Organizations, regardless of size, are constantly challenged in that resources never feel sufficient. For many businesses, finding that balance between ensuring they create an accurate report and implementing action plans or changes based on that report is difficult.
It is not uncommon for organizations to compromise certain levels of detail in their reporting and to do away with certain processes in order to come up with relatively timely reports. The good news is that many financial planning and analysis (FP&A) software today now make it relatively easy to automate several accounting tasks including collection of data and creation of reports.
That said, while organizations are aware of the many advantages of adopting an FP&A software, majority of FP&A teams still have not changed.
They are aware that it is advantageous to jump into the bandwagon and try out new technology to drastically improve their financial planning and analysis process but somehow most of them are still hesitant to upgrade.
There is no doubt that most FP&A software these days are now cost-effective. There is fierce competition in the market for the FP&A software vendors to offer great value for money. However, many CFOs or finance managers still find it very difficult to justify the costs of an FP&A software in comparison to justifying increase in costs for sales and marketing or research & development.
FP&A software: Is it an Expense item?
Perhaps one way to look at why some finance departments struggle with justifying the costs of an FP&A software is because they view it as an expense item. Unlike increasing the costs for sales and marketing, purchasing an FP&A software for some is hard to justify because the results are not as easily measured.
It is important to understand that FP&A technology pays off. Instead of looking at the purchase of an FP&A software as an expense item, decision makers must instead try to look at it as an investment because it has the possibility to generate revenue.
How is that so? Investing in FP&A technology will help your organization improve data quality and availability. Having that FP&A platform can help your organization better understand your client´s preferences and in turn will help you more accurately plan and predict your company´s growth.
An FP&A software has the unique capability of letting you understand deeply what it is your customers want and what drives them to purchase and to stay loyal. Possessing these insights empowers your organization to respond through correct segmentation and improved targeting.
In conclusion, FP&A software like Performance Canvas by DSPanel helps your finance staff focus only on value-yielding tasks, it improves your data quality and availability, saves your organization time and effort by ensuring there is no duplication of efforts, and it will produce insights that can support strategic decision-making.
DSPanel offers cutting edge technology platform for business analytics, planning, and visualization. DSPanel designs, builds, and operates with the end users in mind. Performance Canvas was created by DSPanel to answer the unarticulated needs of the market not addressed by previous available solutions. With Performance Canvas, information is transformed into valuable business insights for the business executives to utilize in their decision-making process. DSPanel currently has over 2500 organizations deploying their solutions.
