Why FP&A should be at the top of the transformation agenda – aligning finance with the business

There’s been much written about digital transformations in recent years. The pandemic and other disruptions have shown how businesses can innovate and shift focus in little or no time at all responding to customer demands and change to supply chain.

The pandemic accelerated the need for FP&A transformation, presenting CFOs with a unique opportunity to align with their long-term business partnering goals. Operations, sales, finance, HR, marketing and other teams all have a need for fast, flexible planning and analysis.

It’s well known that data-driven decision-making at the highest level of the business leads the way to effective strategy and organisational agility. When the strategic and operational plans are better connected, it leads to improved business decisions.

“Organisations must recognise that when so many things are changing so rapidly, they need to invest in people and systems that will help make sense of that change and respond to it. Organisations need data and analytics.”- Gareth Herschel, Research Vice President, Gartner

Digital FP&A transformation is about delivering improved productivity across the business.

Top performing organisations are adopting automated processes that enable faster innovation and execution, while keeping costs down. Organisations can, for example, use insights to set thresholds and alerts if forecasts are outside of ranges. Additionally, they’re ahead in their adoption of cloud, which helps them become more agile, efficient and able to maximise the value they get from investments.

Across all sectors, businesses are recognising the need for accurate and timely insights to support decision-making in their rapidly changing environment. Whether it’s the Suez Canal being blocked, a pandemic like COVID, or a sudden shift in buyer behaviour, businesses need to be able to run the scenarios, developing ideas on how to respond.

Agile organisations tend to have people plan more frequently, put more of their plans into action and leverage planning technology more effectively. These organisations are more prepared for threats and opportunities, from a position of strength. Naturally, it is important to ensure that the underlying data is relevant and accurate when using it to make decisions.

By automating tedious and labour-intensive tasks like data collection, aggregation and cleansing, teams are empowered to spend more time on value-added work that enables them to make better informed decisions. As FP&A is automated, CFOs and planning leaders have a role to play in reinventing the workforce, creating a knowledgeable, agile, collaborative and empowered team to lead the organisation.

For further information, including the differing transformation options, download our guide