In a recent study by CFO Research, 150 senior finance executives reported that they don’t have access to some of the most critical data in their organizations. In the survey, 42% wanted more access to product profitability; 41% pointed at customer profitability; 33% indicated customer acquisition costs; and 32%—almost one in three—need better visibility to revenue.
Product profitability? Revenue? You’d be hard pressed to find more important numbers for a senior finance executive to know inside and out, and yet many of them are in the dark. As a result, more finance executives are turning toward technology to better access their data and understand their organization.
A top area of investment.
Gartner reports that Business Intelligence/Analytics is a top area of IT investment for finance executives through 2014, though the honeymoon phase of getting a new system and expecting the world from it is long passed.
Execs have been turning to big data systems in order to cull more insights from their already-voluminous data sets and get a better grip on the information flowing through their organizations. But despite their investments, they still feel the vacuum of critical information as they scramble to assess ROI and determine their organizations’ strengths and weaknesses.
Lacking a clear return on their technology investments, finance execs are questioning the value of systems that are supposed to be delivering the right information at the right time.
ROI is—and always will be—king.
In response to the CFO Research survey, Meade Monger, managing director at AlixPartners and co-lead of the firm’s information management services unit, said, “The message from CFOs and other senior finance executives is loud and clear—companies are spending too much on IT, and they’re not getting the business information that they truly need.”
A better way to get what you already have.
Many executives are being forced to operate with one eye shut—meaning that their big data systems and IT investments may still be highly valuable, if only there were a way to deliver all your information in one platform, in real time, on any device. I’m not talking about a supercharged spreadsheet. I mean a platform that puts all the systems and data together in one place so that an executive can see what she wants, when she wants it.
The need for such a solution is evident in virtually every organization. Most executives don’t need more tools for data analysis, nor do they need more systems to provide more information. They just need to get the full value out of the data they already have.
There is a new breed of business intelligence solutions cropping up in response to these new demands, and they are making an enormous difference in every organization that uses them. One of those new solutions is Domo. If you haven’t seen our video demo, click here to see it for yourself. You’ll be glad you did.