Data-Driven Meetings are the Future of Finance

“I don’t know? A former VP asked for that report and we have just included it ever since”

Does this sound familiar? Responses like this are very common when working with a customer to help develop better reporting processes. Today’s meetings have become PowerPoint and Excel Spreadsheet disasters, with stale and outdated data being discussed and used to make business decisions. The data is presented based on what was important for decisions made in the past.  Meeting attendees are trapped under a pile of stale data that has no relevance to current business discussions.

Data Driven Meetings

Data driven meetings using SAP Digital Boardroom will help move businesses beyond the outdated reports and into a meeting driven around discussion, facts and insights. SAP Digital Boardroom allows the ability to report, analyze and drill-into real-time data across the lines of business and operations.  The flexibility to modify charts, filter reports and create KPIs allows users to visualize the data to drive discussion and allow for better business decisions.

Eliminate One Off Reports

“Investigate the cause of the increase in Days Sales Outstanding this month and report back next week?”

This is a common outcome of traditional meetings. A problem is identified and someone is tasked with finding the cause and reporting back in another meeting. Then the following month, an additional report is added to start showing this additional finding. This slide is now included going forward due to a one-time request.  SAP Digital Boardroom highlights the issue but will then allow the meeting attendees to drill into the question and determine the cause or develop a more proactive request.  It may be determined three customers are the main causes of the issue, then the meeting can review the sales to the customers.  The outcome of a data driven meeting might be to stop sales to two customers and an action to review the collection process from the third.  Time to action has been reduced by a month and specific actions have been determined to correct the issue and the DSO by customer is not a monthly discussion because of this one-time request.

Simplify Meeting Preparation

SAP Digital Boardroom simplifies meeting preparation with an intuitive user interface. The three screen reporting view enables the meeting to have an overview screen that is the starting point for discussion, an exploration screen where analysis begins and a context screen where data-driven insights emerge.  Analysts prepare for the meeting are not collecting, validating and building data presentations.  They are analyzing the data within Analytics Cloud, highlighting current issues and building an agenda with specific exploration and analysis screens to allow the meeting to explore and resolve the current issues.  However, the meeting is not limited to the charts and reports the analysts prepare. During the meeting, participants can ask questions and modify filters, drill-into organizations and create calculations to dig deeper into the identified issues or new issues.

Learn More

All of this is possible with a modern finance department run on SAP Analytics Cloud and Digital Boardroom. To learn more about how these tools can work to modernize your finance department, download a free whitepaper to get started on your digital finance transformation.