February 2009 Monarch Report eNewsletter [Archive]

Mike Urbonas

February 26th, 2009, 05:23 PM

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=600 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><DIV align=center><A name=topofpage></A></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> <TABLE height=70 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=600 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><IMG src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/Monarch_Report-New_Header.jpg" width=600></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE height=554 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=600 align=center bgColor=#fffbd0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top><TABLE height=520 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=600 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=368 bgColor=#fffbd1><TABLE height=302 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=330 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top> February 2009 The Monarch Report informs users of our Monarch-powered solutions of the latest product news, tips, user stories, upcoming events and more. This newsletter is sent to our online subscribers and those who have purchased or expressed interest in Datawatch products. Special Offer for users of Monarch V7 and earlier!  Datawatch is pleased to announce a limited time offer to step up from Monarch V7 and earlier to Monarch V10 at upgrade pricing!   Normally users of Monarch V7 and earlier would have to pay the full purchase price for Monarch V10. With this offer, you now have a second chance to move up to the power of Monarch V10 for the price of an upgrade! <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_contact/contact_main.php" target=_blank>Contact Datawatch now,</A> and have proof of your Monarch V7 or prior purchase available when speaking with your Monarch sales rep. Hurry! Offer ends March 31, 2009. In this Issue... (1) Datawatch Launches New Month-Long Business Intelligence Webcast Series.  <A href="#article10">[more]</A> (2) Liberating Your Accounting & Financial Data with Monarch.  Robert B. Miller, MS, CPA has a record of over 18 years of success in non-profit organizations at the senior financial management level. For most of those years, Robert's success has been powered by Monarch. <A href="#article20">[more] </A> (3) Monarch Gets A's in University Courses. <A href="#article30">[more] </A> (4) Monarch Tip Enables Countless New Custom Summary Calculations.  <A href="#article40">[more] </A> <DIV align=left> </DIV></TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> </TD><TD vAlign=top width=231><A href="http://www.monarchforums.com/sendmessage.php?do=sendtofriend&t=2804"><IMG src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/Monarch-Report-top-sidebar3.jpg" width=231 border=0></a><a href="http://www.datawatch.com/_products/monarch_overview.php"><IMG height=99 alt="" hspace=0 src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/01Sidebar-Monarch.jpg" width=231 align=baseline border=0></A> <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_products/monarch_pro.php" target=_blank><IMG height=68 alt="" hspace=0 src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/02Sidebar-Monarch-Pro.jpg" width=231 align=baseline border=0></A> <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_products/monarch_data_pump.php" target=_blank><IMG height=68 alt="" hspace=0 src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/03Sidebar-Monarch-Data-Pump.jpg" width=231 align=baseline border=0></A> <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_products/monarch_data_pump_pro.php" target=_blank><IMG height=66 alt="" hspace=0 src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/04Sidebar-Monarch-Data-Pump-Pro.jpg" width=231 align=baseline border=0></A> <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_products/monarch_bi_server.php" target=_blank><IMG height=67 alt="" hspace=0 src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/05Sidebar-MonarchBI-Server.jpg" width=231 align=baseline border=0></A> <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_products/monarch_rms.php" target=_blank><IMG height=73 alt="" hspace=0 src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/06Sidebar-Monarch-RMS.jpg" width=231 align=baseline border=0></A> <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_products/datawatch_es.php" target=_blank><IMG height=75 alt="" hspace=0 src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/07Sidebar-Datawatch-ES.jpg" width=231 align=baseline border=0></A> <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_products/datawatch_bds.php" target=_blank><IMG height=87 alt="" hspace=0 src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/08Sidebar-Datawatch-BDS.jpg" width=231 align=baseline border=0></A> <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_products/datawatch_mailmanager.php" target=_blank><IMG height=76 alt="" hspace=0 src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/09Sidebar-Datawatch-MM.jpg" width=231 align=baseline border=0></A></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE height=554 cellSpacing=15 cellPadding=0 width=600 align=center bgColor=#fffbd0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top><A name=article10></A><HR> Datawatch Launches New Month-Long Business Intelligence Webcast Series "Disillusionment with existing BI software is already beginning… There is no question that customers are looking for easier and less costly BI approaches, and this will open up the marketplace to new BI vendors, and to new and disruptive BI technologies." -- Colin White, "The Need for Easier and Lower Cost Business Intelligence," B-Eye Network, 9/19/07   Now more than ever, amid this very difficult economy, the above comment is right on target. The time is now for a fresh look for new, easier and less costly BI approaches. Datawatch is pleased to launch a new series of webcasts on BI and data integration being held throughout the month of March. <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_solutions/form_monarch_webcasts.php" target=_blank><a href="http://www.datawatch.com/_solutions/form_monarch_webcasts.php" target=_blank>Please register now for any or all of these upcoming webinars!</a></A> "We're Movin' On Up!" Expanding Monarch Benefits to the Enterprise with Monarch Data Pump and Monarch BI Server Tuesday March 10 4PM ET / 1PM PT For a tiny fraction of the cost and complexity of alternative solutions, your organization can reap compelling enterprise-wide BI benefits with Monarch Data Pump and Monarch BI Server. You will also discover how Monarch Data Pump and Monarch BI Server can work together to provide a surprisingly inexpensive, easily implemented solution for automated, web-enabled BI. This webcast is suitable for everyone, no matter if you are a seasoned Monarch user or brand new to the concept of Monarch report mining. Applying the 80/20 Rule to BI Solutions Thursday March 12 1PM ET / 10AM PT The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI) recently announced that usage rates for BI tools have barely budged from a puny 18% three years ago to just 24% today! These results sound like the 80/20 Rule in action: Only about 20% or so of all intended users are utilizing traditional BI. Meanwhile, the costs and man-hours and level of complexity for traditional BI might well be 80% too high! It's time for a new technology approach to BI that flips the 80/20 Rule back into small and medium business' favor: Provide the very same BI benefits promised by traditional BI vendors to 80% (or more!) of all knowledge workers, at 20% (or less!) of the cost and complexity. This is the proven promise of the enterprise BI solutions offered by Datawatch, powered by its Monarch report mining technology. You will enjoy an interesting discussion of the 80/20 Rule, how it applies to the world of BI, and the Monarch-powered BI solutions that make it a realtiy. Excel-Based Reporting Solved with Monarch Data Pump Tuesday March 17 4PM ET / 1PM PT This webinar offers a closer look at how truly easy and surprisingly inexpensive automatic, Excel-driven enterprise reporting can be for your organization. Executives, managers and workers can receive customized data automatically from Monarch Data Pump in a wide variety of formats.  This can include automatically publishing data to Microsoft Excel files and templates, creating a spreadsheet interface to all corporate data, with no new database programming. You will experience a hands-on, real world case study highlighting the use of Monarch Data Pump as a global financial reporting solution and see live examples of Monarch Data Pump in action. If you are looking for a simple, inexpensive yet powerful solution for automated Excel-based enterprise reporting, this Monarch Data Pump webinar is a must see! No More Information $ilos! Data Integration Solved with Monarch Data Pump Thursday March 19 1PM ET / 10AM PT "Information Silos" - sources of enterprise data that do not readily integrate with other applications - is more than just a data problem. They can be a money pit. These "$ilos" result in decisions made based on only available pieces of data, causing avoidable expense, lost opportunities and wasted manhours. It's time to take a break from traditional expensive and complex data integration solutions and turn to Monarch Data Pump for dramatically less expensive, surprisingly simple enterprise data integration. Monarch Data Pump quickly and inexpensively transforms existing trusted, audited report output into customized data, eliminating complex database programming and data quality issues typical of most traditional data integration solutions. You will discover the compelling data integration cost and time savings offered by Monarch Data Pump in a live case study, with an actual demonstration of Monarch Data Pump enabling integration of enterprise application data with other complimentary apps, enabling optimal decisions to maximize efficiencies and reduce costs. Monarch BI Server: BI for SMBs Without Tears Tuesday March 24 4PM ET / 1PM PT Unlike traditional BI solutions, Monarch BI Server leverages report output as a new, web-enabled source of live, actionable data at a low cost and level of simplicity traditional BI solutions can't touch. Now, small to medium sized businesses (SMBs) and departments can solve operational issues without the time and expense of building data marts or struggling with complex data analysis tools. Discover in this webcast how Monarch BI Server enables web-based BI inexpensively, reliably, easily! BI "Through the Back Door" Thursday March 26 1PM ET / 10AM PT Waiting for formal IT assistance to get urgently needed BI can be frustrating, and traditional BI tools are still used mostly by a few power-users. Here is where a "BI through the back door" concept will help, in which SMBs, departments, etc. get the BI they need immediately through informal channels, all the while respecting and never crossing formal corporate policy. Discover the huge cost and time savings awaiting you, using the "BI through the back door" concept, powered by Monarch enterprise BI technology. We look forward to your participation in any or all of these upcoming webinars! <A href="http://www.datawatch.com/_solutions/form_monarch_webcasts.php" target=_blank>Register now!</A> <A href="#topofpage" real realreal src="#topofpage" >back to top of page</A><HR> <A name=article20></A>Liberating Your Accounting & Financial Data with Monarch Instead of Replacing your Accounting System, Just Get Monarch!  Special Note! Do you use Monarch with reports from Microsoft Dynamics GP/Great Plains, Macola, Claris, Quicken, Peachtree or other SMB accounting package? We'd like to hear how you are using Monarch with these accounting packages. Please contact us now at newsletter [at] Datawatch [dot] com. Robert B. Miller, MS, CPA has a record of over 18 years of success in non-profit organizations at the senior financial management level, most recently as an Executive Consultant providing CFO level expertise. For most of those years, Robert's success has been powered by Monarch. "Since the early days of Windows, I have used Monarch to solve many accounting and financial analysis challenges," Robert says. "Wherever I go, I bring Monarch into each new organization to quickly solve reporting problems and enable new business insight with no programming and very low cost." "I have consistently found one of the greatest challenges facing non-profit organizations is to provide accurate financial reporting and analysis to enable effective, proactive management of the organization without undue man hours or cost. This is a critical need of for-profit businesses as well. Monarch fulfills this need more effectively than any other reporting tool I have used. "I simply couldn't provide the financial management leadership my clients need without Monarch." "I consider Monarch the perfect tool to 'liberate' accounting and financial data," Robert says. "Monarch allows me to match reporting and analytical needs with the accounting system resources organizations already have in use." "I have worked with a variety of accounting systems, including Macola, Claris, Great Plains and even QuickBooks, as well as systems such as Financial Edge (Blackbaud) specializing in non-profit accounting. The common denominator for all of these systems is the financial and accounting reports these systems already provide, either in text of PDF format. Monarch is like my own personal data laboratory, transforming these existing reports into customized reports that address specific management needs." "For example, an existing fund accounting report shows all accounting transactions by project and by account. Within that report is a treasure trove of information, but not in a flexible format allowing for managerial questions to be answered. Monarch is the key to transforming such thick reports into informational gold." "I mine the data from the accounting report using Monarch very easily. From there, the data can be manipulated to answer a wide variety of questions, complete with easy export into Excel or Access at anytime. Here are some of the helpful ways I have used Monarch to clarify financial data: <ul><li>Vendor data can be summarized to quickly identify how much money was spent by each vendor across all projects.</li><li>Like-expense accounts can be summarized together, such as consolidating all salary accounts into a single Salary expense category.</li><li>Accounting data can be summarized in a crosstabular manner, with cost centers as columns appearing across the page and account categories going down the page.</li><li>Actual versus budget reporting, also very critical, can be done using Monarch Pro. Actual expenses can be compared to budget values located in a separate data source, such as an Excel file, via an external lookup.</li></ul>"I have had entire boards of directors express collective astonishment when, thanks to Monarch, I provide the customized, in-depth reporting they have been trying to get for years! Talk about 'liberating' accounting data!" Robert has worked with common report writing software and popular financial reporting solutions, "but they require frequent maintenance," Robert explains. "Sometimes an organization has added new account numbers, but the separate financial report writer is not updated as well. Another problem is that data may be wrong because not all accounts are included. These are frequent and frustrating problems, especially in organizations in which IT resources are already being stretched. Monarch avoids this problem completely by directly transforming existing financials and accounting reports into customized data, without having to engage in any database-related work." Currently, Robert is using Monarch as Interim CFO of a Washington, DC based non-profit to ensure the best possible use of limited funds to facilitate ambitious future planning. Robert explains "Monarch, in conjunction with reports from the non-profit’s Financial Edge accounting system, has provided totally flexible and timely financial reporting to quickly compare monthly expenses with available funds. With limited resources typically found in non-profits, this is essential work. Monarch makes such stewardship very easy from a reporting standpoint." In a critical auditing project for a past client, Robert discovered the existing accounting system was not a complete reflection of the business, "because data was being reported partially from the general ledger, and partially from a separate, home-grown spreadsheet based system. Much of the reason for this was the reporting inflexibility of the accounting system, resulting in financial management having to display the data separately in spreadsheets. As you can imagine, such a plan can easily lead to reporting errors as well as wasted days or even weeks of man hours." "Inflexibility in reporting using existing accounting systems is a common problem. Monarch solves this problem more quickly, easily and inexpensively than any other solution I have used." In fact, Robert has helped clients avoid the needless cost, man hours and headaches associated with purchasing and implementing a complete accounting system conversion. "Executives had mistakenly thought the only way they could get the accounting and financial reporting they needed was to rip out their existing system and replace it!" says Robert. "I assured my clients that what they really needed was to put Monarch to work with their existing accounting system reports, and proceeded to do just that to quickly fulfill longtime reporting challenges and provide truly informative financial reporting to facilitate management decisions." "Monarch provides new data from existing accounting reports and other enterprise information systems that organizations have already bought and paid for," Robert adds. "Now more than ever, all organizations must do more with less. Monarch is one of the few software tools that really makes that happen--quickly, easily and with very low cost." <A href="#topofpage">back to top of page</A> <HR><A name="article30"></A><A name=article20></A>Monarch Gets A's in University Courses The versatility of Monarch to quickly and easily mine data from existing reports, providing very inexpensive, self-service, programming-free business intelligence has led to its widespread use across a variety of industries and business functions. University instructors have taken notice of this as well, and are increasingly looking to introduce the power of Monarch to their students. Beth Brilliant, CPA, has introduced Monarch to graduate students of her Accounting Information Systems (AIS) and Auditing Information System classes at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. As a longtime Monarch user, introducing Monarch to her students made tremendous sense. "I have been using Monarch for years as a CPA and swear by it," says Beth. "For example, I use Monarch to quickly find any bank discrepancies. As I work for a law firm with client trust accounts, this is extremely important, as all accounts must balance to the penny. I am able to reconcile all the accounts in minutes thanks to Monarch, picking up difference in checks from pennies to hundreds of thousands of dollars. "My department has also become more efficient with the use of Monarch, saving hours by importing data into the accounting system electronically versus manually. Reports that I receive from vendors are saved as PDF files, which are mined using Monarch. The data is then extracted and imported into our accounting system. This not only saves time but it removes the risk of manual data input errors." Speaking on the benefits of Monarch to auditors and accountants, Beth says, "Auditors rely on their clients to provide unaltered data when performing assurance services. However; an auditor can reduce the risk that the data is compromised by extracting the data themselves. With the use of Monarch, an auditor can quickly and easily extract that data and save the template for next year’s use. On the other side of the coin, Monarch allows management accountants to extract data from numerous resources, comply it with, and present it to upper management to aid in better decision making." "Unlike a dataset," Beth continues, "Monarch sources take accounting data from existing reports produced by the organization’s enterprise information system. The accountant or auditor then transforms trusted report output into customized data themselves. I rely on Monarch to ensure data quality and to ensure I know exactly where company data is coming from, with no need to rely on the company’s accounting and IT departments. "Monarch is an excellent resource for auditors and accountants, and well worth including Monarch within my AIS coursework." Robert Gross teaches a graduate course on managing healthcare databases at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. The course is part of the curriculum for the university’s Career Master Of Public Health degree. "Most of my students are physicians and other working healthcare providers, middle managers and public health agency leaders," says Robert. "The students are non-technical, yet must understand how to independently gather, sift, sort and work effectively with public and private healthcare information sources. “We address issues including effective data access strategies, how to ensure data quality, comply fully with HIPAA, and actively work with healthcare data using Excel, Access and several statistical analysis products." Many public sources offer their healthcare data in a database-friendly format, "but many other agencies do not," says Robert. "Data might be available in the form of text or PDF formatted reports. Students also typically discover that extracting data from healthcare information systems is especially difficult. This is where Monarch plays a very valuable role in the course work." Robert has his students understand the basics of Report Mining using Monarch, including trapping, working with mined data and exporting it to Excel or Access. "My students manage their own database projects," Robert adds. "They soon discover they frequently need Monarch to complete their projects, particularly to extract data from existing healthcare information system reports, including patient accounting reports, electronic medical records (EMRs) and much more." "The end goal of the course is to empower students with skills to get at healthcare data themselves and not rely on database programmers or other often limited IT resources," Robert says. "My students complete the course with self-sufficiency, acquiring and working with healthcare data. Monarch can be easily learned by non-technical healthcare professionals to get otherwise complex data access problems solved very quickly." "Monarch is an important component of my course and it makes students aware of a unique option for obtaining and managing healthcare data as they apply their new skills back in the healthcare workplace." University professors interested in the Datawatch program for utilizing Monarch as part of their college course curriculum are invited to contact Datawatch via email at newsletter [at] Datawatch [dot] com for further information. <A href="#topofpage">back to top of page</A> <DIV align=left><HR> <A name="article40"></A>Monarch Tip Enables Countless New Custom Summary Calculations Our good friend Sandy Cavalaris, most recent winner of the Tom Whiteside Memorial Award, honoring the Monarch customer evangelist of the year, posted on the Monarch forums a clever strategy that enables a wide variety of Monarch summary calculations that Monarch users might have mistakenly concluded are not possible. <A href="http://www.monarchforums.com/" target=_blank>Monarch forums</A> member MarkG-YYZ recently posted a Monarch challenge: he had mined data from revenue reports by branch office, by year (2007 and 2008). He then created the following Monarch summary view: </DIV>
 Year......Branch.....Revenue 07........10........3,700,000 07........Other.....2,600,000 08........10........5,700,000 08........Other.....2,900,000 Summary............14,900,000 What Mark really wanted, however, was a summary view with a custom calculation showing year over year revenue growth. The manual calculation, Mark explained, for Branch 10 is (5.7mil / 3.7mil = 54.1% Growth) and Branch Other is (2.9mil / 2.6 mil = 11.5% Growth). Sandy recommended beginning this challenge back in the Monarch table view, creating two new calculated fields of data as follows: Calculated field name: 07 Revenue Calculation: if(Year="07",Revenue,0) Calculated field name: 08 Revenue Calculation: if(Year="08",Revenue,0) Now we create a new Monarch summary view with Branch as the key field, we can display the new fields 07 Revenue and 08 Revenue. We then click on the Measure button again and edit this into the following new custom summary calculation: SUM([08 Revenue])/SUM([07 Revenue])-1 Format this as a percentage and change the name to: Year Over Year % Growth. Success! <IMG src="http://www.monarchforums.com/images/Monarch-Tip1-02-2009.jpg"> The key ingredient to this Monarch tip is to create new calculated fields of data in your Monarch table, using a simple IF statement to display a numeric value that meets desired criteria; if not, the IF statement should display a zero. These new calculated fields can then be easily referenced in Monarch custom summary calculations. Give it a try, and <a href="http://www.monarchforums.com" target=_blank>join the Monarch forums</a> to post any questions or comments online! <A href="#topofpage">back to top of page</A> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>