Many Finance leaders have invested in building and improving finance business partnering capabilities. But few are successful at consistently supporting business decision making in a way that delivers tangible business value. Unsound decision making can cost large companies 3% of profits. How can Finance deliver more effective business decision support?
To provide the proactive, differentiated support the organization needs, changes to the finance business partnering model are required.
Gartner’s guide for finance leaders outlines:
Finance business partners (FBPs) are assigned or aligned to operating units to support decision makers.
Finance business partners can help managers make financially sound operating decisions that take full account of the risks and opportunities of decisions, such as whether to offer a discount on pricing.
The key responsibility of a FBP is to provide the business with insight and analysis to drive decisions. For example, FBPs might perform competitor rate benchmarks to support pricing decisions. .
Some of the ways to do this include:
FBPs need to be able to accurately and acutely analyze financial data and other business-critical data to identify better ways of operating.
This can come down to three key abilities:
By providing rigorous but targeted analysis and data, for example, competitor or industry benchmarking, FBPs are able to drive business leaders to make more profitable or positive operating decisions.
By upskilling business partners in their decision making, finance business partners can ensure that margins and profits aren’t lost because of financially unsound decisions.
