The business world is changing rapidly, with market conditions, technology and customer behaviour in a state of constant flux. Companies must be prepared to respond to sudden changes and pivot in unexpected directions – which also means recognising that our current business models may no longer be fit for purpose. In today’s business environment, the ability to extract insights from datasets and feed these insights into the strategic business planning process is crucial to ensure that your company remains competitive.
Conventional financial reporting techniques are becoming obsolete, with more sophisticated financial analysis tools and data-driven business models taking their place. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) has permeated all aspects of business, including financial analysis. Indeed a recent global survey of CFOs revealed that 68% were currently using AI for at least one activity, with 92% expecting to do so within two years.
Businesses today rarely have a problem with obtaining data: on the contrary, the amount of data we produce and store has increased exponentially – and the tools for capturing and storing it are now widely available. Big Data analytics and AI are now within the reach of smaller businesses, but simply analysing everything in the hope of gaining actionable insights isn’t an effective business strategy.
So what are the top challenges for financial reporting and analysis in companies today?
Aligning data strategy with business strategy. Do you have a clear strategy of what your company hopes to gain from the reporting process, its core business drivers, the decisions made and the strategic measures taken? What are you trying to achieve – improving your products and services, enhancing the customer experience, streamlining your core business activities? Addressing these questions is crucial for identifying the type of reports and analytics that you need, and ultimately for transforming your business model.
Getting a comprehensive overview of your business. Financial analysis and reporting are crucial for gleaning information on all aspects of your company’s financial activities and giving both internal and external stakeholders an accurate picture of the strategic and operational metrics they need to make informed decisions. Linking the operational models of all business areas through key business indicators will not only give you an interconnected view of the business, but also provide greater reliability in performance analysis and forecasting.
Investing in the right resources. How do you know you are investing in the resources that will enable the company to achieve its business goals? Identifying and accurately measuring the internal and external capabilities you need to acquire is crucial – but so is investing in your employees, providing analytics skills and training at all levels and integrating tech staff into multidisciplinary teams. While there may not be an immediately visible ROI, this type of mindset promotes an “analytics culture” throughout the organisation and shows that the finance function is in a position to lead your company’s digital transformation.
To address these challenges, NTT DATA’s sophisticated financial analysis tools and accurate predictive models are designed to help you in several ways:
In the digital era, companies need to present data in a way that is meaningful to stakeholders and customers, provides a compelling case and is targeted to business needs. Data must tell stories and provide actionable insights that drive business decisions. NTT DATA’s Decision Architecture methodology enables you to unlock opportunities hidden in your data and find new ways to drive value.
Our innovative approach helps you not only to obtain more reliable and accurate results, but also to identify the metrics that inform the actions you can take to achieve your desired outcome. This means you can go beyond simply reporting on what has already happened: NTT DATA’s framework gives you proactive, prescriptive analytics to help you make informed decisions and spot trends that might otherwise have been missed under traditional models where data may be siloed.
A multinational financial services company had more than 20 operating units with data in disparate systems, making data analysis difficult and time-consuming. This was a particular problem for the legal department, and it also slowed down the company’s sales cycle.
The company wanted an organisation-wide overhaul of its data management, as well as the ability to seamlessly combine its proprietary data with third-party data sources. NTT DATA’s Data and Artificial Intelligence team created a unified data strategy that made data usable, accessible and shareable across the organisation, enabling business leaders and sales professionals to speed up and improve the decision-making process.
The outcomes from the creation of a harmonised data environment were as follows:
Learn more about NTT DATA’s decision-driven solutions and find out what our Data and Artificial Intelligence Team and ask for more information