Today’s CFO must manage far more than a company's finances, with responsibility for corporate strategy and performance, stakeholder communications, and compliance with a host of ever-changing regulations requiring an increasing amount of the CFO’s time. The CFO’s challenge is often exacerbated by inconsistent or inaccurate performance data and reporting across the enterprise, lengthy financial management cycles, an inability to predict future costs, and a lack of alignment between overall strategy and day-to-day operations.

In this, the first Business Objects newsletter for the office of the CFO, we provide key insight into this multifaceted, increasingly complex role of the CFO. In "CFO Finance System Priorities Through 2009," Gartner Analyst Nigel Rayner offers future predictions and trends emphasizing why CFOs must continue to focus on improving efficiency and effectiveness of their financial operations to ensure further productivity gains.

CFOs must also recognize the importance of moving enterprise performance management (EPM) initiatives beyond the finance department to involve the entire organization. Exploring this evolutionary process through a series of steps demonstrates how the true potential of EPM can be achieved. Beth Beld, VP of EPM Strategy at Business Objects, discusses this critical transition/transformation in "The Next Generation Enterprise Planning."

Then, see successful EPM in practice, by learning how Zions Bancorporation, a large full service banking corporation with over $42 billion in assets, used Business Objects solutions to reduce its budget and reporting cycle times, increase the accuracy of its information and deliver up to date numbers…facilitating better business decisions and enhanced results – see "Zions Dramatically Boosts Shareholder Value."

Finally, in "Transforming Great Strategies into Great Results," we highlight how Business Objects Planning XI helps corporate finance to bridge the gap between strategy and daily operations by providing an integrated set of budgeting and planning tools.

At Business Objects we continue to be dedicated to bringing you information, best practices and solutions that fit your business needs. We hope you'll enjoy these monthly editions and find them beneficial.

Featured White Papers

Linking Strategic Plans to Operational Goals

Optimizing Enterprise Performance through Financial Intelligence

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