The Ledger
Curated content foranalytical business leaders
Are You Ready For a Smarter Future?
November 1, 2017
Some companies have not adapted artificial intelligence technologies because they can’t predict exactly how it will play out in the long run. However, the companies that are bold enough to embrace AI will gain a true competitive advantage to those that don’t. Today the speed of business, the pace of change, and the growth of data is increasing exponentially. Information lends the insight to move fast. But with the huge growth in data, how can businesses continue to process that information — to find insight that speeds evolution and innovation, without the actual search for the insights slowing them down?
Ending The Financial Close Nightmare
October 31, 2017
“Improving your financial close requires a cohesive and well-planned strategy to manage the systems, people, and processes, from transactional accounting processes to entity close, corporate, financial and management reporting, and disclosure. It requires strong governance, from centralizing compliance processes and controls to managing master data. Transforming the financial close is not a one-time project; it’s a continuous incremental journey, and the dividends to making even the first few steps to improvement can be substantial.“
Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >
Preparing for The Data-Driven Future
October 30, 2017
Real-time tools are starting to replace old-fashioned ones and are impacting change management. Companies are finally realizing the benefits of using data science by collecting the right kind of data and investing in their analytics capacity. The key is building predicative models by knowing what it is that you want to predict and collecting large and diverse data sets that enable you to get those answers. The companies best positioned to change in the next decade will be the ones that start preparing now.
Read More at The Harvard Business Review >
AI Feeds the Prediction Machine
October 26, 2017
One of the most common questions from executives dealing with a finance/IT transformation is, “How will AI change our strategy?” Predictive analytics have completely changed the way companies do business, and AI allows retail companies, like Amazon, to predict what their customers want to buy about 5% of the time. AI allows companies to have access to more customer data, which in turn equals stronger predictions, and stronger predictions lead to more profit. The key insight here is that turning up the prediction machine has a significant impact on strategy.
Read More at The Harvard Business Review >
