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Simon Bittlestone reflects on the Varsity Matches 2016, which saw brand new developments in the application of analytics to sport.
Metapraxis MD Simon Bittlestone on what the WPP story can tell us about effective global management, and how analytics can drive sustainable growth
Technology Director John Masters considers the implications of new research from Gartner, on current investment priorities for senior finance professionals.
Chris Raymond reports from the London FP&A Board, where the most recent meeting focused on driver-based planning
Our MD Simon Bittlestone offers his perspective on the UK’s EU membership referendum and discusses how business leaders can best react to the result
Andrew Mosely reports on the latest meeting of the London FP&A Board, where finance leaders from a variety of large organisations discussed rolling forecasting
In the latest post in this series, Andrew Mosely looks at how better forecasting can help business leaders cope with market uncertainty
Simon Bittlestone writes on our recent seminar, which focused on analysing the relationships between sales performance and financial outcomes
Second post in this series: Andrew Mosely looks at how different data transformations can help companies face market uncertainty with greater confidence
Rachel Russell explores how reporting can be reinvented, to more effectively promote and maintain business performance.
Rachel Russell writes on the recent Gartner BI and Analytics Summit, and how efficient data governance can facilitate effective analytics
John Masters on a key theme of this week’s Gartner Business Intelligence and Analytics Summit: that of how IT can offer more useful insight to the business
Rachel Russell reports from this week’s Gartner BI and Analytics Summit, on how analysis can focus more on tangible business outcomes
Andrew Mosely looks at how business leaders can build a proactive approach to coping with market uncertainty
Rachel Russell looks at recent developments in the use of Data Visualisation by FP&A teams.
Andrew Mosely looks at recent data from the UK retail industry, and at how profitability analysis can help make the most of seasonal variations in demand.
Rachel Russell, Head of Client Service, writes on industry
Following media discussion around the idea of a ‘sugar tax’ in the UK, Rachel Russell looks at how innovation can be managed in response to regulatory risk
Andrew Mosely, Deputy Managing Director, writes on design and business analysis
As UK lenders grant more mortgages for longer than the usual 25 years, Andrew Mosely looks at how risk analysis can evolve to keep pace
Rachel Russell, Head of Client Service, writes on industry
Rachel Russell looks at the aftermath of the festive season for the UK’s retailers, and the need for better demand forecasting in the industry
Andrew Mosely, Deputy Managing Director, writes on design and business analysis
Andrew Mosely explores how business leaders at large organisations can build a framework for generating effective performance predictions.
Simon Bittlestone, Managing Director, writes on markets and economics
Simon Bittlestone looks at how predictive analytics can be used to gain insight on the progress of industry trends and disruption
Rachel Russell, Head of Client Service, writes on industry
Rachel Russell looks at the importance of scenario analysis in the energy sector, particularly in the context of potential regulatory change
Andrew Mosely, Deputy Managing Director, writes on design and business analysis
Andrew Mosely looks at the recent Bank of England stress tests and how predictive analysis can afford companies in all industries a stress test of their own
Simon Bittlestone, Managing Director, writes on markets and economics
Simon Bittlestone looks at how recruitment, including graduate recruitment, must evolve in order to find the business leaders of tomorrow
Justin Duffy, Consulting Director, writes on management and strategy
Justin Duffy looks at how an effective strategic analytics approach depends for its success on appropriate performance metrics
Rachel Russell, Head of Client Service, writes on industry
Rachel Russell looks at how automotive and other manufacturers can use strategic analytics to navigate disruptive trends in their industries
John Masters, Technology Director, writes on innovation and technology
John Masters considers the FCA’s announcement that it will look at the use of big data in the insurance industry, and what that means for the sector’s use of analytics
Rachel Russell, Head of Client Service, writes on industry
Following news that some major UK retailers will scale back Black Friday discounts, Rachel Russell looks at more effective approaches to short-term pricing
Nicola Pastore, Commercial Manager, writes on finance and business planning
Following findings on the full impact of regulators’ sanctions, Nicola Pastore looks at different approaches to assessing regulatory compliance in banking
Simon Bittlestone, Managing Director, from Gartner Symposium
Simon Bittlestone looks back at Gartner Symposium Barcelona, and picks out the topics of discussion most relevant to business leaders.
John Masters, Technology Director, at Gartner Symposium
John Masters looks back at some of the discussions around the future of ERP at this year’s Gartner Symposium, and what they mean for business leaders
Rachel Russell, Head of Client Service, from Gartner Symposium
Rachel Russell reflects on discussions around the insurance industry at Gartner Symposium, and where the sector could make better use of existing technology
Andrew Mosely, Deputy Managing Director, at Gartner Symposium
Andrew Mosely looks at some of the discussions taking place around business intelligence applications at Gartner Symposium Barcelona
Simon Bittlestone, Managing Director, at Gartner Symposium
Simon Bittlestone takes stock of the excitement around algorithms at Gartner Symposium, and demystifies some of the hype and hearsay around the term
Andrew Mosely, Deputy Managing Director, at Gartner Symposium
Andrew Mosely writes from Gartner Symposium, on achievable ways that IT leaders can help their business achieve its strategic goals
John Masters, Technology Director, at Gartner Symposium
Writing from Gartner Symposium, Metapraxis’ John Masters looks at how established businesses can predict the impact of disruptive technologies
Rachel Russell, Head of Client Service, at Gartner Symposium
Rachel Russell writes from Gartner Symposium, on the death of big data, and why that could hold the key if CIOs are to help tackle the most pressing challenges facing businesses today.
Simon Bittlestone, Managing Director, at Gartner Symposium
Simon Bittlestone blogs from Gartner Symposium Barcelona, on the impact of emerging analytics technologies, and why finance-led principles offer a perfect foundation for this type of project
Nicola Pastore, Commercial Manager, writes on finance and business planning
Nicola Pastore looks at recent research on the overseas experience of CEOs, and the challenges of managing local units of a multinational organisation
Rachel Russell, Head of Client Service, writes on industry
Rachel Russell looks at recent UK and US industry data, and explores how order book and sales pipeline analysis can help businesses respond to market trends.
Simon Bittlestone, Managing Director, writes on markets and economics
Simon Bittlestone looks at how processing industries can use simple predictive analytics to prepare themselves for cost changes in key raw materials.
Andrew Mosely, Deputy Managing Director, writes on design and business analysis
Andrew Mosely looks at the impact of corporate inventories on the most recent US GDP figures, and explores a more objective approach to working capital management.
Nicola Pastore, Commercial Manager, writes on finance and business planning
Ahead of next month’s Gartner Symposium/ITxpo Barcelona, Nicola Pastore looks at why analytics technology should be a key concern for business leaders in any industry.
Simon Bittlestone, Managing Director, writes on markets and economics
Recent research shows the need for stronger partnerships between finance and the business. Here, Simon Bittlestone looks at one way this can be achieved.
Rachel Russell, Head of Client Service, writes on industry
Rachel Russell outlines the challenges facing large banks, and looks at how they might respond to the changes taking place in the sector.
Kate Laughrin, Head of Consulting Operations, writes on business enablement and transformation
Kate Laughrin looks at the qualities finance and technology graduates need, in order to be a productive part of a modern business
Simon Bittlestone, Managing Director, writes on markets and economics
Simon Bittlestone writes on research on the make-up of boards at large banks, and the challenges of analysing business performance in financial services.
Rachel Russell, Head of Client Service, writes on industry
Rachel Russell looks at the how supply chain risks can impact on the drivers of value for manufacturing businesses in fast-moving sectors.
John Masters, Technology Director, writes on innovation and technology
In the wake of the European Court of Justice’s ruling on Safe Harbour, John Masters looks at some of the implications for affected businesses.
Simon Bittlestone, Managing Director, writes on markets and economics
Simon Bittlestone discusses corporate attitudes to regulatory risk in the UK, and explores how business leaders can take a more methodical approach to assessing its impact.
Justin Duffy, Consulting Director, writes on management and strategy
In light of recent comments from the Chair of the Low Pay Commission, on the new National Living Wage, Justin Duffy explores the potential effects on business performance.
Rachel Russell, Head of Client Service, writes on industry
Our Head of Client Service looks at the proposed BEPS international tax initiative, and how affected organisations can tackle the wider implications for these changes.
Simon Bittlestone, Managing Director, writes on markets and economics
Our MD, Simon Bittlestone, examines how business leaders can make big decisions confidently, even in uncertain market conditions.
Andrew Mosely, Deputy Managing Director, writes on design and business analysis
As always, the latest event in our Tomorrow’s CFO seminar series was packed full of interesting discussion. Andrew Mosely rounds up some of the highlights.
John Masters, Technology Director, writes on technology and innovation
Analysis and data platforms with integrated collaboration tools can help senior leadership teams respond to rapidly-changing market conditions.
Andrew Mosely, Deputy Managing Director, writes on design and business analysis
Corporate and individual risk, business and lending are inextricably bound up with each other, and moral hazard is an unavoidable by-product.
Justin Duffy, Consulting Director, writes on management and strategy
How better analysis can help smaller banks prove good risk control to the regulator, even with smaller historical data sets.
Gartner announces the breakup of the Corporate Performance Management (CPM) market into two distinct segments: finance CPM and strategic CPM. Metapraxis delivers strategic CPM solutions using our Empower software suite.
This graph entitled “What happens online in 60 seconds” was first published in November 2014 and has been widely redistributed on the internet. It is yet another example of an infographic designer misusing a statistical visualisation format so that it fails to communicate quantitative information accurately.
A company’s board of directors is collectively responsible for leading and directing its affairs in order to promote its success To fulfill this role,
The aspect ratio we choose for our graph has a significant effect on the perception of the data within it.
An infographic in the Raconteur supplement to the Times published on 11 November 2014 illustrates one of the classic pitfalls to avoid in plotting time series with incomplete data sets.
Here is another mis-scaled bar chart published in a Raconteur infographic called “The business case for transformation”.
A management information dashboard is an interactive device to enable the monitoring and comparison of performance.
An absorbing and thought-provoking book by Hunter Whitney published in 2013, called “Data Insights: New Ways to Visualize and Make Sense of Data”, contains a useful framework setting out some of the primary roles for data visualization.
The most important application of colour in visualization is to indicate different categories.
A client sent me an email this morning asking if I could explain the chart that was published in today’s edition of City AM.
The Raconteur supplement in today’s Times newspaper contains another example of a bad practice.
A number of visualization techniques invite the reader to use angle judgments in order to decode the data. The most common example of this is the pie chart.
In 1834, the psychophysicist E. H. Weber formulated one of the most fundamental insights into human perception, known as Weber’s Law.
Having defined and explained the fundamental dimensions of MI, we can develop a chart chooser for each of the seven categories.
Here is a good example of a mis-scaled bar chart – it is from a recent Raconteur infographic called “Top 10 trusted countries for outsourcing legal work”.
We can’t use an MAT for a stock type item (like Accounts Receivable or Headcount) or a statistic (such as GrossMargin % or the £/$ Exchange Rate) because totalling these items over time periods doesn’t make any sense.
I’ve previously commented on a scatter plot that was part of an online demo of Microsoft’s Power BI product in the Data Visualization section. I’ll now say a few words about one of the charts in the bottom of the dashboard.
Readers of this blog will know that I frequently find fault with published infographics, but today it is the turn of Microsoft’s Power BI team to be the subject of my criticism.
Developing an understanding of performance trends and identifying turning points is fundamental to managing the future. So what is the best way to spot the underlying trend in a data series that includes actuals, prior year actuals, budgets and forecasts?
The infographic in the Raconteur supplement distributed with today’s Times includes a chart that aims to make quantitative comparisons through the use of circles of different areas.
Analysis of Management Information frequently includes transforming discrete period by period data from the raw numbers, in order to find insight.
The media company Raconteur published a report on employee engagement this month, which contained an infographic.
In a last month, we looked at the phenomenon called “pre-attentive processing”, an automatic parallel process within the brain that enables certain visual features to be recognised in less than 0.1 seconds.
I’ve previously stated the rule that numbers within tables should always be right aligned. There are a few extensions to this rule that are worthy of mention.
The infographic in today’s City AM (reporting the sales growth and market shares of the major UK supermarkets) has taken some positive evolutionary steps forward since I last noticed a similar graphic in the same newspaper last September.
I have recently been working with a client organisation which usually presented values in data tables centred within the columns.
About 18 months ago, a large business in the FTSE 250 asked us to give constructive feedback on an executive dashboard that their IT project staff had created using tools from the Cognos suite.
The supplement in today’s Times newspaper published by Raconteur contains a large centre spread infographic entitled “How UK compares to European rivals”.
It seems strange that the management accounting profession has yet to invent a universally recognised collective noun for the different types of data like actuals, budgets and forecasts.
Look at the first picture in this article. Does something pop out at you that you really can’t miss?
This post concerns tabular data rather than graphs. The design of a table is at least as important as the design of a graph, and in many ways there is a lot more that one can get wrong in a badly designed table.
This article discusses what the information in most conventional financial reporting consists of.
This article contains a simple 10 point checklist that we give Metapraxis analysts to use when they create an executive dashboard.
Defining business success has never been much of a problem for managers. If you deliver above-sector profit growth, together with positive cash flow and a growing dividend, you are certainly succeeding. But just how are you supposed to do that?
Returning to the subject of the dimensional structure of Management Information, today we will look at the characteristics of the item dimension.
We introduced the dimensional structure of MI in a post earlier in the week. It turns out that the following dimensions are common to virtually all organisations, irrespective of their size or sector.
A colleague has drawn my attention to this infographic in today’s City AM concerning the cost and value of communications services in the UK.
Several generic classifications of graph types exist which are designed to assist us in choosing the appropriate chart for portraying the message in our data.
The graph at the top of this article appeared as part of an infographic published by a media company called Raconteur, which was distributed as a supplement to today’s copy of The Times.
Thinking about MI in the form of multi-dimensional cubes provides a very useful means of classifying the various distinctions that describe the data we are working with in graphs and tables.