The Ledger

Better Business Decisions Come From Effective Data Visualization

Data visualization can greatly improve finance’s ability to view how the business is performing by providing access to key metrics, KPIs, forecasts, and other critical information that can aid decision-making and help each function chart effective courses of action. However, those goals depend heavily on quality data. Thanks to an expanding array of analytics tools and emerging cognitive technologies, finance is also able to leverage that data to attain meaningful insights that can influence a range of tactical and strategic decisions.

Read More at CFO Insights by Deloitte >

Nine Essential Steps for Strategic Planning

All corporate functions do strategic planning, but few do it well. Strategic planning is critical for forward-looking organizations, but short-term planning activities often leave little time to pursue long-term strategy. The mission for business leaders is to identify initiatives that will drive enterprise growth ambitions, and unlock the capacity (time, budget, talent and technology) needed to fuel them. Most companies are now pursuing strategies that have a greater risk of failure, and often involve business model change that creates a complex set of coordinated changes across the business. Gartner suggests 9 steps that provide a guide for leaders to effectively prioritizes the successful execution of critical initiatives that are tied to overall business goals.

Read More at Smarter with Gartner >

Meeting Customer Demand with Integrated Manufacturing Visibility

Today’s customers demand high-quality, individualized products and faster delivery. When it comes to the manufacturing function, manual processes and isolated information silos make meeting these demands increasingly difficult. What’s needed are connected manufacturing processes that are integrated across the entire product life-cycle to break down silos and provide visibility across the phases of design, planning, logistics, and operations. This can enable next-generation business processes that leverage intelligent technologies to analyze root causes of inefficiency, predict machine and process failures, and speed execution. An integrated environment for manufacturing can help compress cycle times, speed time to market, minimize costs, and meet manufacturing demand with greater efficiency and agility – despite growing variability.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

Turn Strategy into Actionable Plans with Next-Level FP&A

“Few processes within the purview of a CFO have so much potential to create—or destroy—business value than FP&A”

A recent study from the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) found that in general, top performing organizations take a more rigorous and integrated approach to their FP&A practices by relying on businesses insights to drive results, not just predict them. Unfortunately, many companies are not achieving the full potential of their FP&A activities because they tend to put more focus on forecasting and budgeting, rather than the core principles of planning and execution. Forecasting and budgeting are certainly important, especially in communicating to the organization if it is on track to achieve its business outcomes or to raise warning flags. But forecasting results is not the same as building a plan to actually achieve them. Planning and execution are what will determine success.

Read More at CFO Magazine >