Using the cloud for rapid deployment of Financial Planning & Analysis technology

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Steve Player.

IT professionals often view cloud computing as a challenge to on-premises implementations. While this is true, the cloud also provides the financial planning and analysis (FP&A) function with a ready way to rapidly deploy advanced planning approaches. Read on to discover how cloud computing enables rapid FP&A technology deployment and find responses to common objections to using the cloud.

The need for rapid deployment in FP&A

The FP&A department in most organizations faces tremendous demands because the planning function serves as the organizational brain. It reads inputs of current performance in light of a changing external environment, constantly develops evolving courses of action to transform current capabilities into what the expected future requires, and tries to keep the organization on the path to prosperity…

These tasks have become increasingly difficult as the pace of change in the world accelerates. Company risk is heightened by changes in key commodity costs, currency rate fluctuations, and actions of key customers and competitors. Recent market volatility has shown that old approaches such as relying on traditional annual budgets are simply not adequate. According to APQC and Beyond Budgeting Roundtable research, roughly two-thirds of organizations find the budget targets out of date four to six months into the year…

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