Last week, I hosted an APQC webinar on the financial close process that focused on how to streamline and automate financial reporting. More than 480 people signed up. This week, I was a guest presenter on a webinar produced by Proformative, an online professional community for finance and accounting professionals. More than 400 people signed up. No doubt about it! A whole lot of folks are interested in finance process improvement.
Maybe it’s simply the case that finance teams are taking a breather after year-end closings, and they’re availing themselves of some online education over brown-bag lunches. But I don’t think that’s the real story. In mid-2012, the financial management (FM) research team at APQC released survey results that indicated a surge in investments in finance process improvements. Polling questions asked during the webinar I did this week for Proformative confirm my own research findings. Here’s a taste.
- 75% of attendees indicated their firms were currently (or soon to be) engaged in finance improvement programs.
- 50% described their finance teams as having “a clear sense of purpose and a sense they play a vital role in strategy execution.”
- Only 50% (sadly) say their organizations provide adequate training and skills development for finance team employees.
What this picture says to me is that finance organizations, generally, feel their brethren in operations want and need their analytical expertise—and, as usual, everybody wants finance to do its job faster, better, and cheaper.
So, it looks like finance people are raring to go! If only there were consistent commitments to finance talent development. We’ll stay on this thread and keep you posted.