New Expectations, New Tools

For finance leaders operating in today’s challenging business environment, the focus increasingly falls on three perennial needs: to reduce costs, to hone leadership skills, and to develop new finance talent.

Addressing these needs requires more than transforming mindsets and casting a critical eye on processes within the organization. It also requires the right tools that can support the office of the CFO while providing fresh and meaningful insights — as well as a new degree of information accessibility — to transform how finance professionals do their jobs.

Loaded with functionality designed to help address today’s finance needs, SAP S/4HANA Finance can serve as a critical tool for helping the finance team rein in costs, become more effective leaders, and prepare for the next generation of finance workers.

Cutting Costs

As the C-suite continues to press for creative solutions to bolster the bottom line, the spotlight on cutting costs grows. SAP S/4HANA Finance can support cost-cutting efforts by providing real-time data as transactions post, rather than waiting until the end of a lengthy reporting period. That real-time capability, coupled with broad planning features, can give finance leaders an early view into how costs are shaping up to help them adjust plans moving forward and support departments in making decisions that can drive efficiencies and trim costs.

Strengthening Skillsets

The role of finance leaders continues to evolve, with an emphasis on developing new “challenger” and “architect” skillsets. As challengers, finance team members should critically examine departmental and enterprise-wide operations, flagging the potential for risk. As architects, team members should help departments build strategies by navigating choices, assessing potential plans, and translating plan options into real numbers. SAP S/4HANA Finance can help on both the challenger and architect fronts by delivering tools and functionality such as SAP Integrated Business Planning for finance, which seamlessly supports deep, detailed planning scenarios. SAP S/4HANA Finance allows finance teams to rapidly explore revenue and spending possibilities, helping improve their ability to serve as challengers and architects.

Supporting Talent

As the demographics of the workforce shift and the next generation of workers arrives with new expectations — particularly when it comes to getting information rapidly and while on the go — SAP solutions can become critical resources for the enterprise. Built solidly atop the SAP HANA in-memory computing platform and delivered through the intuitive SAP Fiori user interface, SAP S/4HANA Finance can help meet these new expectations. By putting actionable insights front and center for rapid and straightforward “click, drag, drop” decision making, it can help flatten the learning curve that new employees often face — especially as veteran workers depart and take their how-to expertise with them.

Learn More

Applying SAP S/4HANA Finance to help meet evolving challenges requires more than just a technology solution. It involves an understanding of processes and how they should evolve to align with business objectives. As an SAP global services partner, Deloitte stands ready to help finance leaders develop that understanding. To learn more, contact us at sap@deloitte.com and follow us on Twitter at @DeloitteSAP.