Software training, mentorship can boost finance team effectiveness
Summary
Today’s CFOs are eyeing outsourcing and new financial software solutions as ways to help boost their finance teams’ efficiency. When it comes to onboarding new software, having a dedicated, active coaching program in place throughout the process can help finance teams have a deeper understanding of the solution, and help them to provide clearer, more impactful insights regarding the company’s data to the CFO, said Susan Gershman, chief customer innovation officer for FP&A and financial software provider Prophix. The more familiar finance employees are with the software, the more they can impact their organization’s business results and help their CFO “be that voice at the table” when talking with the board or key figures in leadership, she said in an interview. For CFOs — who play a critical role when it comes to the decision to ultimately purchase new software — the biggest thing they are searching for when doing so is both the ability to collect all of their data in one place, and the ability to “use that information, not in just a reactionary reporting way, but to allow them to be proactive and model different scenarios,” Gershman said, something that active coaching and mentorship can help to achieve. As well as the more traditional training resources such as online content, the Ontario, Canada-based Prophix also enables customers to meet with a coach, who will discuss the particular organization’s structure and needs, Gershman said.