Majority of Companies Use ABM

Results of a recently published study demonstrate that activity-based management (ABM) is flourishing as a methodology for improving performance management results.

The study, “Activity-Based Costing: How Activity-Based Management is Used in the Organization,” was published at BetterManagement.com. It shows that companies have widely adopted activity-based management because it provides a more complete picture than traditional cost accounting of the profits and costs of doing business.

ABM crucial to effective performance management
The survey included 528 respondents from companies across a broad spectrum of industries and countries.

Nine of 10 companies have implemented or are considering deploying activity-based management systems. What’s more, six in 10 respondents indicated that the output from their activity-based management systems supports performance management initiatives in their organizations (register at BetterManagement.com for a free copy of the study).

“Most of the executives surveyed shared the view that activity-based management is crucial in effective performance management deployments,” says Songyu He, product marketing manager for SAS Activity-Based Management.

“SAS, a worldwide market leader in activity-based management software, agrees and has integrated its activity-based management and performance management offerings," continues He. "The ultimate proof of popularity rests with the users of these solutions. In 2005, worldwide revenues from SAS Activity-Based Management jumped more than 45 percent over the prior year.”

The SAS solution
SAS Activity-Based Management provides the modeling flexibility that survey respondents say they are looking for. More than half of the participants in the study reported using a combination of the top-down, quantity-based assignment method and the bottom up, output-driven consumption rate method for cost assignment.

One in four employs only the bottom-up approach, and one in five employs only the top-down approach. While some competitive offerings only support one cost assignment approach or the other, SAS Activity-Based Management supports either approach or a combination of the two – precisely the flexibility that 50 percent of these survey respondents indicated they require.

SAS Activity-Based Management offers integrated data management, business modeling, reporting and analysis on a single platform, improving the likelihood of a truly successful activity-based management implementation that goes far beyond traditional accounting methods to turbocharge any enterprise’s performance management results. Fully integrated on the SAS Enterprise Intelligence Platform, SAS Activity-Based Management helps optimize business performance and alignment within key organizations, including IT, finance, marketing, supply chain, customer intelligence and operations.

Survey reveals that companies are widely adopting activity-based management (ABM) to support performance management initiatives.