SAS: Data Convergence for Organisational Success

Adam Stott of SAS, sponsor at the marcus evans CFO Summit 2011, Government CIO Summit 2011 and CMO Summit 2011, on optimising company data to drive business success.

NICOSIA, Cyprus  (09 Feb 2011)  – Organisations are often overloaded with data and spend up to 80 percent of their time trying to make sense of it, according to Adam Stott, General Manager – Financial Intelligence – SAS Australia and New Zealand. He maintains that Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) need to look at innovative approaches to decision-making and run what-if scenario analyses to drive better outcomes. The masses of company data needs to be converged and aligned to strategic goals.

From sponsor SAS attending the marcus evans CFO Summit 2011, Government CIO Summit 2011 and CMO Summit 2011, Stott discusses business analytics, data convergence and what it takes to optimise information.

How can business analytics empower CFOs?

Adam Stott: Data is one of the largest, most valuable assets of any organisation but is usually spread across business areas. This makes it difficult to turn it into useful information to enable fact-based decision-making. Business analytics can overcome this by pulling together data to optimise the business, understand and retain customers and increase productivity with fewer resources.

How can data convergence help achieve organisational goals?

Adam Stott: CFOs typically look at budgeting and forecasting and performance reporting separately but this approach takes too long. The information is usually out of date by the time the processes are completed and the outcomes are rarely aligned to strategic aims. This separate approach tends to be taken to satisfy company requirements rather than being essential to resource allocation and planning. Strategic alignment is imperative to ensure that everyone is heading in the same direction and making decisions in line with strategy.

Convergence across the organisation is where the real value of business analytics lies. If companies know who their most and least profitable customers are and the true cost of selling, they can properly understand the risk profile of each customer. This can be used to adjust marketing campaigns to unprofitable customers or offer them a cheaper distribution channel, thereby turning them into profitable customers. In the same way, strategies can be adjusted to retain profitable customers and attract more with similar profiles. CFOs can understand the cause and effect relationships of their KPIs and conflicting goals between business areas that prevent them from reaching those KPIs.

Information is typically spread across the organisation but in isolation it is not as effective as when converged. The information is there but is not being used to its full potential.

Final thoughts?

Adam Stott: CFOs should explore innovative approaches to decision-making, run what-if analyses and test different assumptions to see how better outcomes can be achieved. 

There is massive potential to cut costs and improve efficiencies within the Information Technology area. The impact of the CFO is spread across the business. There is pressure to understand cost drivers in business units and this is where savings can be made. Business analytics is making a difference.

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