According to an Ovum report, a “majority of CFOs aren’t happy with the quality of financial planning and analysis and are looking for ways to make finance a more ‘inclusive’ and ‘insightful’ function.”  And while the report discusses why traditional planning processes are broken and why certain trends gaining traction in analytics are set to disrupt these entrenched practices, it is not all doom and gloom about the office of finance and its practices.

In fact, in “Breaking the Barriers to Financial Planning with Exploratory Analytics,” Ovum declares that there’s an “ongoing evolution in data analytics infrastructure, processes, and techniques [that] has created a perfect storm that is disrupting the way the office of finance thinks about (and engages in) enterprise performance management.”  The report also goes on to say that its analysts believe that “financial planning and analysis (FP&A) will be one of the first areas to be on the path to transformation with the emergence and adoption of cloud and exploratory analytics—that will not only help users explore new frontiers in performance management, but also make planning and analysis, ‘viral.’”

Here at Revelwood we think this report touches on a theme we’re seeing emerge quietly in several places. The theme that finance is starting to transform from just a mere accounting function, to one of equal business leadership, one that is the most advanced and well-versed in analytics, and one that is best positioned to be a disruptor in its organization. One that, if interested in rising to the challenge, can transform its organization.