Crunch Time I

If business leaders are going to compete in the digital world, they’ll need to process more information more efficiently, and turn that information into deeper insights faster than ever. It will require new technology – and a group of people who are curious and skilled in using it.

These are some of the important issues we address in our new global point of view, Crunch Time: Finance in a Digital World – which is based on extensive research, including in-depth interviews with CFOs of global businesses.

This guide may be the quickest way for CFOs and finance executives to understand what’s in store for them as they hurtle toward the future.

Crunch Time: Finance in a Digital World

From cloud computing and robotics to analytics, artificial intelligence and automation, a new class of digital disruptors is transforming how business gets done. Expect these disruptors to have a big impact on the future of finance organizations. But what exactly will their impact be? What is the future of finance in the face of these developments?

Those are some of the important questions tackled in Deloitte’s new point of view, Crunch Time: Finance in a Digital World – which is based on extensive research with finance executives, including in-depth interviews with CFOs of global businesses.

No matter what future you see ahead for your finance organization, one thing is sure. If business leaders around you are going to compete in the digital world, they will need to process more information more efficiently, and turn that information into deeper insights faster than ever. It will likely require new technology – and a group of people who are curious and skilled in using it.

This short book, filled with practical insights and comments from finance leaders, may be the quickest way to understand what’s in store for finance organizations as they hurtle toward the future.

Finance technology for CFOs

Some of the new digital tools available to finance focus specifically on updating core systems and existing capabilities. Other tools, “exponentials”, are designed to deliver new and different capabilities. Together, they form a toolset finance can use to improve its own performance and serve the business more effectively, especially when they are used together. Our research suggests that these seven technologies have growing interaction and relevance for how the work of finance gets done:

• Cloud 
• Process robotics 
• Visualization 
• Advanced analytics. 
• Cognitive computing and artificial intelligence (AI) 
• In-memory computing 
• Blockchain

The people puzzle

The growth of digital business is already reshaping the talent marketplace, far beyond finance. As organizations seek to upgrade their workforces in all areas, they are placing a premium on people with relationship and analytical skills, who can also understand the business. Talent essentials for digital transformation includes:

• Leadership: A sharp view to the future and a clear roadmap for getting there
• Culture: Less predictability, more experimentation and innovation
• New skills: Technology savviness combined with business understanding
• Engagement: An opportunity to learn, grow, and innovate for digital natives or Millennials

Framing the future

Which path makes sense for you? What kind of roadmap will you need to realize the benefits of digital transformation? In the end, organizations will need to chart their own courses. But no matter which future you envision, the leaders will likely be those who figure out how to make digital work for finance – and for the whole business, too.