数据在数字化转型中的作用

The age of big data offers businesses unparalleled insight into their operations and the broader economy. This means more power to make accurate forecasts and course-correct early if needed. And that, in turn, can help streamline operations, capture more sales, avoid unproductive investments, and boost profitability.

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Realizing these benefits requires finance departments to stretch beyond their traditional practices. They need to think more broadly and strategically about the role they play in the overall company and adopt new processes to support it.

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This can be a challenge for finance leaders. Until recently, they haven’t had to think much about issues outside the narrow definition of “finance” – questions such as: “How well do I understand my company’s customers and how they use and perceive our products? How does my company create value for customers? How efficient are our processes?” However, today’s finance leaders know their roles encompass various ways a company can use its resources to become as competitive as possible.

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Many of the answers to those questions lurk in the terabytes of data companies sift through every day. In my career, before joining Anaplan, I’ve seen how the contribution the finance organization can make increases dramatically when it has the tools to access and analyze data easily.

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So, growth-minded finance leaders know part of their job is leading the digital transformation in areas that stretch beyond their traditional practices.

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Before you move ahead, figure out where you are now

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Before you start planning new processes and technologies, you need to know what your department is capable of now and what capabilities you’ll need to add or evolve.

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The first step: Think about how finance is positioning itself within the business. Is it seen merely as a back-office engine for accounting, transactions, and regulatory compliance? Or does the business turn to finance to help craft a strategic path forward?

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To uncover the specific capabilities that you need to drive that strategic impact, ask yourself — and your team — the following questions:

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• What are the strategic goals for the next 3–5 years, including how we make and spend money? Do our strategic plans align to and drive both financial plans and operational plans?
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• How will we optimize capital expenditure?
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• How do we collect and analyze data in a consistent, meaningful way understood by different functions and allows us to make informed decisions?
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• What are the methods of collaboration and feedback between the finance team and other functions?
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• How are longer-term goals and initiatives planned and tracked?
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• Do we use rolling forecasting to understand the impact beyond the next quarter and fiscal year?
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• What alert systems are in place to spot divergence and anomalies?
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• When financial plans don’t align with strategic plans, what mechanisms do we use to evaluate scenarios and trade-offs like mergers and acquisitions, product development, or new go-to-market strategies?
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Collectively, those answers should outline where you currently have gaps. You and your team will then need to identify the top priorities for modernization, whether adding a single new tool or overhauling entire systems.

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Start small to overcome objections

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The next step is to put together a transformation proposal for your leadership – pain points, the new abilities you plan to gain, the solution(s) you have in mind, ROI, timing, budget, and people and resources needed.

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It’s true; this will probably add up to a substantial investment, and getting executive approval can be an uphill battle. One tactic I suggest is to move incrementally.

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Look for areas where your ideas for transformation can be implemented on a small scale in one well-defined project. Monitor results and collect feedback. If that phase goes well, extend your experiment to one or two other test areas. If the feedback is positive, start developing a plan to scale the implementation to its full potential.

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Three stages of digital transformation

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The transformation process typically goes through three phases, each adding more sophisticated capabilities.

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1. Enable comprehensive access to business data

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You need data to discover ways to drive your business, but that data is rarely democratized. “It’s locked up in IT. It’s their world. If you want data, you knock on IT’s door, and they give you an extract,” according to my colleague Victor Barnes, Senior Vice President of Connected Planning.

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That’s a limiting approach, he says. Data should be continuously accessible so that the right users have the right insights at the right time to help them make informed decisions.

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2. Interrogate your data with analytic tools that ask the right questions

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Analytics and business intelligence tools can tirelessly comb through your data to report on nearly any aspect of your business. Just make sure you’re using them to track the metrics that boost long-term shareholder value.

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For example, simply measuring efficiency to drive down operating expenses can backfire. This might motivate a company to simplify its processes by implementing an “automated” call center system to limit the number of calls that have to be taken by a live agent. Although this may drive down costs in the short term, in the long run, it results in greater revenue loss because the unmonitored system doesn’t help customers address their concerns as quickly and effectively, and they drift away.

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In this case, the company would be better off focusing on metrics that track customer experience and efficiency. Doing so balances both cost containment and long-term revenue growth because happy customers (1) are more likely to buy more in each transaction, (2) are more likely to return, and (3) could become a marketing asset by sharing their positive experience.

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3. Assemble your insights into the big picture

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Once you have an ecosystem of analytic tools, the challenge is to assemble those tools’ findings into larger insights and accurate forecasts that can guide smart decisions. Today’s finance leaders face a much wider range of expectations, touching on most other business functions. The challenges they face include:

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• Spending the right amounts in the right places at the right times to maximize profit.
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• Uncovering efficiencies at a granular level and at a holistic level to limit costs and boost revenues.
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• Removing barriers to collaboration, so sales and finance are aligned on revenue plans driven by sales forecasts.
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• Aligning with HR for workforce planning to ensure they’re maximizing those resources and getting them in place at the right times for cost efficiency.
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• Aligning with supply chain planning to optimize inventory and manage costs.
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Meeting these challenges requires a digital platform that pulls together all your sources of information, from ERP, CRM, and HR applications to spreadsheets and memos, into a single, transparent, accountably sourced view that lets you unify planning and forecasting across business functions.

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大数据时代为企业提供了对其运营和整体经济的无与伦比的洞察力。这意味着更有能力做出准确的预测，并在必要时尽早纠正航向。这反过来又有助于简化运营，获得更多销售额，避免非生产性投资，并提高盈利能力。

实现这些好处需要财务部门超越传统做法。他们需要更广泛和战略性地思考他们在整个公司中扮演的角色，并采用新的流程来支持它。

这对金融领导人来说可能是一个挑战。直到最近，他们还不必过多考虑“财务”这个狭义定义之外的问题，比如:“我对公司的客户有多了解?他们如何使用和看待我们的产品?”我的公司如何为客户创造价值?我们的流程效率如何?”然而,当今的金融领袖要知道他们的角色包含了公司利用其资源以尽可能提高竞争力的各种方式。

这些问题的许多答案都隐藏在公司每天筛选的海量数据中。在我的职业生涯中，在加入anplan之前，我已经看到，当金融机构拥有轻松访问和分析数据的工具时，它的贡献是如何显著增加的。

因此，注重增长的金融领导者知道，他们的部分工作是在超越传统实践的领域引领数字化转型。

在你继续前进之前，弄清楚你现在在哪里

在你开始计划新的流程和技术之前，你需要知道你的部门现在有什么能力，你需要增加或发展什么能力。

第一步:考虑财务部门在企业中的定位。它是否仅仅被视为会计、交易和法规遵从性的后台引擎?还是企业转向融资，以帮助制定战略前进道路?

要发现你需要哪些特定的能力来推动战略影响，问你自己——和你的团队——以下问题:

• 未来3-5年的战略目标是什么，包括我们如何赚钱和花钱?我们的战略计划是否与财务计划和运营计划保持一致?
• 我们如何优化资本支出?
• 我们如何以一种一致的、有意义的方式收集和分析数据，让不同的职能部门都能理解，并让我们做出明智的决策?
• 财务团队与其他职能部门之间的协作和反馈方式是什么?
• 长期目标和计划是如何计划和跟踪的?
• 我们是否使用滚动预测来了解下一个季度和财政年度之后的影响?
• 有什么警报系统可以发现偏差和异常情况?
• 当财务计划与战略计划不一致时，我们用什么机制来评估情景和权衡，如合并和收购、产品开发或新的进入市场战略?

总的来说，这些答案应该概括出你目前的差距。然后，您和您的团队将需要确定现代化的最高优先级，无论是添加单个新工具还是彻底检查整个系统。

从小事做起，克服反对意见

下一步是为你的领导制定一个转型建议——痛点、你计划获得的新能力、你脑海中的解决方案、投资回报率、时间、预算以及所需的人员和资源。

这是真的;这可能会增加一笔可观的投资，而获得管理层的批准可能是一场艰苦的战斗。我建议的一个策略是循序渐进。

寻找可以在一个定义良好的项目中小规模实现您的转换想法的领域。监控结果并收集反馈。如果这一阶段进展顺利，将您的实验扩展到一两个其他测试领域。如果反馈是积极的，开始制定一个计划来扩展实施，以充分发挥其潜力。

数字化转型的三个阶段

转换过程通常经历三个阶段，每个阶段都添加更复杂的功能。

1.支持对业务数据的全面访问

您需要数据来发现驱动业务的方法，但这些数据很少被民主化。“它被锁在It里了。这是他们的世界。如果你想要数据，你敲IT的门，他们就会给你一份摘录，”我的同事、Connected Planning高级副总裁维克多·巴恩斯(Victor Barnes)说。

他说，这是一种有局限性的方法。数据应该可以持续访问，以便正确的用户在正确的时间获得正确的见解，帮助他们做出明智的决策。

2.使用提出正确问题的分析工具来查询数据

分析和商业智能工具可以不知疲倦地梳理你的数据，报告你业务的几乎任何方面。只要确保你使用它们来跟踪能够提升长期股东价值的指标。

例如，简单地衡量效率以降低运营成本可能会适得其反。这可能会促使公司通过实现“自动化”呼叫中心系统来简化其流程，以限制必须由现场代理接听的呼叫数量。虽然这可能会在短期内降低成本，但从长远来看，它会导致更大的收入损失，因为不受监控的系统不能帮助客户快速有效地解决他们的问题，而且他们会流失。

在这种情况下，公司最好关注跟踪客户体验和效率的指标。这样做可以平衡成本控制和长期收入增长，因为满意的客户(1)更有可能在每笔交易中购买更多，(2)更有可能回头客，(3)可以通过分享他们的积极体验成为营销资产。

3.将你的见解整合到大局中

一旦你有了一个分析工具的生态系统，挑战就是将这些工具的发现整合成更大的见解和准确的预测，从而指导明智的决策。如今的财务领导者面临着更广泛的期望，涉及到大多数其他业务职能。他们面临的挑战包括:

• 在正确的时间、正确的地点、正确的金额，以实现利润最大化。
• 在颗粒级和整体级发现效率，以限制成本并提高收入。
• 消除合作障碍，使销售和财务在销售预测驱动的收入计划上保持一致。
• 与人力资源部门协调人力资源计划，确保他们最大限度地利用这些资源，并在正确的时间将其用于成本效率。
• 与供应链计划保持一致，优化库存和管理成本。

应对这些挑战需要一个数字平台，将所有信息源(从ERP、CRM和HR应用程序到电子表格和备忘录)汇集到一个单一的、透明的、可靠的来源视图中，使您能够统一跨业务功能的计划和预测。