performance matters

Q&A with CEO Thomas Antunez

This week, Thomas Antunez, Percentix CEO, provides his insights on Enterprise Performance Management/Business Intelligence, the economy, and what it takes to navigate the downturn.

Thanks for joining us today. How is Percentix doing these days?
- Thankfully, Percentix continues to grow in a robust manner. We grew 64% in Q1 year over year, which is a remarkable accomplishment given the historically "slow period" we tend to experience in Q1. Our value proposition remains quite strong in this current economic environment.
You mention your value proposition in this environment. What does that mean?
- Well, times of economic strife place the Chief Financial Officer at the forefront of every organization. CFO's must now assess the impact of the downturn on their respective organizations. To do this, effective tools similar to Oracle|Hyperion are required in order to provide insight into historical and future financial performance. It is funny, I have worked with dozens upon dozens of some of the best and largest companies in the world, and what you find is that when times are good, few of the right questions are asked. When conditions change, the questions change significantly, often leading to the realization that core systems and processes are not set up to effectively provide the required answers.
However, can an organization, in particular the CFO function, simply rely on Excel to provide business insights during the downturn?
- Excel continues to be the dominant "decision support" tool used by most companies. That said, the limitations of Excel are clear. Excel environments are limited by security, scalability, concurrency, and their inherent ad hoc nature. Likewise, due to the downturn, CFO's must perform more short term and long-term functional responsibilities with fewer resources. Juggling Excel models requires manpower, something that is difficult to justify from a cost perspective. If you break down business functions into a basic people, process, and technology framework, you will quickly discover that productivity gains in this economy will be realized via sound business processes that are supported by robust technology. This is more important than ever. Despite the gains we have made over the past 10 years, the Finance function remains the largest corporate opportunity for enhanced operational effectiveness.
What are you recommendations to companies looking to navigate this downturn? What are you advising your clients?
- We support a three-prong approach to navigating the downturn: assess the impact, manage the impact, and secure renewed competitive advantage. Assessing the impact is difficult for many companies since conditions are changing rapidly. This is where Oracle|Hyperion provides a significant advantage over standard spreadsheet programs. Most businesses center on a few key business drivers and these drivers can be used within Oracle|Hyperion to quickly determine the financial impact of varying scenarios. Upon assessing the various scenarios, a company must then manage the impact. Tacitly, this implies protecting the financial fundamentals of the firm above all else. Again, we work closely with our clients to create a software based offering that takes in the impact of differing scenarios and ultimately drives management decision making by modeling the effects on the financial areas of the company. Lastly, surviving the downturn is not enough. A company must come out of the downturn stronger and with a renewed sense of competitive advantage.
Are you considering any changes to your business?
- We keep it simple. We take our own advice and assess/manage/renew competitive advantage. We plan to make changes within the next few months that will increase our presence in the EPM/BI space. Percentix will grow in 2009 and continue to support its clients with an outstanding level of service.
Are there any areas of investment companies should consider outside of EPM/BI?
- Marketing. Sadly, managers can act too quickly and simply cut marketing to affect the bottom line. Most sophisticated studies show that such cost cutting ultimately results in either a loss of market share that is difficult to recover and/or increased spending on the back end to make up for lost marketing opportunities. The trick in this economy is to market your company effectively. Effective marketing in this economy can be achieved and companies that realize this will reap long-term benefits over their competitors.
Thank you for your time today.
- You're welcome, it was a pleasure speaking with you.