By Guest contributor |
For too long, finance teams have been expected to lead their organisations through change using unreliable data, disconnected systems and manual workarounds. They’re tasked with driving innovation, funding growth and improving efficiency – yet they’re often stuck reconciling figures from a patchwork of spreadsheets and platforms that don’t talk to each other. It’s no wonder many struggle to make decisions quickly, let alone strategically. That’s why creating a single source of financial truth is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s a business imperative.
Organisations often benefit from a unified, governed and intelligent financial data foundation that brings together operational and cost data from across the enterprise. Only then can finance leaders eliminate guesswork, align investments with outcomes and make decisions with confidence.
At IBM, we empower our customers to modernise their end-to-end financial management processes by combining the strengths of IBM Apptio and IBM Planning Analytics – both hosted on Microsoft Azure – with the flexibility and scalability of the Azure platform. The combined power of these technologies delivers the visibility, automation and intelligence needed to make financial planning a strategic advantage.
Read more: IBM’s partnership with Microsoft
The benefits of using these technologies are both immediate and long-term. Finance teams no longer need to spend days collecting data, instead they can focus on analysing it. They can run automated reports and scenario plans rather than wrangling disconnected spreadsheets. The confirmed data is consistent, auditable and aligned to business strategy. Whether they are preparing for a board meeting or responding to a market shift, this unified approach enables deeper collaboration across finance, operations and IT.
When everyone works from the same data, it becomes much easier to connect strategic objectives with real-world investments. A single source of truth drives both accuracy and stronger alignment across teams and helps organisations move faster. Planning Analytics enables AI-infused continuous planning and forecasting across functional teams allowing them to model different outcomes in real time and adjust course when needed. With the Planning Analytics Assistant – an AI-powered option that works end-to-end with Planning Analytics and watsonx Orchestrate – teams will gain conversational, context-aware assistance to accelerate modelling, scenario analysis and insight generation.
To illustrate how equipping finance teams with modern tools can lead to scalable, impactful business outcomes, here are a few examples where enterprises have enhanced executive decision-making by enabling real-time access to profitability insights while also streamlining reporting processes. A global telecommunications provider is unifying its financial and environmental, social and governance data across multiple countries through a new enterprise performance management system built with IBM Planning Analytics. In another case, a major manufacturer has strengthened cross-functional collaboration and adopted advanced analytics and AI to support a strategic transformation.
Of course, technology alone isn’t the answer. The real value comes when these tools are embedded into business processes to transform the way an organisation operates. That’s why it’s critical for the C-suite to come together and champion the shift from fragmented data to integrated financial intelligence. The strategic partnership between IBM and Microsoft enables customers with a Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) to leverage their pre-committed spend to access cutting-edge technologies, unlocking greater value and accelerating digital transformation. Organisations can begin exploring and aligning their strategies today to position themselves for long-term success.
Every organisation has financial data. The question is whether it’s working for you or holding you back. A single source of truth isn’t just about better reporting. It’s about empowering finance to lead with clarity, precision and impact. And with the right technology foundation, it’s entirely within your reach.
Bill Primerano is global AI analytics chief technology officer for data quality and security at IBM
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