CFOs are transforming the data-driven enterprise
May 21, 2020
May 21, 2020
Across industries, the demands for rich, accurate, and timely data are growing dramatically as organizations increase their use of data to innovate, compete, and improve profitability. Recent Accenture research found a direct correlation between high performance and becoming what we call a “data-driven enterprise”—cloud-enabled companies that can maximize the value of data and treat it as an asset differentiated by its completeness, lineage, and quality. The CFO has an important role in monetizing data, and supporting advanced innovation and business agility with cloud, AI and analytics.
Accenture research has found that CEOs and boards of high-performing businesses are increasingly relying on CFOs to steer the data-driven journey, working with IT leaders. CFOs are well placed to measure the financial impact of data-driven decisions and report the true monetized value of data to shareholders. CFOs are also in a position to help identify and validate the monetizable revenue streams of a business and apply data-driven techniques to those processes.
Finance executives understand the discipline of assigning economic value to data. With the advent of digital and cloud, data has now become one of the most critical sources of new business value. Cloud-enabled data requires a new foundational framework for business to manage, measure, and monetize information as an actual asset. Setting up the appropriate IT systems to enable the extraction of value (for cash or trade) is just step one, and a CFO can help in assessing various commercial models, thinking through the financial risks, how to recognize and account for new value created, and apply the necessary controls and governance.
CFOs continue to automate routine accounting, control, and compliance tasks. They are increasing their focus on value creation as cloud-based, digital technology empowers them to shape strategy through data. According to our CFO research, more finance functions are already using a variety of emerging tools for better interpretation of the base data—from predictive analytics to artificial intelligence.
CFOs can strategize and implement methods for monetizing digital innovation and driving a new source of revenue. Methods can include directly monetizing data—for example, the opportunity to sell data to drive a new revenue stream—and also indirectly monetizing data’s economic value. Executives can:
Finance executives are optimally positioned to facilitate the means for their organization to consume cloud-enabled data as the primary methods for generating profits in the digital era.