This is the second of a series of LinkedIn posts where Stampa & Partners answers the question: “How CFOs can use tools to achieve goals and overcome challenges?”

Data is essential for the decision-making process, whether to identify the drivers of revenue, the trend of sales, the effectiveness of a marketing campaign or the usage of machinery.

There are two features of data that stand out from others nowadays: the accuracy and quality of the data being used, and the ability to process and analyse data as effective and smartly as possible, to fully take advantage of it.

New technology enabled the use of real-time data and advance analytics to support CFOs in the smart use of this information, to make faster, more accurate and intelligent decisions that improves the effectiveness of these decisions in the accomplishment of corporate goals and risk mitigation. Therefore, embracing these new solutions is an opportunity that cannot be missed for CFOs.

While previous, commonly used applications required finance users to import data from the ERP systems to be used for planning and analytics, SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) offers live data connection to SAP and data import connectivity, to both cloud and on-premise applications (SAP and third party). The query is executed directly in the back-end system and changes are immediately updated. This ensures CFOs they are using the latest available data, improving the quality and accuracy of analysis.

Furthermore, the ability to filter what is relevant and what is not; to access pertinent, updated information in only a few steps, and; the use of smart capabilities to establish correlations between sets of data automatically are key features offered by SAC.

SAC is a cloud SaaS solution, built on the SAP HANA that unifies BI, planning and predictive analytics. CFOs and finance managers can discover, analyse, predict, plan and visualise data in one and the same application. AI-driven insights are delivered out of the box and allow users to make confident business decisions faster. With SAC users no longer need to switch between applications to perform planning and analysis which reduces administrative and training cost.

Please stay connected to access next week’s second of four challenges identified in current CFOs Agenda → “Influence the effectiveness and monitoring of strategic goal”.

We at Stampa & Partners have an extensive track record working with CFOs and supporting organisations in Europe successfully digitalise finance functions, leverage analytics and ensure compliance with new accounting standards. Therefore, we can advise your business with the best solutions to fulfill your goals.

By André Almeida