From the article written by APQC, “Analytics has become an essential competency for today’s finance teams. This development derives from the convergence of two trends. The first is that finance is increasingly asked to contribute to strategic planning and execution. The second is that data has become integral to decision making across functions and at all levels of the organization. If CFOs want to make a meaningful contribution to the organization’s strategic direction, the expectation is that they will do so with data-based insights.
Financial analytics is the process of searching for and gathering meaningful insights from financial data, often in combination with other business data, to inform decision making.
APQC’s 2020 Financial Management Priorities research found that finance analytics is both a top priority and a top challenge for the function this year. The driver of prioritization is clear: Analytics offers tangible bottom-line benefits, as McKinsey and others have repeatedly shown. Finance analytics can positively impact a range of business outcomes including risk mitigation, improved customer satisfaction, and cost savings.
“I don’t think there should be a singular owner of analytics in an organization. Every function should have analytics capabilities—it shouldn’t be something coming out of finance or a center of excellence alone…Finance might be the function to link it all together, but it needs to be much more of a joint system now.
—Scott Wallace
Director of Transformation Services,
eCapital Advisors”
