The Ledger

Curated content for
analytical business leaders

How Mill Companies Use Cost Visibility to Fuel Process Optimization

July 22, 2019

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 >

 

What Makes a True Data-Driven Organization?

July 18, 2019

Finance is woven into the fabric of almost everything a business does, and today’s organizations need to do more than track and control costs to be profitable. Many finance organizations that are aspiring to become more data-driven are moving forward with analytics transformation today. Those who are successful are able to leverage embedded analytics into core financial processes and empowering their finance teams with insight on demand. However, businesses that rely on spreadsheets and disparate systems for robust analytics usually hit major roadblocks, because it’s near impossible to obtain a single version of financial truth with these outdated tools. There are three essential factors that businesses must encompass to become a true data-driven organization.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

 

The Cost of Poor Business Decisions

July 17, 2019

According to Gartner, poor operational decision-making compromises upward of 3% of profits. As digitalization pushes businesses to grow and change, operational decisions are increasing in speed, volume and complexity — creating a challenge for finance, whose job it is to make sure those decisions are financially sound. Progressive CFOs are modernizing their decision-making process by adopting a business model that provides granular visibility into past, present and future financial performance. For finance teams to maximize their ability to drive financially sound operational decisions, they need to improve the financial aptitude of operational decision makers and instill more finance information and analysis into those outcomes.

Read More at Smarter with Gartner >

 

Powerful Apparel Pricing Requires Advanced Analytics

July 16, 2019

Today’s consumers are more sophisticated and technologically savvy, making them harder to predict and even harder to satisfy. For apparel manufacturers and retailers to be successful, they must think be able to predict future wants and needs of their potential customers. Many successful apparel manufacturers and retailers have found a scalable way to employ a responsive, intelligent pricing discipline that aligns their pricing strategy with their customers’ willingness to pay by leveraging insights from advanced analytics to make smarter pricing decisions. Pricing smarter requires understanding where customers perceive value and having the agility to respond to competitors’ moves with full insight into the impact on financial performance.

Read More at McKinsey Insights >

 

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