A recent Gartner survey shows CFOs are turning their focus from value protection to value creation, prioritizing revenue and margin growth over cost, efficiency, and risk management.
The survey of over 450 business leaders revealed that CFOs have shifted their strategic outlook to a more aggressive stance, citing increased investments in digital capabilities and information technology as key initiatives in the post-pandemic economy.
The bulk of 2021 has been focused on recovery in the wake of a pandemic that significantly changed consumer behaviors, upended demand expectations, and caused a deluge of supply chain disruption.
After governments across the globe lifted mandatory lockdowns and consumers began regaining financial stability, retailers experienced a rebound in revenue.
Most CFOs expect an economic boom in the next two years and plan to take steps to manage the sharp recovery through new initiatives and investments.
Embracing value creation over value protection entails driving efficient growth: accurate forecasting, making riskier growth bets, and building scale rather than scope will be top priorities that enable smarter and more effectual financial business decisions.
Underlying these efforts will be an investment in digitization. IT infrastructure and tools fueled by data intelligence capabilities that can assist in decision-making will help to ensure strategies focused on growth are well-informed.
Simultaneously, collaborative and automated software ensures executives can accurately track internal and external KPIs and maintain strategic alignment across teams.
CFOs anticipate technology that supports AI, digitization, and cross-channel sales will be most impactful in the coming years.
It’s necessary to identify value-adding technology and involve cross-functional stakeholders early in the IT adoption process to optimize these investments.
Evaluating both the value and the risk associated with IT investment opportunities helps CFOs select new technologies based on an accurate picture of net business value. The focus needs to be on digital solutions that achieve long-term value with low-effort, low-complexity technology solutions.
Additionally, CFOs need to ensure these investments result in ROI their business can measure in the short-term.
Collaborating with other finance teams within the organization — as well as the IT team — can help C-Suite executives understand the perspectives of their organization throughout the acquisition and implementation process.
Overall, investments in digitization and the value of these investments need to be framed in clear, quantifiable language that tangibly communicates the savings and growth opportunities businesses can expect.
Digital transformation is a common priority across retail organizations, but understanding the actual value-add of these initiatives can be a bit difficult. Keeping stakeholders aligned and supportive of any spend on transformation requires a clear communication of the benefits in the near and short-term.
The Bamboo Rose Multi-Enterprise Platform quickly and measurably achieves quantifiable benefits for the financial health and growth of retail organizations. The system can easily layer on top of legacy ERPs, pulling out relevant data with out-of-the-box integrations and promoting organizational transparency and agility.
The platform also helps businesses improve the efficiency of their finance teams by as much as 300% as a result of order and invoice digitization and supports business agility that helps organizations scale quickly, profitably, and with flexibility.
Gaining access to supplier feedback on purchase orders (PO) including status updates and PO changes ensures organizations maintain an accurate picture of POs at each stage of the product lifecycle. Digital and automated invoice tracking also keeps teams clued in to when payments are due.
The platform has enabled retail organizations to reduce invoice processing costs by 70%, accelerate PO and invoice processing times by 80%, and easily manage vendors against predetermined quality, delivery date, and other key performance indicators to improve vendor accountability.
This culminates in time and cost savings that enable finance teams to smartly allocate cash flow, negotiate discount terms to further leverage cash, right-size certain teams, and focus more of their time on revenue and profit margin growth rather than managing late payments or manually managing financial documents.
It’s critical to invest in digital solutions that enable finance teams to prioritize growth initiatives rather than mitigating issues that slow down business and operations during this time of increased demand and supply chain volatility
Gain a more accurate picture of your organization’s financial health and start taking steps to accelerate growth today with the Bamboo Rose Multi-Enterprise platform.