S A Partners was delighted to sponsor the Forecasting Performance Report by CFO Research.
CFO Research InSight Reports examine issues of pressing interest to senior finance executives. Using fresh data, these topical trend reports offer peer-based insights for executives seeking best practices. Their latest release, Forecasting Performance, is being made available to you free of charge, compliments of S A Partners.
Forecasting Performance is the first report in a new three-part series on planning and managing business performance by CFO Research. S A Partners USA is the sponsor of this first research publication focused on:
- Forecasting areas that finance executives expect to be most challenging over the next two years;
- Finance executives’ assessments of their companies’ forecasting performance;
- The most common sources of variances between forecasts and actual performance; and
- The real-world contribution of IT systems to companies’ forecasting efforts
Results:
“PROCESS IMPROVEMENT SURFACES IN THE RESEARCH AS THE MOST VALUABLE CHANGE THAT COMPANIES CAN MAKE IN ORDER TO FORECAST MORE”
Among the 236 Senior Finance Executives within U.S. companies surveyed to examine their current goals for planning, budgeting, and forecasting—and how they aim to achieve those goals successfully, Process Improvement was a constant theme.
41% of respondents to the survey view process improvement as one of the most valuable changes their company could make as part of its efforts to plan, budget, and forecast more effectively—one that merits substantial management attention. One VP of business planning at a midsize construction company advises, “Establish a senior leader for process improvement, empowered to make changes and hold people accountable.”
About CFO:
CFO Research Services is the sponsored research group of CFO Publishing LLC, which produces CFO magazine, CFO.com, and CFO Conferences. For more than 25 years, CFO Publishing has been a trusted source of insight into the issues that matter most to finance professionals.