Data is flowing across your company and presents a massive opportunity for your company. However, if not structured into information and analyzed for developing insights you will miss this opportunity. Decisions will be less data-driven and you are almost guaranteed to create less value. We are not just talking about financial data but even more so non-financial data. Why? Because non-financial data is the leading indicator for financial data. Hence, more useful for decision-making.
Too often the ownership of data is spread across many departments and is stored in multiple systems. Rarely is it interconnected leaving it getting analyzed in silos providing each department with only parts of the puzzle. There can be no doubt about that this leads to sub-optimal decision-making and must be changed.
The solution? Make Finance the master of all data in your company and put Finance in charge of analysis across the full value chain. Sounds radical? It is not and it will free up time for other functions to do what they do best. Let us explore further what it would take to make it happen and address some of the challenges.
The power of connected data
To understand what it would look like we need look no further than to our value chain. Even from a generic perspective we can map what data is generated in each part of the value chain. Then all we need to understand is where the data is currently stored, how it is generated, and how it can be connected.
There are many different options when it comes to storage, generation, and connection. Below are mentioned a few of them.
Storage
- Local hard drives
- On-premises servers
- Cloud
Generation
- Manual input after the fact
- Generation at source in an automated flow
Connected
- Data dump in Excel
- Data lake
- Directly between systems through API
The most optimal combination would be data generated at source, stored in the cloud, and systems connected to each other through APIs. However, few companies have this luxury although newly started companies are mostly born this way.
The challenge for most companies is that they struggle with legacy (ERP) systems that do not easily connect to bolt on systems. This makes any change or system integration costly and cumbersome to do. To overcome this, they most likely need to dismantle the legacy systems and go for a modern ERP system or a best-of-breeds approach. In either case, systems must be able to interact with each other to create a seamless flow of data that is connected and ready to use.
Weapons of mass value creation
With the right setup from generation through connectivity you have unlocked a massive potential for value creation. Having one owner ensures you have one set of numbers regardless if they are financial or non-financial. That said you can make data available as self-service to everyone in the organization.
One of the main users though figures to be the finance business partners. They should view data across the value chain and develop insights that can help business stakeholders make better decisions. In addition, they should help their stakeholders deep-dive on the numbers that are specific to their function. If data is disconnected and fragmented the business partner ends up spending most of the time gathering, structuring, and analyzing the data. Then there is little time to use the data to improve decision-making. Therefore making Finance the Master of Data makes a lot of sense. The question is, who is the master of the data in your company and does it lead to optimal decision-making?