Today's business environment requires Finance to not only meet its fiduciary obligations, but to also deliver strategic insight and “financial truth.” Bottom line: Finance must itself become more efficient, and be able to provide insights into cost efficiencies elsewhere in the company. Top line impact: To drive stability and agility throughout your organization, Finance must also effectively deliver performance insights.

The ability to support this "partnering role" with the rest of the business requires transforming Finance by establishing a solid operating foundation based on common standards and processes to optimize Finance's operating model. This transformation should be considered within the context of your enterprise's strategy with a view on speed, agility and control. Data and process commonality support a shift to standardized service delivery models (such as a shared service center or center of excellence).

Obtaining the information necessary to generate timely, relevant insights can be extremely challenging. Drive reporting for performance insights that can help your enterprise spend more time on decision support and controls as opposed to transaction processing. How? Implement data standards. By embracing a transformational change in your service delivery model, Finance can lower its "cost to serve" while driving step change improvement in overall effectiveness.

ALR Group’s Finance Operating Budget Model is an approach to determine the current levels of Finance effectiveness and capability. Identify specific areas for improvement and create the migration strategy and roadmap to deliver these capabilities for your enterprise.

Business challenges

• Everything today is on the owner agenda, leading to increased demands and more complex operational and regulatory requirements

• There is an increasing rate of change, yet the ability to change is lagging.

• Owners/CEO/CFOs have an increasingly complex and strategic role with half the time on transaction processing.

• There are unacceptable transaction processing error rates (5% or higher).

• Closing and reporting takes twice as long for an average company than a world-class enterprise.

• The finance function isn't effective at providing value to its business customers.

• Finance spends too much time on reporting accuracy and monitoring in business reviews.

• Performance management is hindered through data dumps and data leakage

• There is a lack of a holistic information management strategy.

• And a lack of adoption standards (standard chart of accounts, common processes, globally mandated standards and common data definitions).