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Taking a Computer-Aided Engineering Approach to Business Transformation

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Changing competitive landscapes, technological advances and consumer trends are rapidly disrupting businesses and creating an imperative to execute transformation programs that improve operational efficiencies, optimize workforces and offer better customer experiences. Across industries vast amounts of resources are being spent on business transformation programs, but so far the results are dismal. According to IDC, $1.7 trillion was spent in 2017 by companies worldwide on their digital transformation efforts and yet analysis suggests that only 1% of transformation programs will actually achieve or exceed their expectations.

Business transformations are pursued to fundamentally change systems, processes, people and technology across an entire business or subdivision to achieve measurable improvements in efficiency, effectiveness and stakeholder satisfaction. When transformation programs fail, time and money are wasted, while no significant improvements are gained. In the meantime, risks related to product or service obsolescence, rising costs, declining revenues or other factors that spurred the transformation in the first place, have grown.

Intelligent Business Transformation

Taking a computer-aided engineering (CAE) approach to business transformation can help businesses manage program risks, maximize value, decrease costs and accelerate innovation. CAE is widely used in a range of industries to build the right product at best performance versus cost ratio. A main goal being to improve designs or anticipate the resolution of potential problems as early as possible.

Using the emulation-based capabilities of X-ACT®, we are helping businesses achieve the same benefits of CAE in their transformation programs:

  • Make business transformation decisions based on key metrics including performance, time to market and cost
  • Manage risk and communicate the long-term business implications of any decisions to all stakeholders
  • Use computer emulation rather than real world testing to save money and time—while supporting a broader scope of upfront validations
  • Gain risk and performance insights earlier in the transformation process, when changes are less expensive to make
  • Explore innovative solutions that may not have been considered plausible without the aid of computer emulation

Reliable Predictive & Prescriptive Intelligence

When businesses want to build best in class systems or ensure the optimal performance of exiting business ecosystems, computer emulation is an effective way to validate plans, predictively expose risks, and identify which corrective actions will achieve the desired results for any given situation. X-ACT algorithmically emulates business structures and produces advanced predictive analysis to determine the limits of dynamically complex systems, identify potential risks and recommend which corrective actions are needed to meet business objectives.

While CAE typically uses simulation to replicate system behaviors, these methods are not sufficient to cover a change in dynamics, meaning some risks will not be exposed until the event occurs because only the knowns are represented and so reproduced. X-ACT uses emulation in place of simulation to mathematically reproduce risks that may occur under certain conditions even if there is no historical record of these events happening.

Quickly & Economically Explore All Options

Once the emulation is successfully created within X-ACT, it allows transformation teams to quickly test and economically explore an unlimited number of change scenarios that would otherwise be complex, expensive or even impossible to test on a real system. Users simply change variables—such as volume, architecture and infrastructure—or perform sensitivity predictions on changing process dynamics to observe the predicted outcome.

Validated through robust testing in hundreds of applications and various industries, X-ACT provides visibility across complex business and IT ecosystems so that decision makers can quickly agree upon the most strategic plans and proactively take corporate actions with confidence in the outcome. Additionally, X-ACT supports transformation programs by enabling users to test optimization and rationalization scenarios to confirm the best-fit solution before committing funds or resources to any project.

Manage the Transformation Project Outcome

During the execution phase, X-ACT provides the foresights necessary to ensure an optimal outcome that weighs both short and long-term cost benefits in alignment with performance and scalability goals so that the business can minimize risks and consistently gain all the intended benefits of the transformation program. Ultimately, these capabilities help businesses define and make the right moves at the right time to continuously achieve better economy, control risk and support critical renewal.

Learn more about the benefits of using of X-ACT for Business Transformation

Read the Intelligent Business Transformation solution paper to learn why and how businesses use X-ACT in a Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) capacity to validate transformation plans and control risks.

Report

 

URM GROUP Launches to Arm Executives with Better Risk Intelligence, Bridging the Business and IT Gap

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Building on 15 Years of Success as Accretive Technologies, URM GROUP Aims to Revolutionize how the World’s Largest Brands Prescriptively Manage Business-IT Risk

Universal Risk Management Group (URM GROUP), formerly Accretive Technologies, today launched to deliver its patented generative intelligence technology, X-Act® platform to a broader base of global organizations that desperately need a better way to manage risk across highly complex business and IT domains. Fueled by record profits and growing market demand, URM GROUP aims to arm executives with the intelligence they need to optimize business performance and prescriptively treat risks that domain experts, business intelligence (BI), business process management (BPM), AIOps, and other analytic investments often miss.

“In a world that is constantly morphing due to the acceleration of innovation and digital disruption, businesses can no longer afford to pay an army of experts and then wait months while they argue over the cause of poor performance or settle on the best strategic plan,” said Charlie Fote, Chairman of the Board, URM GROUP and former CEO & Chairman, First Data. “With the innovations URM GROUP is bringing to market, decision makers can quickly gain a single, unified view of their entire business and verify, with better certainty, which actions will lead to the most desirable outcome.”

Proven through more than 350 cases worldwide, URM GROUP provides the technology, innovation and expertise that leading brands within financial services, retail, manufacturing, transportation, healthcare and governments trust to identify hidden risks and make informed decisions relating to a wide range of strategic objectives—from digital transformation, cost management, mergers and acquisitions to supply chain management and production performance.

Dennis Drogseth, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), Vice President of Research said, “URM GROUP’s X-Act platform stands out for delivering beyond its customers’ expectations. Moreover, its promise is in no way a small one. X-Act produces critical predictive insights and correctional guidance to minimize risk and optimize business performance across complex business and IT ecosystems.”

Building on 15 years of success as Accretive Technologies, URM GROUP is backed by a strong performance record and a history of innovation.

  • Currently serves some of the largest and most recognizable brands in the world across multiple industries including financial services, retail, manufacturing, transportation and healthcare
  • 2017 marked the second year in a row that the company has grown revenue and the second consecutive year of growing gross margins over 60%
  • Repositioning strategy has poised the company for further growth
  • Holds a variety of patents involving the innovative use of mathematical modeling and related methodologies covering both business and IT systems
  • Maintains strong partnering agreements with IBM, Accenture, Persistent Systems, and Dynatrace

“It’s always satisfying to hear that X-Act helped a customer save hundreds of millions of dollars or prevented them from making really a bad decision,” said Nabil Abu el Ata, CEO, URM GROUP. “We’ve dedicated fifteen years into the research and development of X-Act to make these results consistently possible for our customers. With the launch of URM GROUP, the people, technology and channels are finally in place to serve the broad base of companies that want to use X-Act to quickly and cost effectively know when and which actions should be taken to ensure the most optimal business outcome.”

Additional Resources

About URM GROUP

URM GROUP provides the technology and services many of the world’s most recognizable brands depend on to optimize opportunities and comprehensively control risks across diverse business and IT systems. With patented generative intelligence technology, X-Act® platform provides a revolutionary way to quickly and predictively pinpoint hidden sources of risk within business ecosystems and know which actions should be taken to meet business goals. Leaders across financial services, retail, manufacturing, transportation, healthcare and governments trust X-Act to make informed decisions relating to a wide range of strategic objectives—from digital transformation, cost management, mergers and acquisitions to supply chain management and production performance. For additional information, visit URMgrp.com or connect with us on Twitter @URMgroup.

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