“Go to the cloud” has been a key building block in every global CIO’s digital strategy. However, as the CFO, do you find yourself getting into frequent arguments with them over the savings promised at the time of embarking on this journey?

This blog discusses the importance of improving your digital IQ, a term used by PWC for corporates but something that I believe should also be applied to individuals. Your digital IQ (your knowledge of technology and its impacts) is in effect a ‘gateway’ or an ‘enabler’ to the future role of any commercial finance/ FP&A individual.

The expanding role of the modern FP&A requires more than even a deeper understanding of the technological issues, in order to leverage the digital transformation. In the meantime, the Enterprise Software market has never been so hot, and 2019 was an eventful year for the industry. To understand the challenges facing the FP&A teams, let’s break down by market segment and cast an eye over some of 2019’s main enterprise software news.

Excel is still a popular tool when it comes to preparing financials or analysis. However, we often hear financial professionals complaining about how inadequate Excel can be. So why have we not “rid” ourselves of this seemingly “inadequate” tool. This article explores the pros and cons of using spreadsheets. There are a few best practice tips that may be helpful to the vast majority of spreadsheet users.
 

Businesses exist in order to improve the well-being of others. One approach businesses use for achieving this goal is the concept of people/process/technology. In businesses the element of technology is the responsibility of information technology (IT) departments; information technology is responsible for the acquisition, maintenance, and enhancement of technology. How can information technology improve its ability to acquire, maintain, and enhance technology? An answer is financial planning, thinking about how businesses can accumulate wealth.

Normally, integrating actuals into the planning cycle is not an easy task. Often financial and operating results are spread across multiple databases and actual results and plan detail are at different levels. All of this makes meaningful Performance Evaluation difficult.