Ventana Research: Five Ingredients for Finance Transformation
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spreadsheets in enterprise accounting processes. Our Spreadsheets in the
Enterprise benchmark research finds that 35 percent of participants encountered
errors in data and 19 percent found errors in formulas in the most important
spreadsheet that they use in their jobs.
5. Demonstrate Value
Finance executives should select an initial project, one that provides strategic
value and demonstrates the department's commitment to be more of a business
enabler. One option to consider is improving the budgeting process by making it
easier for the budget owner. People in finance roles naturally think in terms of
money while people in line-of-business roles think in terms of "things" —
headcount, units of materials purchased or marketing leads required to close one
sale. A dedicated budgeting application that allows budget owners to plan things
and, with the help of software, translate things into money makes budgeting
easier.
Technology advances have the potential to turn the longstanding objective to
transform the finance department into reality, but only if finance executives
address the people, process and data issues that also prevent departments from
enhancing their effectiveness. The right software, however, is the linchpin. It is
the catalyst to giving departments the ability to devote more time to high-value
work, enabling more flexible and agile operations while providing more strategic
guidance to support more informed decision-making.
