By Stephanie Siu, Senior Director, Data and Analytics, Ensono
A modern, integrated IT infrastructure that seamlessly collects and connects relevant data from all corners of the business is the Platonic ideal for fast, accurate financial decision making. But as you’re experiencing, finance teams don’t have the luxury of pausing analyses, recommendations and decisions until the ideal technological solution is fully implemented. We need to act in the here and now.
The Finance-as-a-Service (FaaS) approach my CFO Scott Grossman describes in this article is the answer to the first part of your question: how your organization can become a more integral, dynamic and valuable partner to the broader business. And while sophisticated platforms and highly integrated systems accelerate the pace, impact and scalability of FaaS adoption, they aren’t a prerequisite for addressing your question’s second part.
The fundamentals of FaaS are the same no matter where you’re starting from or what you’re working with—and applying them will take you a long way toward an improved state of data aggregation, analysis, communication and strategic business impact. Here’s how to get started:
1. Establish and nurture relationships: Great service starts with connection. Stay in touch with other teams regularly through both standing meetings and informal chats. Depending on the size of your team, you might consider creating a finance ambassador program with individual members dedicated to engaging with specific departments and bringing their learnings back to finance, to create a body of business unit expertise.
2. Ask the right questions: Working on the wrong problem-to-be-solved wastes time and obscures opportunities. In your cross-functional meetings and conversations, dive deep into what each team is trying to achieve, so you can figure out what information you really need (and don’t need) to deliver insights that will directly align with their business drivers and actively support their goals.
3. Leverage the tech you have: Everyday solutions often have untapped potential. Make the most of shared tools like workflow management systems and communication platforms and explore their more advanced capabilities—things like real-time dashboards, analysis and integration with other apps. Along the way to a more mature, connected infrastructure, an “IKEA hack” approach to aggregating data, delivering insights and driving transparency can be extremely effective.
4. Focus on progress over perfection: Incremental improvements translate to meaningful impact. If a simple process change can increase the accuracy of one element of your analysis from 20% to 50%, that’s a win–even if it’s not perfect! This approach allows you to make data-driven decisions and quantify business impact even as you work towards a more comprehensive solution.
5. Keep improving together: Service organizations succeed when they heed the voice of the customer. If team members are struggling to understand tools or adopt processes, offer training sessions and support materials to help them traverse the learning curve. Establish open and active feedback channels, encourage honesty, and be ready to adjust in response to new information so you’re always collaborating effectively and delivering maximum value
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