CFO must be digital – financial and economic

                                     

As a CFO can be a terribly frightened, one considers the rapid digitization of the economy in mind – or you see them as an opportunity. Velocity, variety and volume of data growing relentlessly. “Curse and a blessing for CFOs”, it brings EY in a study to the point. Deloitte advisor Markus Koch sees CFOs in the innovation requirement and gives the example of Starbucks: “Their finance department came up with the idea to simplify the payment process for customers through prepaid cards. This sounds perhaps trivial, but the effect was $ 2 billion more cash in the till. “

The aim of a Chief Financial Officer (CFO) must be to take advantage of the growing amount of data so that both a are better reporting and better predictions about, says Ulrich Amberg, head of consulting at KPMG Switzerland, talks to FuW. The role of the CFO is changing radically, digitization always play more in their profile in if his appraisal.

model social networks

Alexander Vocelka, Partner and Head Steering Lab in advising Horváth & amp; Partners, is convinced, the Chief Financial Officer will be the main driver of digitalisation in business and at the same time their main users. The CFO think holistically and not functional, is his justification. For this, the CFO must ensure that its instruments can keep pace with the development. Vocelka occurring in Basel also at SAP Forum 2016, advises CFOs to provide the course today to be properly positioned in five or ten years.

So far would the possibilities of data analysis of CFOs only used a small percentage, reported Markus Koch, partner and Head of Manufacturing innovation of Deloitte Switzerland. “Schier endless slumber data to himself, to do but often only the most necessary for the statutory financial statements,” says the Deloitte consultants. However, the transaction data would offer much more, and this is an opportunity for the CFO, even more to think strategically and to gain internally BusinessPartner influence. “That’s in most Swiss companies still in its infancy,” says Koch.

Alessandro Miolo, Director Assurance EY Switzerland, reported that initiatives were often rather anecdotal, it lacked partly a broad-based strategy. Many CFO put too little on an effective combination of data

In practice, actually everything does not seem to go so fast. Thomas Scherr, CFO of SAP (Switzerland), may look great interest of Swiss CFOs the possibilities and the company wanted to “get involved front”. to Consider, however, the investment in new technologies in the past year, is the neighboring countries of Switzerland ahead of a big step.

In the long run, the hesitation may retaliate. The process of digitization has the potential to make the business model of a company and whose value streams in question. Companies should begin digitizing «retail» and promote the process further. Scherr advises CFOs to actively address the issue and to challenge the management.

Following the example of social networks, companies need to connect internally says Horváth consultant Vocelka. It is not enough in his estimation, to process data from a one-dimensional function, but would need a lot of variables from different perspectives are valued, be it from the distribution, the purchase or development. Markus Koch Deloitte has accordingly indicated that innovation does not only concern products but also entire business models and processes.

So far, mostly static systems are in the company have been built, with aggregate, backward figures. According to Ulrich Amberg at KPMG Switzerland helps but little, about to learn about customer needs and trends, and to anticipate developments.

“Renaissance of the bazaar”

“What it has long been in theory already exists, can now increasingly be implemented using technology such as in-memory databases,” says Amberg. Analyzes of data sets are much more meaningful, because even very large, very heterogeneous data could be evaluated, and everything happens much more agile, in real time. “In the past it has often taken weeks or months to program a new report, only to realize that you may not use it,” says Amberg. Now be real-time analysis possible in practice. The executives can thanks to interactive dashboards work with live data

Vocelka predicts that management decisions are increasingly being specified by data. “Where now rotated for example locally at the sales, it is decided centrally in future, to based on data from the IT system. “the company can always quickly identify what the customer wants, and customize products or services. They can be provided in real time with optimal, individual prices, which then change dynamically over time. The passing already in the airline industry, but even in the retail sector thanks to electronic price tags and will cover all sectors, Vocelka expected: “Big Data and digitization allow highly flexible and individual pricing and thus to a certain extent also the renaissance of the bazaar.”

CFOs need their roles revise the central task of CFO is an overview of the financial situation of the company available deliver. With digitalization rising claims, as regards the pace and quality of the data. Stakeholders are the management addition among other auditors, lenders and investors. In addition, the CFO must develop strategies to optimize the processes and plan the use of financial resources. This is about supplier and customer relationships, the product and service portfolio as well as production and innovation processes.

Many CFOs stuck in this country according to Alessandro Miolo of EY Switzerland nor in a traditional role perception. “They focus on budgeting, forecasting, and the compilation of the historical financial information, but would have to be much stronger than strategic driver of innovation processes position,” says Miolo. Who pay enough attention to the digitization, is successful, EY concludes from a survey of 652 CFOs worldwide: Almost half of those who give the issue high priority, have increased the Ebitda in three years more than 10%. Of the rest, the only managed one-third.

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) use has not by far the opportunities of digitization. Only 53% stated in the EY-study, to make a significant contribution to the question of where and how digitalization in the company can create value. Bitter needed is better coordination between the IT and financial strategy: Only 55% said CFO and the Chief Information Officer (CIO) are completely or matched essentially. Although CFO actually be the main users of data, say, only half, a significant or very significant contribution to improving the IT strategy, IT architecture and processes afford to.

Digitisation is also at the SAP Forum of 8/9. March Basel topic. “Finanz und Wirtschaft” is the media.