Finance teams are under increasing pressure to close faster, forecast more accurately, model different scenarios and provide the business with better insight. Yet in many organisations, the systems and processes supporting finance have not kept pace with these growing expectations. That was the focus of the recent Futuresense and OneStream webinar, From Complexity to Clarity: Modern Finance, Delivered Faster with OneStream CPM Express. The session brought together Simon Jackson, Managing Director at Futuresense, JP Strydom, Senior Solution Consultant at OneStream, and Brian Butler, Director and EPM Business Consultant at Futuresense, to explore the challenges finance teams are facing and how organisations can approach finance transformation in a more practical and scalable way.
Here are three of the key takeaways.
Finance needs more time for insight, not more time preparing the numbers
One of the biggest challenges facing finance teams is not a lack of data, but the amount of work required before that data can be used effectively. In our experience, finance teams can spend a significant proportion of their time gathering, reconciling and validating data, leaving less time for analysis and decision support. As organisations grow, this challenge becomes more pronounced. More entities, currencies, reporting requirements and systems create additional complexity, while leadership expects finance to provide information faster and with greater accuracy. When critical processes are spread across spreadsheets, disconnected applications or legacy systems, finance teams can spend significant amounts of time extracting, reconciling and validating information before meaningful analysis can begin. At the same time, the role of finance is becoming increasingly forward-looking. Leadership wants more than an explanation of historical performance. Finance teams are expected to support continuous forecasting, scenario modelling and more timely decision-making, helping the organisation understand not only what has happened, but what could happen next. Creating a more controlled and connected finance environment gives teams greater capacity to analyse performance, interpret the numbers and provide the insight the wider business needs.
Finance transformation does not always need to start from scratch
A major theme from the webinar was that modernising finance does not necessarily need to involve a lengthy, highly customised implementation. OneStream CPM Express provides a preconfigured starting point built around established finance processes and proven implementation experience Rather than building foundational elements from the beginning, organisations can start with capabilities for areas such as financial close and consolidation, planning, forecasting and reporting, and then configure these around their requirements. This can significantly change the implementation process. During the webinar, Brian Butler explained that an 8 to 12 week CPM Express implementation can be achievable when three important conditions are in place:
- The underlying data is relatively clean.
- The initial integration scope is controlled.
- The client team is actively involved in design, testing and reconciliation.
The key takeaway is that a faster implementation still requires focus, preparation and collaboration. By starting with proven processes and reusable components, however, organisations can reduce unnecessary design complexity and concentrate their effort on the areas that are specific to their business.
Starting faster does not mean limiting what comes next
A natural concern with a preconfigured approach is whether moving quickly at the beginning could restrict the organisation later. The webinar addressed this directly by explaining that CPM Express operates within the broader OneStream platform rather than as a separate, limited solution. Organisations can begin with preconfigured capabilities for financial close and consolidation, planning, forecasting and reporting and continue to extend the environment as their requirements develop. This allows finance teams to address immediate priorities without creating a platform that will need to be replaced as the organisation grows. The unified nature of the platform also helps bring actuals, planning, forecasting and reporting into a common environment. Instead of moving information between disconnected tools and repeatedly reconciling different versions of the numbers, finance teams can work with data and processes within a more controlled environment. For finance leaders, the opportunity extends beyond implementing technology more quickly. A more unified finance environment can reduce manual reconciliation, improve visibility and control, and give teams more capacity to focus on analysis, forecasting and decision support.
The bigger question for finance leaders
For organisations still relying heavily on spreadsheets, legacy EPM platforms or fragmented finance systems, the webinar raised an important question about how much finance capacity is currently being consumed by complexity that could be reduced. Modernising finance does not require every process and requirement to be addressed at once. A focused starting point, supported by proven configurations and a clear implementation approach, can allow organisations to prioritise their most important finance processes while creating a foundation that can evolve alongside the business. The Futuresense webinar series will continue exploring the practical challenges facing modern finance teams and the approaches organisations can take to build more agile, connected and insight-driven finance functions.
Watch out for details of the next session.
