60% domestic firms ready to hike investment to boost finances

MUMBAI: With financial reporting standards changing rapidly, majority of domestic firms are ready to increase their investments for improving the function of their finance department, says a research report.

According to KPMG's global CFO research, nearly 60 per cent of domestic respondents say they are very much willing to devote resources and funds to improve their finance functions, and over half of the respondents plan to increase their the budget or investment for their finance departments.

KPMG surveyed around 440 chief financial officers and senior finance executives in 15 countries, including India, covering all major industry sectors shared their opinions on how finance functions are adapting to emerging business challenges.

"Globally, finance functions have spent much of the past decade dealing with rapidly changing financial reporting standards, new corporate governance requirements and cost-cutting initiatives. Today, a majority of domestic firms are willing to devote funds to improve their finance functions," KPMG global financial management head Martyn van Wensveen said.

The finance organisation of the future must go beyond its business-as-usual bookkeeping and financial reporting role to become a provider of real intelligence that business units can depend on when making tactical and strategic business decisions, he said.

"Intelligent finance functions empower finance teams to help business make better and faster decisions based on the right information delivered at the right time," Wensveen said.

The report also notes that the most forward-thinking finance functions embed intelligent finance concepts by strengthening their business strategy alignment, planning and control, management reporting and analytical capabilities.

They also employ the latest business intelligence tools and innovative data and analytics techniques as well as invest in resources for transforming this data into insightful reports that enable actionable decisions across all business functions, it said.