One of the main difficulties software implementers face is the dirty state of corporate data. Yet in most cases, the organisation fiercely defends that their data is clean and quality controlled.

There are many factors that impact corporate data quality beyond that which simple ETL tools can manage. Technology is only half the picture. The other half belongs to data stewardship – ownership of data quality entry. Too often, the lack of a particular field needed by a business unit leads to ’secondment’ of an unused field. However, this field may be used for its intended purpose by another unit of the organisation. Get to the EDW and the two streams of data are merged into one meaningless swamp of corrupt data.

The findings of a survey completed by the Business Performance Management [BPM] Forum in conjunction with financial software vendor, Adaptive Planning has revealed that “only 16% of firms budget expenses accurately”.

This reflects a complete failure of corporate financial planning. The main drivers of this failure appear to be a combination of outmoded software systems and a lack of collaboration between executives [meaning lack of process and supporting technology, rather than lack of willingness].

“There is a desire among financial directors to get a more collaborative form of planning and reporting to improve their companies, but a lack of knowledge on how to do it.”

Chief financial officers are struggling with their financial planning and reporting processes. According to Dave Murray, head of the BPM Forum,“In spite of 90% saying that these processes were essential to the success of a company, over 50% of larger companies found the process frustrating and only 16% said they were on-target for their budgeted expenses.”

It was no surprise that 76% of respondents are still dependent upon Excel spreadsheets for their budgeting, forecasting, and reporting. And the real shocker – nearly one-third of mid-sized and larger companies use more than 100 spreadsheets across the end-to-end the process!!.

These unwieldy spreadmarts are undoubtedly one of the major contributors to lacked consistency and reliability.

Other contributing factors were:

• Lack of information – businesses were changing too quickly for budgets to be accurately done
• Lack of collaborative process – due to the number of spreadsheets
• Confusion – on how to do remedy the problem cost effectively

In spite of this, the respondents did share a common desire to improve their corporate performance to one that was more responsive to dramatic economic change, especially among expense structures. This will result in more timely and responsible financial reporting and improved forecasting and rolling analysis.
The BPM Forum is a US-based group which aims to advance the understanding of business performance management finanical techniques. It currently has over 2000 international member firms.

Adaptive Planning - provider of SaaS budgeting, forecasting and planning software solution to UK companies. Check their site for free software and trials.