The Ledger

The Pivotal Role of the CIO in Digital Transformation

Businesses around the world are under intense pressure to invest in transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, and cloud that will help them compete effectively in a world increasingly defined by digital innovation and disruption. This unique situation requires chief information officers (CIOs) to play a larger role in shaping and executing business strategy. Deloitte’s global cost management survey found that while cost management is a top priority for businesses, it is referred to as a “save to transform” initiative because many companies are using their cost savings to help fund investments in growth and transformation. CIOs and technology leaders operate at the intersection of all three save-to-transform aspects: cost reduction, growth and transformation.

Read More at Information Week >

Intelligent Technologies Are Re-shaping the Future of Business

Technology is shaping the future of how businesses operate. Digital transformation and the rise of intelligent technologies are driving business leaders to shift from managing technology to delivering more creative and strategic business outcomes. An organization’s technology vision comprises four components: the future of work, strategic technology investments, risk and resiliency, and technology operating model agility. Its approach to each of these aspects can help create an environment in which innovation grows, encourage collaboration between business and technology functions, and create sustainable competitive advantage.

Read More at The Wall Street Journal >

Modern FP&A Leaders Need to Upgrade Their Playbook

“In a world of digital transformation and constant disruption, analysis must keep pace with queries that will change midstream and anticipate questions that have yet to be asked, but should be.”

 The ability to turn around insightful analysis in a timely manner is key to being seen as a modern business. To remain competitive, mature reporting processes must become more of a comprehensive playbook that provides decision makers with actionable insight in real-time. More mature processes rely less on spreadsheets, and favor purpose-built FP&A solutions that provide access to common databases, manage data scenarios and related workflows, and ensure transparency. Immature financial planning capabilities often resemble a shadow budget process, with simplistic reports, scarce analytics and a lack of business-value insights. When it comes to business planning, level of detail used must be appropriate to test a hypothesis “what if” in a way that has business relevance. Successful FP&A organizations often have the ability to provide faster and more predictive analytics, adjustments on the fly, and an emphasis on high performance through leveraging advanced analytics.

Read More at Smarter with Gartner >

How Mill Companies Use Cost Visibility to Fuel Process Optimization

The rise of digital transformation has shaken the foundation of even the most stable businesses. Like most industries, success for mill products businesses comes down to data. From manufacturing and production to finance and procurement, decision-makers must evaluate all transactional and related data to truly understand what’s going on. However, few ever truly understand how deeply the business will be affected by changes or future events as long as their accounts receivable and payable requests, shop floor and manufacturing transactions, and sales orders remain in disparate applications and organizational silos. Without an accurate view of changes in supply chain costs, raw material inventory, and order rates, decision-makers cannot safeguard top priorities such as revenue growth, optimization of operating margins, and cost reduction. Throughout mill operations, there’s always a variety of things occurring, transpiring, and transferring simultaneously. And for this reason alone, acquiring immediate insight to sense, analyze, and respond to emerging shifts should always be a priority.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >