Sanjay Mirchandani, chief information officer at EMC Corp., has a straightforward plan for providing outside clients with leading-edge information technology services: Prove the value of new concepts by first implementing them in-house. Mirchandani begins by engaging EMC employees and business units in order to assess their needs and preferences.

Download this article: EMC’s Sanjay Mirchandani Serves Up Ready-to-Go Business Intelligence

Retailers and consumer goods organizations are collaborating and finding new ways to analyze data from consumers and shoppers in order to extract business intelligence. The aim is to bring efficiencies to supply chains, operations, manufacturing and marketing. Marshall L. Fisher, Wharton professor of operations and information management, and Srini Pallia, a Wipro’s senior vice, explore the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Download this article: Big Gains Await Retailers, Consumer Goods Organizations in a Digitally Savvy, Analytics-driven World

Many companies are finding a huge upside potential in data analytics to grow revenues and profits, and cut costs. Sharper analysis of rich data from an expanding range of sources is enabling more cost-effective marketing and improved customer engagement. As a result. companies are investing in information management infrastructure to extract the gains. Yet, data analytics cannot be effective beyond a point, and companies need to keep their approaches grounded in reality, say Peter Fader, Wharton marketing professor, and K. R. Sanjiv, global head of analytics and information management at Wipro Technologies.

Download this article: Assessing the Bounties and Boundaries in Big Data Analytics

After a lackluster first half, private equity broke out stronger in the third quarter, fueled largely by corporate America’s shedding of some large, non-core assets. Expect this trend to continue in the months ahead, with most deals in the middle market range of $50 million to $500 million. That is one of the insights to come out of a discussion between Philip Bass, global private equity markets leader at Ernst & Young LLP, and Stephen M. Sammut, a senior fellow and lecturer at Wharton, featured in this Knowledge@Wharton podcast. “Overall, the financing is there, the capital is there,” says Bass. “We do need a pick-up in the overall M&A market, and if we get that pick up, we’d expect private equity pick up as well.”

Download an edited copy of the transcript:

Ernst & Young: Private Equity — Holding Steady, Readying a Growth Stage

Like many other parts of companies, finance organizations haven’t been spared recent belt-tightening. They’ve been trimmed down and streamlined, and in many cases, are shadows of their former selves. Doing more with less has become a new mantra. Yet whatever the size of their teams, the onus is on CFOs today to leverage every part of the finance organization to deliver value beyond traditional transaction processing and control. PwC and faculty at Wharton share insight on how top finance organizations can rise to the challenge.

Download this article --Re-energizing Finance: The Organization Challenge

The debate is widening on whether technology is making our lives simpler or more complicated. Technology is certainly putting more power in the hands of users, allowing them to work faster and safer, and cut costs. Yet, technology can also be a treadmill that is hard to stop, and it can have potential adverse impacts on health, safety and the environment. In this white paper, Anurag Srivastava, chief technology officer of Wipro Technologies in Bangalore, India, and Shawndra Hill, Wharton professor of operations and information management, offer insights into how to use technology responsibly.

Download this article: Balancing Power with Responsibility as Technology Makes for a Richer, Simpler World

The general approach towards private equity investments has shifted substantially, in part to conform with the tougher market conditions prevailing after the financial shocks of the last few years. Gone are the days of earning profits largely through financial engineering and rapid portfolio turnover. In their place — business transformation — where investors park their money for longer terms and generally rebuild under-performing companies. Wharton professor Stephen M. Sammut and Philip Bass, global private equity markets leader at Ernst & Young LLP, discuss the new landscape in this Knowledge@Wharton podcast. They also take a look at the similarities — and differences — between private equity specialists and entrepreneurs.

Download an edited copy of the transcript:

Ernst & Young: Private Equity Heads Down a New Path

Rugby is the sport that best defines the style of Pieter Schoehuijs, the CIO of AkzoNobel, the Dutch multinational maker of decorative paints and specialty chemicals. Schoehuijs, 47, likes rugby because it is a team sport whose members bring different skills. “Some people are very strong, some are very fast and some kick well,” he says. “They have to work together in a concerted effort and need to be very dedicated to be successful.” In this article he shares his insights into what drives him on the job.

Download this article: AkzoNobel’s CIO Pieter Schoehuijs

In the boom years of 2006 and 2007, European and North American private equity firms acquired significantly larger businesses, financing the deals with record levels of debt. The borrowings often consisted of four- and five-year term loans. When the credit freeze followed the banking crisis in 2008, many predicted a flood of defaults when the “wall of maturity” arrived in 2011 and 2012. Fast-forward to today and it appears as if the industry has sidestepped a crisis. Most PE firms proactively addressed the problem by paying down debt, renegotiating terms, or turning to the high-yield bond market and other sources to refinance, extending debt maturity dates by several years. But that begs a new question: How will the industry fare if economic and sovereign debt problems in Europe and the United States drag on?

Download this article: Private Equity Buys Time with Major Refinancings

Christopher Perretta likens a successful IT program to a beautiful golf shot. Achieving such a program calls for aligning the IT function with the business goals of the company. This in turn requires close cooperation with other departments and the ability to recognize customer needs. Such skills are particularly important in a financial services industry that currently faces pressures ranging from sweeping regulatory changes to diminished financial returns.

Download this article: The CIO Series -- State Street CIO Chris Perretta