Three Ways CFOs Can Be a Catalyst For Change

Largely driven by advancements in technology, today’s corporate finance leaders are expected to work more collaboratively with functional areas in their companies and are well-positioned to positively support enterprise-wide performance and strategy. In order to influence business outcomes, CFOs need to be a catalyst for change by playing a much bigger role in shaping corporate strategy, implementing key initiatives, and providing data, guidance and insight.  Modern finance leaders are driving performance in three areas – operations, technology, and talent – and can impact all areas of the business as they continue evolving from finance and accounting managers to strategic business partners.

Read More at CFO Magazine >

Four Traits of Effective Finance Leaders

“CFOs are expected to wear many hats: Strategic partner, relationship builder, change agent and technology champion. But ultimately, a CFO’s top priority is to ensure sustained financial performance for the organization.”

CFOs are under increasing pressure to do it all. To become more effective in their position, they must align their efforts with their organizations’ highest priorities and become personally effective at facilitating change and shaping their company’s strategy. This means finance leaders need to focus on fewer things, even as the organization makes more demands on their time. According to Gartner, “A CFO’s personal effectiveness is measured by their performance against their CEO’s financial expectations and how well their organization exhibits “efficient growth” behaviors.”

Gartner found that personally effective CFOs follow four common practices.

Read More at Smarter with Gartner >

How to Strategically Cut Costs Across the Enterprise

There are several steps businesses can take to develop a structural process for an enterprise cost reduction program in a way that positively impacts every aspect of the organization – not just the bottom line. For decades, businesses have made cost reduction a priority to increase profits and drive growth. In recent years, digital disruption, changing consumer preferences and fierce competition from new market players have entered the mix – posing a threat to margins and profitability. Today, rapid advances in technology are propelling organizations to undertake enterprise-wide cost transformations to remain agile, flexible and profitable in a time of constant change.

Read More at EY >

Re-imagine the Finance Function with Intelligent Technology

The CFO’s role is evolving, and intelligent technology is helping them work more efficiently and add greater value to the businesses. Intelligent technologies are no longer just a “nice to have” pipe dream; they’re a business reality that is changing how organizations function. Through an intelligent finance operating model, CFOs can help transform the finance function; moving from transactional and reactive to proactive and strategic. This isn’t just about achieving operational excellence, but reshaping the way businesses fundamentally work and engage with technology. CFOs are now able to overcome the burden of manual, time-consuming accounting and reporting by implementing intelligent finance applications and processes enterprise-wide to improve efficiency and free up time for more strategic tasks.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

What Makes a Future-Focused Finance Organization?

The systems used by many companies for important business insights have many inconsistencies. They lack integration, automation, and a single version of the truth about their business. Additionally, many lack the ability to view their data in real-time to really understand what their data is trying to tell them. Today’s volatile marketplace requires more flexible finance, and modern finance leaders have leveraged intelligent technologies to provide the real-time data and reporting capacity that empowers them to drill-down to the most detailed level of information. Having one universal truth from one set of data available in real-time is extraordinarily powerful for finance leaders because it empowers the business to be faster and more agile.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

The Three E’s of Strategic Finance

Finance must be an integral part of the strategic process, and successful engagement in business strategy requires finance professionals to play key roles—and often lead the process—in three specific ways: education, evaluation, and execution. Education is a key element in strategic finance because it is the bridge between data and insights. Reporting doesn’t always lead to understanding, and sharing information doesn’t always result in actionable insights. In today’s organizations, proactive education about how finance can and should influence business decisions is essential to strategic success. Evaluation involves finance’s analysis of the present reality and possible future. Finance provides future operational plans, capital project analysis, financial markets planning, and execution. Every business strategy relies on timely insights that shape business growth. Finally, execution is the orientations and skills finance professionals possess that are critical to lead strategic execution. Investors who want to diversify their assets and save for their children’s future may explore the website of The Children’s ISA.

 Read More at Strategic Finance Magazine >

How Compliance and Cost Reduction Efforts Are Shaping Digital Transformation

“Leveraging funding and sponsorship of regulatory and cost reduction initiatives is enabling legacy firms to transform their data capabilities to achieve revenue generation and growth objectives.”

Today’s businesses aspire to be competitive by leveraging their data to drive revenue generation and business growth. To accomplish this, companies that still rely on traditional business models must embark on data-driven digital transformation initiatives. But how do technology and data leaders ensure that non-revenue generating data-driven transformation efforts receive the commitment and funding that are required to sustain these efforts?

Read More at Forbes Magazine >

Software Solutions For The Modern Finance Leader

CFOs today increasingly shape strategy across their organizations, driving long-term growth and performance. But with high volumes of data everywhere they turn, finance leaders are facing major pressure to gain meaningful insights quickly. In today’s digital economy, technology is no longer a luxury or “nice to have”; it’s a “must-have” that sets enterprises apart from the competition by providing a new level of trust and confidence that the data used to support decision making is up-to-date and accurate. Strong finance leaders are not held back by outdated or legacy systems because they are more than likely to have invested in technologies that help them achieve their business goals. With a dependable set of accurate and complete financial statements now a given, the business can get on with effective decision-making, compliance, forecasting, and strategic planning. Business software also provides strong real-time analytics, which can be used to make robust business-wide decisions, further strengthening the role of finance leaders as strategic adviser.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

Why Intelligent Businesses Are Focused on Comprehensive Reporting

An intelligent enterprise is one that leverages data strategically to improve business performance and better serve customers. Leading businesses are focusing on improving data visualization to catapult their efforts modernizing and optimizing their data landscape to support their overall strategy. While traditional reporting is still the main source of information for decision support, enterprise reporting tells the story of business performance over time and can be a key factor to being competitive. By revamping data visualization and enterprise reporting with advanced technologies, companies can extract more value from their data and move closer to becoming an intelligent enterprise.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >