IBM have just released their 2010 study of over 1,900 Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and senior finance executives from across the globe and the verdict is that “Cost reduction matters to today's CFO, but not as much as getting stuck in to wider corporate business decisions. Playing their part in the wider corporate strategy is now the top priority for CFOs who no longer rank cost reduction at the top of their agenda.”
"Their priorities for the next three years were to cut the enterprise cost base, make decisions faster and provide more transparency to external stakeholders."
That statement makes a refreshing change given the current economic climate, it indicates that CFOs are starting to think about gearing for growth and I believe that Business Intelligence (BI) and Performance Management (PM) are core to delivering each of those priorities:
| Cut the enterprise cost base |
| With a comprehensive and organization wide reporting strategy CFOs can easily identify areas of the business that are not performing and becoming a drain on resources. A well designed BI solution can reveal and explain why one area of the business is most efficient than another and then steps can be taken to reduce cost. Subsequently effective budgeting, planning and forecasting can then control the cost reduction efforts. |
| Make faster decisions |
| To make not only faster decisions but better and more informed ones it is critical that people at all levels of the business are provided with accurate and timely information in a format that is easy to access. Portal based reporting, dashboard and scorecard solutions can provide part of that answer; they enables up-to-date information to be shared so everyone is working from the same ‘one version of the truth’. Automating business processes can also prove invaluable, improving process control and accuracy and slashing effort and time requirements. |
| Provide more transparency |
| If you can measure it then you can report and manage it. Saying “I don’t know” just doesn’t cut it these days, people want answers, they want they quickly and on their terms. Providing those answers provides external stakeholders with the confidence that things are going well or helps identify potential issues early enough to mitigate them before they have a chance to develop. |
It is often said that Information is Power and for CFO nothing could be truer. Without the facts they simply cannot be expected to perform their role effectively and BI and PM play a pivotal role in providing them. Strategic decision making is no small matter and requires a well integrated and comprehensive data capture, reporting and analysis environment. The good news is that one thing that CFOs can’t complain about these days is a lack of quality tools to provide the solution.
The quotes in this post were taken from the Finance Week website that delivers topical, practical content to senior finance professionals in UK industry: http://www.financeweek.co.uk/topic/career-ladder/changed-priorities-2010-cfo/32194