The Ledger

SF Magazine: Advancing Digital Transformation

“Accounting and financial professionals have relied on spreadsheets for decades, so it should come as no surprise that there’s a reluctance to adopt other analytics tools. As Pamela Schmidt, Kimberly Swanson Church, and Jennifer Riley wrote in “Breaking the Excel Routine” (Strategic Finance, March 2020), “a bias toward the status quo use of Excel has hampered widespread adoption of more advanced data analytics technology tools.” Furthermore, Molly Boyle points to a need for real change in “The Real Costs of Manual Accounting” (Strategic Finance, September 2020): “The way accounting has always been done isn’t sustainable—especially in the current environment. Manual processes tend to be chaotic and time-consuming…”

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FP&A Trends: The Key Steps to Fostering a Data-Driven Culture

“Technology is not the key issue to implement a data-driven culture within an organisation. The first crucial task is to determine the data strategy and focus on the business problem. To be successful though, embracing the changing culture is the most important aspect of all”

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CFO Journal: Moving Enterprise Business Planning Into Action

“Scenario modeling and predictive analytics are critical components of EBP’s one-model approach. For example, semiconductor demand is subject to volatility, as the need for chips must react to demand from multiple industries. Moreover, supply is constrained by the availability of critical inputs. Robust scenarios provide management with a ready course of action as incidents occur. Predictive analytics can also leverage external macro data to better inform those scenarios.”

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SF Magazine: From Controller to CFO

Some of the ways that controllers provide increased value:

• Driving finance transformation through automation and process improvement
• Overseeing the integrity of financial data coming from technology systems within the enterprise
• Providing enhanced information for decision making and resource allocation
• Increasing speed in reporting critical information and decision makers

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