Despite continued cuts in staffing and budgets this year,
finance organizations are compelled to respond to the challenges
and opportunities presented by the new 'borderless business
environment' according to 2013 Key Issues research from The Hackett
Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT). The new study details how finance
leaders are forging ahead with high-value analytics and business
partnering programs while continuing to work on reducing
operational costs.
The Hackett Group's research found several imperatives shaping
the CFO's finance strategy in 2013: fostering the agility required
to achieve enhanced profitability, profit goals, and add value
while reducing costs and staff; concentrating skills to improve
ability to scale; implementing best practices to eliminate
unnecessary work as they move towards a more standardized, global
service delivery approach; maturing enterprise process ownership by
working across functional, business unit, and geographic borders;
and using data more effectively to drive actionable strategies.
"For 2013 finance leaders, like the rest of business services,
are responding to the dramatic shift we're seeing in the global
business environment," explained Jeffrey S. Rosengard, Principal,
Global Finance Advisory Practice Leader, The Hackett Group.
"Volatility remains high, and aggressive revenue growth targets are
the norm. The 'Borderless Business' concept is that organizations
must challenge their previous notions about how finance can support
the broader business challenges. It is highly likely that future
revenue growth will come from outside their traditional markets and
that requires organizations to draw a line between global versus
local control in all of their business processes. Internally,
functional borders between business services operations are also
coming down in the wake of cross-enterprise, end-to-end process
ownership. Finally, there are dramatically fewer barriers to
service delivery placement, with Global Business Services
operations able to provide seamless support to internal customers
and external trading partners.
"All this has created a new requirement for finance to improve
agility and achieve new levels of efficiency and effectiveness
through a focus on standardization, globalization, and an expansion
of the technology-enabled model for service delivery," said Mr.
Rosengard. "More than ever, finance leaders must be able to look
beyond the four walls of their department. They must be able to
anticipate and adapt to things like changes in the business
environment, economic shifts, competitive moves, and new business
opportunities. This need to predict the future and adjust on the
fly makes flexibility and analytical skills highly valuable traits
for finance talent."
While company revenue is expected to rise by 6.5 percent in
2013, finance operating budgets are expected to drop by 1.2 percent
and staffing levels are expected to see a 3 percent drop, the study
found. There is some variation in outlook among companies, but less
than 30 percent anticipate staff increases. Given growth
expectations, the results show an implied productivity gap of up to
10 percent in finance.
The Hackett Group's study found a significant change in
priorities for 2013, with a shift towards a more strategic view of
finance's role. For the first time, finance executives ranked
improving data quality as the number one priority, above cost
reduction. In addition, they indicated an active interest in talent
management and customer satisfaction.
Most finance executives have ambitious globalization plans for
the finance function in 2013, the study found, hoping to more than
double the penetration of global standards over the next two to
three years in reporting, technology platform, master data, and
several other key areas. But The Hackett Group cautioned finance to
be pragmatic about its globalization plans, given the limited funds
and staff resources available.
In direct response to pressure from internal customers, finance
organizations are also focusing heavily on partnering with the
business on analytical and decision-support services, the study
found. Most finance organizations recognize that changing their
service mix will require transformation in delivery methods, and
have significant transformation projects identified for 2013 and
beyond with planning and performance management, process
improvement and reducing the amount of time and resource invested
in transaction processing at the top of the priority list.
Finance organizations are also increasing their already
substantial reliance on technology, the study found. Rolling out
Web-based and self-service tools was identified as the leading
technology priority for 2013, followed closely by business
analytics and also improvements in data governance and
stewardship.
Finally, the study found that four of the top 11 issues for
finance in 2013 involve talent. Finance organizations are set to
increase their efforts in career development and succession
planning. As the role of finance changes, executives are giving
considerable attention to acquiring and developing staff with new
skills to match new requirements. Talent retention is another
critical program area for 2013, the study found, in part driven by
fears that many valuable finance staff may begin to look elsewhere
as the economy recovers.
The Hackett Group's 2013 Finance Key Issues Research, "2013
Finance Agenda: Moving Toward Borderless Business Services," is
available on a complimentary basis, following registration, at:
http://www.thehackettgroup.com/research/2013/key2013fnex/
About The Hackett Group
The Hackett Group (NASDAQ:HCKT), a global strategic business
advisory and operations improvement consulting firm, is a leader in
best practice advisory, business benchmarking, and transformation
consulting services including strategy and operations, working
capital management, and globalization advice.
Utilizing best practices and implementation insights from more
than 8,500 benchmarking studies, executives rely on The Hackett
Group's empirically-based approach to quickly define and implement
initiatives that enable world-class performance. Through its REL
consulting division, The Hackett Group offers working capital
solutions focused on delivering cash flow improvements. The Hackett
Group's Strategy & Operations practice offers consulting
services in the Consumer and Industrial Products, Pharmaceutical,
Manufacturing, and Financial Services industry sectors. Through its
Hackett Technology Solutions group, The Hackett Group offers
business application consulting services that help maximize returns
on IT investments.
The Hackett Group has completed benchmark studies with over
3,500 major corporations and government agencies, including 97% of
the Dow Jones Industrials, 84% of the Fortune 100, 87% of the DAX
30 and 48% of the FTSE 100.
More information on The Hackett Group is available: by phone at
(770) 225-7300; by e-mail at info@thehackettgroup.com; or online at
www.thehackettgroup.com
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