Microsoft’s mission is to empower all people and organisations to achieve more. But the company has also been striving to achieve more itself, and xP&A has been instrumental in this pursuit.

In times of uncertainty, the failings of systems and measures are brought sharply into focus. Managing profitability often requires a complete re-think of how an organisation plans and the supporting systems that can help sustain profits in both the short and long term. That’s the subject of this paper.

xP&A is more than an attempt to ‘fix’ the planning process. It is a complete transformation of the FP&A function to continually challenge the status quo, to educate, shape and influence management decisions on how the organization achieves its goals.

In this paper, we will explore these different areas to explain what they are, how they have benefited other organisations and the steps an organisation can take in making the transition.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of those terms surrounded in mystery and which promises a lot.  It’s also a term that is easy to misunderstand exactly what the promises are, particularly in reference to FP&A.

I hope to show the analytical power that is now available to the FP&A practitioner and how it can drive business change in a structured manner; a method that involves considerably less effort than I had to apply all those years ago.