Video: Paul Venables on the year 2018

Paul Venables, CFO of Hays, expands upon his expectations for 2018 and the impact of technology.

FSN Report: The Future of Planning, Budgeting and Forecasting

Planning, budgeting and forecasting (PBF) is one of the only corners of finance where the future is as important as the present, and it plays a crucial role in underpinning the outlook and direction of the business. As the entire finance function goes through a seismic evolution, the planning, budgeting and forecasting role is also in a state of flux. The changes within PBF are evident. Technology has enabled more stakeholders to participate in the process, advanced software has expanded the complexity and scope of forecasts, and finance professionals are rebalancing their skills as the requirements of their job changes before them. But the PBF journey is only just beginning. This survey identified several instances where the function has not reached its potential to contribute fully to the future of the business. For example, the benefits of non-financial data have been widely overlooked, dedicated FP&A capability is still in its infancy, cloud deployment has been patchy and larger more complex models are not necessarily delivering commensurately more benefit. [marketo_form id=3451 prefill=1] Thank you! We have just sent you an email with the link to your report. [/marketo_form]

The Customer Obsessed Finance Leader

Although we’re already deeply embedded in the age of the customer, the pace of technologic advancement and customer empowerment continues to disrupt today’s business models. Throughout it all, there has been one constant: The key to competitive survival is data and insights-driven customer obsession. As the strategic steward of business outcomes, the CFO has a considerable stake in his or her organization’s customer obsession efforts. Given the strong link between customer strategy and business results, it’s critical for CFOs to take an active role in leading their organizations from customer focused to customer obsessed. In February 2017, Dun & Bradstreet commissioned Forrester Consulting to evaluate how enterprises are leveraging data and analytics to drive decisions and strategy in pursuit of customer obsession and the role the CFO plays in achieving that goal. Forrester conducted an online survey of 250 finance executives at organizations with $150 million or more in revenue to explore this topic. The study revealed distinct data strategy differences between the firms that merely have good customer experience intentions and those that translate customer strategies into favourable business results. KEY FINDINGS:

• CFOs have an important role to play in the pursuit of data-driven customer obsession.
• CFOs need a new data-driven operating model to overcome
• Customer obsession requires mastery of seven key data maturity and competency factors
• An investment in data allows for actionable insights