While CFOs want to believe they are agile enough for today’s business climate, admitted delays in decision making due to a lack of timely data will not serve them well in an increasingly volatile and uncertain business climate. They will need to overcome the time deficits that currently exist in reporting and data collection so that more resources can be allocated to valuable analytics.

Key to finance’s success will be the adoption of an end-to-end cloud corporate performance management (CPM) system that can be easily integrated with operational data platforms to support continuous, comprehensive, and collaborative planning practices—practices that enable thorough scenario analysis and the ability to explore every possible outcome. In doing so, they can accelerate the pace of finance, piloting their organisations to and through turbulent times, and out of the danger zone.