As the year-end looms, CFOs in corner offices around the globe are poring over 2017 budget proposals, allocating resources and approving 12-month plans based on data they know will be out of date even before the Christmas trees have been recycled. This might suffice for another year or two, but nimble disruptors are appearing in every sector, … Continued
At FSN The Modern Finance Forum we ‘practice what we preach’. As you may know, our “Future of the Finance Function Research” released in the summer found that 52% of CFOs consider that they spend too much time on transaction processing and 42% spend too much time on management accounting. So, I wanted to share with … 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
CFOs must first examine themselves to see if they have the right skills to take the finance function into a more strategic future, and then ensure that the rest of the finance team can support and drive this new direction. The finance function is in a state of flux. Technology is having a profound impact … 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
Women are good for business. There should be more of them in finance leadership positions, but the solution isn’t merely to hire a few more female CFOs. It requires a well-considered, long-term strategy, otherwise companies could face expensive legislation to tackle the gender imbalance. At one extreme lies the quota system. It works fast but … Continued
The role of technology in job destruction and creation has been a source of heated debate since the industrial revolution. Whether it is farm machinery, telecommunications or transport, rapid changes in technology have transformed economic development – on the one hand displacing outmoded ways of working and yet on the other spawning entirely new industries … Continued
WHAT SHOULD DIGITAL CFOs DO? The digital economy is pervasive. There isn’t a single industry sector or business that isn’t affected, directly or indirectly, by the impact of digital technologies such as the cloud, mobile, big data and social. But with such profound changes underfoot CFOs can no longer brush digital change and innovation under … Continued
A central tenet of the Modern Finance agenda is the crucial importance of process automation and standardisation. And it’s not surprising because if you look at any medium to large business you will find multiple instances of different vendors’ budgeting, consolidation, ERP and CRM systems. And you don’t have to take my word for it. … Continued