The technology that will most significantly impact my role as CFO this year is undoubtedly Workday Adaptive Planning.
Fusion5 started using Workday Adaptive Planning in 2022 to leverage the financial information and capabilities we already had in our NetSuite ERP to run our annual budgets. This year however, we're really ramping up how we use Workday – it's already been a game-changer for me as CFO and the business, and we’re looking to expand that further.
But first - what couldn’t we do before Workday?
Fusion5 is a well-established group of companies operating across New Zealand and Australia, yet, just twelve months ago, producing clear and concise consolidated financial statements for our Board directly from our ERP was a cumbersome task. Workday changed that almost immediately with easy-to-use integrated tools such as the Microsoft Office OfficeConnect add-on which allowed me (yes, me!) to quickly produce and customise Excel reports or presentations for the directors using up-to-date financial data imported from our ERP – without the need for time-consuming customisations to existing report formats, or passing it off to technical report writing staff.
This year we’re going to be expanding what we can do (big-time) by using Workday as a key reporting tool to deliver financial results and targeted business metrics to our front-line managers.
As CFO, the next big value-add for me is the ability to use Workday to generate real-time rolling forecasts based on current performance scenarios rather than assumptions we made and budgets we set six months ago, without going through the full budget review process. Rolling forecasts from Workday will provide us with a better financial picture by combining actual trends and trading results with “what-if” variables to forecast future performance – which is critical to every business’s success, especially when expecting periods of uncertainty.
As CFO of Fusion5, it's exciting to leverage all the power and value of the information we've got in our financial system. Workday is user-friendly, making it easy to use and quickly gain value from. I can write reports without needing a team of analysts to support me, and in turn produce information for our directors and decision-makers that meet their individual presentation style and preferences. With Workday, we’re able to accommodate this with minimal effort and maximum satisfaction.
Workday's been a breath of fresh air and has vastly improved our up-to-the-minute reporting capabilities, winning kudos around the boardroom table. With Workday, we can make better-informed decisions about ‘what next’, ‘what if,’ and ‘where to from here’.
In a year which promises to be very challenging for the economy, businesses, and individuals alike, real-time financial information and analysis coupled with accurate rolling forecasts could make the difference between surviving and succeeding – and Workday is a powerful tool to have in the arsenal.
Greg Marshall
CFO - Fusion5