For more than a decade businesses have been talking enthusiastically about the need to put the customer at the centre of what they do. But subtle changes in the digital economy, particularly the shift from selling goods to selling ‘Everything-as-a-Service’ is profoundly changing business models, organisational models and information systems. It’s a transformation for which many … Continued
Modern finance should be automating for insight as well as productivity. The ability to do this is within our gift but many finance professionals fail to deliver on the promise because they have not joined up their ‘front office’ (customer-facing systems) and their core financial systems in the back office. Front-to-back office integration really matters … Continued
The requirements of a modern CFO are as wide as they are deep. Constrained by financial governance, limited by ageing technology, swamped by demands to broaden their financial stewardship into business partnering, technology and strategy, CFOs can’t do it all. At least, not all at once. Time is the crucial factor holding CFOs back. Despite … Continued
More than two decades after ERP systems first appeared in the business landscape more than half of all CFOs say that they spend too much time on transaction processing. That was one of the startling conclusions from FSN’s research “The Future of the Finance Function Survey 2016” conducted among the 46,000 members of the FSN … Continued
Innovation on the ‘inside’ The notion that innovation has to be glamorous and ground-breaking is seriously misplaced – recent research shows that looking after core financial processes on the ‘inside’ of the organisation adds far more to the bottom line over the medium term than the latest customer-facing gimmicks. A 2014 study by McKinsey highlights … Continued
The Billon Dollar Startup Club is a collaboration between The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones VentureSource which tracks venture-backed private companies valued at $1 billion or more. The club follows some of the most rapidly growing and valuable businesses on the planet. You will see some very familiar names on there but the ‘engine of growth’ underpinning all of … Continued