Gartner recently released its top IT predictions for 2012. One of Gartner's predictions was the following: Through 2015, more than 85% of Fortune 500 organizations will fail to effectively exploit big data for competitive advantage. Current trends in smart devices and growing Internet connectivity are creating significant increases in the volume of data available, but the complexity, variety and velocity with which it is delivered combine to amplify the problem substantially beyond the simple issues of volume implied by the popular term "big data." Collecting and analyzing the data is not enough -- it must be presented in a timely fashion so that decisions are made as a direct consequence that have a material impact on the productivity, profitability or efficiency of the organization. Most organizations are ill prepared to address both the technical and management challenges posed by big data; as a direct result, few will be able to effectively exploit this trend for competitive advantage. Companies have started to look at ways of addressing this challenge. Mike Scott of the Financial Times recently (November 21, 2011) reported on how some of the world's largest companies are joining forces to look at this big data issue. The following is an excerpt from the article: "Some of the world's largest companies are taking part in a pilot to report on wider capital issues, says Mike Scott. More than 50 companies around the world have signed up to a two-year pilot programme on integrated reporting that could change the way businesses report on their activities. The pilot, run by the International Integrated Reporting Committee , involves some of the world's biggest companies, including HSBC, Coca-Cola and Microsoft, with involvement from organisations around the globe such as South African power company Eskom, Russia's state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom and CLP, the Chinese utility. A new approach to reporting is needed, it is claimed, because the world has changed and the way companies present information has failed to keep up. "Corporate reporting does not show the story and the strategy of a company at the moment," says Paul Druckman, chief executive of the IIRC. "It is very compliance-driven and there are many instances where companies would like to tell people what they are doing, but they are not allowed to. At the same time, there is often too much information in reports. We want better reporting, not more reporting."' Over the past 5 years, StarGarden has been working to improve the reporting capabilities embedded within the StarGarden application. But beyond providing the tools to do the reporting more effectively, we have been working with clients to better define and understand the data that is required to be entered into the HR/Payroll application so that it ultimately answers the questions posed by the stakeholders of the organization. Great reports start with detailed, timely data and all areas of an organization, especially HR/Payroll, play a part in the accumulation and calculation of that data. A summary of the Gartner predictions can be found here: http://www.echannelline.com/canada/story.cfm?item=DLY120111-2

Labor costs can often be one of the largest line items on an organization’s yearly budget, yet many organizations struggle with being able to reconcile actual labor costs with their budgeted costs. In some instances, the problem may be unforeseen costs that arise duringthe fiscal year, but more often the inability to reconcile is directly linked to incomplete or inaccurate payroll data.When managing funding-shortfalls or downturns in revenue, managers should be able to rely on accurate budgeting to control the organization through choppy waters. For management to have the finely tuned information necessary to make relevant decisions, it is crucial that payroll data be detailed and accurate. This means workers’ times need to be entered at source (ideally through a scheduling system that employees use) and costed to a specific activity such as travel time, nursing regular shift, or nursing overtime. Once time and activities are entered correctly, analysis of that time and cost becomes straightforward. An integrated scheduling and payroll system offers several significant benefits: You can eliminate double-entry and capture detailed time transactions at source in real time, allowing for analysis of time and cost on a minute-by-minute basis. By putting the time entry in the hands of employees and/or supervisors, you greatly reduce the corrections needed after the pay has already been processed. If you use schedules that directly link to payroll, you can simply change the schedule and the change will pass directly to payroll for processing. Employees only enter what is different than their standard schedule; they only enter the exceptions.