Organizations are generating more data than ever – Discover why Excel can’t keep up with process-based financial software
Data management considerations have never been higher for the Office of the CFO, they face ongoing data issues as trends show that organizations are generating more data than ever.
Those still relying on legacy systems such as Excel spreadsheets, and on-premises computing power, could struggle to satisfy the growing need for a cross-functional response to data management to resolve issues caused by fragmented data.
Yet - What if there was a better way to handle finance data, a way that simplifies your finance workflows and empowers you to make faster and smarter decisions?
We will explore the growing need for succinct financial data management and explore how Unit4 FP&A and/or Financials by Coda could be the Cloud solution that frees you from the maze of finance tools and gives you a single source of truth for your finance data.
Why organizations are dealing with more data now more than ever
The modern enterprise has more data to deal with than ever before and this presents an issue for those stuck with outdated tools.
One pressing example is the increasing compliance around environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting, which itself requires a smart FP&A process for success. From January 2024 many organizations will be pressed for historic and future ESG reports and this will have a large effect on how investors and partners view an organization.
Even something as simple as compensation plans can require personalization that requires a cross-functional response from FP&A and HR teams, this is troublesome when data is siloed, and manual processes are an organization's only tool.
Most modern working environments are also now remote and often global, this means an employee comes with a large amount of data considerations that require integrated data.
A single team can be comprised of employees from multiple locations being subject to their regional employment law, tax considerations, and unique currencies for compensation.
These are but a few data considerations for a modern enterprise, and these organizations need to have a strategic plan to deal with today’s data considerations as well as tomorrow’s.
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The need for process-based software
It’s clear that those organizations still relying on legacy systems like Excel spreadsheets will, and do, struggle with data consolidation and integration.
Excel is not a process-based tool, it is error-prone, and often requires lots of manual input, long data consolidation times, and inefficient data handling. That’s not to mention the number of security vulnerabilities present in Excel, that are only exacerbated by the increased data load of a modern enterprise.
Managing your financial data is a huge responsibility that will always fall on the Office of the CFO. Ensuring compliance, succinct reporting to stakeholders, providing accurate and timely reports to other departments and executives, and managing the FTE hours required to satisfy this is a lot for a legacy system to handle.
On the other hand, process-based software can create unique processes to help deal with each unique responsibility that falls on a CFO. By having a unique process for each data responsibility, such as ESG reporting, these processes can be optimized, analyzed, and automated.
The power of AI automation for data consolidation shouldn’t be understated. Finance teams can save large amounts of time by allowing AI to automate manual processes like data entry. This allows finance teams to use this time for more fruitful activities like data analysis and forecasting that can build resilience.
McKinsey reports the effectiveness of process-based digital capabilities: "CFOs who say their finance function has succeeded at strengthening their organizations’ resilience in the past year are 4.3 times more likely than other CFOs to report spending most of their time supporting digital capabilities and advanced analytics in that time frame."
Why Unit4 Financial by Coda and ERP is the process-based tool for you
Unit4 FP&A and Financials by Coda are Cloud-based solutions that integrate seamlessly with your existing finance tools and systems.
Our process-based ERP enables you to automate and streamline your finance workflows, from data collection, management, and consolidation, to reporting and forecasting. They provide you with near real-time, reliable, and relevant financial insights that help you drive performance improvement and business growth.
This includes processes for forecasting, reporting, and data analysis itself, with dashboards and advanced reporting capabilities, allowing the Office of the CFO to manage their data load optimally, and move from simply managing data loads to using them strategically to align with corporate goals.
Moreover, our product has low and no code options where finance professionals can create processes themselves without any major coding knowledge, via our App Studio. This means that no matter what data responsibilities come in the future, your organization can adapt thanks to our extensible software.
Additionally, our Community4U allows our partners and customers can discuss, share, and troubleshoot our existing processes and applications. This creates a skill-sharing environment where processes can easily be optimized, allowing you to get the most from your product.
By consolidating your data management in our process-based ERP suite the processes that require collaboration and stakeholder input can benefit from the devolved, remote, or self-service access the Cloud enables.
With Unit4 FP&A and Financials by Coda, you can:
- Connect and unify all your finance data sources in one place
- Eliminate manual tasks and errors with smarter data transformation, transparency, and validation
- Create dynamic reports and dashboards that show the most important metrics and KPIs
- Perform advanced analysis and scenario planning with powerful modeling and simulation capabilities
- Collaborate and communicate effectively with your stakeholders using interactive visualizations and annotations
- Leverage best practices and industry standards with pre-built templates and frameworks
If you want to learn more about how Unit4 FP&A and Financials by Coda can help you simplify your finance workflows and improve your organizational performance, contact us today for a free demo!
