CFOs See Data-Driven Decision Making at Center of 2023 Action

CFOs who spent 2022 modernizing their businesses expect to reap further data-driven benefits in 2023.

Across numerous and far-ranging discussions, PYMNTS found that providing value through cutting-edge analytics is a key priority for finance leaders in the coming new year — regardless of industry or geography.

The economic uncertainty and macro headwinds that characterized 2022 will continue to drive further digital transformation in 2023. CFOs who got a head start deploying next-generation solutions to evolve their business processes are hoping to further leverage insights gleaned from digital tools to accelerate smarter future growth.

Intelligent data collection and activation can also help inform high-level operational decision-making and shift an organization’s point of view from a reactive historical perspective to a proactive, forward-looking one.

Turning Data Into ‘Change-the-Business’ Insights

With interest rates rising and a generally gloomy economic mood souring the macro environment, the notion of providing value has changed for CFOs.

For example, as our globalized world becomes further integrated and intertwined, particularly from a business operational standpoint, CFOs attempting to predict future revenue streams or develop long-term working capital models are increasingly using data-rich strategies to drive business growth and capture efficiencies.

“The data that exists within companies is at the heart of everything that drives better decision-making,” Adriana Carpenter, CFO of Emburse told PYMNTS earlier this year, noting the need for companies to make data, data governance, and strategy a priority if they want to capture its full value. It’s imperative to “harness that data and to be able to layer on the tech that’s available to drive better decision-making.”

At the same time, finance chiefs told PYMNTS that 2023 was shaping up to be the year when more so-called tech agnostics would consider changing their tune.

While many companies don’t yet have the resources or expertise necessary to glean critical expense and payment data and transform it into actionable insights, businesses clinging to legacy methods of managing B2B payments and expenses may find themselves at a crossroads, facing competitors leveraging new technology to solidify their advantage.

“Much of my time goes into getting [data] and then making decisions based on that to improve our investment, our systems, [and] our processes,” Transflo CFO Cameron Eastman told PYMNTS. “We’re looking across the board making sure everything is scalable, repeatable, [and] ultimately, that we can be there to provide more value to our customers, that’s a big part of why we started heavily investing in intelligent automation.”

Data provides certainty, and certainty is key for CFOs looking to stay profitable by making smart decisions. Leveraging organizational data is key to unlocking greater value from existing business models by increasing visibility and allowing greater control over spending and further accountability over common processes.

Maximizing Enablement

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools can help finance leaders re-evaluate how they use their resources by uncovering key opportunity areas. The most competitive companies are now focused on digitally-driven modernization of their operations, from data management to expense monitoring.

Kiran Hebbar, CFO at Alloy, told PYMNTs that he uses AI and machine learning solutions, along with “170 different data partners,” to help set up better decisioning on a “transaction-by-transaction, company-by-company basis.”

Digital tools bring new risks around fraud and compliance for which data is particularly well-suited to solve.

According to Michael Carus, CFO at InsurePay, risk management strategies should always start with data.

“We’re taking what has been traditionally an estimated and non-real-time environment, and we are moving it into a data-driven, real-time assessment of risk,” he says.

Gary A. Vecchiarelli, CPA, CFO at CleanSpark, told PYMNTs that because finance leaders must “walk this line of either having very robust controls and risk assessments or trying to operate quickly — you need to strike that productive balance between compliance requirements and business needs,” he sees taking advantage of data-driven insights collected through digital solutions as key to the future the CFO office.

Centralizing Control

Armed with intelligent analytics, CFOs will be better equipped to answer both upper-level strategic decisions as well as day-to-day operational decisions, helping build a bridge between managing their business and running it while responding with greater insight to changes in the marketplace.

As much as it is a challenging time, it is also exciting for CFOs as long-standing operational processes continue to be consolidated into convenient digital tools and dashboards that offer unparalleled predictive power and other benefits.

Having moved toward digital tools, beginning to activate a year’s worth, or more, of operational learnings is a logical and increasingly easy step for businesses of all sizes across all industries.

A new era of payment-focused technology is being built, creating an array of opportunities for finance executives to take advantage of as they look to grow, evolve, and eventually transform their businesses in the new year and beyond.