A Microsoft study has emphasized the new pressure facing CFOs and their teams as they struggle to balance strategic innovation with their company’s financial goals and long-term financial health.
The report explores the effects of the pandemic which changed the role of CFOs, who went from fiscal planning to driving innovation amid global economic uncertainty, to the point that 79% of finance leaders believe they must play a significant role in business innovation to meet future needs.
Key to success is the successful deployment of technology, which Microsoft explored in a complementary blog post.
CFO job role expanding
More than eight in 10 (82%) of finance leaders recognize the importance of artificial intelligence and other automation technology to support their organization’s goals, which can help decrease human workload and free up time to focus on things that require specific skills and concentration.
Data, for example, can be an expansive environment that needs to be boiled down to presentable information in order to recognize trends, predict future performance, and refine other areas of business. Despite this, Microsoft reckons that 8%% of financial leaders feel overwhelmed by their organization’s data.
Alongside exploring AI tools to support data management, Microsoft is keen to push its new Dynamics 365 Finance business performance analytics feature that’s designed to centralize data from more than one business workstream into an easy-to-use interface.
As we look toward the future, Microsoft wants to take even more of the workload off finance teams, seeking to replace it with low-code solutions that has saved it 977 annual hours of manual labor and $25 million.
Of course, you don’t have to limit yourself to Microsoft’s offerings, and there are plenty of other options out there including the best accounting software for small businesses.
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