Just in Case You Haven’t Already- Here Are 5 More Reasons to Ditch Your Spreadsheets

It is impossible to get a holistic view of a business using spreadsheets, and poor visibility creates business risk. Yet, companies still cling to them even when there are many better alternatives out there because of their familiarity of the tool. The long list of cons using spreadsheets include high maintenance overhead, significant time spent by expensive finance resources performing manual input rather than real value-add, poor data management, no data integration nor Big Data support, and sub-par system performance and deployment options. There is no need for the CFO to rely on different products and separate data warehouses. Instead, they can support their new and developing needs in a single, easy-to-use, unified platform governed by finance – optimized at using data as a strategic asset to drive a “data dividend.”

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

Top 2019 Predictions from Veteran Analysts

Every finance leader has similar predictions for what is to come in 2019, but what are the most important things to prepare for? At the center of the technological trends is leveraging strong data to make better decisions about products, services, employees and strategy. Also on the list is the rapid adoption of enterprise technologies that fit specific business needs, instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. However, this rapid adoption brings added complexity in finding the right tool for your business. Another priority that finance leaders are anticipating is a renewed focus on change management to ensure scalability and sustainability.

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Step Aside Traditional ERPs – Enterprise Technology is Driving Success in 2019

“Traditional ERP implementations are increasingly giving way to full-blow digital transformation efforts.”

In 2019, traditional ERP implementations will become increasingly obsolete, and more companies will find success by broadening their view of enterprise technology. Instead of viewing ERP implementations as a way to automate back-office functions or to automate already-inefficient business processes, more technologically innovative organizations will find success by breaking with the status quo. For example, more forward-leaning organizations are finding success focusing on true digital transformations vs. traditional ERP implementations, which is the wave of the future. As a result, traditional implementations will continue to fade in 2019.

Read More at CFO Magazine >

Turning Digital Finance Transformation Vision into Reality

A recent interview published in The WSJ with Deloitte’s CFO, Pete Shimer, examines the CFO’s role in a global finance transformation. He says, “The opportunities and challenges of digital transformation in finance are relatively common across large, global enterprises. However, the difference between struggle and success may result as much from a CFO’s ability to collaborate and communicate with stakeholders as from the technical skills needed to move finance into the digital world.”

Read More at The Wall Street Journal >

Leave Excel Limitations in 2018

Despite the limitations and lack of flexibility of Excel, it is still the main tool used by FP&A departments for analyzing and reporting data. Excel is a familiar platform that is easy to use, cost friendly, and comes with many formatting and graphing capabilities. However, the negatives far outweigh the positives when using Excel for data analytics. With Excel, calculations are made in reference to their position on a grid. In a modern solution, calculations are named and thus are always applied to the right data. This makes the calculations easy to set up and manage, while with Excel you can only hope the right data is being accessed. In addition, Excel has limitations when being used for data modeling, reporting and data analytics, and combining data from disparate systems. To get users to give up their spreadsheets requires showing them that there is a far better, faster alternative that is secure and doesn’t have the inherent integrity issues.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

Empower your Business-Enabled Data Analytics With PAML Technologies

An intelligent enterprise is a company that understands their customers and delivers customer-specific outcomes using data and technology, like predictive analytics and machine learning (PAML). These technologies are advanced enough for standardization. We can now model common business problems at high enough levels of abstraction that they can be used as starting points for a wide variety of common challenges. With intuitive tools and the right data, business analysts can use these models to start realizing value quickly and empowers the business to achieve results.

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Leveraging Modeling and Analytics for a Competitive Edge

Organizations are increasingly turning to predictive analytics and modeling to help drive their businesses and execute on strategic objectives. These organizations are applying analytics in diverse functions; including financial, operational, risk management, and customer relations. There is a broad spectrum of analytical tools that business leaders can use to drive competitive advantage; including artificial intelligence, simulation modeling, and predictive analytics. To meet these objectives, organizations should build business-specific analytics and models. Unfortunately, doing this effectively is not possible without the right tool.

Read More at The Wall Street Journal >

Embedding Purpose in Your Strategy

“While the benefits of purpose on corporate performance are starting to be recognized by both business leaders and academics, very little evidence exists about how purpose can be effectively and practically embedded into decision making and strategy execution. We suggest that if performance management and measurement systems are well-designed, management accountants can use them as a powerful and positive tool for aligning purpose with sustainable, value-creating strategy and business models. By leading in the design and implementation of comprehensive performance management and measurement systems, management accountants and the whole finance organization can play a vital role in helping their organization embed purpose into action as a business path for achieving positive social impact and sustainable business performance.”

Read More at Strategic Finance Magazine >

It’s No Surprise That Spreadsheet Reporting is Bad for Business

In the era of big data analytics and digital transformation, more companies are realizing the value and importance of data analytics in every area of their business. With that said, many finance leaders find themselves unable to successfully navigate this transformation because they are using outdated tools to try to visualize and analyze their data. There’s nothing inherently wrong with spreadsheets; they’re excellent tools for many different jobs, but data visualization and data communication are not in that category. Having robust analytics practices require an integrated technology platform that enables executives to gain stronger insights into the business.

Read More at Forbes Magazine >