US-based data forecasting and analysis company Trefis have been exploring the possibility of a potential market merger between Amazon and Oracle.

While a deal sounds very ambitious, Trefis believe it would represent one of the best acquisitions Amazon make, solidifying their position at the top of the cloud technology market. According to Trefis, their bold claims are based on two key rationales.

The study by Trefis highlights a theory that customers will benefit from the security of the Oracle-based Gen 2 architecture, supported by the expansive customer service offered by Amazon Web Services, resulting in a superior product to other competitors. Trefis believes the earlier advantage of AWS may be declining due to rising competition from Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and IBM strengthened by the recent acquisition of Red Hat.

Looking at the services in more detail, Trefis stated that data breaches affecting AWS customers could drive further action from Amazon. In the annual analyst meeting by Oracle, Larry Ellison actively spoke about Gen 2 architecture and its important role in managing data breaches.

The second key factor Trefis discuss is that AWS has not developed a credible database alternative to Oracle, with the capacity of managing the requirements of enterprise and start-up businesses. Whilst Oracle is moving its databases to the Oracle cloud, the software growth has not been capable of offsetting declines in other businesses. In contrast, AWS has maintained a partnership with VMware to bring AWS to on-premise systems, an area where Oracle and Microsoft have a strong lead. Trefis suggest that Oracle and AWS are a good match, based on Oracle wanting customers to move to the cloud and AWS wanting on-premise customers to expand further.

The report does raise several challenges to any potential merger involving years of rivalry, technology combination considerations, concerns of anti-competition and the overall scale of the deal.

Leading enterprise cloud application management services provider Velocity Technology Solutions has confirmed its Silver Partnership with OneStream Software. Velocity will offer implementation services along with the support of the corporate management platform available at OneStream, streamlining reporting for many businesses.

Craig Colby, chief revenue officer of OneStream confirmed that they were very excited to reveal with a partnership with Velocity, highlighting extending their global presence. Colby explains that each partner is put through a detailed training scheme to ensure complete compliance with their mission and to allow total customer success. Colby reiterated that this latest deal was a strategic partnership, enabling further customer evolution on a large scale and allows OneStream to provide shared customers with a smart corporate management platform solution, removing common challenges experienced on other platforms.

OneStream offers a simplified and unified Smart CPM platform that combines financial consolidation, planning, reporting, analytics and financial data all within one system. OneStream removes the potential risk and challenge of data management, reconciliation and other processes that are faced when using a non-integrated CPM platform. Mike Piloto, the VP of EPM, BI and BPO business at Velocity also stated how excited they were about the partnership with OneStream. Piloto believes their experience fits perfectly with the best practices and underlying goal of OneStream, to solve technical problems for technical customers. Piloto states that they are excited to be contributing to expanding the customer base at OneStream.

About Velocity Technology Solutions

Velocity is transforming cloud services and enterprise application management tools. Their solution enables teams total control over their technology, creating better business results. With Velocity, industry leaders can enhance their asset management and performance reporting services by utilising big data, analytics and other integrated solutions.

Data insights business GenAnalytics has partnered with Incremental Group to create a software system to support businesses with gender pay gap reporting.

Its new service will be offered to approximately 12,000 UK businesses employing over 250 staff and are required to annually publish information on the pay differences between men and women in their business.

Research shows that around 8 out of 10 businesses still pay men more, with women earning up to 26% less in the finance market and 24% less in construction.

Jane Gotts, the director of GenAnalytics explains that their goal is to generate greater insights and information to businesses concerning diversity and inclusion. Gotts highlights that gender pay gap analysis and employee analytics are essential to their business. Gotts highlights that their new tool will allow them to support businesses by providing a more efficient and detailed analysis of the gender pay gap data and allow them to identify areas to improve that impact gender pay gap performance.

GenAnalytics believe their system will support businesses in closing the gender pay gap over time. Scottish based business Incremental Group has been working with GenAnalytics to develop the software. Andy McGoldrick, the technology director of GenAnalytics explains that Incremental Group is dedicated to delivering greater diversity and inclusion within the technology market. McGoldrick states that working with GenAnalytics will support improved gender diversity and inclusion, all powered through technology and data.

Claire Partridge, an innovation specialist at Scottish Enterprise explains that the new product will enable improved equality and diversity within the workforce. Partridge states that are happy to support GenAnalytics and believe that by having a greater gender balance results in better company performance.

Earlier this year developers from Visa and Oracle teamed up to discuss a strategy to tackle an existing challenge for both businesses.

During the meeting, developers researched and constructed a payment prototype enabling businesses to handle transactions and to pay both suppliers and contractors far quicker.

Fast forward several months and this original prototype has evolved and is expected to be shortly available through Oracle ERP software. Oracle ERP customers will be capable of making Visa direct payments directly from their accounts-payable system with participating banks, reducing the overall time and investment associated with businesses having to implement new card payment technology.

The main question raised by all businesses is exactly how are they getting paid. Bill Sheley, the senior VP and global head of push payments at Visa explains that Visa Direct utilises an expansive network, supporting 54 million merchant locations worldwide, offering a network that enables payments anywhere.

For the recipients of this payment system, the benefits are related directly to faster payments and for businesses, this improved payment efficiency means reduced costs. A survey by the Association of Financial Professionals stated that nearly 90% of businesses highlighted increased efficiency as the main reason for switching to digital payments.

The efficient payment process results in a better experience, improving customer retention and eliminates the lag time associated between the payer and payee when money is being transferred.

Sheley believes that this program will expand further particularly with the rise of people working as contractors or freelancers. Sheley points out that this market has generally found it more difficult to get paid and states it has been more difficult to connect these people to a conventional banking system. Offering a transparent payment service, that is quick and secure is an appealing option for this market, according to Sheley.

Sheley believes that over the years payment innovation will focus on enhancing the payment experience, building upon the current services. Sheley states that there will also likely be an expansion of digital payment services into areas that lack access to traditional banking services. Furthermore, Sheley believes there will be continued development in new transactions excluding traditional plastic cards. Ultimately Visa is focused on simplifying the process and overall speed to market. Sheley highlights that they want smaller businesses to have the opportunity to the same services on offer to the leading companies, providing a simpler and accessible payment service for the future.

New analytical system combines financial and operational data together to enhance business insights.

Leading corporate performance management solutions business OneStream has revealed its latest release of the OneStream XF platform. The new release includes an innovative analytic blend capability that enables businesses to efficiently combine operational and transactional data with reliable financial information already established within the OneStream XF platform.

Tom Shea, the CEO of OneStream Software explains that finance is consistently being requested to be more of a strategic partner in business. Most CPM platforms are relatively limited in their capability to manage large volumes of complex financial, operational and transactional data within one place. The Analytic Blend provided by the update enables a finance business the ability to combine all data and utilise all of the financial intelligence available within the XF platform. The enhanced analytics system means reduced reliance on other BI tools and improves overall governance and security.

Analytics and Business Intelligence are key emerging areas for businesses actively looking to digitally transform their finance activities. As finance continues to innovate, finance teams require solutions that offer detailed information into finance and operations, with the capability to share this data efficiently with other business members. The Analytic Blend, combined with self-service dashboards and analytics allows finance professionals to have all the data they need to create insightful decisions within a secure environment. In the 2019 Wisdom of Crowds research by Dresner Advisory Services, the leading 5 BI initiatives included reporting, dashboards, data visualisation, data integration, and end-user self-service. The study indicated an increased focus on collaboration and governance, where users can efficiently create and share insights with other business members. Finance teams are actively seeking for systems with governance and analytics features to enable wider integration of BI and analytics within their business. 

The new and improved BI dashboards offered by OneStream will make it simpler for finance and business analysts to quickly develop visual data on critical business areas for business leaders to use to make informed decisions.

The new analytics, BI and data visualization features are all available as part of the next release of the OneStream XF platform. The upcoming webinar ‘Taking Data-Driven Decision Making to the Next Level with Governed Analytics’ taking place on October 29th will provide further insight into the new system.

Anaplan, a global leader in connected planning recently released an enhanced platform user experience along with a new mobile application at the recent Connected Planning Xperience event in London.

Incorporating an innovative design and a range of custom features, Anaplan’s new UX and mobile application will provide an intelligent, personalised experience. Improved accessibility improves planning across devices, making it simpler for customers to understand intelligent insights from data in real-time.

The mobile application that Anaplan offers is a secure and innovative product that can support enhanced decision making and improve potential collaboration within the business. Decision-makers will be capable of accessing intelligent planning tools and improve overall productivity through complete access to the most crucial information when necessary.

Chief financial officers will be capable of providing approval while on the move, measure a range of scenarios developed by analysts via an individual source and make quick, informed and strategic decisions. Ana Pinczuk, the chief development officer at Anaplan explains that enterprise planning today involves a range of systems, multiple stakeholders and ever-changing data, making it challenging to collaborate and make confident real-time plans. Pinczuk states that their new UX and mobile system create a connected planning platform with added agility, enabling decision-makers real-time visibility and clear insights to allow intelligent plans.

With Anaplan’s new UX and mobile application, users will have access to the following:

Further customisation tools within pages, applications and worksheets, enabling a personal data-focused experience

-Supported end-user experience and simple navigation enabling users direct access to key information.

-Further agility to improve collaboration between users and allow for a faster feedback process

-Improved formatting functionality to support teams in quickly identifying key data and address certain areas of the business

-Intelligent self-service tools that enable users to manage and connect by interaction with Anaplan data.

Anaplan revealed the new UX and Anaplan Mobile products at the CPX event in London. Anaplan Mobile can be used on iOS and Android mobile devices and is available on Google Play and the Apple Store.

OneStream Software, a global leader in corporate performance management (CPM) solutions for mid to large businesses confirmed that approximately 75% of new customers in the last year have selected the OneStream XF Cloud solution, supported by Microsoft Azure.

Customers include AFL Global, Terex Corporation and Steel Dynamics, businesses migrating from traditional on-premise finance systems to the cloud-based OneStream XF cloud solution.

Tom Shea, the CEO of OneStream Software explains that their integration with Microsoft Azure delivers a modern and trusted digital landscape for OneStream customers. Shea highlights that OneStream is leveraging the intelligent data security system of Azure, the flexible scalability and quick time-to-value benefits to generate a unified, large scale cloud CPM platform.

Shea reiterates that larger businesses require a system that won’t impact capability or performance when moving to the cloud. The OneStream XF Cloud platform incorporates Microsoft Azure Active Directory, Azure SQL Database and Azure Key Vault, along with several industry-focused regulatory requirements. Lani Phillips, the VP of Channel Sales at Microsoft believes that OneStream software allows businesses to modernise their finance systems and simplify the move to the cloud with Microsoft Azure. Phillips believes that for financial professionals, OneStream XF Cloud is a singular and cost-effective option compared to the traditional CPM platforms offered by Oracle, SAP and IBM.

Moving multiple systems to a single OneStream XF cloud platform powered by Azure supports businesses in accelerating financial close, planning and reporting processes and providing further insights into key data to create better business decisions.

The OneStream XF market offers a number of solutions that expand beyond the original platform to support other requirements including account reconciliations, tax processes and capital planning. Hundreds of businesses worldwide are now using OneStream XF to enhance finance and support finance digital transformation strategies.

In the last month, Forbes released its list of the 100 most innovative leaders in America, based on four core leadership characteristics:-perception in media for innovation, social connections, value creation, and investor expectations. The results clearly showed one significant challenge: Out of the list of 100 leaders was only one woman. Barbara Rentler, CEO of retail business Ross Stories was ranked number 75 with the added exclusion, unlike the others, of no apparent headshot.

Randall Lane, the editor at Forbes explained that the data-focused study influencing the ranking scale was potentially flawed, yet another recent study Forbes Cloud 100 published in September only included 3 companies with female chief executives.
There is clearly a continued challenge with female representation across certain industries, particularly within cloud, data, and STEM. Building female representation in STEM has been an industry goal for many years.

The UK based Women in Data started in 2014 as a short fairly informal gathering, but today has evolved into a collection of events, with its main attraction expected to attract over 1,500 attendees later this year. Technical recruiter Rachel Keane developed the event with co-founding Roisin McCarthy after seeing that the company had placed fewer women in 2014 for data and analytics as done in 2000. Kean believes this was a strange figure, as the business was more profitable, the client base had increased and they had been securing the best talent for each job.

Keane, McCarthy and other industry members highlight the challenges facing women in terms of climbing the career ladder in STEM. Other issues that affect women due to certain changes. Returning from maternity leave into some technology disciplines can mean some return significantly out of the loop by no actual fault of their own. Kean emphasises that technology is evolving rapidly, with some products in use one minute, then replaced the other. There ultimately needs to be a place for all women and as data becomes more pivotal across each industry, this could provide further opportunities. Keane explains that many upcoming school leavers believe that to work in finance they should focus on maths qualifications. Women in Data is currently developing a short film, alongside a number of leading companies to inform young women on the multiple options which they could follow with their chosen degree.

Keane explains that many young women are simply not aware that they can have a job in retail or technology or other industry, yet still, be connected to finance.

Keane highlights that more recently businesses are looking for more than just number-crunching. Companies want people that are capable of telling a story, listening and creating insights that impact business performance, skills that well adept for many women. Female industry leaders have emphasised that women need to have more confidence and understand that careers can progress and regress and that it is okay to take two steps back to then take one step forward.

Keane believes that women need to have more self-confidence in their skills and ability. Keane refers to how men and women look at a job spec, suggesting that men are traditionally more confident that they can meet the criteria, whilst women may be a little hesitant to apply for the role. Keane states that in her 11 years of recruitment, she hasn’t placed one person in a role that matches the job specification completely. Instead, Keane explains that she places people on a combination of their technical ability, their unique skills and how the company will benefit by having this person in their team.

Finance companies today are required to maintain high compliance levels and be capable of generating world-class services to their customers. Industry experts are now suggesting that the hybrid cloud has provided a platform for finance professionals to deliver a sustainable and profitable future.

The finance market includes a number of new technologies. The rise of security concerns, data privacy and compliance have all affected the cloud systems that banks and other financial organisations have developed. Research provided by the IBM Institute for Business Value reported that during 2019, the banking industry investment in cloud services is forecasted to hit $100 billion (USD). IBM believes that the cloud has become an essential part of progression in banking. IBM identifies six vital attributes including cost flexibility, scale, market flexibility, hidden complexity, variation and ecosystem connection all influence the efficiency levels but also are directly connected to business transformation and revenue change.

The integration of a hybrid cloud strategy has been relatively slow, driven by security concerns and a potential loss of data control. Reports, however, suggest this is changing, with a study by Nutanix stating that the financial industry is ahead of other sectors in terms of integrating hybrid cloud.

Chris Kozup, the SVP of Global Marketing at Nutanix explains that rising competition, along with higher security risks and emerging regulations will mean the industry needs to focus on enhancing IT infrastructure. Kozup states that the higher than industry average adoption of hybrid cloud indicates that financial businesses understand the benefits of hybrid cloud systems and their impact on agility, security and overall performance.

As FinTech continues to transform the industry, financial services that utilise the hybrid cloud will be competitive and enable further innovation. John Van Decker, the VP of Gartner explains that studies indicate that over 90% of enterprises believe the cloud can be used for over half of business transactions in the near future. Van Decker believes that the cloud has dramatically changed the shape for financial business applications, highlighting that many vendors have updated their platforms in the cloud and many have reduced their on-premise solutions and replaced it with more profitable cloud implementations.

Dr. Richard Harmon, Director at Cloudera states that open banking is enabling FinTechs to collaborate with financial organisations, providing and delivering innovative products and services that customers want. Harmon believes a hybrid, multi-cloud infrastructure has become the perfect area for businesses to tackle some of the most challenging data and analytic issues in the industry. Harmon states that some of the biggest FinTech businesses are capable of using the hybrid cloud to generate core services within data engineering, data warehousing and data science. 

Cybersecurity experts are constantly exploring techniques to manage new and emerging security threats. Despite a number of new and sophisticated tools, the IT security industry is well aware that a data breach can occur at any time.

Security solutions utilising machine learning have become a popular option for cybersecurity, reducing time spent on detecting potential threats, yet security continues to be a considerable concern. Some industry specialists are suggesting that predictive analytics could be an alternative option to tackle the challenges facing cybersecurity.

Predictive analytics is a rapidly evolving technique that enables businesses to understand what could happen and use insights that previously were not available. This tool is emerging within cybersecurity and allowing to predict potential cyber-attacks, enabling them to prepare the required systems to protect their business against attacks.

Many cybersecurity specialists are combining these systems with machine learning into their core security offerings. The question many experts are asking is how specifically predictive analytics can help in supporting potential cyber-attacks.

How Predictive Analytics can support Cybersecurity

Businesses today need to be capable of analysing data, identifying trends and errors as quickly as possible. Using predictive analytics enables businesses to identify incidents and find patterns to suggest what has worked and what hasn’t with their business. Whenever something out of the ordinary occurs, analysts can quickly step in and assess the scenario. Real-time data can be generated by using predictive analytics, identifying common attack scenarios and techniques to defend against these cases in advance.

Security teams are facing a number of challenges managing large volumes of data. Measuring and understanding big data is a complex task, particularly as big data sources can come from a number of varying databases and systems. Before any of this can be measured, the data needs to be collected and parsed, and this is where businesses need a system to enable this all to work together. Luckily, predictive analytics solutions are well suited to big data. In reality, the higher the number of inputs available, the more insights that can be generated providing an accurate number of predictions.

Combining predictive analytics with machine learning can support analysts in gaining important insights related to potential threats. Machine Learning can reduce the pressure on analysts in other tasks of categorising information and filtering through data streams. ML will also reduce human error that is inevitable due to the large volume of information required for processing. IN reality, predictive analytics combined with ML can only really work with established big data streams. 

An active defense system requires blocking any potential threat at source. Businesses need to deliver a data source into their predictive analytics solution. Launching a domain reputation tool can support potential malicious attacks. Through this application, predictive solutions can be introduced to determine the reputation of domains and the associated site. An API supported by a constantly updated database assures customers that they are gathering accurate domain details.

Predictive Analytics is being viewed as the next big thing within cybersecurity. Businesses that want to stop unknown threats from impacting their business should strongly consider the implementation of predictive analytical systems.