While finance and accounting teams have big dreams for how data-driven decision making can boost their company, many have yet to fully implement a strategy to do so.
This is according to a
At the same time, however, many concede they haven't gotten there yet. The report said that 77% are still working on their finance data and analytics strategy, with an average anticipated timeline of two years for achieving their goals. Once these goals are completed, 25% expect they will be able to become more strategic advisors, 18% say they will get lower costs on operational expenses, and another 18% said they will improve capital allocation.
Only about 23% of organizations have a mature, data-driven finance function in place right now, though the rate is higher, 36%, among fast-growing companies with topline growth rates of more than 15%. More than half of these companies, 52%, are already developing centralized centers of excellence for better management of data and analytics. By contrast, just 23% of mid- and slow-moving firms have started to develop centers of excellence for data-driven finance.
"Against the current backdrop of economic and geopolitical volatility, technological disruption and sweeping changes in consumer behavior, the finance and accounting function has become a critical source of intelligence for guiding corporate strategy," said Narasimha Kini, an executive vice president and business head of EXL's emerging business unit, in a statement. "To unlock that intelligence, however, finance and accounting teams need sophisticated data and analytics capabilities that give them real-time insights and the ability to forecast across multiple different scenarios. Clearly, many pioneering firms are cracking that code with highly evolved data-driven finance functions, but many still have a very long way to go."
