Finance process improvement is back in full swing—or is it? Some would argue that it’s not back, per se; they’d say it never left. Surely they are thinking of companies run by CEOs with the will to make process excellence a cornerstone of competitive strategy. But what about those without such support? Preliminary APQC research says finance process improvement is a compelling issue for most. Three reasons stand out.

First, growth targets are more aggressive than ever, and that means finance has got to provide the best-possible financial analysis in hours or days, not weeks, to assist operating managers in the selection of growth tactics. Second, many organizations are finding that their assumptions about the lowest cost locales to get work done need re-jiggering. Finally, the advent of robotics process automation may well alter views about what core financial management should look like and cost. APQC has just launched a survey to gather opinions on where finance process management is headed.