The Hackett Group acquires Aecus and Jibe. Learn More Hackett Group Capabilities Insights News & Events About Contact Sign In Search Hackett in the News 2016 DECEMBER 15, 2016 AFP Webinar, "How FP&A Can Be a Better Business Partner," With The Hackett Group's Steven Elliot. FP&A is increasingly playing the role of a business partner, helping drive smarter decisions and improving organizational performance. To do it effectively, it needs to have three key components: a strong collaborative relationship with the operations, enabling technology and the right organizational structure. DECEMBER 12, 2016 CFO Webcast, "Reporting: A Changing Picture of Performance," With The Hackett Group's Chona Salamero. For organizations that are preparing their annual reports, the opportunity to review a full year in hindsight presents finance teams with the perspective they need to plan for the year ahead. Yet just as expanding your chronological purview from one month to 12 months reveal trends that are not easily perceptible over a shorter timeframe, so too does broadening your observations beyond financial metrics to see how various aspects of an organization affect its performance. In an environment in which investors and politicians alike are pushing for more disclosure, finance leaders have had to reconsider the value of the information they are sharing in their year-end reports. DECEMBER 11, 2016 LinkedIn Blog, "Closing the Gap, Predictive Analytics in Action" Blog post by The Hackett Group's Nilly Essaides. DECEMBER 11, 2016 Linkedin Blog: "Closing the Gap, Predictive Analytics in Action Bylined article by The Hackett Group's Nilly Essaides. DECEMBER 8, 2016 CFO Webcast, "Enabling Growth w Technology," With The Hackett Group's Allan Frank Senior finance leaders recognize the importance of collaborating with their counterparts in IT. The clearest indication of this trend is the priority finance executives place not only on automating activities in the realm of finance, such as the financial close, but also applying technological advances, such as those in predictive analytics, throughout their entire organizations. DECEMBER 7, 2016 Beschaffung aktuell (DACH), "Professional Training for GBS-Organizations" In German. The 3-level learning program for personnel and executives of Shared Service Center (SSC) and Global Business Services (GBS) offered by The Hackett Group and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) now is completed. DECEMBER 5, 2016 Supply & Demand Chain Executive, "Global Business Services for Supply Chain Operations," A bylined article by The Hackett Group's Erin Blair, Marcos Corminas, and Carl Foss. "Numerous companies are gaining efficiencies and sustainable savings by using shared service centers, and outsourcing solutions for back-office functions. They are now looking to expand that model to other functions. Supply chain, which was traditionally decentralized across sales offices, plants and distribution sites, is emerging as an area of focus for value creation and cost reduction through migration to global business service (GBS) operations." DECEMBER 2, 2016 LinkedIn Blog, "Tips for Selecting a B2B Network Provider Capable of Supporting Procurement's Digital Transformation" A blog post by The Hackett Group's Patrick Connaughton. DECEMBER 1, 2016 Sumtotal Blog, "How Top HR Organisations Get More for Less," According to research from The Hackett Group, not only do world-class HR organizations enjoy cost savings of around 23% per employee and function with 32% less staff, they do so and still manage to outperform their peers. DECEMBER 1, 2016 Digitalist, "18 Predictions For 2017 From Finance Thought Leaders In A Digital And Automated World," Once again, we asked finance thought leaders to share their predictions for finance in a digital world. Their insights for 2017 include increased real-time insight, collaboration, automation, and partnership with the business. Take a look back at the predictions for 2016 and see how they differ from the following predictions for 2017 from finance thought leaders. With insights from The Hackett Group's Nilly Essaides. DECEMBER 1, 2016 Inside Supply Management, "Now Trending: Six Megatrends are Reshaping the Supply Chain of Today and Tomorrow," With expert insights from Hackett's Chris Sawchuk. DECEMBER 1, 2016 Adiona Magazine (UK/Global), "Five world-class performance tactics for HR organizations." A bylined article by The Hackett Group's Dorothee El-Khoury, which begins on page 30. "The gap between world-class and typical HR organizations remains wide..." NOVEMBER 30, 2016 Diginomica, "Hitting the HR Highs with Digital Transformation" If you want to be an HR high performer, then digital transformation is an imperative, according to a new report from The Hackett Group. NOVEMBER 29, 2016 LinkedIn Blog, "FP&A Can Help Healthcare Prepare for Radical Change" NOVEMBER 29, 2016 Linkedin Blog: "FP&A Can Help Healthcare Prepare for Radical Change Bylined article by The Hackett Group's Nilly Essaides. NOVEMBER 28, 2016 Chefbüro (DACH), "Learning Program for GBS and SSC now is completed" In German. With the Diploma in GBS (DGBS) the partnership between the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and The Hackett Group now offer the last level of their three-step learning program for personnel and executives of Shared Service Center (SSC) and Global Business Services (GBS). NOVEMBER 24, 2016 Spendmatters.com (UK), "How to achieve 'world class' procurement agility." In October, The Hackett Group released its 2016 report of its study into world-class procurement organisations and what makes them perform better than typical procurement organisations. Analysing its procurement benchmarking database revealed that achieving world-class performance, results in gaining 18% lower operating costs and using 28% fewer full-time equivalents than peers. NOVEMBER 23, 2016 ITPortalPro (UK), "Four imperatives for creating IT agility in a digital age," A bylined article by The Hackett Group's Scott Holland and Erik Dorr. "Never has there been a time in the history of business where companies could derive more competitive advantage from superior IT performance..." NOVEMBER 22, 2016 Digitalist, "Syncing Financial and Non-Financial Data," Integrated planning is where FP&A is headed. To execute on its mandate as a true partner to the business, finance has to support its interpersonal relationship with the operations with a collaborative toolset. Finance and the business must merge what were once disparate streams of data into one view that includes operational and financial information. To do its job effectively, FP&A needs to delve into business transaction-level information to understand how changing business drivers affects financial performance and vice versa. With insights from The Hackett Group's Stephen Elliott. NOVEMBER 19, 2016 Bloomberg Radio, " Kellogg's and Zero-Based Budgeting" Kellogg's beat third quarter earnings estimates after cost cutting helped it to overcome slow sales. Zero-based budgeting was one key to reducing spending. The Hackett Group's Sherri Liao offers insights on how zero-based budgeting can give managers a more realistic look at spending needs. © 2016 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Used with permission. NOVEMBER 18, 2016 LinkedIn Blog, "Exploring the Business Case for Using COEs to Deliver High-Quality Market Intelligence" A blog post by The Hackett Group's Patrick Connaughton. NOVEMBER 15, 2016 Finance & Management (UK), "Doing More with Less," A bylined article by The Hackett Group's Thomas Kellaway, John Kennedy and Matthew Cartwright. "Due to the challenges 2016 has presented, business leaders have the hard job of cost optimisation. The Hackett Group shares some ways to cut costs without causing a catastrophe." NOVEMBER 15, 2016 Computerweekly.com (UK), "Cut legacy IT costs to drive digital business initiatives, says Hackett Group study." The Hackett Group's research shows that CIOs must become more ruthless with culling legacy systems if the business is to fully embrace digitization. NOVEMBER 14, 2016 Baseline, "What Distinguishes World-Class IT Organizations?" So you think your technology department has what it takes to be world class? Then you may want to compare how it stacks up against the following performance benchmark research from the Hackett Group. The accompanying report, "The World-Class Performance Advantage: Four Imperatives for Creating IT Agility in a Digital Age," defines "world-class" IT performance organizations as those that are more effective at reducing costs associated with tech service delivery and productivity than other companies, while more successfully enabling a digital transformation. NOVEMBER 14, 2016 CFO Webcast, "Better Alignment of Strategic, Financial and Operational Plans Through EPM," With The Hackett Group's Jonathan Johnson and Glenn Hafler Jr. As CFOs take on increasing responsibility for their organizations' performance, they have come to expect not only that finance teams operate at peak efficiency, but also that they contribute operational information and strategic insights that their organizations can use to plan for the future. NOVEMBER 11, 2016 LinkedIn Blog, "Amazon Business and eBay: A Fresh Approach to Managing Tail Spend" A blog post by The Hackett Group's Patrick Connaughton. NOVEMBER 4, 2016 CIO&Leader, "Research Suggests Four Imperatives for IT Performance in the Digital Era" A new research by benchmarking and performance measurement firm, The Hackett Group, highlights four imperatives for achieving world-class IT performance in the digital era. The research, "Four Imperatives for Creating IT Agility in a Digital Age," says world-class IT organizations spend 21% less per end user than typical companies, and rely on 8% fewer staff. NOVEMBER 1, 2016 Einkäufer im Markt (DACH), "For Inventory Optimization Procurement and Finance should act in Concert" In German. Procurement can and should be more active in optimizing Working Capital, says Paul Moody of REL, a division of The Hackett Group, in a conversation with Einkäufer im Markt. But Procurement should not act single-handedly, instead working in concert with Finance. (Page 7) NOVEMBER 1, 2016 Forbes Insights, "Doing Business In-the-Moment: Transforming Transaction Processing for the Digital Economy," This briefing paper, sponsored by SAP, examines extreme transaction processing-the ability to process at least two million transactions per hour. Today enterprises across industries-not just high-frequency trading firms-must figure out how to ingest and process extraordinary numbers of transactions from an expanding variety of sources concurrently, quickly and reliably, with no tolerance for latency, loss, inconsistency or failure. The Hackett Group's Brian Degraw and Mark Peacock provide insights. NOVEMBER 1, 2016 LinkedIn Blog, "Five ways IT functions will mobilize for digital disruption in 2017" A blog post by The Hackett Group's Rick Pastore. OCTOBER 31, 2016 CFO Webcast, "Financial Reporting: Tips for a Smoother Year-End Close," With The Hackett Group's Brett Williams. Does your finance team struggle to complete its year-end close? For finance teams that use spreadsheets to generate reports, a lack of access to accurate financial information amplifies the challenge of staying current on changes to regulatory requirements while closing the books in a timely fashion. In addition to seeking alternatives to manual methods of preparing reports, finance leaders are also becoming open to new approaches, such as continuous accounting, to gathering information they convey in financial reports. OCTOBER 31, 2016 MyPurchasingCenter, "Reimagine Procurement" As CPOs and supply leaders know, current business conditions make it challenging to provide services efficiently and effectively. Recognizing this, new benchmarking research by The Hackett Group finds procurement must continuously transform its model "to respond with agility to shifting demands and opportunities." OCTOBER 28, 2016 InformationWeek, "Achieving IT Agility: 4 Steps To Start Your Journey," IT agility is about far more than adopting agile development practices. It requires a complete rethinking of your entire IT organization in order to help your company achieve the digital transformation needed to survive. That's the conclusion of a new report from The Hackett Group, which identifies four key steps to take as you begin your journey toward IT agility. OCTOBER 25, 2016 Supply Chain Digest, "Supply Chain News: To Outperform, Procurement Organizations Must Add More Value, Embrace Digital Transformation," The procurement discipline has made major strides over the last decade, but a changing environment means most must continue to transform their organizations to keep their seat at the corporate executive level. That is part of the message from a new report from The Hackett Group on priorities for procurement (Five Imperatives for Creating Greater Procurement Agility). OCTOBER 25, 2016 SSON, "The Moreira Chronicles: Bangemann and Zabel on Pushing Shared Services Out Across Smaller Enterprises [Part 7]," Over the past year, Pedro Moreira has written a series of columns for SSON summarizing his experience in rolling out an enterprise SSO model to a subsidiary, emphasizing the pros and cons of this approach. Following the conclusion of this series, Pedro interviewed two well-known practitioners - Tom Bangemann of The Hackett Group and Kai Zabel of Heraeus Group, both highly respected practitioners in the field of Shared Services, with decades of implementation experience. Over the next two months, we are sharing a transcript of these interviews right here, covering the role of the SSO, its evolution and future trends; implementations and operations; and a discussion around GBS and new robotic technology. OCTOBER 20, 2016 Corporate Finance (DACH), "World-Class Finance: Digital Transformation and Analytics-Based Decision create Agility" In German. World-class finance needs up to 44 percent less staff and operates at 42 percent lower cost even though they are far more effective, dynamic and more transparent as the peer group. These are the findings of the current survey by The Hackett Group, which is based on hundreds of benchmarks, consultancy projects and performance studies, about one third with European companies. OCTOBER 19, 2016 Supply & Demand Chain Exec, "Infographic: The CPO's First 100 Days-An Action Plan and Checklist," This year, newly minted or aspiring CPOs have some of the greatest expectations ever to add value to their organizations. They are on the hook to bring costs under control, improve processes, and introduce new technology and innovation to both their department and into product development. OCTOBER 14, 2016 HR Dive, "5 reasons why top HR departments are spending less, succeeding more," The world's top HR departments, as defined by The Hackett Group, are embracing digital and improving their use of analytics, leading to a 23% reduction in spending per employee and operating with 32% fewer staff members compared to "typical companies," a new report reveals. OCTOBER 13, 2016 Purchasing Insight, "World-Class Procurement Update," World-class procurement organizations now have 18% lower operating costs than typical companies, and operate with 28% fewer staff, while generating more than twice the return on investment, according to new benchmark research from The Hackett Group. OCTOBER 13, 2016 Material Handling & Logistics, "World-Class Procurement Generating More Than Twice ROI," Companies that have world-class procurement organizations enjoy a number of competitive advantages., according to a new study by The Hackett Group. these companies generating more than twice the return on investment. They also have 18% lower operating costs than typical companies, and operate with 28% fewer staff. OCTOBER 12, 2016 Supply Chain Quarterly, "Five strategies that make procurement more efficient and effective," By embracing technology and focusing on internal customers, world-class procurement organizations are able to reduce their operating costs and headcount, says a study by The Hackett Group. OCTOBER 10, 2016 CFO Webcast, "Sales Performance Management," With The Hackett Group's Karen Schreiber. In a competitive environment where organizations are seeking to improve profitability and drive growth, senior finance executives are increasingly involved in optimizing their firms' sales efforts. Many companies are replacing labor-intensive and error-prone sales processes with dedicated sales performance management (SPM) systems that accurately compute and track sales performance and compensation. OCTOBER 10, 2016 HRDive, "Beyond the buzzwords: Top trends impacting people analytics," With big data, comes big responsibility - and HR is struggling to take on the mantle. Handling a deluge of data requires an understanding of analytics, and experts say that HR isn't quite there yet. Featuring insights from The Hackett Group's Harry Osle and Scott Leuchter. OCTOBER 8, 2016 Procurement & Supply Australasia, "Hackett Research: World-Class Procurement Organisations Embrace Digital Transformation," The Hackett Group has released new procurement research; annual analysis benchmark data to identify how world-class procurement organizations achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness than their peers. This year's analysis spotlights how top procurement organizations use digital business transformation to improve performance. OCTOBER 7, 2016 SupplyChainBrain, "Missing the Money Boat: How Supply Chains Fail to Optimize Working Capital," Companies have a pretty good grip on the movement of physical goods in their supply chains. But they often overlook the accompanying flow of funds - and the opportunity to make better use of limited working capital. SEPTEMBER 30, 2016 Supply & Demand Chain Executive, "GLOBAL SCM: Integrated Business Planning: Making Planning a Strategic Differentiator," A bylined article by The Hackett Group's Hanna Hamburger, Andrew Soss, and Carl Foss. SEPTEMBER 28, 2016 CFO Webinar, "Financial Exec's Guide to Decision-Making Platforms" With Hackett's Jason Balogh. How do CFOs keep tabs on the performance of all aspects of their businesses, including finance, sales, supply chains, marketing, and even human resources? SEPTEMBER 27, 2016 Ameriquest Business Services Blog, "Effectively Managing Working Capital Means Creating a Holistic Working Environment," The inability to effectively manage working capital means your enterprise may be wasting a significant amount of cash. Insights from The Hackett Group's U.S. working capital survey. SEPTEMBER 26, 2016 Supply Chain Management Review, "Research: World-Class Procurement Organizations Embrace Digital Transformation," Digital business transformation is one key enabler to how world-class procurement organizations achieve greater efficiency, effectiveness and higher ROI, the research found. SEPTEMBER 26, 2016 Supply Chain Management Review, "Procurement Specialists Focus on Talent Retention," In addition to operating with dramatically fewer staff, world-class procurement organizations also allocate their staff very differently. SEPTEMBER 26, 2016 Coupa Software Blog, "New Training Programs Needed to Energize Millenial Workforce," A guest blog post by The Hackett Group's Chris Sawchuk. SEPTEMBER 21, 2016 Finyear.com (France/Europe), "Interview d'Adil Lahlou | Associate Principal - REL France." In French. An interview of Associate Principal of REL France, Adil Lahlou, covering trends from our most recent working capital survey. SEPTEMBER 19, 2016 CFO Webinar, "Using Enterprise Performance Management to Support Growth" With The Hackett Group's Sherri Liao. As companies grow, they are increasingly turning to enterprise performance management (EPM) to evaluate their performance, as well as identify opportunities to expand into new markets and attract new customers. How can senior finance executives employ the latest approaches to EPM to help inform strategic decisions about how their organizations manage growth? SEPTEMBER 17, 2016 Scfbriefing.com (UK/Europe), "European companies could squeeze out €1bn cash, says REL" European companies improved their working capital performance in 2015 compared with the previous year but still have an "improvement opportunity" worth some €981bn, according to an annual survey by consultancy REL, part of The Hackett Group. SEPTEMBER 16, 2016 Sourcing Innovation, "Procurement is Still the Rodney Dangerfield of the Organization and Land of Confusion Is Its Theme Song," Why else would we need an egalitarian Procurement Revolutionwhere we must work collectively to shape and drive change. But in all seriousness, the numbers don't lie. If you check out Five Imperatives for Creating Greater Procurement Agility, which was recently (and still may be) temporarily free from The Hackett Group, you see that the average Procurement Function Operating Budget is forecasted to increase a mere 1.1% this year. SEPTEMBER 16, 2016 Ms. Career Girl, "8 Top Mobile Workforce Trends to Watch" Running a mobile workforce has its advantages and disadvantages. But most of the disadvantages can be whittled away with eight top HR trends to watch in this sector. Including insights from The Hackett Group's Tony DiRomauldo. SEPTEMBER 16, 2016 PC Quest, "Utilities Make Better Use of Data," According to a new survey of utilities executives worldwide including Oracle and IPSOS, North America Market Research revealed that Utilities congregate enormous quantities of data, but they fight to apply it to grave business problems. The Hackett Group's Mark Peacock is quoted. SEPTEMBER 14, 2016 Treasury & Risk, "4 Trends in Supply Chain Finance," As the practice continues to grow, some companies are self-funding, and others are using it for payables or with distributors. With insights from The Hackett Group's Amy Fong. SEPTEMBER 12, 2016 CFO Webinar, "Taking Financial Reporting to the Next Level" With The Hackett Group's Lisa Heacock. The CFO's role in financial reporting is evolving as regulatory requirements, as well as the needs of organizations' boards and senior management, continue to change. Amid these developments, how can finance leaders enable their organizations to streamline their close and reporting processes? SEPTEMBER 8, 2016 CIO, "What's your IT department's strategy for website downtime?," Downtime doesn't just affect ecommerce sites. It can bring any business to a halt as IT workers scramble to find a fix. Including expert insights from The Hackett Group's Mark Peacock and Scott Glenn. SEPTEMBER 6, 2016 IDG Expert Network (DACH), "Slight Improvement of Working Capital Performance" In German In German. The REL Working Capital Performance survey 2016, which examines 960 European companies, shows that €981 billion can be released from balance sheets by optimizing working capital management. The 124 German companies in the study, could improve working capital performance by €226 billions. In the DAX sector, the optimization opportunity is €165 billion. Compared to last year German companies improved overall working capital performance by 3.3 percent. SEPTEMBER 6, 2016 Wall Street Journal , "New Back-Office Tech Can Be a Merger's Best Friend," Ability to smoothly integrate a company that relies on a different software system contributes to a deal's success. Featuring data from The Hackett Group and insights from Hackett's Tom Willman. (sub required) SEPTEMBER 6, 2016 Procurious, "How to Realize and Unlock the Benefits of Supplier Diversity," Bylined article by The Hackett Group's Laura Gibbons covering our new supplier diversity research. "Historically, supplier diversity programs have focused on a narrow combination of meeting government spend requirements, and participating in corporate social responsibility initiatives with under-represented communities..." SEPTEMBER 5, 2016 Financialdirector.co.uk (UK/Global), "REL Working Capital Survey 2016." European companies are struggling to register sustainable improvements in working capital performance. Over the past nine years an average of only 12% of firms covered in REL's annual working capital surveys achieved three years of consecutive gains. SEPTEMBER 5, 2016 GTNews.com (UK/Global), "Taking a cautious step forward: working capital and European corporates." For the top European companies tracked in REL's Europe Working Capital Survey, 2015 was not a bad year. The average company's cash conversion cycle (CCC) shrank 1.7% year on year as receivables and payables both improved. SEPTEMBER 1, 2016 AFP Exchange, "Outlasting the Competition," As financial planning and analysis (FP&A) becomes the analytics hub of the organization, it must be able to help senior leaders anticipate how competitive disruption may affect financial results and prepare an action plan. The following are eight ways FP&A can do that. Featuring insights from Hackett's Peter Won. AUGUST 31, 2016 Procurious, "Tail Spend Management and P2P-Insights on Managing Tail Spend Successfully," Sourcing and procurement organisations are under pressure like never before as they are expected to do more with less funding for their operations. Amid these pressures, most procurement organisations understand that one place where they may be leaving money on the table and deploying their resources inefficiently is in the low-value purchasing generally known as tail spend. AUGUST 31, 2016 Basware, "How to Save by Reducing Maverick Spending," The Hackett Group estimates that maverick spending can cost companies up to 2% of all indirect spending, due to lost savings opportunities and inefficiencies. That amounts to millions of dollars wasted every year. AUGUST 30, 2016 Blur Blog, "Focusing on 'Neglected' Tail Spend to Cut Procurement Costs," A recent study by strategic consultancy and benchmarking firm The Hackett Group provides yet more evidence that CEOs and CPOs are increasingly prioritizing cost reduction, amid fears of a global economic downturn in the near future. AUGUST 25, 2016 MyPurchasingCenter, "Procurement, Supplier Relationships and Operational Performance," With interest rates still low, companies continue to borrow rather than work on improving operational performance. That's according to results of the REL 2016 U.S. Working Capital Survey, which also show there's opportunity for procurement to manage relationships with suppliers in ways that can help generate additional value for companies. REL is a division of The Hackett Group, Inc. AUGUST 25, 2016 Supply Chain Digest, "Supply Chain News: Inventory Management by Retail Category: We Aggregate Inventory Turns Across More than a Dozen Retail Sectors," Based on data from the annual working capital survey of REL, a division of The Hackett Group. AUGUST 24, 2016 Global Banking and Finance Review (UK/Global), "Who should collect your cash?" How to develop an effective cash collection process. A bylined article by The Hackett Group's Lucie Luangrath (Page 90). AUGUST 18, 2016 Supply & Demand Chain Executive, "The Top Three Steps to Becoming Truly Omnichannel-Ready," A bylined article by The Hackett Group's Michael Unger and Silvia Bernardini "Twenty-four hours left ... free shipping! Order online ... Or if you want to get your purchase faster, see which local store has it in stock for pickup. Buy online and you can return/exchange at any store. These and other email advertisements are the norm, fueling heightened consumer expectations of a seamless omnichannel experience from browsing to ordering to receiving to returning. But what exactly does this entail for retailers?..." AUGUST 18, 2016 Treasury & Risk, "How to Combat Deterioration in Working Capital Performance," With interest rates at record lows, companies have been meeting funding needs through borrowing, according to new working capital research from REL, a division of The Hackett Group. Now's the time to boost working capital performance, before debt becomes more expensive. AUGUST 15, 2016 CFO Webinar, "How CFOs Can Make Their Budgets More Effective" With The Hackett Group's Sherri Liao. Frustration with annual budgeting isn't new. Budgeting often takes too long, and conveys information that is out-of-date the moment it is available. The good news is that finance chiefs are reevaluating their approaches to budgeting, as well as implementing new tools and strategies for disseminating financial information within their organizations and among external stakeholders. AUGUST 15, 2016 Supply Chain Brain, "Cheap Money is no Replacement for Working Capital," There's no lack of creative options for managing cash in the supply chain today. So why aren't more companies taking advantage of them? A new survey by REL, a division of The Hackett Group, Inc., suggests that companies are ignoring significant opportunities for optimizing working capital, especially when it comes to collections, payables and inventory management. AUGUST 11, 2016 Supply Chain Digest, "Supply Chain News: Inventory Performance 2016 Part 2: Numbers for Days Inventory Outstanding and Turns in 2015 for More than 60 Sectors I am going to let one big graphic do most of the talking this week. Relative to inventory management that is. I am back again this week with more analysis of the working capital data compiled each year by REL, a Hackett Group company, after last week's first pass. AUGUST 10, 2016 CFO Webinar, "The Future of Expense Management" With Hackett's Bryan DeGraw. In leading finance functions, forecasting has evolved from being a periodic, supporting process to a critical strategic tool that can influence the growth trajectory of the overall organization. Senior finance executives are increasingly relying on forecasts to inform their decisions. But making decisions becomes more challenging as the types of forecasts finance leaders depend on increase in number, variety, and complexity. CPE Credit Available. AUGUST 10, 2016 Supply Chain Digest, "Supply Chain Graphic of the Week: Working Capital Performance Over Time 2016," Cash conversion cycles and inventory levels both up by double digit percentages since 2010, according to data from REL, a division of The Hackett Group. AUGUST 9, 2016 Wall Street Journal, "Failures Like the Delta Outage Are a Fact of Digital Business," Customers are still feeling the fallout from computer problems at Delta Air Lines Inc. that began with an electrical outage in the dark hours of Monday morning. Flight cancellations grew throughout the day to about 1,000 and Delta continued to cancel flights Tuesday - 680 as of 5:15 p.m. ET - as it tried to restore normal operations. A Q&A with The Hackett Group's Scott Holland and Allan Frank. (sub required) AUGUST 8, 2016 CFO Webinar, "Recent Developments in Forecasting that CFOs Need to Know," With The Hackett Group's Bill Marchionni. In leading finance functions, forecasting has evolved from being a periodic, supporting process to a critical strategic tool that can influence the growth trajectory of the overall organization. Senior finance executives are increasingly relying on forecasts to inform their decisions. But making decisions becomes more challenging as the types of forecasts finance leaders depend on increase in number, variety, and complexity. CPE Credit Available. AUGUST 5, 2017 Supply & Demand Chain Executive, "Optimizing the Supply Chain Using Advanced Analytics," A bylined article by The Hackett Group's Josh Nelson and Hanna Hamburger. AUGUST 5, 2016 Human Resources Manager (DACH), "Great Demands on HR" In German. Efficiency has top priority in Companies. This applies to HR as well....Cost reduction, investments in market developments and alignments and rationalization of product portfolios are targets of senior management of global companies. Besides that big gaps of efficiency exist in HR. These are in short findings of the current Hackett survey "HR Key Issues 2016". The analysis of these information and data allows to identify the hiatus of efficiency. AUGUST 4, 2016 Tradeshift Blog, "Dear CPO, you got the job. Now what?," To say new CPOs are under scrutiny in their first 100 days would be a gross understatement. They're expected to bring costs under control, manage process change, and revamp dated technology. This kind of complexity needs a thorough roadmap. Between evaluating the inherited procurement team, filling gaps, and drilling down on analytics, it's imperative to have a plan up front. The Hackett Group's latest report, "The New CPO: A Roadmap for the First 100 Days" address this need. AUGUST 4, 2016 Supply Chain Digest, "Supply Chain News: Inventory Performance 2016: Data Shows US Company Inventories Continue to Rise," Since 2005, I have been doing reporting and analysis on company and sector inventory levels based on the annual Working Capital scorecard that is compiled by REL, a division of the The Hackett Group. It is always one of our most popular columns of the year. AUGUST 3, 2016 Technik & Einkauf (DACH), "Improvement of Working Capital Performance in 2015" In German. In comparison to last year big German companies could improve their Working Capital about 3.3 percent. The 124 producing German companies surveyed in the Working Capital study by REL showed in average a Cash Conversion Cycle of 46.3 days compared to 50,2 days the year before. The 23 producing DAX companies improved their CCC from 2014 (51,3 days) to 49,7 days; with this they were 3,4 days inferior to the German average value. AUGUST 3, 2016 Procurement & Supply Australasia, "Largest US Companies Take on More Dept, Ignore Working Capital Opps" The largest public companies in the U.S. chose to go even further into debt in 2015 instead of driving cash out of their businesses by improving how they collect from customers, pay suppliers, and manage inventory, according to the new annual working capital survey from REL, a division of The Hackett Group, Inc. Overall working capital performance continued to degrade, reaching poorest performance levels since the 2008 financial crisis. AUGUST 1, 2016 HRO Today, "Minding the Gap," A bylined article by The Hackett Group's Nathalie Bression, Tony DiRomauldo, and Harry Osle. Transformation remains a main initiative for HR organizations in 2016, finds the 2016 HR Key Issues study from The Hackett Group. Many companies are planning to overhaul key components of their service delivery models in order to meet business and HR performance goals. AUGUST 1, 2016 Harvard Business Review, "How Employee Alignment Boosts the Bottom Line," Clear visibility among corporate employees' and supervisors' goals leads to sharply improved financial results. Featuring research metrics from The Hackett Group's performance studies and insights from executives Harry Osle and Scott Leuchter. JULY 26, 2016 Chefburo (DACH), "REL Working Capital Survey: Improvement of Working Capital Performance in 2015" In German. Large German companies could improve their working capital performance about 3.3 percent, according to new research from REL, a division of The Hackett Group. The cash conversion cycle of the 124 German companies surveyed by REL showed an average 46.3 days compared to 50,2 days last year. JULY 26, 2016 Tradeshift Blog, "Procurement Goes for the Gold" A new report from the Hackett Group details how procurement can enable enterprise agility. JULY 25, 2016 CFO Webinar, "The Next Step in Cloud Systems," With The Hackett Group's Mark Peacock. By now, many organizations have implemented some form of software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology. The technology continues to evolve, offering safer, more flexible and more agile tools than ever before. Whether an organization has only just started to explore the cloud or is an early adopter, the CFO must continue to stay apprised of new developments with cloud-based options, including financial reporting tools and enterprise resource planning systems. JULY 25, 2016 Financial Times, "Europe's largest 1,000 groups turn focus to tackling working capital Industrials," A majority of the largest 1,000 European companies have improved their efficient use of working capital over the past year, suggesting the importance of cash as a strategic objective remains high up their agenda. According to a survey by REL, a division of The Hackett Group, the cash conversion cycle, which measures the length of time, in days, that it takes for a company to convert revenues into cash flows, at the largest 960 European companies by revenue rose 1.7 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014. JULY 22, 2016 Supply & Demand Chain Exec, "Largest U.S. Companies Take on More Debt, Ignore Working Capital Performance Improvements," The largest public companies in the U.S. chose to go even further into debt in 2015 instead of driving cash out of their businesses by improving how they collect from customers, pay suppliers and manage inventory, according to the new annual working capital survey from REL, a division of The Hackett Group Inc. Overall working capital performance continued to degrade, reaching the poorest performance levels since the 2008 financial crisis. JULY 22, 2016 Supply Chain Management Review, "Supply Chain Spend: Largest U.S. Companies Take on More Debt, Says Recent Survey," If chief procurement officers (CPOs) were to take a Neanderthal approach to their jobs it might look something like this: Whack suppliers over the head with clubs to compel them to do what they want, then, storm the C-suite and force executives to listen to their ideas. Unfortunately, caveman mentalities have no place in today's business world, so CPOs must take a more finessed approach to their duties. Including insights from The Hackett Group's Chris Sawchuk. JULY 19, 2016 CFO Webinar, "Boosting Financial Reporting Efficiency," With The Hackett Group's Diderica Wiersema. Finance is paying more attention than ever to streamlining and updating financial reporting practices. Faced with pressure from different regulatory bodies, CFOs must be sure they understand how the latest requirements and standards will affect their companies. Participate in this Webcast to learn more. CPE Credit Available. JULY 18, 2016 Essentials of Corporate Finance, "2016 Working Capital Survey," CFO just published the 2016 working capital survey. The 1,000 large U.S. companies included in the survey had about $1 trillion in excess working capital based on companies in the survey matching the top quartile performers. Overall, the cash conversion cycle increased by 2.5 days, although much of this was driven by the oil & gas sector. If this sector was excluded, the cash conversion cycle actually fell by .1 day. JULY 15, 2016 Washington Post Brand Studio, "Time to Refresh" Why small and medium-sized businesses need to update their technology. Featuring insights from The Hackett Group's Mark Peacock. JULY 14, 2016 CFO, "Over a Barrel," Working capital performance among America's largest companies took a turn for the worse in 2015. After three years of stability, the cash conversion cycle – the amount of time that cash is tied up in working capital – increased by 7% (2.4 days) for the 1,000 large nonfinancial companies recently surveyed by REL, a working capital consultancy and division of The Hackett Group. At the end of 2015 the cycle stood at 35.6 days, the highest level since before the financial crisis. JULY 14, 2016 CFO, "The 2016 CFO/REL Working Capital Scorecard," Chart detailing the working capital performance of the best and worst companies in more than two dozen industries, based on the findings in the annual U.S. working capital survey performed by REL, a division of The Hackett Group. JULY 13, 2016 IDG Expert Network (DACH), "Check Your Company's Working Capital in a Flash Test" In German. A bylined article on working capital by Paul Moody of REL, a division of The Hackett Group. JULY 12, 2016 Finyear.com (UK/Europe), "Working capital requirements improvements of the largest European companies increase" The In French. 18th annual study carried out by REL, a division of the Hackett Group, shows that in 2015, the working capital needs of Europe's largest firms slightly improved. Of the 960 companies analysed, 122 were French and they performed on average better than the others in the sample. JULY 11, 2016 CFO Webinar," "Realizing ROI with EPM Improvements" With Hackett's Amitash Mady & Sherri Liao. For an increasing number of organizations, enterprise performance management (EPM) tools are enabling senior finance executives to integrate plans, understand where they're losing money, move from annual budgets to rolling forecasts and identify opportunities for strategic improvements. JULY 6, 2016 Agefi.fr (France), "European groups improve their working capital requirements" In French. The annual study carried out by REL, and published by L'Agefi, shows that the average performance of French companies in 2015, surpassed that of their European counterparts. JULY 1, 2016 Baseline, "Innovation Will Drive Growing IT Budgets and Staff," IT budgets and staff are expected to grow this year, according to a recent survey from The Hackett Group. The accompanying report, "The CIO Agenda: Balancing Risk, Cost and Innovation," explains that innovation is driving much of the spending increases, as many executive leaders consider that their top strategic priority. JUNE 28, 2016 Supply & Demand Chain Executive, "Shake off the Caveman Mentality," Collectively individual CPO's approaches to business problems may differ, but recent surveys of top procurement officials, such as those done by The Hackett Group. JUNE 27, 2016 Chefburo (DACH), "Cost Cuts in Finance Departments" In German. The finance departments of large-scale enterprises expect to reduce staff in 2016, after reductions in 2015 and 2014. Article appears on page 16 of digital issue. JUNE 21, 2017 CIO Dive, "Study: Most businesses lack a well-defined digital transformation strategy," Tech talent is indeed in demand, and as companies turn to technology to expand their market share, competition in the tech labor market will likely only get worse. Experts recently offered several tips for helping enterprises find and recruit tech talent, but successful recruiting is still a hurdle for businesses to overcome. JUNE 20, 2016 CFO Webinar, "The CFO Playbook on Budgeting: How CFOs Can Make Budgets More Effective" Nearly everyone agrees their organizations' budgets could use improvement. But where to start? The exercise of setting targets, allocating resources, and providing incentives for employees to achieve specific goals has been a time-worn tradition for most organizations and their finance functions. With The Hackett Group's Miles Buntin. JUNE 20, 2016 CIO, "IT talent biggest roadblock to digital transformation," Although digital transformation is important to businesses, companies are still dragging their heels on developing a strategy. One thing that might be holding businesses back the most is hiring, according to a study from The Hackett Group. The study found that for midsized and large businesses, one of the biggest roadblocks with digital transformation has been actually finding and sourcing talent with the right skills. JUNE 17, 2016 Diginomica.com (UK/Europe), "Digital transformation key for HR success - tech spend set to rise?" Market changes and customer expectations are now forcing HR to make up for those wilderness years and invest in technology, analytics and digital transformation, according to Harry Osle, global HR advisory practice leader and principal at The Hackett Group. JUNE 16, 2016 SupplyChainBrain, "Procurement Puts the Squeeze on Rising Costs," A bylined article by The Hackett Group's Chris Sawchuk and Patrick Connaughton. Virtually all companies will face economic headwinds and other challenges in 2016. Finding new sources of revenue growth remains difficult, resulting in pressure to protect margins through cost control. How can the procurement professional provide that? JUNE 14, 2016 Spend Matters, "5 Things to do to Prepare for Extending Payment Terms with your Suppliers," Bylined article by The Hackett Group's Tom Levene. "Do you pay your suppliers too quickly? New research indicates that 32% of respondents are planning to extend their supplier payment terms. Additionally, our benchmark studies show that many organizations trail industry peers in the key supplier cash flow measure, days payable outstanding (DPO)." JUNE 13, 2016 Wall Street Journal, "The Big Number: 35.6 - The average number of days it took U.S. companies to convert spending into cash in 2015" 35.6 – Average number of days U.S. companies took to convert spending into cash in 2015. The West Coast ports strike, weak oil and gas prices and changes in corporate supply chains made U.S. companies less efficient last year, says consulting firm The Hackett Group Inc. JUNE 10, 2016 CXOToday, "HR Leaders Struggling With Digital Transformation; Time For A Makeover?," The human resources (HR) professionals are at a crossroads. Over the last few years, digital technologies have radically changed the way businesses operate, requiring a tremendous change in all areas of human resources. However, many HR organizations are not well-positioned to support enterprise strategic and operational objectives, says a new study from The Hackett Group. JUNE 10, 2016 Chefburo (DACH), "Learning Program for Executives" In German. The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) and The Hackett Group today announced the launch of the Advanced Diploma in Global Business Services (GBS). This is the second offering in their Certified GBS Professionals (CGBSP) program, a comprehensive career development system for the GBS and Shared Services sector from CIMA and The Hackett Group. JUNE 8, 2016 AFP, "5 Ways FP&A Can Combat Competitive Threats," Nearly all companies today are facing competitive disruption-often of the digital nature. Think brick-and-mortar retailers, the auto industry (driverless cars), and photography. Some threats are pretty clear; others are less visible. All can seriously affect companies' margins and market share. They therefore have a direct impact on forecasting, budgets, and planning. What's more, as financial planning and analysis (FP&A) becomes the analytics hub of the organization, it must be able to step up and help business and senior leaders anticipate how competitive disruption May affect financial results and prepare an action plan. Including expert insights from The Hackett Group's Peter Won. JUNE 7, 2016 Logistics Management, "Strategic Transportation Sourcing: 5 tips to improve your position," With the complex economic and global trade environment pushing rates higher and capacity tighter, shippers and their procurement teams are under pressure to nail down the right suppliers and transportation partners - while squeezing as much value as possible out of their transportation network. Including insights from The Hackett Group's Chris Sawchuk and Patrick Connaughton. JUNE 7, 2016 HR Dive, "HR success requires digital transformation, but CHROs lack support," When CHROs contemplate the balance of 2016 and look into next year, naturally their thoughts turn to how to better attract, retain, engage and reward people – and often, technology is a large part of that. Looking more closely under the hood, new research from The Hackett Group says of the top planned HR transformation initiatives for the near term, six out of 10 are focused on technology and analytics. JUNE 6, 2016 CFO Webinar, "Financial Reporting" Featuring The Hackett Group's Lisa Heacock. "Pressing for more transparency, various stakeholders are pushing CFOs to broaden the scope of their companies' financial reporting. Responding to such external pressures, CFOs are turning around and making increasing demands on their staffs to streamline their reporting processes." JUNE 2, 2016 CFO.com (Global), "How Cash-flow Friendly Is Your Contract?" A bylined article by The Hackett Group's Tomas Szabo. "How to avoid cash-flow issues that can derail even a profitable project and cause liquidity difficulties." MAY 27, 2016 Supply & Demand Chain Executive, "Four Keys for Leveraging Supply Chain Technologies to Improve Performance" Bylined article by The Hackett Group's Josh Nelson. "Do you know how well your supply chain technology suite is helping your organization reduce costs, drive efficiency and enable effective decision-making across every element of the supply chain?" MAY 24, 2016 CFO Webinar, "The CFO Playbook on Forecasting: How CFOs Can See Into the Future" Featuring The Hackett Group's Brad Frink. "Once merely a supporting analytical tool, forecasting is now a critical means to companies' overall growth plans. Companies have come to rely on their forecasts as working documents throughout the year, while updating them on a daily basis. In turn, the kinds of forecasts businesses now employ have multiplied, including cash-flow forecasts, dynamic forecasts, financial forecasts, production forecasts, revenue forecasts, rolling forecasts, sales forecasts, soft forecasts, static forecasts, and all manner of other means of data-driven crystal-ball gazing." MAY 16, 2016 CFO Webinar, "CFO Playbook on ERP" Like all information technology tools, enterprise resource planning (ERP) is always evolving. As CFOs like you look to the future, will your current systems keep up with your organization's strategic needs? As you consider the road ahead, make sure your ERP tools are just that -- tools -- and not obstacles. With The Hackett Group's Scott Glenn. MAY 15, 2016 Supply Chain Quarterly, "Now's the time to manage 'tail spend'," Procurement teams that strategically source 80 to 85 percent of their companies' purchases are hitting a critical metric that measures their performance: spend under influence. Now, they're turning their attention to that remaining, and sometimes neglected, 20 percent of purchases known as "tail spend." Is it worth devoting significant procurement resources to managing these often smaller, low-dollar purchases? According to the Hackett Group, the answer is yes. The consulting firm believes that managing tail spend will help procurement address its larger strategic goals. The Hackett Group's "2016 Key Procurement Issues Study" asked procurement leaders at 180 companies with $1 billion in annual sales worldwide to list their priorities for the coming year. MAY 12, 2016 Procurious, "Challenges Ahead for Buyers Making Late Payments," In the modern procurement world, there are many hurdles to timely payment that exist on both sides of buyer-supplier relationship. Overcoming these, and ensuring that organisations are not making late payments, is a key way to build good relationships. New research from The Hackett Group has found that nearly one-quarter of all supplier invoices are paid late (Fig. 1). Despite the working capital benefits, only a very small percentage of respondents to The Hackett Group's Payment Practices Poll, intentionally pay suppliers late. MAY 9, 2016 CFO Webinar, "Enterprise Performance Management" For an increasing number of organizations, enterprise performance management (EPM) tools are enabling senior finance executives to integrate plans, understand where they're losing money, move from annual budgets to rolling forecasts, and identify opportunities for strategic improvements. With The Hackett Group's Sherri Liao. MAY 2, 2016 CFO Webinar, "Partnering with IT for Success" Webcast with The Hackett Group's Mark Peacock. CFOs know that investing in technology is imperative to remaining competitive as a business today. Equally crucial, however, is investing in your IT department. In addition to being willing to provide your IT department with the necessary budget to run effectively, CFOs should be doing everything in their power to forge strategic partnerships with IT executives. IT leaders have valuable insights into the future of business that CFOs are wise to use. IT leaders can also help steer technology investments in the right direction to ensure their organizations employ the best tools to foster growth. APRIL 26, 2016 European Financial Review (UK/Europe), "Best Practices in Business Services Following a Merger or Acquisition" A bylined article by The Hackett Group's Phillip King and John Kennedy. "Successful merger integrations come from developing an M&A "playbook" that provides a set of guidelines, templates, checklists, and frameworks to better plan and manage integration activities. While every merger integration is different, the playbook, tailored to your organisation's unique processes and needs, can serve as the go-to reference for future merger integration efforts." APRIL 25, 2016 CFO Webinar, "The Latest Developments in Financial Reporting" Webcast with The Hackett Group's Sherri Liao. Finance is paying more attention than ever to streamlining and updating financial reporting practices. To fulfill the requirements of a growing assortment of regulatory bodies, finance executives are devoting their efforts to understanding how different reporting standards will affect their companies. In addition to staying on top of reporting requirements and standards, finance leaders are also targeting the close process as a priority area for improvement. Shortening the close-to-report cycle, and ensuring financial reporting is up to date, have moved to the top of CFOs' agendas. APRIL 22, 2016 Supply Management, "'Cognitive procurement' will drive profession forward" The procurement profession has come a long way since the days of sitting in an office signing purchase orders all day. And while maintaining cost-efficient relationships with trusted suppliers remains an essential part of the job, the need to evolve remains the key to future success. Including insights from The Hackett Group's Chris Sawchuk. APRIL 20, 2016 Forbes, "America's Best Management Consultants" The Hackett Group is listed in both the Supply Chain Management and Automotive categories in this ranking, which is prepared based on two surveys executed by Statistica. APRIL 11, 2016 CFO Webinar, "CFO Playbook on Technology" Featuring The Hackett Group's Louis Lamoureux. With a cautiously optimistic outlook, companies today are looking to spend smart. Whether putting dollars to use securing the business or looking for growth, it's important that your organization is thinking strategically. This is particularly true with technology investments; put to good use, IT can boost your company's productivity, innovation, and, ultimately, profits. APRIL 5, 2016 PYMNTS.com, "The One Thing Behind Every CFO's Goals," The chief financial officer is taking a more strategic role within the enterprise, but the heightened responsibilities largely come from necessity. Greater exposure to risk and pressure to boost revenue are hanging over CFOs' heads "like a dark cloud," according to The Hackett Group's Jim O'Connor, one of the authors of the firm's latest report, "The CFO Agenda." MARCH 31, 2016 CFO Webinar, "Receivables" Featuring The Hackett Group's Bryan DeGraw & Todd Glassmaker. "All finance processes for billing and collecting receivables were not created equal. And given the pressure that most CFOs are feeling to optimize working capital, many finance chiefs are taking a hard look at their accounts receivable (A/R) processes and technology to ensure that they are not leaving money on the table." MARCH 31, 2016 IDG Expert Network (DACH), "Developping Skills for Management and BI " In German. The Hackett Group's Tom Bangemann offers an overview of the impact talent management has on global business services, and provides details on the the training and certification solution offered by CIMA and The Hackett Group. MARCH 30, 2016 Beschaffung aktuell (DACH), "How Procurement will change in 2016 " In German. In 2016 procurement managers expect only minor increases of 1.1. percent in budget and 2.2 percent in staff. But they plan to emphasize procurement's role to business partnership and strategic procurement. MARCH 30, 2016 Procurious, "Planning Procurement's Response to the Millenial Generation," Bylined article by The Hackett Group's Chris Sawchuk, "Understanding how procurement can cope with, and ultimately benefit from, the disruption brought into talent management by the Millennial Generation..." MARCH 29, 2016 CFO Webinar, "The CFO Playbook on Budgeting How to Get More From Your Budget" Webcast with The Hackett Group's Amitash Mady. CFOs are taking on more responsibilities than ever before, but one of their essential tasks continues to vex them: budgeting. The exercise of setting targets, allocating resources, and providing incentives for employees to achieve certain goals has been a time-worn tradition for most organizations and their finance functions. But today, many finance chiefs are reevaluating their current budgeting practices in search of new tools and strategies to make budgets not only more effective but also more efficient. How can you adopt these ideas for your own organization's purposes? What will work best to transform your current budget from a chore into a tool? MARCH 25, 2016 Financial Management News, "EPM: How Corporate Finance Benefits," A video interview with The Hackett Group's Sherri Liao covering highlights from The Hackett Group's Enterprise Performance Management Book of Numbers research. MARCH 25, 2016 Procurious, "Big Ideas Summit 2016: Big Idea #11 - Making Agility Core" At the Big Ideas Summit 2016, we challenged our thought leaders to share their Big Ideas for the future of procurement. Chris Sawchuk, Principal and Global Procurement Advisory Practice Leader at The Hackett Group, says that procurement needs to put a focus on agility at the core of everything it does. MARCH 25, 2016 Procurious Video, "Big Ideas Summit 2016: Big Idea #12 - Millenial Talent Response" At the Big Ideas Summit 2016, we challenged our thought leaders to share their Big Ideas for the future of procurement. Chris Sawchuk, Principal and Global Procurement Advisory Practice Leader at The Hackett Group, says that procurement needs to put a focus on agility at the core of everything it does. MARCH 25, 2016 Procurious, "Big Ideas Summit 2016: Big Idea #26 - Changing Talent Management," At the Big Ideas Summit 2016, we challenged our thought leaders to share their Big Ideas for the future of procurement. Melani Flores, Practice Leader, Procurement Advisory EMEA at The Hackett Group, argues that the growth of the Millennial Generation in the workforce shouldn't be viewed as a threat, but an opportunity. MARCH 24, 2016 CFO Webinar, "Why Finance Should Automate Management & Regulatory Reporting Processes" Webcast with The Hackett Group's Sherri Liao. Do your reports work for you, or do you work for your reports? For many senior finance executives, it's the latter. The volume of management reporting has grown exponentially during the last few years. And although automation is commonplace in many finance and business processes, a majority of organizations continue to prepare their internal, management, and regulatory reports manually -- using inefficient, time-consuming processes. MARCH 23, 2016 IDL Dialog (DACH), "4 Levels and 4 Steps: The Path to Working Capital Maturity" In German. In this bylined article by Paul Moody of REL, a division of The Hackett Group, he details REL's working capital maturity model . MARCH 22, 2016 Treasury-management.com (UK), "Achieving Working Capital Maturity: The Secrets of Champions" A bylined article by Jennifer Pinney of REL, a division of The Hackett Group. "Great people, great ideas, great customers - most major companies have some combination of formidable advantages going for them. Like world-class athletes, where the difference between the best and the rest is measured in hundredths of a second, the companies that carry away the gold often do so not because of a single major advantage but through the cumulative power of doing many small things exceptionally well..." MARCH 21, 2016 Wall Street Journal, "The Big Number," 2.7% - Projected average head-count decline in corporate-finance departments this year. Companies may be generating increasing amounts of cash, but the people holding the purse strings aren't reaping the benefits. MARCH 21, 2016 Technik & Einkauf (online) (DACH), "Procurement 2016: Strengthening of Strategic Business Partnership in Spite of Cost Reduction" In German. Procurement Managers expect for 2016 only minor increases in their budgets (1.1 percent) and staff (2.2 percent) and will reduce costs. Even so they plan to strengthen procurement's role to strategic procurement and business partnership. Technik & Einkauf, one of Dach's leading procurement magazines, publishes Hackett's press release on Key Issues Procurement 2016. MARCH 21, 2016 CFO Webinar, "ROI of Training & Education" Webcast with The Hackett Group's Scott Leuchter. In today's global war for talent, companies are on a mission to acquire specific skill sets to drive profitable business growth tomorrow. In this regard, they are focused primarily on securing the necessary talent from external sources. Yet many organizations already include highly-qualified people who can receive training to develop the skills their organizations need. The challenge is discerning the current employee base to detect skill voids and determining ways to address these gaps through targeted education and training. MARCH 19, 2016 Supply Management, "Earning trust top focus for procurement in 2015 - Hackett Group," Most procurement departments are expecting limited budget growth over the next year and will need to restrict transformational projects to a select few initiatives, according to the Hackett Group. MARCH 14, 2016 Supply Management (UK), "Cost cutting back as number one priority for CPOs" Procurement departments are facing a challenge to balance cost reduction with the desire to become better strategic partners because operating budgets and staffing will increase only slightly this year, according to research by The Hackett Group. MARCH 10, 2016 ICV blog (DACH), "Further Company's Membership: Hackett's Managing Director is Glad with the Active Exchange " In German. Georg Bach, Managing Director of The Hackett Group in Dach and CEO in Germany explains the decision to start a company membership in ICV (International Controller Verein): "The Hackett Group and ICV constitute an ideal replenishment. As strategic consultant company focussing on Business Support Functions Hackett supports holistically Controlling Organizations of Global Players - from Performance Assessment to the point of Best Practice Implementation. We are pleased about an active exchange in the ICV network." MARCH 10, 2016 Spend Matters, "Rethinking Procurement Technology Maturity Models: An Introduction" Procurement maturity is increasingly becoming holistic and integrated - as is procurement technology. No longer can we think of maturity models for various areas of the function (or the use and adoption of solutions) in silos. MARCH 7, 2016 Supply Chain Management Review, "Procurement Managers See Pressure to Reduce Costs Ramping Up," For 2016, companies are expecting to see business uncertainty and risk increase, along with greater struggles to grow revenue. According to The Hackett Group Global Procurement Advisory Practice Leader Chris Sawchuk, this adds pressure to reduce costs. At the same time, he says, procurement leaders need to balance this with other more strategic priorities, like becoming a better strategic business partner. MARCH 7, 2016 CFO Webinar, "The CFO as HR Leader" Webcast with The Hackett Group's Scott Leuchter. As the economy improves, the pace of the competition only quickens. To keep up, organizations need to make smart staffing and HR technology investments so that they can employ human capital as strategically as possible. With the opportunities technology offers for better recruitment, hiring, and training processes, CFOs need to ensure that their organizations are making the most of these tools. MARCH 4, 2016 Oracle, "From OpenWorld - The Hackett Group on Oracle Hyperion Profitability & Cost Management" Mike Cochran, Managing Director of Enterprise Performance Management - Essbase and Planning at The Hackett Group, discusses how its customers are using Oracle Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management to impact their businesses. Hackett has observed their customers getting increasingly aggressive with wanting to manage profits in order to make better use of resources paying particular attention to product, customer and channel profitability. MARCH 4, 2016 Supply Chain Management Review, "As Business Uncertainty Rises, Procurement Faces 2016 Balancing Act," Procurement leaders expect operating budgets and staffing to increase slightly in 2016 as they attempt to balance the need to reduce costs with the desire to become a better strategic business partner and other priorities, according to new Procurement Key Issues research from The Hackett Group, Inc. MARCH 3, 2016 Changeboard.com (UK/Europe), "Six tips to build a world class HR organisation" What makes a world-class HR organisation? The Hackett Group reveals six key steps to make you more competitive in 2016. MARCH 1, 2016 Beschaffung aktuell (DACH), "Procurement Operator becomes Chief Value Officer" In German. "Procurement" has changed gradually to "Strategic Procurement" becoming "Business Partner" for all company divisions: So it is generating added value, pushing innovation and consequently minimizing entrepreneurial risks. Dr. Marcell Vollmer, COO of Ariba, predicts in his byliner for DACH's procurement magazineBeschaffung aktuell that CPOs will become Chief value Officers soon. And Dr. Vollmer describes in detail in which way Hackett supports Ariba in finding solutions for procurement via cloud. FEBRUARY 29, 2016 CFO Webinar, "Expense Management" Webcast with The Hackett Group's Bryan Degraw. Companies today are seizing every opportunity for growth. As reaching out to new clients and expanding internationally become greater priorities, travel and expense budgets have increased accordingly. Now that T&E is becoming a bigger part of companies' spending, it is more critical than ever for finance teams to get a stronger grasp on expenses. Unfortunately, errors and fraudulent acts are realities for many firms. Even with established policies, the costs of lost revenues or regulatory enforcement penalties are too steep for executives to ignore or leave to manual processes. FEBRUARY 24, 2016 Spend Matters, "Supplier Networks and the Source-to-Pay Process: Taulia Connect Dispatch," At Taulia Connect Tuesday, Hackett's Amy Fong provided an overview of dozens of various Hackett Group metrics and benchmarks spanning procurement, accounts payable, treasury and related areas. Hackett is increasingly delving into certain aspects of technology as well in its survey work, including the usage of supplier networks to support the source-to-pay process. FEBRUARY 23, 2016 Spend Matters, "A Shocking Hackett Finding - Treasury, DPO and Procurement Alignment: Taulia Connect Dispatch," At Taulia Connect, The Hackett Group's Amy Fong gave a phenomenal talk, taking the audience on a journey through a range of purchase-to-pay (P2P), treasury and payables benchmarks, KPIs and recommendations. FEBRUARY 23, 2016 Treasury & Risk, "How Finance Can Harvest Big Value from Big Data," By The Hackett Group's Sean Mullane... Detailed, multidimensional profitability analytics gives finance a seat at the table and the opportunity to contribute in the "big data" game. FEBRUARY 17, 2016 CFO Webinar, "Evaluating ERP" Webcast with The Hackett Group's Scott Glenn. "Like the scope of a CFO's role, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems encompass much more than accounting. With the aim of aligning their organizations' resources and goals, senior finance executives, in collaboration with IT, aim to select ERP systems that adapt to their business processes and unite business units throughout their companies." FEBRUARY 15, 2016 Wall Street Journal, "The Big Number: 8: The average number of preparation days used by companies with the best forecasting records" Businesses that take an average of eight days to develop sales and earnings projections tend to report results that deviate from their forecasts by about 6%. Companies that spend more time preparing-an average 17 days-miss their targets by 10% or more, the consulting firm said. Insights from The Hackett Group's EPM Book of Numbers research. FEBRUARY 12, 2016 Procurious, "3 Key Steps to Effectively Improve Manufacturing Operations," Simplifying manufacturing operations should always be done in a way that doesn't adversely impact product performance or customer preferences. FEBRUARY 8, 2016 Supply Chain Digest, "Supply Chain Comment: Predictions for Procurement in 2016" By The Hackett Group's Chris Sawchuk... At The Hackett Group, we start each year by releasing the results from our annual Key Issues study, which details the priorities that are top of mind for executives not only in procurement, but other business services functions such as finance, HR and IT over the coming year. Here's an overview of our findings in procurement, based on input from executives at nearly 200 global companies. FEBRUARY 5, 2016 The Register, "Dragons and butterflies: The chaos of other people's clouds," Cloud computing was meant to solve the reliability problem, but in practice, it still has a long way to go. Is that an endemic problem with the complexity of cloud computing, or a problem with the way people use it? With insights from The Hackett Group's Mark Peacock. FEBRUARY 1, 2016 CFO Webinar, "The CFO Playbook on Strategy: Best Practices in Budgeting and Planning" Featuring The Hackett Group's Patrick Young. "CFOs' roles are evolving from focusing on numbers to making strategic decisions for their organizations. Yet budgeting remains a chief concern and pivotal responsibility of CFOs. To improve their ability to adapt to changes in the overall economy and within their companies, many CFOs have started to break away from annual budgeting schedules and have begun operating under continuous budgets. CFOs are also moving to cloud-based enterprise performance management (EPM) systems to ensure their budgets and plans are as current as possible." JANUARY 28, 2016 Supply Chain Digest, "Supply Chain Predictions from Our Guru Panel 2016," The Hackett Group's Chris Sawchuk is one of several experts quoted in this article. Mr. Sawchuk provides high level insights from The Hackett Group's 2016 Procurement Key Issues research. JANUARY 26, 2016 AFP, "FP&A Guide: Why Finance is Turning to Driver-Based Modeling," This Guide features The Hackett Group's research data and insights from Hackett's Sholape Kolawole. JANUARY 26, 2016 CFO.com, "Achieving Working Capital Maturity," Most executives pay little attention to working capital except when facing a crisis, and their indifference is transmitted to the entire organization. A bylined article by The Hackett Group's Jennifer Pinney. JANUARY 20, 2016 Procurious Video, "How an Agile Supply Chain can Enhance New Product Development," At the Big Ideas Summit 2016, we challenged our thought leaders to share their Big Ideas for the future of procurement. Melani Flores, Practice Leader, Procurement Advisory EMEA at The Hackett Group, argues that the growth of the Millennial Generation in the workforce shouldn't be viewed as a threat, but an opportunity. However, Melani believes that procurement isn't ready to work with this generation, train them, and enable them to work to the best of their ability. JANUARY 15, 2016 ComputerWorld, "New Job Realities Ahead for IT Workers," Changes in IT hiring are taking place, and GE is leading the way with GE Digital, a software company. The Hackett Group's Erik Dorr provides insights. JANUARY 14, 2016 Fast Company, "These Will be the Top 5 Business Challenges of 2016," The workplace is constantly changing, but 2016 is poised to be a particularly transformative year. As one of several experts cited in the article, The Hackett Group's Harry Osle discusses the shift towards a more virtual, adaptable, and global workforce. JANUARY 11, 2016 SpendMatters.com (UK/Europe), "Six ways to stay ahead in the global supply challenge" A bylined article by The Hackett Group's Andrew Bale. JANUARY 10, 2016 Washington Post Brand Connect, "Time to Refresh: Why Small and Medium-Sized Businesses Need to Update their Technology," This article quotes The Hackett Group's Mark Peacock on how small businesses can benefit from simplified support if they stay current with technology. NEWS Research Alerts & Press Releases Hackett in the News Hackett in the News - 2017 Hackett in the News - 2016 Financial News and Events Video Archive Media Relations Media relations inquiries about The Hackett Group should be directed to Gary Baker, Communications Director at gbaker@thehackettgroup.com or +1 917 796 2391. Copyright © 2021 The Hackett Group, Inc.; All Rights Reserved. Contact Us Sign In Events Careers Home Privacy Statement Terms of Use Client Services Terms and Conditions The Hackett Group is a leading global strategy and operations consulting firm, with particular expertise in performance benchmarking and business process reengineering. For companies wanting to optimize their service delivery models, we offer deep expertise in organizational design and in business process outsourcing options including HR outsourcing, IT outsourcing and more. Our cash flow analysis services have helped clients to free up billions of dollars in improved cash flow. Our procurement expertise extends to strategic sourcing and supply chain optimization, while our technology services include support for IT strategy development as well as specific platform deployments such as Oracle or SAP implementation.