The Ledger
Curated content foranalytical business leaders
Digital Technologies Are Enabling Cost Management to Support Strategy
June 10, 2019
Today’s digital innovations represent a major evolution in cost management strategies, providing companies with the opportunity to gain a much deeper understanding of their business’s prime value levers, which they can use to fundamentally and sustainably change their cost structures, seize opportunities, and grow profitably. Businesses that are successful with their cost and revenue strategies all have three things in common. First, these companies are employing digital technologies to enable “next-generation” cost management. The second factor is a strategic, rather than tactical, view of costs across the organization that enables decision makers to answer questions like, “where should I be cutting my costs?” or “What will happen if…?”. Finally, these organizations have established effective and transformative cost management programs enterprise wide. As a result, they can provide faster and deeper data-driven insight on what’s driving value and what are the cost drivers.
Read More at The Wall Street Journal >
Achieve Business Process Optimization with End-to-End Visibility
June 6, 2019
Many businesses have found that their existing business processes have simply outlived the intended reason for which they were initially designed. Once business leaders realize the way they are doing business is not effective or profitable, they seek ways to improve and optimize their existing processes. This search for workflow optimization is prompted by a very real need to improve productivity and operational efficiency – a need that is evident across all business segments and vertical industries. Most can easily identify areas where improved efficiency is needed, but without a clear understanding of the problem, there is a general reluctance to simply throw time, money, and resources at a solution. The key is to implement a tool that can help the business clearly identify the issue and potential solutions.
Read More at Workflow Magazine >
Effective Cost Transformation Requires Buy-In From the C-Suite
June 5, 2019
Cost management is no longer simply a way for companies to improve margins and save money. Finance leaders are now using cost reduction as a powerful lever for digital transformation and to gain better insight into their business. Often times, CEOs delegate responsibility for cost reduction efforts to other leaders within the business. This hands-off approach could be costing their company a lot more money and strategic opportunities than they realize because CEOs have the clout and broad organizational reach to break down a lot of barriers that often hinder successful cost reduction efforts. By bringing a more strategic perspective to cost management, and directly encouraging teams to think bigger, CEOs can enable breakthroughs that are more impactful, such as re-configuring the business or changing the operating model. These strategic cost management approaches offer potential savings that are much larger − and much more sustainable.
Read More at Chief Executive >
Modern Technologies Are Critical for The Success of Midsize Businesses
June 4, 2019
Businesses that are not making digital transformation a priority have a much greater risk of going out of business in the next decade than those that are. Why? Successful digital transformation allows businesses to operate with a level of agility necessary to adapt to a marketplace that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. The rising intelligence of enterprise technologies presents tremendous opportunities for midsize businesses to outpace the rest of their competition. However, their growth depends on the strength of a unified modern data platform, which is critical for turning data into insight. Finance and IT leaders must create a strong foundation of connected, real-time data that is integrated enterprise-wide and provides the necessary visibility for decision makers to ultimately maximize profit growth.
Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >
