An email has been sent to your address with instructions for changing your password.
There is no user registered with this email.
Sign Up
To create a free account, please fill out the form below.
Thank you for signing up!
A confirmation email has been sent to your email address. Please check your email and follow the instructions in the message to complete the registration process. If you do not receive the email, please check your spam folder or contact us for assistance.
Welcome to our platform!
Oops!
Something went wrong while trying to create your new account. Please try again and if the problem persist, Email Us to receive support.
Hackett: Digital Transformation is a Leading Priority for Finance in 2023, As Companies Respond to the Global Economic Downturn
Rhea-AI Impact
(Low)
Rhea-AI Sentiment
(Neutral)
Tags
Rhea-AI Summary
The Hackett Group (NASDAQ: HCKT) has released its 2023 CFO Agenda research, indicating that corporate finance leaders will prioritize digital transformation amidst recession, inflation, and talent shortages. The study reveals an expected 8% increase in workload while facing a 1% reduction in staff and a 2% budget cut, resulting in substantial productivity and efficiency gaps of 9% and 10% respectively. Although 5% of the budget will go towards finance technology, 60% of executives demonstrate low confidence in retaining essential skills. Only 19% plan initiatives for uncontrollable issues, highlighting a concerning disconnect in priorities.
Positive
5% increase in finance technology spending indicates a commitment to digital transformation.
75% of companies have major initiatives for digital transformation.
Negative
9% productivity gap and 10% efficiency gap projected due to increased workload and decreased budget/staff.
Only 19% of companies have initiatives to prepare for uncontrollable issues.
60% of finance executives lack confidence in retaining necessary skills.
Finance Looks to Technology to Mitigate Productivity and Efficiency Gaps
MIAMI & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Corporate finance leaders expect to remain focused on digital transformation in 2023 to address recession, inflation, geopolitical turmoil and talent shortages, according to the 2023 CFO Agenda research from The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT). Other top priorities for the year include providing support for growth strategies, better preparedness for issues they cannot control, improving business partnering and enhancing finance agility, the research found.
In addition, the research from The Hackett Group® found that finance executives will face budget and staffing shortfalls in 2023 and are counting on technology investments to mitigate the gaps. An expected 8% increase in workload, combined with an expected 1% reduction in head count and a 2% reduction in budget, will drive a productivity gap of 9% and an efficiency gap of 10%, roughly double the size of the gaps recorded in last year’s study. Finance technology spend is expected to increase by 5%, indicating a continued and growing reliance on technology to increase productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness.
The study also found significant disconnects between top finance transformation priorities, plans for major initiatives and executives’ confidence in their ability to deliver results. The research found that nearly 75% of companies have a major finance initiative addressing the leading priority of digital transformation. But fewer than one-third of all organizations have a major finance initiative aligned with any of the other nine top priorities identified in the study. Finance executives also expressed a low degree of confidence in their ability to meet business objectives in several priority areas, including retaining the right skills and talent (60% low confidence), using advanced analytics to turn data into actionable insights (57%), improving finance agility (50%), and driving cost reduction (50%).
“Once again, finance will be asked to do more with less in 2023, and digital transformation is an important part of making this happen. Companies accelerated their use of digital technology in response to the pandemic, and this is continuing, with a focus on ensuring that their investments deliver value. Finance leaders understand that they must invest in technology to reduce costs and create new capabilities through aggressive adoption of cloud, robotic process automation, analytics, and other tools,” said The Hackett Group Senior Research Director Shawn Fitzgerald. “Adoption growth rates in most digital transformation areas are high, and these technologies are proving their ability to meet or exceed business objectives. At the same time, there’s a significant opportunity for finance to move beyond pilots to large-scale deployments in many key technology areas.
“But what’s particularly disconcerting is the disconnect between other top priorities, planned initiatives and executives’ confidence in their ability to deliver,” Fitzgerald continued. “Our data clearly shows finance’s top priorities, but the research also illustrates the lack of adequate resourcing and alignment to these same priorities in 2023, something that must be addressed in order to successfully achieve on those top business objectives. The biggest gap here is in the critical area of retaining the right skills and talent, where only 8% of organizations said they had a formal initiative in 2023. Finance leaders recognize the importance of talent, and the significant hurdle created by deficiencies of critical skills in analytics, emerging technologies, process design and other areas. But the lack of focused enterprise initiatives in this area and others, driven in part by inadequate funding, is quite striking. It demonstrates major misalignments between resources and the top priorities, which has significant negative long-term implications.”
According to The Hackett Group Principal and Finance Advisory Practice Leader Tom Willman, “The second-largest gap among the top priorities – accelerating preparedness for uncontrollable issues – is also particularly noteworthy. Despite the experience of the past several years and the ongoing issues relating to the global economic downturn, only 19% of companies said they have a major initiative planned to address this in 2023. Finance must be able to properly evaluate enterprise risks and reflect the impact of those in multiple planning scenarios so they are ready to act as conditions materialize and different inflection points are reached. Finance organizations must improve these scenario modeling and planning capabilities to be a more effective catalyst for growth of their businesses and ensure that there is financial capacity to fund that growth while at the same time maintaining strong financial operating disciplines.”
The Hackett Group’s 2023 Key Issues research series is based on results gathered from more than 350 executives in finance, procurement, supply chain, human resources, information technology, and global business services at a global set of midsized and large enterprises.
About The Hackett Group
The Hackett Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: HCKT) is a leading benchmarking, research advisory and strategic consultancy firm that enables organizations to achieve Digital World Class™ performance.
Drawing upon our unparalleled intellectual property from more than 25,000 benchmark studies and our Hackett-Certified® best practices repository from the world’s leading businesses – including 97% of the Dow Jones Industrials, 93% of the Fortune 100, 73% of the DAX 30 and 52% of the FTSE 100 – captured through our leading benchmarking platform, Quantum Leap® and our Digital Transformation Platform, we accelerate digital transformations, including enterprise cloud implementations.
The Hackett Group, Hackett-Certified, quadrant logo, World Class Defined and Enabled, Quantum Leap and Digital Excelleration are the registered marks of The Hackett Group.
This release contains “forward-looking” statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Statements including without limitation, words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” seeks,” “estimates,” or other similar phrases or variations of such words or similar expressions indicating, present or future anticipated or expected occurrences or outcomes are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not statements of historical fact and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from the results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that may impact such forward-looking statements include without limitation, the ability of The Hackett Group to effectively market its digital transformation and other consulting services, competition from other consulting and technology companies that may have or develop in the future, similar offerings, the commercial viability of The Hackett Group and its services as well as other risk detailed in The Hackett Group’s reports filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. The Hackett Group does not undertake any duty to update this release or any forward-looking statements contained herein.
What are the key findings of The Hackett Group's 2023 CFO Agenda research?
The study shows a focus on digital transformation, with an 8% increase in workload, a 1% reduction in headcount, and a 2% cut in budget, leading to significant productivity and efficiency gaps.
How much is the finance technology budget expected to increase in 2023 for HCKT?
Finance technology spending for The Hackett Group is projected to increase by 5%.
What percentage of companies have major finance initiatives aligned with digital transformation?
Nearly 75% of companies are pursuing major finance initiatives focused on digital transformation.
What challenges do finance executives face according to the 2023 CFO Agenda?
Challenges include a projected 9% productivity gap, low confidence in retaining critical talent, and inadequate initiatives to address uncontrollable issues.
What does the 2023 CFO Agenda research suggest about financial preparedness?
Only 19% of companies reported having initiatives planned to prepare for uncontrollable issues, highlighting a significant gap in financial preparedness.
