Highlights from the latest study by CFO Research and SAP
Leading-edge financial planning systems promise to resolve many of the technical information gaps that have plagued many enterprises. At the same time, finance leaders recognize their own responsibility to gain the maximum value from the robust, real-time analysis these systems can deliver as managers put it to use across the enterprise.
CFO Research conducted a global study sponsored by SAP and surveyed senior finance executives to gain a better understanding of how leading-edge financial planning and business analysis capabilities can support effective decision making. Finance executives from the Asia/Pacific region (including India and Australia) recognize the need to improve their teams’ contributions to high-value FP&A activities will become increasingly urgent in the coming years. The good news is they appear to feel they have the tools and resources they’ll need in order to fulfill that promise.
In the survey, practically all of the finance executives from the Asia/Pacific region (95%) agree that over the next two years, the demand on the finance function to supply highly responsive, interactive, and flexible business analysis to decision-makers is likely to increase. Nearly as many expected the demand for ad-hoc decision support and analysis to increase (90%), and improving the ability to conduct highly sophisticated, predictive business analysis (e.g., scenario planning, “what-if” analysis, risk modeling) would yield substantial, measurable financial benefit to their company (92%).
These finance executives believe they are up to the task, however. More than half (53%) of the respondents from the region give the highest marks to their IT systems for financial planning, saying they believe their systems make a substantial contribution to their ability to support decision making. Respondents from Europe and North America, in particular, are much less likely to place themselves in this top tier.
With 95% of respondents from the Asia/Pacific region also agreeing that pressure is increasing on the finance function to improve its contribution to high-value planning, analysis, and decision-support, these executives appear to be better-positioned than most to meet those expectations.
Read the full report here:
About This Study
In May 2015, CFO Research, in collaboration with SAP, conducted a global survey of senior finance executives to gain a better understanding of how leading-edge financial planning and business analysis capabilities can support effective decision making. We collected 335 responses from large companies with at least US$500 million in revenues, representing a broad range of industries. We received 20% of our total responses from North America (U.S. and Canada), 25% from Latin America (Mexico, Central America, and South America), 24% from the Asia/Pacific region (including India and Australia), and 30% from Europe.
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