Oracle, an integrated business software and hardware systems company, has published a report that found that most large businesses make decisions without updated information and visibility into their profits.
The report, "Performance Management: An Incomplete Picture," is based on independent market research conducted by Dynamic Markets across EMEA and the US.
The report says that 82% of businesses do not have complete visibility into profits by line of business, which results in potentially erroneous business decisions (46%), impaired financial performance (40%) and flawed business planning (38%).
Moreover, the heavy reliance on spreadsheets make managers take decisions that are based on outdated information.
The study found that managers typically spend 36% of their week number on spreadsheets. C-level and VP level managers spend 40% of their time working on spreadsheets. Handling data this way means it becomes outdated quickly. The study found on average, internally produced data used to make decisions is more than 4 months old – but 28% of managers do not even know the age of the data they use.
A high percentage (87%) of businesses managers criticise data sharing and communication between departments, with 71% describing the links between strategic goals, operational plans and budgets as "fragmented".
Oracle EPM Product Marketing vice-president John O’Rourke said management is clearly struggling to cope with the vast volumes of data being generated by their businesses, which is manifesting itself in a serious lack of visibility into profitability across the entire company.
O’Rourke said, "Without enterprise business planning systems to give organisations an end-to-end planning process that links strategic, financial, and operational planning to profitability and cost management, they are going to continue to struggle with fragmentation and have no option but to continue ‘making decisions in the dark’."
"The majority of managers are working off nothing more sophisticated than spreadsheets on a daily basis so it is no wonder they realise their planning is flawed…With markets changing constantly, businesses need to be able to plan decisively on the fly with live data," said O’Rourke.
