Three-quarters of Finance and Accounting teams do not have the data and analytics capabilities they need, according to EXL and HFS survey
“Our study finds that data-driven finance has become a top priority as organizations chase post-pandemic growth and profitability, but the path to that transformation is littered with challenges and many finance and accounting leaders still feel they lack the tools, tech and talent they need to thrive in this environment,” said
Following are some of the study’s key findings:
- Data-Driven Finance is the Future: The vast majority of finance and accounting executives (89%) believe that data-driven finance is the future and 87% agree that they will need to invest in artificial intelligence (AI) analytics, cloud and digitally-fluent talent to reach their data-driven finance goals.
- Most Finance Teams Lag on Data Maturity: Just 23% of organizations currently have mature, data-driven finance functions in place today, while 77% report that they are still working on their finance data and analytics gameplan. On average, finance and accounting leaders anticipate a two-year timeline for achieving their data-driven finance goals.
- Empowering Evolution of Finance from Cost Center to Strategic Advisor: The primary drivers behind finance and accounting teams’ push to data-driven finance are identifying growth opportunities to support the business and become a more strategic advisor (25%), driving operational cost reductions (18%) and improving capital allocation (18%).
- Fast-Growing Firms Show the Way: Among fast-growing firms with topline growth rates of more than 15%, 36% have mature, data-driven finance functions and 32% cite the primary driver of their data-driven strategies as the ability to become a strategic advisor to the business. The majority of fast-growing firms (52%) are already proactively 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
The full report, Behind Every Successful Enterprise, There is Data-Driven Finance is based on a survey of 207 finance and accounting executives in the banking, financial services and insurance, retail, consumer-packaged goods, manufacturing, media and communication and pharma/life sciences industry, along with a series of qualitative interviews to supplement survey results. The survey was conducted from January-March of 2022.
For more information on this research and access to the full report, visit here
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About EXL
EXL (NASDAQ: EXLS) is a leading data analytics and digital operations and solutions company that partners with clients to improve business outcomes and unlock growth. By bringing together deep domain expertise with robust data, powerful analytics, cloud, artificial intelligence (“AI”) and machine learning (“ML”), we create agile, scalable solutions and execute complex operations for the world’s leading corporations in industries including insurance, healthcare, banking and financial services, media, and retail, among others. Focused on driving faster decision-making and transforming operating models, EXL was founded on the core values of innovation, collaboration, excellence, integrity and respect. Headquartered in
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