WEBVTT

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<v ->Let's talk about technology.</v>

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How do you view finance technology today

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and how your team should be harnessing it?

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<v ->The real key now is connecting the operational data</v>

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with the financial data and the technology, using data lakes

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and other, you know, integrated technology platforms,

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has opened up the lens

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and built bridges between finance and the businesses.

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And now you have a technology that allows you

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to have driver-based budgeting

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and connecting with operational resources for calls,

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or sales forecasts, driving how many people

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we need to cover the phones.

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All this demand-based activity

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that was not even present ten years ago.

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That has transformed how finance

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can really be a business partner.

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<v ->I would make sure that each major function in a business</v>

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had a finance business partner, say a CFO, right?

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And that was a key conduit to me

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to know what was going on in the business.

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And let's say you get your data infrastructure correct,

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and you don't really need that much finance

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intervention to close the books.

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So the role that finance will play in

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that case is the key business partner.

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Okay, here's the data, what does that mean

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and what do we have to do going forward to make

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that even better?

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It's a business-oriented finance person translating

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the numbers into actions within the individual

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functions that are driving the business.

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Finance doesn't drive the business, right,

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in most industries, right?

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But we have to get involved in the functions

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that do drive the business so they can make better

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data-based decisions that help shareholder value.

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<v ->Really where things are going is on the predictive side,</v>

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and as you think about

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where finance individuals really add values,

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is ferreting out those trends or looking for that story,

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and with AI layering on top of your data,

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that actually is being generated to where that's,

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those people then move on to the next thing of, okay,

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I've got my story, I've got my trends,

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what do I now need to do to adjust and go with that?

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Generative AI, on top of that,

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is going to drive an enormous amount of efficiencies

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in the finance organization.

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<v ->We always used to do forecasts</v>

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and people would do human intervention look at the numbers

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and, "Give me a new forecast."

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And like, "What's the trend? Tell me."

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Like, "Let's just run some of the AI modules over these."

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And say, "Unaided, this is what's going to happen.

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So tell me what you're going to do differently to change

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what your trend is already telling me."

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And that's a very, very big change for mindset

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for finance professionals to get a lot of

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really low value-added work out of the system.

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<v ->I think if we look back the same group, 10,</v>

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20 years down the road, this will have been the biggest

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change that happened within finance during that time period.

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The speed of information has accelerated.

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The technology is there.

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The question is, will you embrace it as a company?

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That forces you to think differently about hiring.

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It's no longer the day where you just need to hire a bunch

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of CPAs right out of grad school

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or big accounting firms.

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That's still important,

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but you need people who understand data.

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You need people who can develop the code

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to help you run the predictive models.