BUDGET MANAGMENT Achieve Your Business Goals Part Three
Introduction Over the last several years, finance executives place high value in budget management. Companies strive to improve their budgeting practices to gain the full benefit of their efforts. Many finance executives say that the most important factor to improve is the ability to analyze information (variance analysis). There is an increasing demand for timely and reliable analytics for volatility in three categories - input, demand, and labor. These include volatility in input prices and availability since market condition is inherently erratic and highly competitive. Others say that the lack of accountability for the budget’s relevance and usefulness to the managers tend to interfere with the company’s ability to obtain the full benefit of their budgeting efforts. Some say that suboptimal budgeting is time-consuming and manual processing is prone to errors - especially in gathering, submitting and reconciling data for budgeting. With these in mind, companies rely on technology and finance applications to improve the effectiveness of their planning, budgeting, and forecasting activities. In Part One of this ebook series, we have identified that continuous budgeting is better than budget based targets. In Part Two of the series, we identified the importance of ERP Systems and how to meet revenue and target budgets. In this third and last part of the series, we have compiled some tips about Technology Budgets.
2
Budget Managment: Achieve Your Business Goals (Part Three)
This eBook is the third and last part of the series for “Budget Management: Achieve Your Business Goals�. Each eBook contains various tips and articles that will help you achieve your business goals through budgeting.
3
Budget Managment: Achieve Your Business Goals (Part Three)
Technology has been deemed as one of the greater factors impacting revenue maximization and expense management. The question lies with how CFOs can make the most effective decisions about technology that can positively affect the companies ‘bottom lines’. In today’s environment, CFOs need to be savvier than before. Technology now plays a major role in financial statements which may require some technical knowledge. There is a need for Annual IT budgets for every department and division including telecommunications, hardware, software, CRM and cloud-based platforms. CFOs now need to communicate with their CTO to do effective budgeting. The team must factor what is needed for enhanced performance, revenue generation, and marketing purposes. These include ROI analysis which can now be done effectively with advanced tools available for the CFO. These tools now allow the CFO to streamline the budget process. Setting the financial, operation, and marketing goals need to be done first before assigning the budget. One of the key things to be done is setting up the business objectives through an implementation plan for the entire organization. Monthly team meetings to monitor progress should take place to reflect on the initiative’s effectiveness.
4
Budget Managment: Achieve Your Business Goals (Part Three)
Technology and Marketing With today’s rapid advance towards technology and marketing, CFOs now need to fully understand the marketing and sales goals and taking into account the role of technology in achieving better financial results. Majority of the market today is focused on mobility, cloud computing, business intelligence and social media. Internet is now widely accessible with people spending around 30 to 40 hours in the internet. Social media and SEO now plays an important role in the marketing team. The marketing team, technology team and CFOs now need to work together to create an effective financial plan. Many companies shied away from the expense of SEO, but many others have put massive investments into increasing placements in search engines.
5
Budget Managment: Achieve Your Business Goals (Part Three)
Here are some questions that CFOs can refer to measure the impact of SEO: • • • •
How does your company compete in search rankings? How long does it take to feel the impact of SEO? How long does it take for lead qualifying and base-conversions? What are the costs per lead and how well do they result?
An innovative approach to social media is key to increasing brand awareness. CFOs now have to consider investing in advertising sources like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. People now use social media as a resource tool for company and product reviews – that is why social media and an informative website go together. Your social media should have a comprehensive marketing system including referral systems and reputation-management.
6
Budget Managment: Achieve Your Business Goals (Part Three)
Don’t get left behind What works before may not work today. Make sure that you’re up to date with the recent changes and latest trends that will affect your industry. As CFOs, it is important to educate yourself with the current platforms. Many organizations are now implementing enhanced operating platforms that can enable CFOs to consolidate frontoffice and back-office operations in a single platform. Centralization of core functions with enhanced reporting tools are now the focus for CFOs. With today’s technology, automated workflows are now possible. Sales and operating staff no longer need to sit down in front of a computer – they can access all data using mobile devices to work with clients and prospects. CFOs now have access to sophisticated dashboards that can be configured according to their needs. Data can now be drilled down to any facet of the organization. Measuring financial and accountability is now only a click away for CFOs using today’s technology.
7
Budget Managment: Achieve Your Business Goals (Part Three)
Technology changes the way you do things With today’s technology putting focus on its collaborative nature, companies are now changing the way they operate. Companies are forced to become more flexible and responsive in the marketplace. Strategic decisions are now made quicker with better business intelligence with an ongoing movement towards mobility – with mobile devices now dictating the way businesses are conducted. From the CFOs perspective, technology initiatives are now critical components to operate a business effectively in today’s rapidly changing world. Just as collaboration between IT and marketing is vital to your business success, keeping up to date with the tech trends will help greatly in boosting your company’s bottom line.
8
Budget Managment: Achieve Your Business Goals (Part Three)
About Performance Canvas by DSPanel With Performance Canvas we deliver Financial Reporting, Planning, Budgeting, Performance Management and Consolidation in a way that will put your business into overdrive. Based on the ease-of-use of Microsoft Excel and the full power of Microsoft SQL Server we deliver Finance and Performance Management complementing your selected combination of ERP and Line-of-Business systems. Your Finance & Management teams will increase agility, productivity and efficiency within minutes using pcFinancials, pcMobile and pcLegal products powered by DSPanel. The experts behind all Performance Canvas products are the very same experts who designed Hyperion Enterprise, IBM Cognos and Consolidator (frango and IBM), SAP BPC, and Clarity System. Performance Canvas was built from the ground up to answer the unarticulated needs of the market not addressed by previous available solutions.
www.performancecanvas.com info@dspanel.com
9
Budget Managment: Achieve Your Business Goals (Part Three)
Free Live Online Demo Contact us at info@dspanel.com for more information