Open budget data: mapping the landscape

This report offers analysis of the emerging issue of open budget data, which has begun to gain traction amongst advocates and practitioners of financial transparency. Issues and initiatives associated with the emerging issue of open budget data are charted in different forms of digital media. The objective is to enable practitioners – in particular civil society organisations, intergovernmental organisations, governments, multilaterals and funders – to navigate this developing field and to identify trends, gaps and opportunities for supporting it. How public money is collected and distributed is one of the most pressing political questions of our time, influencing the health, well-being and prospects of billions of people. Decisions about fiscal policy affect everyone - determining everything from the resourcing of essential public services, to the capacity of public institutions to take action on global challenges such as poverty, inequality or climate change. Digital technologies have the potential to transform the way that information about public money is organised, circulated and utilised in society, which in turn could shape the character of public debate, democratic engagement, governmental accountability and public participation in decision-making about public funds. Data could play a vital role in tackling the democratic deficit in fiscal policy and in supporting better outcomes for citizens

Higher Education Meets Business Intelligence

Abstract In an ever-changing market powered by user satisfaction and financial success, Higher Education institutions must focus on data analytics to improve student satisfaction and business processes. This project underlines the importance of using a powerful data analytics tool to accomplish these goals. Many Higher Education institutions already collect the necessary data in order to predict and determine key changes but still pull this information from multiple databases in individual reports without overlapping benefit or any level of efficiency. The previous systems increase the risk of user error and limit the ability for multiple departments to collaborate and gain insights found through the combination of reports pulled from a campus-wide data source. Through a review of case studies and hands-on use of IBM Cognos data analytics tool, this study addresses the already acknowledged, and also personally obtained, benefits of Business Intelligence in real world scenarios unique to Higher Education. Exceptional data management and accessibility create opportunities for improved student retention rates leading to stronger departments and higher graduation rates. While improving student retention, student satisfaction increases and the institution often attracts more motivated and qualified students experiencing an increase in admission rates. Many Higher Education Institutions are also using Business Intelligence (BI) tools to pull reports leading to options for overall cost reduction. These cuts come in the form of smarter buildings and also fewer professionals needed for creating the BI reports. This project includes the following sections: Introduction, Background, Statement of the Problem, Business Component, Technology Component, Results, and Conclusion

Delivering value on day one with Business Intelligence: A case study of a European insurer company

Project Work presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Information Systems and Technologies ManagementThe general direction of an organization is directly impacted by the data-driven decisions made to move the organization towards reaching its goals. This scenario is especially true in ABC Inc., a European insurance company subject to this case study. Although reporting tools have traditionally been used in the company, challenges were identified when monitoring business performance. Namely, insufficient visual capabilities that effectively illustrate the desired metrics and data extraction activities delays and bottlenecks. Therefore, there is a need to implement better analytical visualizations and dashboards that enrich the storytelling, exploring solutions that provide information with real-time performance dashboards. This study uses the Design Science Research (DSR) methodology for Information Systems (IS) to develop a Business Intelligence (BI) dashboard through the Microsoft Power BI tool. The developed dashboard adds value to the company by providing a comprehensive visual analytics solution that effectively communicates a story, presents metrics and KPIs, and supports senior executives in their decision-making. In addition, this solution streamlines obtaining, preparing, and sharing business performance insights, thereby improving efficiency, and bringing agility in decision-making

Budgeting and ERP Control Systems in Third Level Educational Institutions: Some Evidence from the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom.

'A budget is not simply one facet of a plan, nor is it merely an expression of organisational policy: it is also a control mechanism' (Meredith and Mantel, 1995). Following an extensive literature review on budgeting within Corporations and Third Level Educational Institutions a mail survey questionnaire on the subject of budgeting and ERP control systems was sent to a selection of universities and third level institutions in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. The comparisons between budgeting within corporations and the third level educational sector are examined as well as the changing attitudes towards the 'traditional' budgeting methodologies. The emerging role ERP and information technology is having on budgeting processes is also investigated. Responses from the mail questionnaire were analysed to determine the budgeting and control methods adapted within third level educational institutions in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom and to investigate the role of ERP and information technology on budgeting within the sector. The results of the emerging role ERP and information technology is having on budgeting processes is also investigated. Responses from the mail questionnaire were analysed to determine the budgeting and control methods adapted within third level educational institutions in the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom and to investigate the role of ERP and information technology on budgeting within the sector. The results of the survey highlight the emerging attitudes and changing role information technology and ERP is having on third level institutions. The research concludes that while some third level institutions have adapted ERP systems, many are still in the process of change. Despite the demand from heads of departments for 'on-line' access to 'real-time', 'accurate' budgetary information many third level institutions are still reporting 'historical financial information' to budget holders. Further research is required in relation to third level institutions who are reporting 'on-line' budgetary information to budget holders in order to establish the extent of improvements in budgetary control as a result of implementing ERP

TimeTrader: Exploiting Latency Tail to Save Datacenter Energy for On-line Data-Intensive Applications

Datacenters running on-line, data-intensive applications (OLDIs) consume significant amounts of energy. However, reducing their energy is challenging due to their tight response time requirements. A key aspect of OLDIs is that each user query goes to all or many of the nodes in the cluster, so that the overall time budget is dictated by the tail of the replies' latency distribution; replies see latency variations both in the network and compute. Previous work proposes to achieve load-proportional energy by slowing down the computation at lower datacenter loads based directly on response times (i.e., at lower loads, the proposal exploits the average slack in the time budget provisioned for the peak load). In contrast, we propose TimeTrader to reduce energy by exploiting the latency slack in the sub- critical replies which arrive before the deadline (e.g., 80% of replies are 3-4x faster than the tail). This slack is present at all loads and subsumes the previous work's load-related slack. While the previous work shifts the leaves' response time distribution to consume the slack at lower loads, TimeTrader reshapes the distribution at all loads by slowing down individual sub-critical nodes without increasing missed deadlines. TimeTrader exploits slack in both the network and compute budgets. Further, TimeTrader leverages Earliest Deadline First scheduling to largely decouple critical requests from the queuing delays of sub- critical requests which can then be slowed down without hurting critical requests. A combination of real-system measurements and at-scale simulations shows that without adding to missed deadlines, TimeTrader saves 15-19% and 41-49% energy at 90% and 30% loading, respectively, in a datacenter with 512 nodes, whereas previous work saves 0% and 31-37%.Comment: 13 page

Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence: Comparative Analysis of Olap tools

Data Warehouse applications are designed basically to provide the business communities with accurate and consolidated information. The objective of Data Warehousing applications are not just for collecting data and reporting, but rather for analyzing, it requires technical and business expertise tools. To achieve business intelligence it requires proper tools to be selected. The most commonly used Business intelligence (BI) technologies are Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and Reporting tools for analyzing the data and to make tactical decision for the better performance of the organization, and more over to provide quick and fast access to end user request. This study will review data warehouse environment and architecture, business intelligence concepts, OLAP and the related theories involved on it. As well as the concept of data warehouse and OLAP, this study will also present comparative analysis of commonly used OLAP tools in Organization

Strategic enterprise management systems : tools for the 21st century

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_guides/1228/thumbnail.jp

Uloga i značaj strategijskog budžetiranja za konkurentnost agrobiznis lanaca snabdevanja

Rapid challenges and changes that are an integral part of the business environment require from the enterprises to plan carefully their business, as well as to assess the probability of occurrence and outcome of future events. The importance of this approach is even more evident in the field of agribusiness, which is characterized by the increasingly unfavorable business conditions along with numerous specificities and limitations typical for agricultural activity. It is primarily about the growing business costs on one side and disproportionate changes in the level of agricultural products' selling prices on the other one. The enterprises form a supply chain in order to reduce risk and uncertainty, to realize the production of high-quality products at competitive prices, to maintain and increase the market share. The realization of such complex goals requires an adequate approach to the budgeting process. The aim of the paper is to highlight the importance, achievements and challenges of budgeting as an instrument of management accounting and strategic budget in order to support management in their efforts of acquiring and improving the competitiveness of the entire supply chain.Rapidni izazovi i promene koje su sastavni deo poslovnog ambijenta zahtevaju da preduzeća pažljivo planiraju svoje poslovanje, kao i da procene verovatnoću nastanka i ishod budućih događaja. Značaj navedenog pristupa još više dolazi do izražaja u domenu agrosektora koji, uz brojne specifičnosti i ograničenja svojstvena samoj poljoprivrednoj delatnosti, odlikuju i sve nepovoljniji uslovi poslovanja. Reč je pre svega o rastućim troškovima poslovanja s jedne i nesrazmerne promene u visini prodajnih cena poljoprivrednih proizvoda na drugoj strani. Preduzeća formiraju lanac snabdevanja kako bi redukovala rizik i neizvesnost, realizovala proizvodnju kvalitetnih proizvoda po konkurentnim cenama, očuvala i povećala tržišno učešće. Realizacija tako složenih ciljeva zahteva adekvatan pristup procesu budžetiranja. Cilj rada je da osvetli značaj, domete i izazove budžetiranja kao instrumenta upravljačkog računovodstva i strategijskog budžeta za potrebe podrške menadžmentu u naporima sticanja i unapređenja konkurentnosti čitavog lanca snabdevanja