Aligning with Planning & Analysis Transformation: Process Changes

The Buzz 1: “Tasked with guiding the growth of companies, building digital organizations, and transforming the finance function, CFOs must first identify their objectives and then decide whether they will lead with people, process, or performance.” (HBR Executive Brief: The CFO Agenda: Transforming the Finance Function) The Buzz 2: “CFOs say that their time on transformations would be best spent on role-modeling new mindsets and behaviors, setting high-level goals, and communicating the transformation’s results—when, in practice, they are most often charged with traditional finance-oriented responsibilities.” (McKinsey: Mastering change: The new CFO mandate) The Buzz 3: “Behavioral competencies are key to the business partnership role—a ‘seat at the table’ must be earned. A CFO needs to be a visible leader in the business, an excellent communicator, and an influencer.” (Paul Ainsworth – www.toptal.com/) Modern Planning & Analysis transformation offers many benefits to the organizations that embrace it. Top-line benefits include extending planning across business units and LOB’s, connecting real time with ERP, and adopting predictive planning as a standard part of the process. Good news: Powerful technology is available to help planners and the office of the CFO change processes to meet their enterprise-wide goals. Sounds great, just do it! But is technology the best, most effective way to begin? Reality check: Adopting a modern extended planning and analysis process goes beyond merely adopting and adapting new technology. It needs to include – and begin with – a significant process transformation led by Finance. We’ll ask Pras Chatterjee at SAP, Brian Kalish at Kalish Consulting and David Dixon at IBM for their take on Aligning with Planning & Analysis Transformation: Process Changes.