The modern finance department is embracing change by delivering business insights that reach every part of the organisation. That’s the view of Gregory Pollard, Enterprise Management Account Director at Sage.
Speaking to Computer Business Review, Pollard compared the conventional view of finance with the expectations of today: “Historically the finance team spent its time in three key areas: statutory reporting, month-end reporting and data gathering,” he said. “Today businesses require a lot more from their finance teams – namely business insight rather than typical data gathering.”
You can watch the full video, recorded in association with Sage, below.
One practical way this approach is taking effect is in increasing operational efficiency. According to Pollard, the finance team had to leverage data gathering and become business advisers.
The role of technology, he added, is to help meet the challenges of supply chain, warehousing and financials: “Finance teams look where the highest ROI [return on investment] is,” he said They then stick to a very tight project scope, demonstrate value to the board before taking those lessons out to other areas of the business.”
Spotting issues before they become major problems is another big part of the finance role, made possible by the transition from static reporting to trend analysis and, today, predictive analytics augmented by artificial intelligence: “It’s about helping understand the business issues of tomorrow that are minor today.”
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