In this series of blogs, the author is looking at several areas that FP&A departments must address if they are to add value to the organisations they serve in this technology-driven age. In this blog, he looks at management processes.

Corporate Performance Management (CPM) has long consisted in breaking the company’s strategy down into operational objectives and indicators, measuring the achievement of these objectives against operational entities' budget or forecast and take action on that basis. This approach was effective in a stable business environment, with slow and controlled changes.

The financial planning and analysis (FP&A) storyteller has emerged as one of the five critical roles within the FP&A function. In a data-driven world, the volume of data that exists is exponentially increasing. Equally, the time available for managers to process insights from this data is decreasing. Therefore, the requirement that these insights be taken and used to drive leadership decisions has never been greater.

Many companies measure their progress against annual objectives through profit and loss (P&L) reporting and a business performance measurement (BPM) tool. In many cases, this tool is a scorecard summarising the key P&L and balance sheet numbers. Is this enough?

Gartner forecasted that by 2024, 70% of new FP&A projects will become extended planning and analysis (xP&A) projects, expanding their scope beyond the finance domain into other areas of enterprise planning and analysis. What will happen to our traditional Controlling function? How xP&A is enhancing Corporate Performance Management? How can you get ready for this transition?

New technologies are reducing back-office workload, giving FP&A the opportunity to be more involved in running the business. Degree of this involvement depends on the capacity of FP&A team and the organisational culture.