© Copyright Ventana Research, 2018 Do Not Redistribute Without Permission

Wdata Puts the “A” back in FP&A

Workiva recently introduced Wdata, a cloud facility for centralizing financial and non-financial information from multiple sources. It frees up time for finance organizations, especially financial planning and analysis (FP&A) groups, to explore conditions and trends in their busi-ness because they need to spend less of it gathering data and preparing it for analysis and

reporting. Ventana Research recently awarded Workiva our Digital Innovation award for Wdata because of its transformative potential. The process of preparing data for analysis is often a source of inefficiency and ineffectiveness in the Office of Finance. Our Next-Generation Finance Analytics benchmark research finds that when undertaking analyses, two-thirds (68%) of finance departments spend the largest percentage of their

time not on analysis but on data preparation activities. Only 28 percent spend the plurality of their time analyzing data. This is a picture of a situation where the department likely spends too much time wrangling data, which is inefficient, and not enough time creating a broader assortment of analyses or providing reports and analyses, which is ineffective. Our Office of Finance benchmark research also finds that while a majority of companies’ finance departments say the data they provide to the rest of the organization is accurate, only 31 percent describe the information they produce as always timely. If they need to put less effort into data preparation, the time that finan-cial analysts now spend on it could be used to do what they’re paid to do: analysis. And Wdata can help departments put the “A” back in FP&A. Our research shows that few companies perform analyses that can be useful in improving their effectiveness, including product or customer pro-fitability analyses. Wdata creates the central source of accurate, timely and consistent data that finance organizations need for analysis and reporting. Because everyone accesses the same set of authoritative information, “the numbers” are always consistent. Workiva’s applications facilitate the creation of ad-hoc or periodic com-posite reports that combine data, narratives, charts and other graphic elements for external and internal reporting purposes. Because Wdata can incorporate data from multiple internal

Analyst Perspective

Robert Kugel SVP & Research

Director

Prepared for:

Ventana Research: Wdata Put the “A” back in FP&A

© Copyright Ventana Research, 2018 Do Not Redistribute Without Permission

systems – including data from CRM or manufacturing systems as well as third-party data such as industry statistics – it can substantially enrich the scope and richness of the analysis that an FP&A group performs. Analysis, planning and budgeting is better with Wdata than it is with a spreadsheet because Wor-kiva behaves just like a familiar spreadsheet but also is able to work with multiple dimensions using clean data. Wdata is a cloud application and therefore can scale on demand. Desktop spreadsheets and even on-premises business intelligence systems have limited scalability. Wdata is designed to be managed by the finance department, not IT. It is best suited for those companies with a Finance IT function – a team of individuals with a deep understanding of finance and accounting but who also are competent in working with technology. Our Office of Finance

research finds that half (52%) of companies with 500 or more employees have a Finance IT function in their organization. I recommend that all companies that are using the Wdesk platform, especially for internal or external financial reporting, performance reporting or for preparing regulatory reports (including public disclosures), evaluate Wdata. Regards, Robert Kugel SVP & Research Director To read more perspectives by Rob, visit https://robertkugel.ventanaresearch.com/

Robert Kugel – SVP and Research Director, Ventana Research Robert Kugel is responsible for the Office of Finance and business research, focusing on the intersection of information technology with the finance organization and business. His research agenda includes the application of IT to finance and business process optimization, looking particularly at ERP and continuous accounting, financial performance management, predictive planning, price and revenue management, revenue and lease accounting and robotic finance.