adaptive insights cima 2014 survey results

1© 2014 Adaptive Insights | Confidential & Proprietary

T H E G L O B A L L E A D E R I N C L O U D B I & C P M

Adaptive Insights/CIMA 2014 Survey Results


Adaptive Insights 2014

The future of cloud-based budgeting, planning and forecasting

Survey ResultsIn association with CIMA

Jessica Ezeogu29th July 2014


Highlights of Survey Findings

Limited Financial Budgeting and Forecasting AutomationJust 2% of accountants have a fully automated budgeting and forecasting system. Nearly ½ (43%) are not satisfied with the speed and accuracy of the current process.

Significant Need for Improved Management Reporting Circa 40% find difficult to visualise data and want to see better variances against prior periods and plans(40%), and more graphs vs. numbers (20%).

Cost and Operations are Biggest Barriers to AutomationThe major barriers to adopting cloud-based solutions; are ‘financial’ (cost of solutions) and ‘operational’ (integration, staffing and/or skills imitations, and user resistance).

Openness to adopting automated applications A majority of respondents (81%) are open to cloud alternatives to existing systems.

July 2014, an Adaptive Insights survey of the UK & Ireland CIMA audience on financial automation & cloud–based software yielded the following results:


Planning & Reporting Efficiency

Efficient 57%

Inef-fi-

cient 43%

How efficient are your current planning & reporting processes?

Nearly ½ say their current planning and reporting processes are inefficient

43%


Of financial professionals want to see ‘variances against prior periods and planning’ and other ‘non GL metrics’ in monthly reports

Other

Organisational summaries

Graphs and numbers

Non GL metrics (e.g. headcount, market share,

etc.)

Variances against prior periods and planning

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%

High Interest Deeper Variance Analysis

‘Other’ responses (see appendix)

60%


Monthly financial Close Efficiency

Satisifed Unsatisfied0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

How satisfied are you with the speed & effort required to close monthly books?

Almost half are not satisfied with the speed & effort required to close their books each month

44%


3 Days Minimum Spent Creating Reports

Three to five days

One to two days

More than five

days

Less than a day

Other (please specify)

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

How much time do you spend creating monthly financial reports?


Nearly 2/3 of finance professionals spend at least 3 days formulating financial reports

63%


44%

Majority have Difficulty Drilling into Data

Somewhat

easy

Not at a

ll easy

Not sure

Very diffi

cult

Very easy

0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%

How easy is it for you to drill into your data and visualise

it in graphs and charts?

Less than ½ of finance professionals can drill into & visualise data using graphs & charts with ease (“somewhat easy” or “very easy”)


Top 3 Areas of Concern

Reliance on Spreadsheets

Time and Resources Required for FP&A

Inability to Easily Create Reports

1

32


Limited FP&A Automation

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

To what extent have you automated your budgeting and forecasting processes?

2%Have a fully automated FP&A process. More than ½ (55%) still rely primarily on spreadsheets.


Top 5 Obstacles to Automated FP&A

Executive priorities

1

432

5

Staffing and/ or skills limitations

Integration issues

Time and/or effort to implement

Cost of solutions


Majority not Satisfied with Speed & Accuracy

Satisfied 49%

Unsatisfied 51%

How satisfied are you with the speed and accuracy of your

current budgeting and forecast-ing process?

Circa ½ are not satisfied with the speed and accuracy of current budgeting and forecasting processes.

51%


High Interest in Scenario, ‘What-If’ Analysis

Are interested in scenario and ‘what-if’ analysis, or already have such processes in place.

Interested 60%

Not in-terested

15%

Already in place 25%

Please indicate if you already per-form - or are interested in perform-ing - scenario or what-if analysis?

85%


Majority are Reforecasting at Least Quarterly

Other (please specify)

Never

Biannually

Quarterly

Monthly

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 45%

How often do you re-forecast during the year?


82%Re-forecast on a monthly or quarterly basis.


5 Highest Executive Priorities

More informed decision making

Improved management reporting

Better visibility into numbers

Make it easier for managers to submit, approve and reject plans

Integration with other business systems(e.g HR, G/L )

1

432

5


High Interest in Data Visualisation

Interested in easy data visualisation

Somewhat

interested

Very intereste

d

Not very

interested

Not at a

ll intereste

d0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

How interested are you in easily visualising your

data in graphs and charts?

75%


3 Most Common Uses of the Cloud

Sales/Customer Relationship Management

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Human Resources Management

1

32


Accountants Open to Cloud Alternatives

Are open to cloud-based alternatives for existing business systems

Somewhat open

Open Not at all open

Very Open 0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%50%

How open is yourorganisation to cloud al-

ternatives to existing business systems?

81%


Thank You. Be Adaptive!

adaptive insights cima 2014 survey results

Technology

adaptive insights survey

automated budgeting

limited financial budgeting

based budgeting

datain graphs

data visualisation75

easy data visualisation60

financial professionalswant