The FSN Future of the Finance Function Survey 2017

Aptitude Software is pleased to share the FSN Future of the Finance Function Survey 2017, which explores the progress of finance professionals along the Modern Finance journey.

This year's response was even larger than last year's with more than 800 senior finance members completing the survey. The responses were gathered from all over the world and across 23 different industries, making it one of the largest and most authoritative studies of its kind.

The survey shows a genuine shift in mind-set from first generation CFOs, focused on backwards looking reporting and risk mitigation, to a more enlightened second generation of CFOs for whom business partnering, strategy involvement and performance management is the new norm, alongside the more traditional roles of financial stewardship, financial governance and risk management.

Nevertheless, the challenges are formidable and this year's survey pinpoints various concerns against the backdrop of continued pressure on finance headcount.  A few interesting findings include:

• 42% of CFOs say the finance function does not have sufficient understanding of business operations.  This limits their ability to effectively partner across the organization.
• There is still a great struggle around the collection and use of data.  78% of respondents say decision making has become more data driven over the last 3 years but less than 24% understand what data is available to them.
• Only half of CFOs believe their finance function has the skills to evaluate technology and only a quarter feel they have the time to do it.  To bridge that gap finance teams are leaning on software vendors to assist with projects.

As proud sponsors of this research report we hope you find the study interesting and illuminating.