The Ledger
Curated content foranalytical business leaders
Agility is Necessary for a Successful Digital Transformation
August 1, 2018
“Large-scale digital transformation programs just don’t work for digital because technology will have developed significantly during that time. That’s why you hear about companies needing to become “agile.” Getting your finance function to work in innovative ways to go digital will not be easy. But properly explained, your teams can understand the necessity of these ways of working to accelerate delivery of digital products in your finance function, be they BI, automation, robotics, and so forth.”
Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >
AI is Gaining Meaningful Traction in 2018
July 31, 2018
According to the 2018 NewVantage Partners’ annual executive survey found that this is the year that artificial intelligence gains meaningful traction within Fortune 1000 corporations. The main finding of the survey is that an overwhelming 97.2% of executives report that their companies are investing in building or launching big data and AI initiatives. Among surveyed executives, a growing consensus is emerging that AI and big data initiatives are becoming closely intertwined, with 76.5% of executives indicating that the proliferation and greater availability of data is empowering AI and cognitive initiatives within their organizations.
Read More at The Sloan Review >
Enhance Your Budgeting with Four Steps
July 30, 2018
Budgeting can be a monotonous task, but it is necessary for business success. There are four steps that can enhance your budgeting process: Tie your budget to your strategic plan, tie it to the rolling forecast, minimize the iterations, and recognize the “80/20.” By tying in the budget with the strategic plan and rolling forecast, FP&A professionals can not only keep their budget at the forefront of their planning, but they are also continuously checking in and have the ability to tweak it as necessary. Minimizing iterations diminishes a lot of unnecessary work and recognizing the “80/20” helps to spread the analysis over the full calendar year and can take pressure off the budget season.
Does Your Company Need a Data Translator?
July 26, 2018
“Translating analytics into a language that decision makers understand is not as simple as it sounds. Among other things, the person doing the translating — whether it’s a quant or a data translator serving as a liaison between the quant and an executive decision maker — needs to avoid what’s referred to as data hubris. A data hubris is described as “the often implicit assumption that big data are a substitute for, rather than a supplement to, traditional data collection and analysis.” Bridging the cultural gap between domain specialists and analytics specialists within organizations with an interpretation function performed by a data translator can begin to address the disparity between the claims for big data and its reality.”
Read More at The Sloan Review >
