What’s The Right Way to Use What-if Analytics?

“When making forecasts, there is a big difference between known levers of change and newly discovered and yet-unproven “nuggets” of information that are teased out of data. Before diving in, business leaders need to know there are right and wrong ways to engage in what-if analysis.”

Read more at Forbes >

FP&A Can Help by Asking Better Questions

“In addition, the world around us – and in business – is changing rapidly. As decision makers struggle more to make sense of such a world, they need help. Since FP&A is directly supporting business decision making and makers, they can help by asking better questions!”

Read more at FP&A Trends >

Give Purpose to Your Data to Drive Value

This McKinsey Digital article highlights the eight elements leadership teams should leverage to exploit their data analytics practices and make more informed, and ultimately more profitable decisions. “Performance — not pristine data sets, interesting patterns, or killer algorithms — is ultimately the point. Advanced data analytics is a means to an end. It’s a discriminating tool to identify, and then implement, a value-driving answer.”

Read more at McKinsey.com >

Data Is the Foundation for Any Successful Business Transformation

 “Business transformation has emerged as one of the most critical endeavors in today’s enterprise. When done properly, it can ensure the livelihood of a business for the foreseeable future. Done wrong, business transformation can leave an enterprise in even worse shape than before, facing the prospect of having to spend big to fix it.”

Most business transformations center around intelligent technologies that can connect the right data, tools and business logic to understand, analyze and evaluate corporate performance. However, none of these technologies will do any good unless it has the ability to access and produce timely, accurate, and consistent data which can be used to make critical business decisions.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >