One element that rings true in the world of analytics is that it is everchanging. Chief Data Officers and business leaders must stay abreast of key trends so their organizations don’t miss out on its benefits. A relatively new buzzword in the embedded analytics arena was coined by thought leader Howard Dresner, who serves as Chief Research Officer of Dresner Advisory Services.
In the restaurant industry, they say that you’re only as good as your last meal. The same is true with technology. You have to keep up with the latest and be the greatest to remain competitive. It is a dynamically changing industry, and staying ahead of key trends is of the utmost importance. The most recent talk is around a new concept described as “composable analytics.”
The smart pairing that will turn your numbers into dynamic C-level insights Financial and tax management has evolved enormously since the advent of computational technology. These days, you can’t just get by on spreadsheets and ledgers – everywhere you look you’ll hear the buzz of the age of automation. Your data needs to be sophisticated, offering essential storytelling to help support strategic insights.
Automation is your key to success in Finance and this includes your close. Anyone who has been through a close knows a clunky one is painful, and it arrives routinely whether you are prepared or not. A recent survey by Hanover Research found that a staggering 49% of Finance professionals felt unable to execute their tasks completely because their current manual processes were too time consuming. And those manual processes impacted their ability to execute essential tasks efficiently and effectively.
Whether your goal is to leverage the newest technology or to stay up to date with your Oracle ERP, migrating to the cloud is a complex, but worthwhile undertaking. It requires time to install, train, and embed new processes, but the effort is rewarded by the ability to leverage more agile workflows and increase ROI. Although many companies run their own on-premise servers to maintain IT infrastructure, 48% of organizations already store data on the public cloud.
As the need for greater interactivity and data access increases, more and more companies are making the move to adopt cloud computing. Microsoft is investing in and pushing customers towards its cloud ERP offering, Dynamics 365 Business Central (BC), which is experiencing a staggering 200% annual growth rate. But the significant hurdles posed by cloud migration can make it a daunting task to consider.
Growing companies rely on equity-based compensation to attract and retain top talent. They must also comply with stringent regulations regarding financial reporting and disclosures. It’s common practice in many startups–and even in some more mature public firms–to make do with manual processes and low-cost solutions for managing disclosures and cap tables. As a company grows, however, the complexity surrounding these processes increases.
Reporting is more important than ever. Long gone are the days of filling out excel sheets at year end and filing them away into oblivion, never to be seen again. The reports you file now, are not only more transparent than ever, but they have much more impact in the future and trends of your business than ever before.
Business intelligence empowers businesses to get the most out of their data by providing tools to analyze information, streamline operations, track performance, and inform decision-making. In the Microsoft Dynamics ecosystem, Power BI generates easy-to-read visualizations that help stakeholders perform key analysis. But finance professionals can encounter roadblocks when seeking deeper analysis than their technical knowledge of Power BI permits.
Being a finance professional is stimulating and rewarding, but it comes with a set of unique challenges. The accuracy and timeliness of information is essential, yet for most organizations, the volume and complexity of financial information is growing continuously. Simply working harder doesn’t seem to solve the problem; finance professionals must work smarter, applying the right tools to get the job done quickly, efficiently, and accurately.
