The Ledger

Just in Case You Haven’t Already- Here Are 5 More Reasons to Ditch Your Spreadsheets

It is impossible to get a holistic view of a business using spreadsheets, and poor visibility creates business risk. Yet, companies still cling to them even when there are many better alternatives out there because of their familiarity of the tool. The long list of cons using spreadsheets include high maintenance overhead, significant time spent by expensive finance resources performing manual input rather than real value-add, poor data management, no data integration nor Big Data support, and sub-par system performance and deployment options. There is no need for the CFO to rely on different products and separate data warehouses. Instead, they can support their new and developing needs in a single, easy-to-use, unified platform governed by finance – optimized at using data as a strategic asset to drive a “data dividend.”

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

New Solutions Are Necessary For Success In Chemical Manufacturing

The chemical industry is characterized by process-based manufacturing, high capital intensity, and long investment cycles. Over the longer term, capital is deployed for R&D or capacity expansion, while, over the shorter term, resources are targeted to increase productivity and reduce costs. This process has kept the industry stable because their conservative response to change was sufficient. Over the last several decades, however, the pace of change outside the firm’s sphere of control has been unprecedented. Changes in regulation, competition, supply, demand, and technology pose greater chances for disruption in ever shorter periods of time. At some point, a company’s inability to respond within an acceptable window to the pace of change of external factors will begin to exponentially add risk.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

The Difference Between Good CFOs and Great CFOs

“A well-designed CFO succession plan ensures a deep bench of finance talent prepared to step into leadership roles, and frees up CFOs’ time to focus on their strategic and catalyst roles.”

When CFOs were asked by Deloitte about the legacy they wanted to leave, a majority responded that they wanted to have had a strong influence on their company’s ability to perform well in the future and to have left things better than they found them. One of the keys to achieving those goals is a well-thought-out CFO succession plan that ensures there is a bench of highly skilled finance leaders ready and able to take on new demands.

Read More at The Wall Street Journal >

Top 2019 Predictions from Veteran Analysts

Every finance leader has similar predictions for what is to come in 2019, but what are the most important things to prepare for? At the center of the technological trends is leveraging strong data to make better decisions about products, services, employees and strategy. Also on the list is the rapid adoption of enterprise technologies that fit specific business needs, instead of a one-size-fits-all approach. However, this rapid adoption brings added complexity in finding the right tool for your business. Another priority that finance leaders are anticipating is a renewed focus on change management to ensure scalability and sustainability.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >