The Post Recession Antidote

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As the destructive wave of the 2009 recession ran its course over us, it left behind some palpable changes. The need to ‘normalize and optimize’ the budgeting and planning of the organization, post the downturn came to be of utmost importance and the CFO’s role came into the spotlight.

As Senior Management worked together arduously to strike that perfect balance to bring the company back to normalcy, they came across several in-built inhibitors within their organization. And some of these did stem as IT constraints or the lack in understanding the IT requirement behind them. For the first time, the CFO had to put on his “Strategy Thinking Hat” and sit down together with the CTO to understand how the company’s IT infrastructure was to ensure flawless performance management.

The two major constraints that emerged were:

Data, data and more data:

Many a times, especially in large organizations, information generated across topographies, verticals, or even divisions is vast. However, to gain access to this information takes ages. In other instances, understanding this information becomes time-consuming or in some cases almost impossible and updations in information are almost lost in transition. There is enough and more material available. Unfortunately, there is never sufficient time for planning.

Harmonize and Standardize:

The role of IT must be in supporting financial processes. In larger organizations the need to harmonize processes is a crucial step in ensuring smooth outcome. However, this becomes difficult across geographies as there are localized differences. But what if there was one dashboard that displayed all these instances together for everyone to see?

In each of the above circumstances, the need for a single consolidated platform arises - One that provides a snapshot of entire planning and process. A platform that provides organizations the flexibility to rapidly respond to evolving policies, regulatory changes and market conditions. A platform that gives the ability to modify the underlying platform so as to leverage business process models to compose new assets. We at Ramco call it “Change on Demand”.

While orchestrating an ERP on the cloud we have been able to put an answer to some of the technological constraints detailed above. Built on a virtual platform, Ramco DecisionWorks (link provided) aims to provide solutions which enable CFOs to deliver on-going shareholder value. Solutions in the form of Data Management while keeping in mind Governance, Risk and Compliance issues; our solutions are meant to enable the CFO to deliver better.

‘Technology is meant to enable. However this technology must be easy to implement, understand & use.’

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