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Emtec Adviser - Executive Column: Empowering the Enterprise

Successful businesses no longer look to their IT organizations to merely collect, process and organize data, but they expect them to provide near-real-time metrics and relevant business information that helps management pinpoint how they are doing and, more importantly, what they should be doing and why.  IT organizations are also key in enabling their businesses to connect with customers and employees through social media to deliver valuable information at any location, on any device.

With the recent acquisition of Emerging Solutions (an Information Technology (IT) consulting/services company based in Chicago, IL), Emtec is better equipped than ever before to help our clients achieve such insight.

Emerging’s management and consultants have carved out a unique niche, developing a rare level of expertise in the implementation, customization and fine-tuning of the market’s most powerful business intelligence (BI), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), enterprise performance management (EPM) and customer relationship management (CRM) tools.

Among Emerging’s key specializations are Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Business Intelligence (BI) /Enterprise Performance Management (EPM). While these technologies all have demonstrable business benefits, there are a number of challenges that can dramatically hinder performance.  Emerging Solutions’ experienced, certified consultants get these solutions implemented on time and on budget while ensuring maximum efficiency.

Performance Management

For years, organizations used standalone spreadsheets for planning, budgeting and forecasting needs. Because they are handled manually, spreadsheets are prone to human error. No matter how well-defined and well-documented the rules for collecting data, control is lost once the data is typed, pasted or imported into a spreadsheet.

EPM solutions such as Oracle Hyperion offer a far more elegant and effective approach. Oracle's performance management applications are a modular suite of integrated applications that integrate with both Oracle and non-Oracle transactional systems. Each application can be deployed independently and delivers a high degree of value, but they work better together, integrating strategic, financial and operational management processes while delivering a low cost of deployment and ownership. From a business perspective, EPM offers a new level of visibility that streamlines financial reporting timelines, and addresses Sarbanes Oxley disclosure compliance obligations.

Spencer Stuart, one of the world's leading executive search consulting firms, called on Emerging Solutions when it sought to transition from spreadsheet-based financial management system to a web-based solution that would allow reporting to multiple users on a single, consolidated platform. Using its proven project methodology, the Emerging Solutions team structured a seven-phased project for implementing the Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) application to meet all the customer’s requirements.

“The Emerging Solutions team is very professional. Without their effort, the project would not have been a success,” said Steve Hunst of Spencer Stuart.

The great thing about the Emerging team is they have both advanced technical expertise and a deep understanding of the business issues that multiple industries face- including manufacturing, utilities, professional services and media.

The Social Enterprise

The Emerging Solutions team also was instrumental in helping NBC Universal deploy Salesforce CRM to help transform sales and unify its network, cable and digital business organizations. NBC Universal also integrated Salesforce CRM with its existing Business Objects business intelligence technology, creating a platform from which everyone from sales staff in the field to executives have access to the exact information they need.

What created the biggest buzz among NBC Universal’s staff was Emerging Solutions’ involvement in implementing the Salesforce Chatter application to realize the company’s vision of becoming a “social enterprise.”  Chatter is a collaboration application for the enterprise to connect and share information securely with people at work in real-time.

With cloud, mobile and social collaboration applications being added to the traditional data-based software stack, organizations must find ways to seamlessly integrate both structured and unstructured data from a variety of sources. Chatter essentially enabled a private social network that employees from all of NBC Universal’s 20-plus media companies to share documents, data, marketing ideas and more.

“The first week we launched this application, we had a 300 percent return on investment,” said Eric Johnson, VP, Sales Force Effectiveness, NBC Universal. “Social collaboration and social networking is here to stay.”

By integrating Emerging Solutions’ unique expertise into an already substantial service portfolio, Emtec’s suite of services is more robust than ever. The Emtec family is excited to have this great new team on board, and we are truly energized about all of the great possibilities that lay ahead.