Computerworld UK — Businesses are struggling to unite management processes and information systems to form a consolidated view of their company's processes, according to a new survey of executives conducted for Oracle.

Judged on a variety of factors, businesses only scored "moderately" on Enterprise Performance Management, according to the Oracle EPM index. On a scale of one to 10, where 10 represented perfect EPM, organisations scored a average of 5.13.

"The results of the study indicate a generally modest level of achievement, with much work remaining to be done in developing an accurate and up-to-the-minute enterprise-wide picture of current performance," the report said.

Executives ranked their organisations on the processes and accuracy of information governing six areas: the stakeholder environment, market model, business model, business plan, business operations and business results. Some 800 executives in Europe and North America were interviewed by analyst group Quocirca for the report.

Clive Longbottom, research director at Quocirca, said there was "a basic need" for businesses to know how well they were performing. However, "Our research shows that there remains much to be done, with disconnects between key steps and a lack of inclusion for essential stakeholders across processes."

Only 22 percent of organisations said an integrated approach to processes is necessary. More than a quarter (27 per cent) think that each process can be regarded in isolation.

Many businesses failed to engage key stakeholders properly with technology strategy, the report found, and others said they "don't know" how involved stakeholders are.

With the recession highlighting the need for organisations to react quickly to changing markets and external events, the survey revealed that business planning often operates in a vacuum.

Asked whether this demonstrated a serious management problem, whereby vital data was not being used to help guide strategy, Mark Wilkinson, Oracle VP of EPM for the UK and Ireland, told Computerworld UK: "Definitely. We've been saying for some time that businesses spend time collating data rather than analysing it."

There remained a problem, he said, that businesses had an overload of complex data that was difficult to act on, and they failed to share useful information between different departments.

Just 13 per cent of companies score well (7 or more) in their ability to respond to business or market changes by modifying plans and budgets.

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