87% of managers need to be able to analyze data quicker in…

Fueling Finance’s Need
For Speed With
Technology,........

CFO Research found that 87% of senior
finance executive responders said managers
need to analyze financial and performance
data much more quickly in order to meet their
companies’ targets for profitable growth. But,
despite this “need for speed,” only 12% of
survey respondents indicate that their finance
function can respond to requests from
business managers in “real time.” More than
half say it typically takes finance staff up to
one day to respond to business units’ requests
for information and analysis, and more than a
quarter say that it takes longer than a day.
         Technology is the logical and proven path to
reducing response times but needs to keep
the end use firmly in mind. Eight in ten survey
respondents believe that their ability to meet
growth targets would improve if their
information systems were easier to use—
despite two-thirds of respondents saying that
their systems had already become largely
“self-service.”
Many businesses have developed their
information systems to the point where
management has access to more information
faster. Now, reaching the next level of
performance requires even closer collaboration
with skilled finance analysts to work out what
to do with all that data. As the CFO of a
Mexican electronics firm put it in his survey
response, “Technology is a good ally…if you
know how to use it.”