It’s a changing world for organizations aggressively pursuing business and digital transformation, and their finance groups are no exception. CFOs and finance leaders continue to address longstanding priorities focused on both strategic and transactional analysis that now have a new dimension with the promise of advanced data and predictive analytics, RPA, cloud-based applications and services, and more.

As revealed in the results of Protiviti’s latest Finance Trends Survey, the standout priority for CFOs and finance leaders is data – specifically, data governance, security and privacy, analytics and associated process improvements, and talent skill gaps. Other notable areas drawing their attention include ongoing challenges with regulations and accounting standards, serving internal customers, and cloud-based finance applications.

Key findings include:

• It’s all about the data – Finance groups are focused on data management (security, privacy and governance) and predictive data analytics. This underscores the critical importance of data acquisitions and quality, along with enhanced security controls required when moving data and processes to the cloud.
• Financial planning, analysis and reporting continue to garner significant attention – Financial planning/analysis, strategic planning, and profitability reporting and analysis rank as the top finance process priorities as executive management continues to look to finance groups to deliver strategic forward-looking insights on potential new areas of profitability and risks.
• Internal talent is a key concern – Finance groups are focused on building leadership as well as continuously developing, recruiting and retaining amid a competitive market for finance skills and experience.
• And more...