FP&A Trends: How Data-Driven FP&A Powers Smarter Decision Making

“When your financial planning and analysis (FP&A) becomes data-driven using automation and an intuitive platform with the right tools, then there’s a fundamental shift. The data flows freely, it’s trustworthy, and it starts to work for you. In fact, it can lead to a transformation, especially with decision-making around your organisation’s finances and business strategy. But how can you reach this point?”

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Industry Week: Too Often, the Right Data Isn’t Getting to the Right Person (Even within Their Own Team)

“Closing the loop means establishing a system where the data is embedded into a continuous feedback process across the formerly siloed teams. Establishing this seamless data continuity fosters a data-driven culture where employees make decisions on a common set of accurate and up-to-date information.”

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CFO Dive: Data Is a Differentiator, But Much of it Is Wrong

“The good news is the growing recognition that fast access to real-time and accurate financial data is a strategic imperative. More than one-third of the executives (34%) are considering implementing or scaling automation solutions to increase the reliability and accuracy of their data, while 42% are becoming more focused on scenario planning and stress testing.”

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SF Magazine: Data as a Strategic Asset

“As accounting leaders, we must actively contribute to the discussions around data management, valuation of data, and recognition of enterprise data value as an asset on the financial reports. We must focus on providing value by producing high-quality, data-driven insights through applying data analytics to ensure organizational success.”

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SF Magazine: Financial Forecasting Amid COVID-19

“Companies are missing opportunities to grow revenue and improve margins by approaching the data they collect too narrowly.”

Here are “three steps to move toward dynamic planning”:

1. Democratize your data
2. Bring financial data into operations
3. Bring financial data into strategy

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CFO Dive: CFOs Facing an Unprecedented Range of Risks Find an Edge in Analytics

There are better ways to plan your business finance strategy than on a spreadsheet with old data!

““I’m afraid a lot of firms today do their forecasting on the back of an envelope,” Keating said. “The use of predictive analytics is a very important way to compete.””

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CFO Magazine: Think of Digital Transformation as Modular and Nimble

These digital transformation priorities are listed as relevant to most organizations :

• Deliver real-time data to drive revenue.
• Streamline operational data to make quicker decisions.
• Identify cost reduction opportunities to save money.
• Reduce manual work to reduce errors.
• Improve analytics to deliver better insights.
• On-board new customers faster and more accurately for a better customer experience.

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CFO Journal: Assessing Data Management Maturity

Here’s an important question to ask yourself when thinking about data:

What insights do you need to run the business?

In other words, what questions do you need answered, and which metrics would help answer those questions? This may involve financial results or nonfinancial information related to employees, customers, products, and market conditions.

• Which available data management tools might help? Being able to combine data from multiple sources and getting it to refresh automatically at the right frequency to meet the business need is the ultimate goal. But in the near term, see what you can gather easily through advanced data management tools like the one at https://edge.gg or even manually. Start with no more than 10 business questions so you can create visualizations of important results and explore relationships across data points. Once you begin automating your data, you can layer in more components to flesh out the picture.
• Is the leadership team aligned? All key parties need to agree on what will be measured, how it will be defined, who owns it, who will be accountable for producing it, and the business mandate being addressed. At heavily matrixed companies, getting everyone on board is no easy feat, but taking the time to do this upfront is crucial.
• Have you identified—and involved—your data ecosystem? As the company reaches certain milestones in, say, enabling automated data feeds with data quality controls or acquiring new tools for insight-driven decision-making, take the opportunity to test concepts in one market or line of business, create a prototype, and socialize your idea to gauge support. Be sure to involve those who will be using the new capability you plan to introduce.
• Is the workforce suitably equipped? A data ecosystem based on next-generation digital technologies can demand new or enhanced workforce skills and capabilities, such as storytelling with data, problem-solving using advanced analytics, and business partnering. Consider ways to build or acquire the talent you may require. Employees need a frictionless way to tap into the data flow, understand how to use it, and then act on it.

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CFO Journal: Master Data to Sharpen a Competitive Edge

“In some industries, digital technologies have already reshaped certain aspects of how the finance function conducts business—lowering operating costs, effort, and risk while increasing the analytic value and transparency of financial data. The steps companies have taken in the finance function include: Financial planning, Finance operations, and Decision support.”

Read More at Wall Street Journal >