Confused Asian CFOs bogged down by clunky data analytics software

Information overload defeats the chiefs.

Chief financial officers have to be excellent multi-taskers. But more and more CFOs are scratching their heads thanks to information overload brought by complicated analytics software.

According to a report by the Economic Intelligence Unit and Qlik, 47% of CFOs in the Asia Pacific region claim that their decision making is slowed down by information overload, with 44% claiming that IT vendors are not interested in making their analytics tools simple or easy to use.

“In managing these challenges, CFOs believe they have not been adequately supported by incumbent IT vendors, who are seen as reluctant to make software that simplifies data problems. They continue to look for technology-based solutions, but find most data management tools fall short by not providing the flexibility CFOs expect to aid in short-term operational and long-term strategic decision-making,” noted the report.

Here’s more from the study:

This report, commissioned by Qlik, finds that having to use so much new information to shape corporate strategy is a double-edged sword. The growth of non-traditional information sources, such as social media and location-based data, offers more potential opportunities for CFOs to generate important insights about their businesses.

Yet many CFOs believe their decision-making speed is actually slowing down, despite a need to make real-time or near real-time decisions based on multiple data sets. They feel they are often constrained by inaccurate or obsolete information and that valuable data stuck is in organisational silos.

Data features prominently on the list of obstacles executives face. 52% say data accuracy is the biggest hindrance to doing their job, while 46% point to access to real-time data and 43% say integrating complex data from different sources is a problem.

Being able to process greater volumes of information is an increasing focus for CFOs. 74% of survey respondents say data analysis will be useful in the future when making long-term strategic decisions. Nearly all respondents (94%) feel they will need more IT expertise in the next three years.

However, they generally feel that IT tools do not meet their needs: 44% of respondents feel IT vendors are not interested in making their analytics tools simple or easy to use.