Why Great FP&A Leaders Insist on Creating Systems

Summary

In this edition, we will be covering the following items:

1. Why systems thinking is critical for FP&A

2. What systems thinking looks like for FP&A

3. Using the Microsoft Power Platform to design your systems

Systems Thinking in FP&A: Becoming a Strategic Partner

Systems thinking is a way of viewing organizations as an interconnected set of elements working together. FP&A teams sit at the heart of the business, connecting leadership and business partners to support daily operations and execute the company’s long-term strategy. Being able to think systematically and strategically about your team’s role, processes, and objectives will set your team apart from the crowd. This will make the difference between being a “process-oriented” team and a “strategic partner.”

1. Defining Outputs: FP&A teams play a critical role in guiding the business. Understanding exactly how you want to add value and where you are needed most is critical to creating process that help your team succeed. The outputs of different teams depend heavily on how they have thought about their systems:

   1. Process-Oriented: These teams produce budgets, reports, and KPIs for leadership consumption. They reconcile and verify data to ensure accurate reporting.

   2. Strategic Partner: These teams support data-driven decision-making. They are business partners and work with stakeholders to unlock progress for the business. They are integral to the long-term vision of the company and they build reporting, budgets, and analysis to support this objective.

2. Understanding People: Your team’s relationships with stakeholders can make a massive difference in your ability to impact your organization and deliver outsized results.

   1. Process-Oriented: These teams reactively deliver what stakeholders ask for.

   2. Strategic Partner: These teams proactively partner with their stakeholders to identify their critical objectives. They look for holistic solutions and help to answer the strategic questions that unlock growth for the business.

3. Technology: To succeed in modern FP&A, your team has to be equipped with the tools and training they need to support their business partners. This means learning how to use technology to your advantage and change the way your team delivers value.

   1. Process-Oriented: These teams use the tools and systems they have and leverage makeshift solutions to hold processes together.

   2. Strategic Partner: These teams proactively explore technologies and develop tools to multiply their productivity and impact across the business. They are in the driver’s seat of their technology roadmap.

Why Microsoft Power Platform Tools Empower Systems Thinkers in FP&A

Having the right toolkit and technologies can make all the difference when you are trying to reimagine how your team delivers value to the business. The flexibility of tools like Power BI, Acterys, and Power Automate means your team is free to redefine, simplify, and enhance their systems on their own terms.

1. Structured Flexibility Means Adaptability: As your business, stakeholders, and objectives change, having configurable tools means your systems can change too. The value of empowering your team with technology like Power BI and Acterys is that you can define your own systems and process completely in service of the outcomes you want to deliver, rather than being beholden to your infrastructure.

2. Configurable Tools Allow You to Put Stakeholders First: Designing your own systems allows you to build processes that support your stakeholders and the broader organization. Your team has the power to create their own tooling and methodically revamp how they serve their stakeholders.

Technology to Put Systems in Action

Asking yourself the right questions can help you think clearly about how to add the most value, and build the right tools for the job:

1. What analysis do your stakeholders need at their fingertips and why?

2. What questions are challenging to answer today that could unlock value for the business?

3. What processes are time-consuming and error-prone today that could be reimagined?

4. Where does your team have the opportunity to bring insight, alignment, and structure to your business partners? What tools would you need to support that goal?

5. What are the long-term objectives of your organization and is your team able to provide analysis to guide the business in that direction? What would it take to provide that using your current tooling?

In the Next Newsletter

We will be learning about how to build Power BI skills in your FP&A team.