An Oracle announcement in March about dropping support for a particular Intel chip (Itanium) triggered a clash among two IT giants. While it may make for fun viewing from the sidelines, Hewlett-Packard’s (HP) thousands of customers using the Oracle database have reasons to be concerned.

Many thousands of HP customers run Oracle software on Itanium-based servers. These customers rightfully are nervous, fearing the loss of support from Oracle for their critical database servers. As wiredFINANCE wrote previously, moving to a different server is not trivial. HP has tried to calm nerves with a recent FAQ here.

No matter how either of the vendors tries to soothe nerves, many companies will opt for technology migration. Eager to exploit a competitive opportunity, IBM is jumping in with migration deals. In truth, companies have options. more

Do online marketplaces for shares in private companies, such as SecondMarket or SharePosts, lead to higher valuations once those companies go public? A recent study by the accounting firm BDO suggests this could be the case.

SecondMarket bills itself as an online marketplace in which buyers and sellers of alternative investments, including private company shares, can access market data, build an investor network and conduct transactions. SharesPost says it focuses on connecting private companies with current and future investors.

Although more than three-quarters – 79 percent – of the investment bankers who participated in the BDO IPO Halftime Report said that such marketplaces have a positive impact on the IPO market, nearly as many – 75 percent – said the current valuations of many companies are not justified. “Facebook raised bar on this,” says Lee Graul, capital markets partner with BDO. Although not yet public, Facebook’s implied value on SharesPost tops $80 billion. Given its outsize valuation, Facebook may not have to go the IPO route, Graul notes. “Facebook is a game-changer.” more

As I mentioned a couple of entries ago, operational risk refers to the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes people and systems or from external events.

Operational risk is broad – and also neglected in current business-trade writing and vendor-produced thought leadership. Maybe “neglect” is too strong: Since most finance and risk officers feel their organizations have a relatively firm grasp of operational risk management, they tend to need help in other areas.

Protiviti’s “2011 Internal Audit Capabilities and Needs Survey” confirms this feeling. When internal audit respondents were asked to identify which areas of their risk management and governance process knowledge they most want to improve this year, they listed emerging risks, strategic risks, compliance risks and financial reporting risks ahead of operational risk (which figured as the 25th highest improvement priority). more

Ventana Research recently completed groundbreaking benchmark research on how finance organizations use analytics these days. Of course, analytics have been a mainstay of finance organizations since people started using accounting ratios to assess the health and performance of a business. Yet perhaps because traditional analytics are so deeply entrenched, finance departments execute the basics well but don’t take the next step to fully utilize the power of information technology to use analytics more effectively. And they should: Our research finds that a majority of executives and managers outside the finance organization want the department to play a more strategic role in their company’s management.

Finance tends to stick to the basics. The analytics research shows that when it comes to analytics, participants focus first on controlling operational expenses, managing budgets and keeping tabs on cash flow. In line with this focus, they identified operational expense (76%) and adherence to budget (65%) as the most important metrics they use, while ranking customer profitability (31%) among the least important. Yet focusing on the basics comes at the expense of using IT in innovative ways. For instance, the research finds that predictive analytics is a tool that just 13% of finance departments use but which can have a substantially positive impact on a company’s results. more

On Friday, two members of the House Ways and Means Committee, Kevin Brady (R-TX) and Mike Thompson, (D-CA) introduced H.R. 2466, The Small Business Efficiency Act of 2011. Similar bills have been introduced several times in the past, but failed to advance.

The bill outlines rules that would allow professional employer organizations, or PEOs, that have earned IRS certification to collect and pay federal employment taxes for their small business customers. “Our legislation provides small business owners the flexibility to do what they do best – deliver quality products and services to their customers and expand their businesses, instead of worrying about reams of government paperwork,” said Representative Brady in a statement.

To qualify, the PEOs would need to undergo a financial review and post a bond of up to $1 million to guarantee payment of employment taxes, according to govtrack.us. more