Business Analytics for the CFOs Function

Author: Gary Cokins

This presentation focuses on how the finance function can leverage analytics, especially predictive ones, embedded in their financial reporting, planning, and decision making. Finance and accounting professional are typically considered to be very quantitative. They are by nature number-crunchers. But collecting, validating, and reporting data is not the same thing as analyzing the information that can be gleaned from data. Most organizations are drowning in data, but starving for information.

The CFO function is experiencing a shift from beyond financial reporting to dealing with and reporting non-financial information. Finance people are increasingly involved with creating and monitoring performance measurements. But do they know how to identify the appropriate measures? Their task should not be about what can be measured but what should be measured. And don’t stop there. This is not about just monitoring the dials of a scorecard or dashboard, but moving the dials. The decisions involved to improve performance require analytics of all flavors. Most companies are far from where they want and need to be when it comes to implementing analytics and are still relying on gut feeling, rather than hard data, when making decisions. Volatility and complexity are the new normal.

Publication Date: March 2019

Designed For
CFOs, Financial officers and controllers, Managerial and cost accountants, Financial and business analysts, Budget managers, Strategic planners, Marketing and sales managers, Supply chain analysts Risk managers, CIO and information technology staff, and Board of Directors.

Topics Covered

• What is Enterprise Performance Management (EPM)
• What is Business Analytics ... and Why?
• Examples of applying Business Analytics
• BI and BA for the CFO function and EPM
• Benefits and Summary

Learning Objectives

• Recognize why business analytics and leveraging Big Data provide a competitive advantage
• Differentiate between business intelligence (BI) and business analytics
• Recognize how to imbed statistics and analytics into enterprise performance management (EPM) methods
• Differentiate forecasting from predictive modeling
• Identify alternative approaches to accelerating the adoption rate of business analytics
• Identify actions which an entity can take to establish a cost leadership strategy
• Describe forecasting
• Differentiate reason for the increased interest in enterprise performance management (EPM)
• Recognize how to assess employee questions
• Identify correct statements of performance indicators or key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Describe analytical technologies
• Recognize tools used to map out the severity of an event's impact on an organization's achievement of its goals and the probability of that event occurring
• Identify the question predictive analytics answers

Level
Overview

Instructional Method
Self-Study

NASBA Field of Study
Finance (2 hours)

Program Prerequisites
None

Advance Preparation
None