Video & Slides: http://www.proformative.com/events/strategic-cfo-changing-game-finance A recent survey reveals an interesting trend: the majority of CFOs want to provide greater and more strategic value to their organizations. Unfortunately they're stuck managing inefficient accounting processes. But in 2013 there is hope. Thousands of organizations are taking advantage of cloud computing, which changes the game for CFOs by eliminating drudgery, automating manual processes and delivering unprecedented visibility into business performance -- freeing time and providing rich information that CFOs are using to fulfill their role as business leaders. Learn how CFOs are now able to boost productivity, accelerate competitive response, free up IT and capital resources as well as easily and cost effectively scale the function while utilizing the cloud. Speaker: Marc Linden, CFO, Intacct Presentation delivered at CFO Dimensions 2013 - www.cfodimensions.com Track: Leadership | Session: 2

1. 1© 2013
The Strategic CFO — Using Cloud
Computing to Change the Game
for Finance
Marc Linden
CFO, Intacct
Jeff Haslow
CFO, The Knowland Group

2. 2© 2013
Today’s Agenda
Cloud basics
The strategic shift for CFOs
How the cloud enables the transformation
Takeaways

3. 3© 2013
The Cloud Impacts All of Us as Consumers

4. 4© 2013
Now Also for Your Business Applications

5. 5© 2013
Cloud Computing: Served Up 3 Ways
•
•
•

6. 6© 2013
Today’s Agenda
Cloud basics
The strategic shift for CFOs
How the cloud enables the
transformation
Takeaways

7. 7© 2013
CFOs Have a Strong Desire to Change
Their Organization’s Role…
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Current Role Desired Role
Score Keeper
Gate Keeper
Provider of Analysis
Business Accelerator
Armanino McKenna, “The CFO Evolution – 2011 Benchmark Survey Results”, Dec 2011

8. 8© 2013
What Does a Business Accelerator Do?
Long term strategic planning
Evaluating new business models
Corporate development activities
Evaluating new market opportunities
Building support for new initiatives
Working with board or analyst

9. 9© 2013
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

10. 10© 2013
Inefficiency in the Accounting Function
Often Hinders Focus on Business Leadership

11. 11© 2013
Today’s Agenda
Cloud basics
The strategic shift for CFOs
How the cloud enables the
transformation
Takeaways

12. 12© 2013
How the Cloud Enables Transformation

13. 13© 2013
Cloud Financial Management Boosts
Productivity Through Automation
Focus on what matters/costs most to the business:
Quote-to-cash
Procure-to-pay
Revenue management
Budgeting and planning
Time and expense

14. 14© 2013
Example:
Software Quote-to-Cash Process Before





15. 15© 2013
Example:
Software Quote-to-Cash Process After
•
•
•
•

16. 16© 2013
The Cloud Enables Real-Time Access to
Central Repository of Information
Real-time, consistent, secure
information in the cloud—a single
version of the truth
24x7 accessibility by all stakeholders
Instant feedback on performance to
plan
Tighter alignment across
the organization
Personalized reporting
and dashboards

17. 17© 2013
The Cloud Lets You Access
Your Data from Anywhere
A single source of data
Access from
anywhere, anytime
Labor can be located
anywhere in the world
Simultaneous users
17

18. 18© 2013
Cloud Financial Management Provides
Analysis Needed for Growth
From:
Management by spreadsheet
Manually intensive, error prone
Trapped in silos on the desktop
•
•
•
•
•
•

19. 19© 2013
The Cloud Gets You Out of the
―No Value Added‖ IT Business
Cloud vendors operate and maintain the
system for you
Better infrastructure and operations than
nearly all companies can afford
Fortune 100 class data centers
24x7x365 operations
Continuous backups and disaster recovery
SSAE 16 (previously SAS 70)
Possible because costs are amortized across
thousands of companies

20. 20© 2013
Tasks You No Longer Have to Worry About
When Running Your Systems in the Cloud
20

21. 21© 2013

22. 22© 2013
The Cloud Brings You Closer to your Vendor
Customer
Feedback
Continuous
Innovation
Rapid Access
to New
Features

23. 23© 2013
Your Business Will Grow in
Size and Complexities
Increased complexity may include:
New business entities
Multiple currencies
New geographies
Acquisitions
New GMs that want their
consolidated view
Tax optimization
Software International Inc.
USD
Software
Development
Israel
(ILS)
Software
Development
India
(INR)
Software
Sales
UK
(GBP)
Software
Sales
Europe
(EUR)
Software
US
(USD)
Buddy
Software
(USD)
(acquisition)
Software
Japan KK
51% ownership
(Yen)

24. 24© 2013
When Running Your Business on SaaS,
It Is Easy to Integrate Systems When Needed
Why SaaS is easier to integrate:
SaaS web services are widely
accepted technologies
Many vendors support it
Availability of 3rd party intermediaries
Both self service or
consultant-built options

25. 25© 2013
The Cloud Provides Scale to
Support Growth
Easily and cost effectively scale and
adapt to business needs:
Pay only for what you need
Simultaneous and distributed users
with strict permissions, separation of
duties and financial control
Support for large data files (customers,
vendors, employees, etc)
Industry leading system performance
and reliability
Add-on capabilities and integrations
when you need them

26. 26© 2013
Example: Set Your Accounting System Up
To Easily Manage Acquisitions
From:
Consolidating entities on
spreadsheets
Multiple instances of QuickBooks
Merged entities on different systems
Manual journal entries for inter-entity
transactions
•
•
•
•
•
•

27. 27© 2013
Jeff Haslow
CFO, The Knowland Group

28. 28© 2013
About the Knowland Group
Founded in 2004 – high-growth mode for the past
9 years
SaaS, Data, Analytics and Services to more than
3,000 hotels and 25,000 users worldwide – billed
monthly
150 employees in three locations
Bootstrap funded until first private investment last
year.

29. 29© 2013
Today’s Agenda
Cloud basics
The strategic shift for CFOs
How the cloud enables the
transformation
Takeaways

30. 30© 2013
ERP System Change
Addresses the Top Issues for CFOs

31. 31© 2013
Systems Change is a Strategic Opportunity
Systems Enable Transformation
Drive productivity via automation
Provide reporting and real-time business visibility
Integrate to other business systems
Scale to support growth
31
•
•
•
•

32. 32© 2013
Starting the Transformation
What You Should Be Asking Yourself
Boost productivity of financial processes
Where do you spend your time now?
What is being done in Excel?
Supply insight for better and faster decisions
How old is the information from which you are making decisions?
What is the bottleneck in getting the data?
Focus resources on your core business
What other financial or related systems are critical to your business?
Where can you eliminate duplicate entry, entry errors etc?
Deliver scale for growth
What are business needs 3-4 years from now?
Do you have a business systems map to meet those needs?

33. 33© 2013
Interested in Learning More?

34. 34© 2013
Thank You!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:

35. 35© 2013
Thank You Sponsors!
PLATINUM
GOLD
SILVER
DIAMOND