The Ledger

How Successful Growing Businesses Are Making Profitable Decisions

“The core of every growing business is an ability to adapt to a world of new opportunities and disruptive risks. Every shift – from detecting the need for change to determining the best move forward – should be informed by data from both inside and outside the organization.”

As midsize companies continue to adapt and grow in an ever-changing marketplace, they must find new and more efficient ways to drive revenue and respond to their customer’s needs. High performing growing businesses are the ones who are adopting technologies that provide advanced predictive analytics and important financial insights. By integrating data analytics and automation capabilities across the enterprise enables these businesses to create a more innovative and profitable decision-making process.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

IT and Finance Collaboration is the Key to Unlocking Powerful Business Analytics

Business leaders aim to make decisions faster and more accurately through automation and predictive modeling. Tools, technological innovation, and increasingly powerful business insights are readily available everywhere. However, a business only gets out of their technologies what the tool is actually capable of giving them. Decision makers must choose a platform that best fits their business specifically, and often times it is not a “one-stop-shop” solution. Moreover, it takes collaboration between finance and IT because there is no substitute for finance’s knowledge and experience to ensure that an accounting system meets their organization’s needs. As financial eyes and ears of their business, finance professionals can provide critical insight into business processes and requirements that can help decision makers get a true picture of the organization

Read More at Strategic Finance Magazine >

Leveraging the Right Data Platform Can Make Any Midsize Business Unstoppable

Data is the one element of a business than can make or break it when it comes to profitability. Data is so vast and diverse these days, that a lack of integration between applications can weaken any competitive advantage. Without an integrated, corporate-wide strategy, growing companies may find it extremely challenging to aim in a single direction. Midsize businesses can especially benefit from cloud-based platforms that are resilient and provide a unified system that ensures all decision makers are working from one source of the truth. A disciplined approach and a tool that can convert data into actionable decisions can be so impactful that the largest competitors may find it hard to keep up.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

Data Mismanagement: How Good Data Can Lead to Bad Decisions

Master data is the foundation upon which businesses make important decisions. Since requirements for business data, reporting, and documentation have increased in the past few years, incorrectly recorded master data, lack of master data maintenance, and the storage of master data across too many systems create enormous challenges. In addition to this, more and more companies are beginning to use data analytics to process data better, real-time insights faster, and understand trends and future opportunities. If a large portion of the data is incorrect, data analytics are misleading, and people on the production floor and in the boardroom are working with the wrong numbers.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

New Costing Priorities Are Changing the Way We Do Business

In the wake of digital transformation becoming a standard business practice, it is no surprise that modern organizations are shifting their costing priorities from cost reduction to cost transformation. Companies that relied on more traditional cost management methods are now finding that dynamic technologies can open the door to a whole new level of savings. These additional cost savings allow businesses to compete more effectively in an increasingly digital environment. This change in business strategy drives finance leaders’ priorities to focus more on implementing the best technology for their business, and ultimately increase product profitability.  A best in class tool that caters to specific business needs enables organizations to achieve end-to-end visibility of their costs and use this information to better understand what is driving their profits.

Read More at CFO Magazine >