The Ledger

How a CFO’s Cost Management Style Can Have a Major Impact on Growth

CFOs distinguish themselves by the cost management practices they implement in their organization – from choosing to eliminate negative cost management practices that drag down earnings, to employing positive ones that increase revenue and profits. Cost optimization is not a new topic for finance leaders, but the practice has taken on new dimensions with the help of sophisticated tools and technologies. CFOs are now operating in a challenging environment where costs have outpaced revenue. Gartner research showed the average shareholder return among companies that employed a balanced approach was 7% higher than their peers. But what role does the CFO play in effectively managing the cost piece of the balanced approach?

Read More at Smarter with Gartner >

Profitability Analytics: A New Perspective on FP&A

FP&A  professionals are all generally focused on two things: (1) examining current performance and the immediate past for lessons learned and changes to replicate positive performance or change negative performance and (2) making projections and planning for the future with forward-looking scenarios, analyzing risks and opportunities, and mapping possible responses.

Advances in digital technologies increase the potential for businesses to use powerful tools to improve and expand their FP&A function. Modern organizations need a robust definition of their FP&A practices that will support the entire organization, looking well beyond finance and accounting’s traditional scope and embracing all the value creation and performance goals throughout an organization. Profitability analytics enables FP&A leaders to understand the past while focusing on developing areas of nonfinancial and financial data analytics and modeling that causally support building robust forward-looking scenarios and analyses.

Read More at Strategic Finance Magazine >

Modern Manufacturers Are Standardizing Their Processes for a Single Version of the Truth in Real Time

Even in today’s business climate of digital transformation and advanced analytics, it is very possible that spreadsheets remain the number one manufacturing execution systems in the world. Unfortunately, manufacturers who are still relaying on spreadsheets for business insights will soon be beat out by those who are going after tools that provide a single version of the truth while enabling predictive and strategic decision making.

Continental, a large automotive components manufacturer, is a serving as a test case for digital transformation in their air-spring business unit. Before they began the transformation, they relied heavily on manual processes and spreadsheets with no real-time global visibility into their manufacturing. By standardizing their manufacturing processes, Continental now works from a single version of the truth that provides the insight to visualize their business in real-time.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

How Midsize Businesses Are Leveraging Intelligent Technologies to Fuel Growth

A common dilemma for most finance leaders from midsize companies is knowing how to gain the visibility, speed, and insight to run some of their most basic operations. The need to be fast, efficient and agile in today’s volatile marketplace is nearly impossible to achieve with manual processes. Therefore, many midsize companies are expanding the scope of their digital transformation efforts – from integrating technology into their business to fundamentally changing their workplace culture, organizational operation, and customer experiences. Finance organizations in best-run midsize companies are embracing digital transformation and intelligent technologies such as artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and machine learning. In return, most of them are improving timely decision-making, running more-efficient and less error-prone operational processes, and empowering knowledge workers to engage in higher-value business activities.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >