On-demand Webcast | Insights On: Operational Decision Making
We live in a data driven world and now, more than ever, business leaders are recognizing the importance of using real-time data to make faster, more effective decisions.
In the first of our 2021 Insights On webcast series, Brian Veloso (Managing Director, SAP Concur Canada) spoke with special guests Professor Mehmet Gumus (Academic Director of the Master of Management in Analytics at McGill University) and Gerhard Barnard (VP Finance & CFO at Olympia Financial Group) on how to turn data into decisions.
What the discussion revealed was that there are three ways business leaders should use business intelligence data:
- To understand what happened: Analyzing large samples of data from historical observations and developing statistical metrics
- To understand what will happen: Leveraging underlying processes and data generating processes to build a data-driven model for the future
- To understand what should happen: Identifying various scenarios, establishing KPIs, and leveraging prescriptive data analytics
Here is where a finance team is uniquely positioned to help drive business intelligence by creating the necessary intelligent dashboards and visualizations.
There are, however, a number of barriers that Professor Gumus identified. The first is a company’s ability to manage and validate clean data in a continuous fashion. As Professor Gumas reminded listeners, “Garbage in, garbage out”. The second barrier is the potential disconnection between data-generating systems. The third barrier is automation, or more specifically, lack of automation. If the business intelligence system does not self-update in a continuous fashion, Professor Gumas warns, it quickly becomes obsolete.
But what if your business hasn’t even begun a digital transformation journey? The webinar revealed you’re not alone. In fact:
62% of attendees cited a lack of data management tools
and
21% identified a lack of budget to purchase such technologies
Gerhard Barnard had advice for such companies:
“You have to be brave and take that first step, because this is long overdue… Business is expecting for financial services to keep up with the technologies, in particular mobile technologies, business units are already using with customers.”
Fortunately, with Concur Expense and Concur Invoice, it’s easier than ever for even the smallest finance teams to start reaping the advantages of near real-time business intelligence.
To hear more insights, watch the webinar on-demand:
To take the first step in your automation journey: