Are You in Denial About Governance, Risk, and Compliance?

In a previous post, I talked about the “illusory superiority” effect, and how it blinds people to the fact that, on average, it’s unlikely that they use data better than their competitors. Guess what? It turns out that it applies to governance, risk, and compliance, too. Here are some figures from another Economist Intelligence Unit Survey, “Ascending the Maturity Curve, Effective Management of Enterprise Risk and Compliance”: We can see... [Read More...]

Some Fun SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, GRC, and EPM Videos

From SAP Asia’s YouTube Channel, here are a series of humorous, well-produced videos on various SAP BusinessObjects solutions – enjoy! Many of these are perfect for sharing with your business teams – don’t hesitate! Governance, Risk and Compliance IT and Finance: “We both work for the same company… so why is there so much tension”? Product information about SAP GRC BusinessObjects Explorer for Finance: “I got the voice message... [Read More...]

The Convergence of Business Intelligence, EPM, and GRC

According to Albert Pang of IDC, the current economic conditions are forcing organizations to not only better manage corporate performance but also increase business transparency: companies are under increasing pressure to conduct operations effectively, profitably, and ethically — and prove it. To achieve this, IDC advises companies to integrate EPM, GRC, and business analytics. The IDC paper, Helping Enterprises Succeed: Responsible Corporate... [Read More...]

BI Implementations Must be Risk-Adjusted

It makes absolutely no sense to try to optimize performance without taking into account risk. While you’re busy trying to cut a few percentage points out of your costs using Six Sigma or Lean Management, your entire company might get wiped out by “unforseen” events. As the cartoon below shows, that (to put it mildly) can be a short-sighted approach… Anybody with a stock portfolio knows that you can’t ignore risk when... [Read More...]

SAP’s Collborative Sustainability Strategy

SAP recently announced its sustainability strategy, including aggressive carbon reduction targets, a new cross-functional sustainability organization, and sustainability solutions for customers. More information is available on SAP’s sustainability pages. What is Sustainability, Anyway? Sustainability means different things to different people — the UN Commission on Sustainable Development lists over 40 issues that it can cover, including... [Read More...]

BI and Societe Generale?

Much has been written about the approximately 5 billion Euros that Société Générale lost because of Jerome Kerviel, a junior arbitrage trader. What’s interesting about it from a BI point of view? Can BI help? First, it’s worth noting that Société Générale is a big Business Objects customer, so their problems came despite having having the best BI tools available What’s in a number? How much did Kerviel lose? He argues that... [Read More...]