INSIGHTS

COMMUNITY ARTICLE

Looking Past COVID-19: Five Critical Messages for CFOs

Finance has received high marks from management and business stakeholders for its rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a poll by The Hackett Group and Workday, conducted in May 2020, 100 percent of finance respondents transitioned successfully to remote working and closed the books on time.

Using the lessons learned over the past few months, CFOs must now move the function beyond reactive blocking and tackling, toward preparing to meet the long-term implications of the crisis on Finance's operating model.

Key findings:

The Hackett Group's EPM Performance Study (2018) found that half of financial planning and analysis groups (FP&A) still relied on complex and cumbersome spreadsheets to produce the forecast and run analysis. As a result, 72 percent of groups have had difficulty meeting the company's demand for forward-looking information.
75 percent of participants in the COVID-19 Response Poll took immediate steps to improve working capital management. 79 percent intend to operationalise this post-crisis.
According to 75 percent of poll respondents, the biggest long-term effect of the pandemic will be a renewed sense of urgency about transforming to a more agile service delivery model.