Category: Interviews

  • Catching up with David Axson

    Performance Management professionals around the globe know David Axson. David is an exceptional consultant, public speaker and author. His bestselling book Best Practices in Planning and Performance Management can be found on most bookshelves. In the past year David has gotten a bit quiet. We were able to catch up the other day. Christoph: In…

  • Success with Performance Management – An interview with Mark Lack from Mueller Inc.

    The 80 year-old company Mueller Inc is a a leading manufacturer of pre-engineered metal buildings and metal roofing products. Mark Lack is responsible for performance management at Mueller Inc. He delivered a great presentation about their IBM Cognos implementation at  the recent IBM Vision 2012 event in Orlando. Following his session we sat down for…

  • “Focus is key for success” says the German Cognos User Group

    The German Cognos User Group Last year, I posted an interview with Steve Veilleux, president of the Quebec Cognos User Group. This article has gotten a lot of attention. I therefore decided to reach out to another very successful user group: The German Cognos User Group. The three leaders of this organization volunteered for an…

  • Joining a Cognos user group is key! – An interview with Steve Veilleux

    Cognos User Groups are quickly gaining a lot of interest from IBM customers around the globe. These groups provide users with the ability to learn, to connect and to share experiences. A few weeks ago, I had the honor to meet with one of North America’s largest Cognos User Groups – the ‘Groupe d’utilisateurs Cognos…

  • Success with Forecasting – A discussion with Pieter Coens

    Please meet Pieter Coens. Pieter is the Director of Finance & Control at Landal GreenParks in the Netherlands. He started his career in public accounting and joined Landal over 16 years ago. Pieter has held various positions in finance at Landal. Landal GreenParks is a leader in bungalow-park management and rental. Landal has over 65 parks…

  • What is IBM Cognos FSR?

    Back in October 2010, IBM acquired a company that Gartner used to call ‘The hottest FPM vendor’. Rightly so. Clarity Systems had developed several cool and extremely popular software products. The most well-known solution is called FSR (Financial Statements Reporting). FSR addresses a high risk area for many companies: It automates the publication of financial…

  • A discussion about forecast errors

    Forecasting continues to be a hot topic. My recent interviews with Steve Morlidge continues to be very popular. Also, ‘Franz the Frog’ sparked some interesting discussions behind the scenes. Given the strong interest in these topics, I reached out to a friend who has spent a lot of time and effort driving solid forecasting processes.…

  • An imaginary conversation with a weather frog

    European folklore believed that frogs kept in a glass would be able to forecast the weather. People filled some water in the glass to keep the amphibian happy, and then added a small ladder. A climbing frog would indicate good weather, whereas a frog hanging out in the water would show bad weather. This belief…

  • Future Ready? A discussion with Steve Morlidge

    Steve Morlidge, Future Ready The IBM Finance Forum 2011 events have officially started in Europe. These events are designed for Finance professionals seeking to deliver stronger business insight to their organizations. Apart from being a great networking opportunity, we focus on sharing a lot of best-practice knowledge. Customers share their stories. And IBM also bring…

  • A conversation with the King of KPIs – David Parmenter

    DAVID PARMENTER Two winters ago, I traveled to Prague to speak at a large conference about Performance Management. As the taxi approached the hotel which was set beneath the breath-taking castle, I felt a sense of excitement: I was just minutes away from meeting a king for dinner. Not any king. Not a member of…