report on the state of GRC across all IT systems in the business practice. Many or say, almost all business and organizations drafts many initiatives and projects, but not all of them can be executed, due to limitations on resources, infrastructure and budget.

Business Intelligence usage:

• Reporting - Includes the actual and how the actual stack up against the goals defined. The standard weekly / monthly reports that need to be created.
• Forecasting - Historical data helps in the forecasting of the business needs and trends.
• Dashboard - Conveys the information at a glance.
• Multidimensional analysis - It is the "slicing and dicing" of the data, offering better insight into the numbers at a more granular level.

As organizations looked for a method to properly classify the initiatives and projects depending on the priority and importance, the concept of implementing a formal IT Governance process became utter important. This has raised the importance of BI governance too. The scope of BI, however, still has been considered as a costly business exercise which may still yield no result and bear fruits after implementation.  This general perception is across many companies, which have to primarily think about the expenses they may have to spend on business practices.

But, isn’t it always best to have a clear road map when on a highway to reach a destination rather than just driving or sailing across on just mere assumptions? BI governance may give road map listing out priorities on what needs to be undertaken first.  Consider what if you were on a highway without any milestones and directions to reach a destination city.

It is BI’s responsibility to provide a roadmap at the right place, right time and to the right people.

• It will direct creating a data model that supports the business needs.
• It will direct responsibility to implement the appropriate data integration framework to populate the created data model.
• It will interact heavily with the business users to define the report and standards to follow.
• It will keep the solution in check with the set standards of the organization.

Not just these, BI governance will also assist in creating the material that will be used to train the end users, and thus create an infrastructure to train them in an effective manner.

To stay ahead in the competition, one needs to make sound business decisions that are accurate and up-to-date in the business. Statistical data analysis, reporting, and query tools can help business fetch valuable information from data marts / data warehouse; these tools collectively fall into a category called "Business Intelligence".

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About Author:

Dimpy Thurakhia is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, she actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. She can be contacted at dimpy.t@spluspl.com

Acquisition – Contract Management

Midsize IT companies are the usual suspects who fall to acquisitions and mergers. These are the easy fallen prey to the industry financial crisis and they do not have the necessary funds to back them in such crisis. Despite these hiccups, midsize companies are growing rapidly since they are flexible and adapt according to the customers’ needs. The bigger companies keep an eye out for such mid tier firms and are always looking out for acquiring them in the long term.

The acquisition basically happens for industry growth, technology acquisition, venturing into new business domain, rights to intellectual assets and vertical integration and so on. Mergers and acquisitions are happening all over the market but the difference between a successful merger and an inappropriate acquisition lies in its execution. A successful integration is a sensitive matter and needs to be done through a diligent process in place. For example if an IT organization that provides IT services acquire a firm which provides contract management as a service. After the merger is done, the first task is to understand their business process and structure and later on do due diligence on their market strength, visibility, revenues & profit margins, risk analysis and other obligations which come with the acquisition. The next step is gathering all the information of the company’s assets, departments and their related vendors. These can be done through –

1. Annual company reports – this might show you the revenue details, profits margins and loses if any
2. Files/Databases – will provide the information for the various contracts and their due dates
3. Assets – look for the important assets that you own and any other obligations surrounding them

Once you have collated all the information, the next question is where you store this data. The common approach is spreadsheet. But in the long run it is certainly not good enough. For year on year data you might want to have repository systems wherein you can feed in all the details and their documentation. The spreadsheet method is a far gone by and it consumes a lot more time since most of the work is manual. The best way to overcome this is switching to one of the online tool applications wherein you can access it 24/7 anywhere. There are many advantages to it as well. You can purchase a tool available from the market itself or you can build your own tool by selecting the metrics that you want to track. This gives you flexibility and a customizable approach through which you can define your fields to track.

The tool will also enable you import and export your support documentation and reports. You can also put in the contracts into the systems, which will also eliminate the process of maintaining the hard-copies. This can be covered by assigning digital signatures to the contracts. Also when you are done with the acquisition, the initial stage is not to directly deal with contracts i.e. transfer, renew, and cancel. But your first step will be consolidating the existing data into one spot and then deal with their contracts accordingly. Some contracts might be expiring in the next thirty days which will require immediate attention whereas some might not be due for the next year or two. This can dealt with in the later stages of their tenure. Hence it is important to have a contract management tool in place or else you might end up doing the entire work again if someone asked you to back to a particular record. The main challenge in the entire acquisition process will be to integrate the people and process and to transition them to the new tool without going back to the old files.

About Author:
Mihir Sakhle is consultant and part of Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. He is a part of consulting team that delivers Sourcing and Vendor Managementg Office projects. He can be contacted at: mihir.s@spluspl.com

Understanding ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning

Information technology has transformed the way we live in and the way we do business. Since last decade, IT has made a drastic change in our life. As compared to earlier stage, when computer was used just as a typewriter, nowadays users have become more intelligent and IT literate. Now the user knows that a PC can do many more things rather than just typing a letter in a word processing software or making balance sheets in excel. They expect more things out of their PC. During this phase of industry, every one of us must have heard the word ERP in one or the other form. It may be in title of any IT magazine or may be a point of discussion in any IT Seminar or may be in an advertisement of big IT Company. Thus in any form, we all have been through this word. In this short article, I’ll try to concisely explain the basic yet important concepts relevant to ERP.

What is ERP?

ERP is one of the most widely implemented business software systems in a wide variety of industries and organizations. ERP is the acronym of Enterprise Resource Planning.
ERP is just not only software. ERP definition refers to both; ERP software and business strategies that implement ERP systems.
ERP implementation utilizes various ERP software applications to improve the performance of organizations for

1. Resource planning
2. Management control
3. Operational control.

ERP consists of multiple software modules that integrate activities across functional departments - from production planning, parts purchasing, inventory control and product distribution to order tracking. Most ERP software systems include application modules to support common business activities like finance, accounting and human resources.

Type of ERP

Few ERP products available are PeopleSoft, Oracle financials, SAP, JD Edwards etc.

Now a day’s most of the companies go for custom ERP package which suet there need and of number of advantage over other ERP package.

What can ERP do for you?

The fundamental purpose of ERP is to establish a process that links projected demand plans to supply plans, so that the resources of manufacturers, their suppliers, and especially their customers are utilized in the most efficient and cost effective way. To do so requires a process for anticipating demand and planning and scheduling resources in a manner that supports a company's strategic and financial goals.

An ERP System includes ERP Software, Business Processes, Users and Hardware that run the ERP software. An ERP system is more than the sum of its parts or components. Those components interact together to achieve a common goal - streamline and improve organizations' business processes.

ERP helps in integrating management processes extend horizontally across the company, including product development, sales, marketing, manufacturing, and finance. It also extends vertically throughout the company's supply chain to include the acquisition of raw materials, suppliers, customers, and consumers

There are five major elements in this:

1. An integrated business operating process that links strategic plans and business plans to sales plans and operation plan.
2. A people-driven process that is supported by computer system.
3. A formal resource planning process that involves all functional within a company.
4. Defined responsibility and performance measurements for all functions in a company.
5. Communications among all function in a company as well as communications among all divisions and sister companies. 

My Learning Experience

Systems Plus has given me chance to work on ERP software build for a manufacturing company located at Masjid Bunder – Mumbai. As a team we have successfully implemented and following things we have learn.

Many companies buy into an ERP solution only to find that it does not live up to its promise. The thing that they fail to understand about the process is that it is just that, a process and a tool. The software does not fail or not work or not live up to its promise. It does exactly what it is supposed to do. However,

ERP is a people process supported by the computer, rather than the other way around. People and their behavior and discipline in utilizing the ERP process are vital.

If information have not entered in accurate then perform its functions to the best of its abilities is not going to work. ERP begins with data collection. Then that data must be collated and entered. Finally, you need a trained Manager who can work with the software and understand the results and reports it issues.

When people understand how to utilize the ERP process, tools, and techniques, the data and information will be highly accurate, and they will make sound decision

About Author:
Hemal Fofaria is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, he actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. He can be contacted at hemal.f@spluspl.com

Just-in-time workers

The world we live in is an on-demand world; if the companies do not keep up with the speeding trends, they are left behind. The demands of the market are dynamic and keep fluctuating with each passing moment. To adapt to this lifestyle, companies need quick decision making capability and agility.

To meet these new demands of the market, companies need to do more than just managing skills within enterprise. They need to include the new extended workforce – contractors, strategic/outsourcing partners and other nontraditional workers.

There is out-sourcing, in-sourcing, and then there is “right-sourcing” – developing core business resources and putting in Just In Time Employee wherever there is a gap. One of the most common problems which companies are facing today is talent management – finding right people for right task at right time. Hiring employees, training and developing them is very costly, it not only affects turnover, but also customer satisfaction.

In a world with cut-throat competition, a company’s success or failure may depend on time to market their services/products. By bringing in people as and when needed, who can hit the ground running without wasting any time in training, businesses can get a service/product out before their competition. Also, by using the extended workforce, organizations can swiftly change the mix of skills according to the changing customer preferences.

Companies find it beneficial to have running, skillful, bright workforce that can grow and shrink according to the demand of the market. On one hand companies can save money on rent, maintenance, and energy costs while on the other hand employees can save on commuting costs. By making use of extended workers, organizations may be able to make optimum usage of their human asset by more fluidly matching task to talent.

In addition, companies could gain access to a much wider range of expertise and skills that may not be readily available in their existing talent pools. Above all, putting an extended workforce to use simulates innovation, which is an essential part of any growth-driven competitive strategy. Bringing in new thinking and talent from the outside can help open an organization’s eyes to new ideas and fresh, uncommon ways of thinking.

”The only way employers can get the staffing crisis under control is to abandon the old-fashioned idea of an employee,” says Bruce Tulgan, author of the upcoming book Winning the Talent Wars.

Just-in-time hiring is rapidly becoming the new reality. Companies do not have the luxury of pampering a static workforce anymore. They are quickly moving to a more dynamic and nimble model where freelancers are becoming the force that drives productivity and innovation.

About Author:

Nisha Tolani is consultant and part of Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. She is a part of consulting team that delivers Sourcing and Vendor Management Office projects. She can be contacted at: nisha.t@spluspl.com

Governing Access, Controlling Costs

Fast growing organizations have large group of users, including the partners, suppliers, customers and employees having access to sensitive company information. For such organizations security and maintaining access control over a wide range of network becomes a major issue. Governing access to organizational resources helps in managing risk related to security such as controlling and monitoring access to company assets and sensitive data, imposing separation of duties as inappropriate access to critical data may result into inaccurate or fraudulent transactions. It also helps in addressing regulatory requirements (e.g.: SOX, JSOX, ISO 27001, etc.) and needs of various stakeholders (e.g.: users, suppliers, owners, auditors, etc.). Organizations with typical IT architecture are more vulnerable to threats and frauds. Such architecture provides multiple identity stores and administration points, redundant data synchronization and replication and user authentication for each application, resulting into increased burden on IT resources and increase in the cost of complying with regulatory requirements. Replacing age-old IT architecture with new Incident and Access Management (I&AM) architecture provides solutions such as Active Directory, Single Sign-on, Security Tokens, and many more products. The I&AM architecture provides a single, integrated framework that automates the management of user identities in and out of the organization. It provides a single identity store and administration point, reduced replication and synchronization of data, single sign-on and the ability to present multiple data views.

I&AM solutions provide a secure framework that allows an organization to leverage its IT assets and new computing models like Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS); while reducing total cost and ensuring compliance. Organizations imposing access and identity management procedures are able to identify and eliminate security threats in their provisioning systems by establishing a process for accessing company assets, terminate access immediately for the ones who leave the organization, continuous monitoring of access logs and practicing a good password management process. Identity management solutions integrates various business systems in an organization, including directories, operating platforms, network storage and partner systems. For instance, when a new user joins the organization, his / her identity is provisioned automatically, and his / her access permissions, passwords and identity are synchronized across networked systems. The user does not have to wait for days to access applications and systems and can get their jobs done from the moment they join the organization. Governing access also helps in monitoring the number of orphan accounts in an organization. An Orphan Account is an account belonging to a user who has left the organization. Having large number of Orphan accounts in an organization can lead to security and compliance breaches, internal and external data breaches and identity frauds. Many times, employees in an organization make use of orphan accounts to steal information from the system, cause harm to company assets as a result of taking revenge or simply to play mischief leading to security breach. Keeping a check on the number of orphaned accounts and having proper access and identity management procedures in place to locate orphaned account helps in avoiding fraud. I&AM process helps in preventing unauthorized access to system by continuous monitoring of privileges across the organization and minimizes the time and cost of spent in managing access related risk. It provides reasonable assurance to the partners and customers by providing a secure access to business-critical systems and data, thereby increasing their productivity.

The organizations leading in governing access gain substantial financial benefits as compared to those lagging organizations; including increase in user productivity, reduced risk, improved security and compliance, and decreased in the total cost.

About Author:

Onkar Lalla is a Consultant and an important part of the Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd.  think tank. Within Systems Plus, he actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. He can be contacted at onkar.l@spluspl.com

Compound Operators in SQL Server 2008

SQL Server 2008 introduced the new feature compound operator. Compound operators are available in other programming languages like C# etc. Compound Assignment Operators are operators where variables are operated upon and assigned on the same line.

The following Operators are supported as compound operators:

Operator	Description
+=	It will Add some amount to the original value and store result in to original value
-=	It will subtract some amount to the original value and store result in to original value
*=	It will multiply  some amount to the original value and store result in to original value
/=	It will divide  some amount to the original value and store result in to original value
%=	It will divide  some amount to the original value and store result in to ordinal value to the modulo.
&=	It will perform a bitwise AND and sets the original value to the result.
^=	It will perform a bitwise exclusive OR and sets the original value to the result.
|=	It will perform a bitwise  OR and sets the original value to the result.

Examples

+= Operator

DECLARE @addvalue int = 53;
SET @addvalue += 20 ;
PRINT 'Add value :' + CAST(@addvalue AS VARCHAR);

--Result : Add value :73 

DECLARE @concString VARCHAR(50) = 'Jignesh';
SET @concString += ' Trivedi' ;
PRINT 'Output :' + @concString;

--Result : Output :Jignesh Trivedi

-= Operator

DECLARE @subValue int = 99;
SET @subValue -= 2 ;
PRINT 'subtract value :' + CAST(@subValue AS VARCHAR);

--Result : subtract value :97

*= Operator

DECLARE @mulValue int = 75;
SET @mulValue *= 20 ;
PRINT 'Multiplication :' + CAST(@mulValue AS VARCHAR);

--Result : Multiplication :1500

/= Operator

DECLARE @divValue NUMERIC(8,2) = 27;
SET @divValue /= 2.5 ;
PRINT 'Division :' + CAST(@divValue AS VARCHAR);

--Result : Division :10.80

%= Operator

DECLARE @modulo int = 25;
SET @modulo %= 5 ;
PRINT 'Modulo :' + CAST(@modulo AS VARCHAR);

--Result : Modulo :1

&= Operator

DECLARE @bitAnd int = 90;
SET @bitAnd &= 13 ;
PRINT 'Bitwise AND Operation:' + CAST(@bitAnd AS VARCHAR);

--Result : Bitwise AND Operation:8

^=Operator

DECLARE @bitExOr int = 244;
SET @bitExOr ^= 20 ;
PRINT 'Bitwise Exclusive OR Operation:' + CAST(@bitExOr AS VARCHAR);

--Result : Bitwise Exclusive OR Operation:224

|= Operator

DECLARE @bitOR int = 270;
SET @bitOR |= 25 ;
PRINT 'Bitwise OR Operation:' + CAST(@bitOR AS VARCHAR);

--Result : Bitwise OR Operation:287

The Compound Operators feature is enhanced in SQL Server 2008. They are like compound operators in languages like C, C++, and C #. Compound operators are a combination of operator with another operator.

About Author
Rajratna Shelhalkar is part of Systems Plus technology Think Tank and is very keen to resolve challenges using his technical skills. He works in Systems Plus and actively contributes to technology. He can be contacted at: rajratna.s@spluspl.com