CFOs and finance managers have more data accessible to them today than they ever have previously. But how can finance leaders visualise and interact with data in new ways in order to drive employee productivity?
Analysis to drive employee productivity
Big data is increasingly evolving, with many companies not taking advantage of the full capabilities it has to offer. For finance professionals who can harness this data there are vast opportunities to streamline the decision making process. An IDC study forecasts that “by 2020, organisations able to analyse all relevant data and deliver actionable information will achieve an extra $430 billion in productivity benefits over their less analytically oriented peers.”
Finance leaders need to be able to monitor the heart of their business with a complete single view of all vital information. They often have data from various sources such as Excel spreadsheets, web analytics, databases, and business management systems; and often struggle to bring the data to life. The answer lies through customised dashboards, workspaces and reports that can help them make the right data-driven judgments with key business metrics.
With the continuing rise of big data and the Internet of Things data visualisation is a greater priority. Enabling big data will allow financial leaders to reveal opportunities and solutions to business problems.
Data visualisation – a single unified view
Accumulating, displaying, scoring, and analysing millions of sections of data with several different attributes can be a laborious task for even the most data-orientated finance professional. Effective data visualisation begins with forming a single cohesive view of the whole of your business. As an organisation expands, data production usually scales with it.
Plus, if you are growing a company’s operations across several countries and multiple lines of business, this requires finance professionals to establish systems that associate data, categorise it, and share it using standardised methods.
Business management systems such as Microsoft Dynamics ERP, provide end-to-end insights by arming cross-department functions with dashboards designed specifically for the various people in the company.
Self-service tools that surface meaningful insights
Microsoft Excel continues to be a key and familiar tool for businesses within Office 365 much more powerful than before, it can convert millions of rows of data into touch-enabled, interactive visual information. It also integrates with many business intelligence tools, like Microsoft Power BI, and Microsoft Dynamics business management solutions to unearth deeper insights. This elasticity makes it simple for all employees, from the data-savvy to the data-novice, to intuitively visualise and query the data to help them complete their tasks quickly and easily.
Predictive analytics to boost employee productivity
We have seen in previous blogs, how predictive analytics and machine learning can help streamline operations in field service. Scrutinising the existing data of a business is only one step in the data visualisation journey. Finance specialists need to predict and visualise future business performance. Using platforms like Microsoft Azure with machine learning algorithms, to forecast and visualise future trends allows businesses to predict local market economic conditions and forecast future investment scenarios, machine learning algorithms can provide the fundamental intelligence essential to visualise the financial future, without too much manual intervention or defocussing financial teams away from current business tasks.
The future – advanced data visualisation technologies
Augmented reality (AR) was historically consigned to a gamer’s vision but is now quickly becoming a business function reality. Finance specialists could be using boardroom walls to project financial charts using augmented reality receivers, hold onto your HoloLens, AR changes are ahead for the future of financial data visualisation.
Here and now – current best practice to drive financial success
By selecting technology that not only harness data but also empower employees to securely access it, finance specialists can empower greater informed decision making and increase employee productivity.
By upgrading your finance system with Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016, teams can complete all common finance processes in a more structured, automated and intelligent way; such as posting financial transactions, preparing financial statements, managing bank accounts, inventory costs, manufacturing costs, and fixed assets.
Prodware supplies business intelligence tools, like Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Dynamics ERP, Azure Machine learning and Cortana Analytics to help finance leaders not only collate all the data they have from disparate sources but also visualise, share and interact with it in new ways. Contact Prodware today to find out more.
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