Finance Needs to Step Up Its Game

June 18, 2012

Companies are giving CFOs more tools to work with, but they expect results.

Eight out of 10 large companies currently invest in at least one major program to improve their financial management processes, whether it be IT applications, process automation, changes in organizational structure or talent development. This is significant for three reasons, notes Mary Driscoll, senior research fellow with best practices and benchmarking research firm APQC:

CFOs want to deliver both effectiveness and efficiency. "CFOs want to be sure finance retains its role in business planning by delivering consistently good analytical support to decision makers," Driscoll observes.
Companies realize they must get better at analyzing growth drivers and profitability, meaning they're devoting more effort to modeling performance risks to better understand customer buying patterns.
Rather than focusing on cost efficiency, the finance department is now being asked to "step up and provide faster, fresher and more granular analyses of vast amounts of data," Driscoll says.

About the Author

Dave Blanchard | Senior Director of Content

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During his career Dave Blanchard has led the editorial management of many of Endeavor Business Media's best-known brands, including IndustryWeek, EHS Today, Material Handling & Logistics, Logistics Today, Supply Chain Technology News, and Business Finance. He also serves as senior content director of the annual Safety Leadership Conference. With over 30 years of B2B media experience, Dave literally wrote the book on supply chain management, Supply Chain Management Best Practices (John Wiley & Sons, 2010), which has been translated into several languages and is currently in its second edition. He is a frequent speaker and moderator at major trade shows and conferences, and has won numerous awards for writing and editing. He is a voting member of the jury of the Logistics Hall of Fame, and is a graduate of Northern Illinois University.