At the beginning of December, FP&A Trends conducted a very interesting webinar.

The topic was “FP&A 2030: Key Skills and Capabilities for the Next Decade”. Very important points were discussed – analytical, architectural, collaborative and soft skills are becoming just as essential as finance having natural knowledge of reporting and accounting rules. Indeed, for FP&A and, more widely, Extended Planning and Analysis ( xP&A), the presentation and productive information exchanges are crucial factors.

At the same time, we are seeing one other competence develop in the finance toolset. The standard of technology we see today is growing, which leads to a proportionate growth in the level of knowledge that is required to work with it. While the modern software is much more user friendly and intuitive than it used to be just a few years ago, overall complexity, dependencies and volumes of information require fundamentally different approaches when working with the data compared to the past.

Finance analysts and business partners can and should uplift their role in the data exchange to keep up with the modern technology requirements. At the same time, this will bring a lot of benefits to their day job, optimise a workflow, and improve efficiency.

However, this shift in expertise is only possible up to a certain degree. At the end of the day, FP&A isn’t a technical department. Its role is to develop the operating and financial plan and help the organisation to achieve set goals. It is therefore very important to receive technical support and advice from qualified professionals. This support will be much more helpful if it considers finance and planning specifics. In other words, the technology specialist should be a part of Finance or, even better, the Planning department itself. This role can be called a “Finance Technology Officer” or FTO.

There is no need for the FTO to compete with the IT or Technology services in the company. These departments are responsible for informational strategies, technology platforms and the security of company systems. They manage and support technology solutions. There are two areas, however, which may present a challenge to successful cooperation between Finance and IT – resource availability and a difference in “languages”. Technology departments deal with the processes of an entire company. The wide range of tasks leads to a shallow level of knowledge in business aspects. Finding and educating a specialist who will understand both sides and act in the best interest of FP&A is an effort in which IT will not invest.

What would the person in the role of FTO be responsible for? 

The first and main duty is to ensure that existing systems and data flows are working in the best way possible. Finance analysts and business partners should spend their time creating a business value and not fixing their tools. The FTO will be a focal point for new implementations, transformation programs and technology upgrades. His role includes collecting and submitting business requirements to the technology team and then coordinating and controlling system testing and acceptance. His technical expertise will be used during solution design, architecture and data flow to ensure maximum performance and usability of implemented programs. 

Whilst working with IT and Technology services to protect and promote FP&A interests, the technology officer must ensure balance by keeping requests reasonable and achievable. 

To provide the right level of support and service, this role will require a mix of skills that cover three areas. The first of them is a knowledge of finance processes. A good understanding of information for financial planning, the systems producing it, data availability and formats create a basis for finance technology. This insight is combined with experience in technical aspects such as the architecture and topology of enterprise information systems, how they work, develop and support. The key elements of effective planning and the use of resources are the ability to assess what is technically possible in the systems, where the risks and bottlenecks of used solutions are created. And to complete the picture, project management and coordination skills are essential. The FTO will represent his department during plan building and review, risk control and resource planning activities. Communication and collaborative work expertise have an important value in these activities.

Summary

In conclusion, I want to summarise the benefits which the Finance Technology Officer role will bring for the FP&A department.

• An increased speed of performing technical tasks (such as fixes, developments and changes) allows more time for finance analysts to focus on their direct function;
• A single point of contact for technical questions and issues is a massive time-saver, which also helps to improve the efficiency and level of satisfaction from the work of finance analysts;
• Available and knowledgeable specialist to represent FP&A on technical forums, making decisions and control a progress of work performed will promote and protect department’s interests;
• Realistic information and status can be provided to finance stakeholders to ensure the plans and decisions they take are effective;
• New opportunities, technologies and ideas can be considered and implemented so the financial services are using the best available solutions and are working in a most efficient way.

Introducing this function of technical expertise as a part of the finance department will not just improve efficiency and save time but will also primarily create a more comfortable and productive working environment for the whole team.