The Making of an Agile Enterprise: Utilizing Business Intelligence Effectively in Finance

Venkat Balaji February 4, 2015

In an economically demanding environment, organizations need to be more efficient in the

use of information, and think smarter to run the business. CFOs play a crucial role in

leveraging ‘Business Intelligence’ (BI) to enable them to forecast accurately, and tone down

the impact of any adverse trends or instances.

BI today has matured from regular reporting and dashboards to a broader capability that

allows organizations to capitalize on the information, and draw insights to respond to

changing market conditions. Today ‘agile enterprises’ adopt a strategic approach to data

that requires them to apply suitable filters, and extract actionable value from financial and

operational data. Here are some ways to ensure successful implementation of a BI project:

Support of a Strong Sponsor: While there are different viewpoints on who makes for

an ideal sponsor of a BI project, in our opinion, the CFO is best equipped to do this.

CFOs enjoy unrivalled visibility in terms of the organization’s purse and pulse, and also

have an overall understanding of the business environment. The sponsor should be

empowered with the authority to take decisions, as long as they are in the interest of

the project. In addition, the sponsor should have the necessary budgets and flexibility,

along with complete freedom and ownership in order to execute the project. In return,

the sponsor should be completely accountable for the business outcomes at the end of

the BI project.

Proper Due Diligence: Thorough due diligence before the start of the BI project

provides insights into all the touch points to draw up the status quo effectively. It also

helps draft the blueprint for planning and implementing an effective BI solution and

approach. The findings of the due diligence process should form the business case that

outlines the financial impact of the BI project.

Comprehensive Planning and Governance: It is critical to put in place guidelines to

avert pitfalls that could impact costs, timelines, and efforts. This calls for an alignment

between both internal and external stakeholders. The plan should be granular, and

detail owners, tasks, and timelines clearly to enable intervention and action against

deviations.

Functional Expertise: The project team must include the right functional expertise

from the start. This team member must have a clear understanding of customer

expectations, and the organization’s business goals and vision.

Alignment with Financial Objectives: Every BI project should be aligned with the

organization’s financial goals. Systematic processes must be put in place to measure its financial benefits, and impact on the organization’s revenues and profitability.

Further, technology changes have greatly impacted how BI systems have been used over

the years. Enterprises are beginning to adopt technologies that can help them be agile, and

provide real-time alerts and virtual access to data:

Mobility-based business intelligence is no longer a luxury but a must-have for the

global CXO. Any business intelligence or analytics solution should be mobility enabled

for anytime, anywhere access.

Cloud-based BI is rapidly gaining ground since it enables global gathering of as well as

access to data. Organizations are moving their data and critical applications to the

cloud, or accessing it as a separate offering in itself – by having the BI suites run

efficiently on the cloud.

Big Data has emerged as an increasingly relevant platform due to increasing

connectivity and the resulting generation of huge volumes of data. Enterprises need to be able to not only handle these large volumes but also analyse them in real time.

A matured Business Intelligence solution is therefore a judicious alignment of people,

processes, and technologies with the organization’s strategic long-term vision. It is

imperative to support the finance team with the tools needed to formulate real-time

decisions that advance the interests of the enterprise and its stakeholders.

For additional information, read our White Paper ‘The Making of an Agile Enterprise: Utilizing

Business Intelligence Effectively in Finance’.

How does your organization leverage Business Intelligence to be agile?

About the Author

Balaji has over 18 years of experience across global markets, including Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, North America, and Latin America with domain expertise in Finance and Accounting. He has handled a wide range of responsibilities, including financial planning and analysis, service delivery, transitions, and project management. He has been a part of global finance transformation and re-engineering projects over their lifecycles – from due diligence and feasibility to implementation and performance optimization. He has helped clients by developing solutions specific to their business objectives and needs.