Microsoft Finance: Digital Transformation Takes Form

I read everything I can get my hands on when it comes to financial management process change and improvement. I consume both the magnificent and, out of necessity, the mundane. A recent article falls into the magnificent category: Microsoft Finance and the Journey to Digital Transformation. This article, courtesy of FEI Daily, is about the decision by Microsoft’s finance organization to address its growth-driven proliferation of data in multiple, disparate environments. The alert had gone up when leaders realized that 75 percent of finance analysts’ time was spent simply collecting and compiling data. A hodge-podge of data definitions, hierarchies, and metrics, along with a plethora of decentralized tools and systems, had materialized due to new products, many of which sported different business models and challenges. Expansion into new markets added further complexity. Microsoft decided to embark on what it calls a digital transformation. APQC has been tracking the move toward digitized finance. Our recent take—and surely not our last—looks at demand for analytics competency in finance: Finance in 2020: The Rise of Analytics Competency. Stay tuned for further APQC coverage.