The Ledger

Why CFOs Need Predictive Analytics

“While financial rigor is necessary, it is not sufficient to deliver the performance results required to meet shareholder expectations or simply deliver on strategic objectives.” CFOs have become trusted strategists that need predictive analytics to gain insight to make better decisions to drive their business forward. In the past, finance executives never had the technology needed to access and aggregate the insight from their data. By utilizing predictive analytics, CFOs can harness the power of their data to continue transforming their business.

Read More at CFO Magazine >

CFOs Need to be Leaders of Adoption

“Chains of habit are too light to be felt until they are too heavy to be broken.” – Warren Buffett

We talk a lot about how the role of the CFO is changing to keep their competitive edge during these times of innovation in the finance world. Not only the CFOs, but also finance teams need to change internally to support how the business is changing. Companies are increasing the level of cloud and expertise in new business expertise in finance to reflect the different skill sets required to support sales. As finance has had to become an area of cloud insight and expertise, CFOs are expected to step up and lead their organization in this new technology.

Read More at The Digitalist by SAP >

Don’t Rush Your AI

Automation has taken over the finance world, but management teams need to master their basic data analytics before they can move on to adopting artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies. Companies that rush into sophisticated AI can end up paralyzed because they get overwhelmed with huge, expensive projects with no programmers to write code for them. AI technologies can potentially reinvent organizations, but they must invest time and money to be prepared with sufficiently automated and structured data analytics in order to take full advantage of the new technologies.

Read More at The Harvard Business Review >

The Necessary Skill Set of Future Management Accountants

Management accountants play a large role in the success of projects through their specializations of domain, technical and analytical capabilities. The demands on management accounting professionals have greatly increased to filter through the mass of internal and external data to help drive improvements to enterprise value. Because of these demands, they must adapt and evolve their skills in reporting, business intelligence and data science. The best-of-breed management accountants of the future will need a blend of these specializations to create an environment that supports successful analytics projects.

Read More at Strategic Finance Magazine >