Business Chief USA August 2020

like insurance and investment. The
power of data analytics to harness
and draw insights from vast pools of
data (that would simply not be feasible
for humans to manually evaluate) is
a game changer for the industry.
However, the game hasn’t been
changed yet. A report released earlier
this year by FSN, a mere 14% of financial
organisations are successfully harnessing
the large volumes of transaction data
they accumulate. These organisations
are either laden down by too much data,
constrained in accessing their data,
or hindered by the technology they are
using to analyse the data. The stakes
are high, as well; Gartner estimates
that each incorrect decision regarding
finance analytics can cost a business as
much as 1% of its revenue, a figure that
can mount dramatically over the course
of an unsuccessful transformation.
“CFOs must ask what technologies
will enable finance to deliver on-demand
reporting, how should data be governed
as reporting expands to integrate
financial and nonfinancial data,
and what skills finance will need to
deliver insight in an on-demand reporting
environment,” commented Craig
Wilton, Senior Director, Advisory,
Gartner. “Finance must balance the
need for accuracy with the need to
make a huge volume of data available
for decision-making, which is a new
muscle for many finance teams.”
99
businesschief.com